When Don Pearson struck out on his own to start Tenex Contractors in early 2021, he brought along a trusted partner: B2W Estimate.

The estimating and operations veteran has used the B2W construction estimating software for close to two decades. Most recently, it helped him turn out up to 1,200 bids a year as chief estimator for a $200 million company.

“I’ve used a couple of the leading software solutions and tested a few others over the years, and there is really no comparison.” says Pearson. “B2W is the best system out there based on features, ease of use and just the way the estimating process flows.”

Tenex is based in Burlington, Wisconsin and performs grading, excavation and road construction work across the southern part of the Badger State.

Working faster and increasing accuracy can be opposing propositions in estimating, but Pearson says that combination is the defining benefit of B2W Estimate. “The best part of the program is that it speeds up the process and increases bidding accuracy and consistency, allowing us to bid more projects and obtain more work,” he summarizes.

B2W Software got Tenex up and running with Estimate within a week, an unusually quick start up enabled by Pearson’s previous experience. He frequently works remotely and reports being able to easily log in and access the software from anywhere.

Pearson expects to create a more modest 200 bids annually for his new company. Still, he will rely on the same features he took advantage of at the larger company. Those include prepopulated cost databases and templates and an error check wizard to eliminate mistakes. He also calls built-in capabilities for quickly analyzing, comparing and incorporating bids from subcontractors and vendors a “must-have” B2W option.

Pearson calculates that bidding with B2W Estimate is at least two times faster than bidding with Excel but cautions that speed is only part of the story. “You need to feel comfortable with the accuracy of the numbers and be able to change overhead, margins or other variables quickly,” he explains. “You just can’t do it fast enough with Excel, so you invariably end up compromising and plugging in higher, safer numbers.” Tenex also takes advantage of the speed of B2W Estimate to duplicate bids. This allows the company to test alternate scenarios and explore different options to get to a price necessary to win.

“I continue to see a lot of contractors bid too high to win jobs or too low to make money because they don’t have a good handle on their costs,” Pearson concludes. He points to a recent $1
millon municipal project where estimated and actual costs varied by only $4,000 as an example of how precise the B2W software allows him to be.