Masonry Magazine December 2002 Page. 38
TECH
TOOLS
On a quest for success
USING VISUAL SOFTWARE is a very easy way for contractors not only to cut down the time they spend estimating but also to make sure what they estimate is accurate. Another visual estimating program geared for mason contractors comes from Quest Solutions, Sarasota, Fla. Quest spokesman Spencer Fleury explains, "Quest provides takeoff and estimating software intended to provide a one-stop solution from the takeoff all the way through the cost estimate to printing out the reports and taking it to the bid stage. The core product, Estimator, is used by a number of mason contractors-masonry is a good market for us."
He adds, "One way that we customize it for mason contractors is with our visual assembly technology. It creates assemblies of some of the more common components that mason contractors have to estimate-brick or block walls, for example and rolls them up into an assembly. As they're adding, subtracting or altering the cost items that go into these walls, they'll see the graphic component, a picture of a block wall, and they'll see the quantities change, all on the fly. We feel this helps provide a visual checklist to contractors so they won't ever forget to add some feature, say the vertical rebar. They'll see it right there on the graphic."
And while Dexter + Chaney's Mathews believes that Excel spreadsheets are here to stay, Fleury disagrees. Quest Solution's Estimator works with Excel, along with Dexter + Chaney's Forefront or Timberline Gold, "almost any big accounting package you can think of, we work with it," Fleury claims. "But we tried to build Estimator in such a way as to render Excel spreadsheets obsolete. We think that our technology offers contractors a much more powerful and easier way to do all that they currently do with Excel. That said, we know that some of our users are comfortable with Excel and prefer to stay with it, so we allow them that option as well."
Getting back to basics
Foundation Software's Ode suggests that company management take a long, hard look at business basics as well as their basic systems. "The two biggest mistakes made by contractors today is that they don't take a good look at their business operations as a whole and they under utilize the software and technology tools that are supposed to help them succeed."
Ode's guidelines to avoid the common pitfalls a mason contractor, regardless of company size, might make includes:
Perform reviews of your business practices.
It is wise to perform a regular review of your business practice to ensure that the software systems you have in place are working for you. This could be accomplished in a number of ways such as attending annual user conferences. In addition, he highly recommends a semi-annual or annual checkup. This checkup would include a review of all processes and procedure in place