Mar 22 2005
Builders across the country waste a staggering 468 hours each per year estimating jobs according to a new set of figures released today.
That’s the equivalent of 67 working days!
The figures have been released by estimating software specialists EstimatorXpress, who carried out the research to help highlight the amount of time builders waste when trying to secure new jobs. It showed that before using EstimatorXpress, builders on average would spend 15.6 hours a week estimating jobs, whereas after using the software they now spend on average 6.6 hours a week. The importance for builders to find a solution to their wasted hours was further enhanced following the release of the Federation of Master Builders final State of Trade survey 2004 which found that 79% of the builders they questioned anticipated maintaining or further increasing their workload in the first quarter of 2005.
The research also reveals that before using EstimatorXpress, builders on average would have to provide up to seven quotes in order to win one new contract but after using the software this number came down to an average of three, which the respondents put down to the professional nature of the quotes, reports & schedules they can produce.
"We were quite amazed by the results", said Jo Wild, marketing manager at EstimatorXpress. "It just goes to show how much work goes into securing new business." "Historically, builders would use their experience to cost up a job and use approximate square footage ratios. The problem with this method is that for a start it doesn’t take account of changes to material costs. Secondly, the price of a brick can vary by anything up to 300% and unpredictable costs such as changing labour rates, groundwork issues and internal finishes are not taken into account. A builder’s profit margins can be quite small and with approximate estimates they can soon find their margins dwindling away."
The shock figures follow the first six months since the launch of EstimatorXpress, a new software package from the author of HBXL, which has already proved popular with builders. The main advantage of the software is that it reduces the time spent estimating, allowing for more time on site. The figures show that before using EstimatorXpress builders would on average spend 4.5 hours estimating a job. After using EstimatorXpress this reduced to an average of 1.6 hours with 80% of the respondents taking less than an hour!
The overall effect of this means that builders are able to quote for more jobs and win more work, with some building firms looking to expand as they find they can tender for jobs a lot faster, easier and more accurately with the software. Jo added: "The feedback we’ve received has been very encouraging. One customer, who has recently started using the software, has now won every new contract he’s gone for. The beauty of the package is that it’s easy to use by using diagrams for inputting measurements onto building drawings and it’s the only software of its kind to give you up to the minute prices for materials via the Internet." "It will produce costings, schedules, profit forecasts, build programs and other reports at the touch of a button.
That way builders and their customers know that the quotes they are given are totally accurate." "Just imagine what builders could do with all that extra time!"