Construction bid management for general contractors
4.4/5 (57 Bewertungen)SmartBid is a construction bid management software designed to help general contractors simplify the preconstruction process, as well as enhance subcontractor communication, through a range of features including invitations to bid, subcontractor management and project document management, plus prequalification management and subcontractor bid comparisons. SmartBid also supports compliance tracking technology, native mobile apps, reporting capabilities, and a set of integrations and add-ons.
Bid invitation technology allows users to organize bid project details, and send invitations to bid, while document management tools give users quick and central access to all project files. SmartBid ensures secure document management with customized access and editing permissions. With SmartInsight construction network integration, SmartBid helps users find the most qualified subcontractors. Integrated ConsensusDocs 721 standard forms, and a custom form builder, help users manage subcontractor prequalification conveniently online.
Subcontractor data management tools allow users to manage subcontractor information easily through a centralized contact database, while subcontractor bid comparison technology enables users to consolidate, calculate and compare subcontractor bid proposals accurately. SmartCompliance integration helps users track subcontractor compliance according to project or company regulatory requirements.
With native mobile apps for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone, SmartBid grants users the flexibility to monitor subcontractor responses and bids, and access plan rooms, anywhere, anytime, via any mobile device. Reporting capabilities help give users actionable insight into project performance, while project management and ERP integrations, plus integrated plan room estimating and takeoff, cloud storage solutions, risk analysis reports, and more, serve to streamline construction bid management processes.
It did get us out in touch with the trades, but the coverage was week.
Vorteile
I do like the way a project is created and the publishing features. I do feel that it was advantageous in the way we were able to take a project that we were going to bid and get the information out to the trades
Nachteile
I hated the fact that their database is so out of date. Many times our bid invite was going out to the wrong person or that person was no longer with the company. The software needs some form of check and balance to ensure that the information is accurate and that companies are keeping thier information correct.
Hi Todd,
Thank you for your review!
In SmartBid, clients primarily rely on results from their own private database, which they alone maintain.
Use of our SmartInsight database of contractors is included with SmartBid as an additional resource for those situations where you will need additional subcontractor coverage, and is especially helpful when you find that you're bidding in a market that you're new to.
It's a very large database, and as with any database, the maintenance of those records to keep them updated is a full-time job. People come and go, businesses shut down, etc. and naturally they don't notify us. :)
Because of this we work hard to make those records as reliable as possible. Last week for example, 2,000 records deemed as invalid were purged from the system.
Overall, this free resource offers a lot of value and we will continue to work hard to make it as reliable as possible!
Saved time (which equals $$$) and now we have a great place to store our bid documents, and easily distribute them to all of our subcontractors and suppliers!!
Vorteile
As a general contractor/construction manager firm, we use SmartBid on almost all of our projects. It's a great tool to let our subcontractors and suppliers know what projects we're bidding on, and ensure we have proper coverage for the scope of work involved. I was part of the initial setup when our company first began using SmartBid. We used to make a "call list" and someone would actually call up to a few hundred subs and suppliers for every project we bid. WOW. I can't believe we wasted so much time! Now, just a few clicks of a button and all of our bidding documents are in one, easily accessible place, and all the appropriate subs and suppliers are notified! Amazing!
Nachteile
The initial setup was a bit time-consuming. This was partly due to our own company's massively outdated subcontractor and supplier list. Most of our time was spent "trimming the fat" and updating old contact information. There are also limited user profiles, when it would be nice to have more people in our company be able to interact with SmartBid.
The benefits included are ease of access, multi user capability, subcontractor functions, and the blast emailing projects out to get the project to as many subcontractors as possible. We like the fact that it is cost efficient and allows our subcontractor pool to benefit from the program as well. You can also import public data agency information that includes new subcontractors.
Vorteile
I enjoy that smartbid streamlines the bidding process in construction. It allows you to upload drawings & specifications, as well as selecting trades to solicit to easily. Most bidding softwares are too complex for small subcontractors to understand and easily access documents. Smartbid offers ease of use for these subcontractors as well as allowing subcontractors to benefit the way the general contractor is. Having the availability to create takeoffs in Smartbid for the subcontractors you invite is so important.
