We all know the preconstruction phase can make or break a project. The anxiety of over- or underbidding plagues contractors, plus there’s the added headache of labor shortages and pricing volatility. We’ve got 3 particular areas of your preconstruction process you can overhaul with STACK’s help to make sure you’re setting your construction crews up for successful builds.
Area 1: Improve Business Efficiency
Submitting winning bids is all about strategy, and your estimators need more time to think critically about their work. With better business processes, you can save precious time in the bid process and also have visibility into operations so you can continue to fine-tune the way your team works for optimal success.
How STACK Can Help
Plan & Document Management
Efficiency starts with being able to find what you need, when you need it. STACK allows you to store your plans, specs, and other documents within the app, in a folder structure that works for your company. Our sophisticated tools give your team fast access to the plan pages and information you need with search, autonaming and numbering, and hyperlinking.
Faster, More Accurate Takeoffs
With just a few clicks of your mouse, you can measure and count with significantly greater accuracy than on paper blueprints. From simple linear and area measurements to pitched roofs and arcs, takeoffs are simple. STACK also allows you to attach items and assemblies (from provided sets of common materials in your trade or your own custom material catalog) to your takeoffs for a clear bill of materials.
Detailed Estimates with Cost Data
How much time does your team spend performing data entry tasks to create estimates from your takeoffs? With STACK, that duplicate work is eliminated. Your takeoff data automatically populates into a detailed estimate, and we partner with costs data provider 1build, so not only are your counts included, but you have current regional pricing associated with each type of material. From there, you can add overhead, tax, any equipment or permits, markups, and more.
Bid-Ready Proposals
Your estimate is an internal document with information you wouldn’t necessarily share with your client. With STACK, you can easily general a branded PDF proposal from the estimate data you choose. Present your bid separated by phase of the project, location of the project, or any other differentiators, and include as much or as little detail as you’d like, from a single price for the job to a line-item breakdown, all with a few clicks and no data entry.
Area 2: Increase Bid Confidence
Getting bids out the door quicker is a huge step in improving your business, but you also need to be sure those bids have the best possible chance of winning the job. Increasing bid volume simply to bid more rather than having the confidence you can win is not an effective use of time. Instead, set your team up for success from the start with a solid bid strategy.
How STACK Can Help
Real-Time Collaboration & Team Visibility
Using STACK’s cloud collaboration capabilities, estimating leaders can easily review, add markups, and effectively coach more junior team members to ensure they put their best bid forward. In addition, because information is shared in real time, team members can easily pick up where others have left off in case of unexpected absences, without missing critical information, allowing for detailed estimate creation by any estimator at any time.
Bid Calendar
A bid board or dashboard complete with a calendar including team and project schedules is essential for making good bid decisions. STACK offers a bid calendar that provides an easy-to-digest, at-a-glance view of the team’s project load, so all of your preconstruction teams know what’s expected and when. With instant visibility into project statuses and deadlines, you can quickly pass on projects that don’t align and focus your attention on those that do.
Plan Overlay
Imagine if your estimators could be confident they’re creating a bid based off the most current plans available. With STACK’s Plan Overlay functionality, you can visually compare plans by using different colored lines to represent each sheet, so you can easily see any differences between them. Additions to plans are shown in blue and removals in red so you can see what changed in seconds.
Bid Faster. Win More. Build Smarter.
Get your FREE account today to:
- Increase Team Efficiency
- Complete Estimates Faster
- Generate More Revenue
Area 3: Rev Up Revenue & Profits
Instead of sticking to the status quo, aim for company growth. In order to take on higher-stakes, higher-paying projects, you’ll need to take the insights you gained after improving efficiency and bid confidence and use them to launch business to the next level.
How STACK Can Help
Data Hub
When used properly, your bid statuses and estimates are a rich source of construction data. All of this information is stored within STACK, and we offer an open API that allows your IT team to connect the platform to your data visualization or analysis tool seamlessly. When you extract your preconstruction data and take an in-depth look at actuals versus budgeted, you can be miles ahead of the competition by recognizing your sweet spots as well as where you struggle. Use these insights to complete the cycle and have your bid coordinators and estimators target the most ideal projects.
Reduce Operational Costs
Eliminating paper and printing costs if you use manual methods is a game changer for your efficiency and your overhead. STACK not only enables you to do digital takeoffs, but you also can now carry all your plans with you on your device without wasting time driving to and from jobsites to look at plans or risking damage or loss and reprinting. In addition, you can grow your business and bid more work without needing to add more estimators to your team right away.
Attract the Best Talent
Because Millennials and Gen Z were raised in online worlds, they expect current technologies in their workplaces, and today’s workers require more flexibility. STACK provides younger job seekers with a smooth, user-friendly technology they’ll be comfortable using, and cloud-based tools mean you can offer remote work if you choose. In this way, you can offer modern perks to your employees as well as widen your search to include candidates from any number of locales.
A Solution That Grows with You
From small jobs to multimillion-dollar projects, STACK’s preconstruction tools are adaptable to your needs and will help take you where you want to go. As you improve efficiency, increase bid confidence, and grow your revenue, these improvements will transfer to your construction crews as well, and they’ll be working on more profitable projects that are the right fit.
STACK will be there every step of the way. Let us help you get started.
