7 Habits of Highly Effective Heavy Construction Estimators

7 Habits of Highly Effective Heavy Construction Estimators

Individually, each of these habits can improve a contractor’s ability to estimate with maximum speed and accuracy, free up more time to focus on strategy and, ultimately, win more bids at better margins. There is also strong crossover and complimentary effect across all seven, with specialized estimating software and the concept of real-time connectivity playing important supporting roles. Additional details are available in The Ultimate Guide to Heavy Civil Construction Estimating & Bidding Software.

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Networking: Another Reason to Attend a Construction Software User Conference

Training might be the first thing that comes to mind when contractors think about a user conference for construction estimating or construction operations software, but classes presented by the supplier are not the only opportunity to get more proficient and get more out of the technology.

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Customer Portal

An Innovative Way for Users to Define the B2W Construction Software Roadmap

Any construction management software company can claim a ‘client-driven’ approach to developing new features. The real trick is getting beyond the marketing cliché and backing up that claim. B2W does this with a structured process for encouraging input from users, prioritizing it and taking action. The online B2W Community Portal is a valuable part of this process.

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ENR Webinar - Equipment Maintenance

Industry experts will cover construction equipment management and fleet maintenance in upcoming webcast

“When the yellow iron runs, we make money” is a known adage in heavy civil construction, but complex equipment maintenance, uptime and utilization challenges are a constant threat to profitability. Three leading contractors will share strategies and technologies they have adopted to tackle these challenges in an upcoming webinar sponsored by B2W and ENR magazine on Tuesday, October 22 from 2:00-3:00 PM EST.

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Heavy Construction Meetings

Make post-project reviews a more effective tool for managing construction projects

Best-in-class heavy civil construction contractors not only excel at estimating, project management and field supervision. They also learn from experience and apply the gained knowledge to future projects. Post-project review meetings are important to accomplishing this, and using an e-forms and reporting tool, like B2W Inform, to document the results of these meetings in a structured manner and make that information easily searchable is a smart move.

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Job Costing

Get Accurate Labor and Equipment Hours to Improve Construction Cost Management

Accurate job cost reporting is essential for successful financial management but, in my experience, many companies not using electronic field logs in construction are plagued by their inability to capture two essential data points from the field. Labor hours and equipment hours, key building block of what are typically the two highest job cost items, are frequently inaccurate. This is because many contractors still rely on paper for construction time tracking and to record equipment hours.

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B2W Apps Keep Mobile Construction Software Working Online or Offline

Anytime, anywhere connectivity for mobile devices may seem like a given in modern society, but contractors know the reality. Wi-Fi or cellular connectivity is not always available where heavy civil construction takes place. Even when it is, it may not be the most efficient way for some companies to use essential construction management software in the field.

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A Better Way to Track Employee Licenses, Certifications and Training

Credentials are critical in managing construction projects, but keeping track of who is licensed, certified or trained for which activities is a management headache. Many contractors, like RJV Construction in Massachusetts, rely on the ONE Platform to minimize this challenge.

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Accounting or Field Tracking Software?

There is no dispute about the importance of tracking actual performance in the field against the estimate and budget for effective construction cost management. Contractors, however, often debate whether to rely on an accounting system or a specialized construction field tracking software option like B2W Track to do it.

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Stopping the Hidden Profit Killer

The profit killer lurking for many contractors is unplanned downtime. This is the time, outside of scheduled maintenance, when breakdowns or emergency repairs knock a machine out of service. However, contractors with best-in-class maintenance processes supported by software like B2W Maintain can change the equation by taking unplanned downtime rates to five percent or lower.

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Daily Field Log

Daily Field Logs: Faster, Easier, Better

Once the estimating and bidding are completed, the daily logs for construction projects become cornerstones to effective management. Foremen and supervisors know timely, accurate data is vital, but let’s face it. There are more productive things they would rather do than record labor, productivity, materials and equipment utilization.

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Jennifer Musil – Principal User Experience Designer

When good software is hard to use, it’s bad software. As a user experience designer, Jen Musil plays a key role in the “look and feel” of the B2W elements. That involves a lot of listening to what users need, along with the software expertise to make powerful features easy and intuitive to use.

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Costing Construction Equipment Accurately with B2W Software

Best-in-class heavy construction contractors accurately cost their equipment. Doing this requires two things: an efficient method for tracking equipment utilization time on the job and an accurate calculation of what it costs to operate that equipment. The B2W Software ONE Platform can help with both.

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Jennifer Angrisano – Business Analyst

The team creating and standing behind the B2W Platform is as impressive and important as the software itself. In this article, we profile Jennifer Angrisano, who has extensive experience working directly for heavy construction companies and as an industry consultant. Jennifer is putting that background to work at B2W, helping contractors optimize equipment maintenance with B2W Maintain.

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Building eForms with B2W Inform Just Got Easier

Users can create and manage form templates, fill out forms, and view data anytime, anywhere and on any-device. Features include built-in approval workflows, data binding of form fields to a central database, and the ability to capture rich data on forms, such as e-signatures, images, videos, time stamps and GPS locations.

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