ESTIMATING: HOW TO WIN MORE JOBS & INCREASE PROFITS · •Do we know what it costs us to bid 1...

3/11/2020

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ESTIMATING:

HOW TO WIN MORE JOBS & INCREASE PROFITSTROY GUEVARA, CONSTRUCTION TECHNOLOGIST - DIGITEK SOLUTIONS LLC

STEPHEN HULSTON, PARTNER - NOVO DEVELOPMENT, COMMERCIAL DEVELOPER

LAS VEGAS, NV | MARCH 10-14, 20202

Troy Guevara

Construction TechnologistDigitek Solutions, LLC

• I have helped 1000’s of companies to improve production and profitability

• EXPERT at streamlining processes using accounting, project management and estimating software

• Former President of an award winning specialty contractor

• Former board member BBS of Utah

• Member of the first class of Nationally Certified MCAA Contractors

• Use my experience to help you innovate for PROFIT!!!


Stephen Hulston

Partner Novo Development, LLC

• Former Vice President of Construction for Balfour Beatty

• Has successfully delivered over $1.5 Billion in projects

• 27 years of experience managing project through the Western United States and Internationally in Guam and Singapore

• Project experience in retail, hospitality, industrial, office and medical buildings


Today’s Learning Objectives……

1. Learn how to make your spreadsheets more accurate and efficient......

2. How can technology improveyour bids…….

3. Understand how to improve production using estimating strategies!


Today’s Agenda

• The bid environment today

• Our dependence on spreadsheets

• Project Manager vs Estimator

• The shotgun effect

• 5 Strategies for better bidding

• Q & A


Today’s Bidding Environment

• Bid more - win more…….does this really work?

• Do we know what it costs us to bid 1 project?

• How do we know what to bid, will it be profitable?

• Can we do it, do we have the manpower?

• Pricing concerns, market volatility, trade war.

• Last minute bids.

• Do we really know our job costs?

• Liability & Risk.

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Dependence on Estimating Spreadsheets

• Structural errors (bad formulas)

• Data errors (input mistakes)

• Logical Errors(human shortcut mistakes)

• Administrative errors

• Maintenance errors

Spreadsheetscontain an ERROR

out of9 10


How much are these errors costing you?


Accounting

ProjectManager

Operations

vs Estimator



Problems Caused By The Great Divide

- Limited visibility for Project Managers

- Delayed responses to urgent jobsite needs

- Dependence on paper reporting

- Discrepancies between jobsite conditions and plans/specs

- Difficulty managing manpower

- Poor communication between field and office

- Difficulty reacting to changing conditions


The U.S. construction

industry will spend

$177.5 billion in labor on

NON-OPTIMAL activities

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Non-optimal Activities:

Looking for product dataand information

4.7 hours Conflict resolution

3.8 hours

5.5 hours

Dealing with mistakes and rework

14 hours

per week

35% of your employees time


On average,

52% of all reworkresults from poor data &

miscommunication


The “SHOTGUN EFFECT”

• How do we know what projects we want to bid?

• Do we just bid everything we can in hopes of getting a win?


Can our construction

business survive in a low-bid competitive

environment?


5 STRATEGIESFOR BETTER BIDDING


5 STRATEGIES FOR BETTER BIDDING

1 Use technology to develop good data

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Learn about Construction Technology

& Software

• Do your research

• Don’t get caught up in the marketing

• Make sure they have open API’s

• 500+ different products

• Learn about the software company

• YES, Name brand does matter!

19 LAS VEGAS, NV | MARCH 10-14, 202020

Estimating products that share data with project results

Project Management

systems that fully

integrate with your

accounting solution

Mobile Timekeeping and payroll solutions

Mobile service work, Field reports & photo documentation

Superior Reporting

products that are

completely

customizable

Paperless AP flow and

auto routing of docs


API

Project Management Software with API Integration

Project Management

Software


Paperless AP flow products

Cloud based project

management

software solutions

Estimating solution that includes Assemblies, Crews, WBS as well as BIM functionalityMobile time and

service solutions

Enhanced Excel software with prebuilt reports and the ability to slice and dice the data in multiple ways at the click of a mouse


Take advantage of Estimating Software

• Takeoff software should fully integrate with your Estimating software

• Is the database easily configurable?

• Does your estimating software allow you to slice and dice the information

• Does your estimating software integrate with your accounting and project management software

• Can it grow with you?

• Relationship with the software seller


Jobsite and office are fully integrated

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2 Use data to find solutions


Are you bidding

based on the

profit/loss of the

most recent bid?


What do we do with the data?

You can’t control what you don’t measure!

What do we need to measure?


Control Costs to Increase Profits…..

We control costs by managing the data in REAL TIME, this enables us to:

• Control labor daily

• Quick approvals

• Easy collaboration

• Access info from anywhere

• Daily job costing

• Improve workflows

• Manage manpower

• REAL TIME forecasting

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Estimated Costs

Final CostsTRUE Costs


Contractors who improved their capabilities to gather and analyze field data have seen the following benefits:

Better budget & schedule compliance

Greater productivity

Improvedsafety

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3 Change the playing field


Gain an Unfair Advantage

• Stop using the shotgun approach

• Quit doing the same thing as everyone else

• Avoid “lowest bid” jobs

• Don’t become a commodity


Things We Can Do to Gain an Unfair Advantage

• Know your customer.

• What is the bid selection process?

• What makes you unique?

• How is your relationship with the customer?

• Be competitive, but not low.

• What is the owners exit strategy?

• Buy Hold or Build Sell

• How else can you differentiate yourself?

• What are the customers REAL CONCERNS?

• Time, Budget, Quality, Complexity






4 Track your win/loss


Track your win/loss…..

• Which types of projects give you a higher % of win?

• Did the relationship make the difference?

• In the win

• In the profitability

• Select bid vs open bid.

• What were your qualifications?

• Were you actively engaged with the customer prior to the bid?


Track your win/loss…..

You will be surprised to see where you are winning most of your work and have the higher capture percentage…..

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Focus your efforts on these projects…

Projects with the highest % of win…..

The most profitable projects







5 Differentiate yourself from the competition


Analyze the bids and look to offer…..

Value Engineering

Collaborative Design


Other ways to differentiate yourself….

• Value engineering

• Collaborative design process

• Schedule

• Quality of workmanship

• Safety

• Better products







5 Differentiate yourself from the competition


Accountability

• Choose a software that includes training

• Invest in training for all employees and management

• Empower your team

• Set expectations

• Create a culture that embraces technology

• No Excuses!!

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Implementation of

Construction Software is

helping construction

companies to increase

PROFIT of up to 25-30% in just 12 months time


A Complete Solution

Job Costing Visibility

• Real time dashboards and reporting allows you to be PROACTIVE not REACTIVE

• Materials, labor and equipment costs are visible to PM’s and field personnel

Tame the Paperwork

• Change Orders, RFI’s, Plans, field reports, submittals are easily tracked

• Paperless approvals with document routing and easy reconciliation

• Much easier to make Cash Flow projections!!!!

Estimate with real data

• Estimates that sync directly to your accounting and project management systems

• Cost history is used for estimates and budgets and is easily accessible


THANK YOU!

CONTACT INFO:

E: [email protected] | P: 602-334-4670

E: [email protected] | P: 602-920-4288

Questions?

Please complete the session evaluation on the CONEXPO–CON/AGG Mobile App. This is the same place you can log Professional Development Hours (PDH).

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ESTIMATING: HOW TO WIN MORE JOBS & INCREASE PROFITS · •Do we know what it costs us to bid 1...

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