Soliciting bids from suppliers and contractors is a critical function for the construction industry. Many automation tools have been developed over time to streamline the bid solicitation process with an array of features for requesting proposals, managing contacts, and organizing contracts. Some of the key features of a construction bidding software solution include contact management, project calendar, custom form builder, subcontractor portal, and invitations for bidding.
The choice of a construction bidding solution depends on your specific requirements.
- Procurement Buyer
If you are a specialist in the procurement process, you require a tool with sophisticated functionality to manage your bid workflow, streamline the bid process, and eliminate redundancies. The bid builder software is designed to provide a company with better data to produce more effective procurement processes. This helps you gain better visibility into costs during the lifecycle of the project.
- Project manager
If you are a project manager who manages the procurement function, from selecting suppliers and subcontractors, you can leverage bidding technology modules within the project system, instead of implementing a separate bidding manager system. Automating the bidding process with project managing technology can significantly reduce errors and printing and labor costs.
- General estimator
If you work in the estimating department, your prime task is to get high-level pricing from subcontractors and then make bid comparisons. You can harness the basic solicitation tracking and management features of the construction estimating software.
- Integrated suite buyer
If your firm values the integration of data and processes, while forgoing specialized procurement functionality, you can utilize the procurement modules within the accounting or ERP system. Solicitation of more bids will help lower the cost of materials and subcontractors.
All in all, when looking for a construction bidding software solution, you would want to ensure that it has all the functionalities to simplify the bidding process. Properly implemented bidding solutions are your best investment.
When it comes to buying construction bidding software solutions, look for the following features:
- Distribution of plans: The best-of-breed bid management solution facilitates the task of sending plans to dozens of subcontractors with the click of a mouse. With such a solution, you should be able to identify qualified subcontractors and suppliers and automate email bid invitations. This makes bid preparation easier, as they get an idea of the bid specifications, scope, and plans in order to prepare the bid. Additionally, they can review and respond to the bid anytime anywhere.
- Tracking: This is one feature that you should be looking for in a construction bidding solution. What does tracking connote in the software solution on offer? Does it enable tracking of all contacts and communications with contractors and suppliers? Does it give you an idea as to who’s downloaded the documents? Complete tracking and reporting solution will enable you to track in real-time additional cost items during the construction phase.
- Bid automation: With this feature, business owners can gain better visibility over the supply chain. Bid Automation comes in handy for the bid team to collect and analyze bids on different criteria using a custom bid sheet. Every automated bid makes soliciting of bidders, distribution of plans, tracking bidder activity, responding to RFIs, and viewing bid submittals easier. Additionally, you can make bid comparisons, access auto-generated analytical reports, and improve collaboration with bidders. Not only this, the best construction bidding software will enable you to generate historical reporting on an ad-hoc basis, so you can create custom reports on the basis of project type and date, among other criteria.
- Email integration: A reliable bidding software solution is integrated with various third-party functionalities, including email. This means that subcontractors can submit bids through web-based forms or even drop them off by e-mail. An integrated suite of applications can be used to securely send messages and share files between team members.
- Fast, accurate estimating: With traditional bid-solicitation processes, there is a high risk of errors, besides loss of substantial time and money. An automated construction bidding solution can be the answer and can help become an integral part of the project managing technology, producing fast, accurate estimating results, and reducing errors, labor, and printing cost.
A reliable construction bidding solution can make life easy for a project manager. Leverage the best-of-breed bidding software to streamline the bid process. Wondering which one to buy? Worry not, ITQlick experts are just a click away. Get in touch with us today and we will help you decide which bid management solution befits your unique business needs.