Nachteile
The only thing I struggle with for Smartbid is the options to having subcontractors change their information within the program. We would like to see that subcontractors can update their license information as well as contacts for their company. Hopefully changes will be made in the future to allow these features to be utilized.
Vorteile
It gives you all you need to manage a bidding process.
- multiple divisions
- pick the trades based on so many items, like area code, location, division and etc.
- track who has been reviewing the document, who is interested who is not and etc
- customised tender packages
And lots of other features
Nachteile
Weak in searching- you should know how exactly the trade has been saved, otherwise you should try multiple entries.
It’s tricky to add new contacts to the trades and send the invitation for a recent tender
It is not that much user friendly and needs time to be expert
Contact SmartBid for detailed pricing information.
Weiter unter folgen häufig gestellte Fragen über SmartBid.
SmartBid bietet folgende Kostenpläne an:
Beginnt ab: $600/Jahr
Preismodell: Abonnement
Kostenlose Testversion: Verfügbar
Contact SmartBid for detailed pricing information.
SmartBid bietet die folgenden Funktionen:
SmartBid hat die folgenden typischen Kunden:
Großunternehmen, Mittlere Unternehmen, Kleine Unternehmen
SmartBid unterstützt die folgenden Sprachen:
Englisch
SmartBid hat folgende Preismodelle:
Abonnement
SmartBid unterstützt die folgenden Geräte:
Android, iPhone, iPad
SmartBid kann in folgende Anwendungen integriert werden:
Alfresco One, BIM 360, Box, Egnyte, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Procore, Procore, ShareFile, SharePoint
SmartBid bietet folgende Optionen für Kundensupport:
Häufig gestellte Fragen, Forum, Online-Support, Telefon-Support, Video-Anleitungen
JE Dunn Construction is an ENR top 20 General Contractor with offices from Charlotte, NC to Seattle, WA. We have been using SmartBidNet nationally since March of 2010 and regionally in the Southeast for another year prior to that. Before using SmartBidNet, we used iSqFt for several years and several other systems including Pipeline and BidFax.
SmartBidNet is the right bid management software package for our organization for a multitude of reasons, several of which are:
- Flexibility and customization of the system set-up
- SmartBidNet's commitment to adopting current technologies
- Ease of use for subcontractors
The SmartBidNet system can be configured to accommodate firms ranging in size from only a couple of users to the largest multi-divisional, multi-office organizations. We currently have a total of 431 users across 20 different offices. SmartBidNet allows us to configure our system so that we can group our internal users, projects, and subcontractors by office and our offices by regions so that we can tailor the access of our users to fit what those users should be working on. We can limit or allow access to projects and subcontractor records by user, by proficiency, by office, by region, or by function (preconstruction, operations, accounting, HR, etc.). As an administrator, this flexibility is invaluable and crucial in maintaining security and accuracy of our information.
The directors at SmartBidNet have adopted a shrewd practice of releasing new versions of their software about once a month. All subscribers to the system automatically get these new releases by virtue of the system being web-based. In these releases, SmartBidNet will implement (usually) small changes. Users benefit from this methodology by not having to go through extensive training following the typical 'Major Product Release' pattern of most software vendors. This method also allows SmartBidNet to run a continually changing list of product development activities and can more quickly adapt to incorporate newer technologies into their system. This has been particularly important to us as an organization as we have begun to integrate our custom in-house software applications with SmartBidNet in various ways. SmartBidNet offers a refreshingly open policy of allowing our internal systems to push or pull information directly to / from the SmartBidNet system, commenting to us at one point, "It's your data, you can do whatever you want with it".
The last item I want to highlight speaks for itself. SmartBidNet leads the industry in ease of access and ease of use for subcontractors. One button access of project information was pioneered by SmartBidNet. Their commitment to a simple subcontractor interface is second to none.
SmartBidNet has allowed us to pull together all of the offices for our entire company into a cohesive, well-organized, properly restricted system for the first time ever. This has allowed us to capitalize on many of the synergies that a multi-office general contractor should have in regards to shared resources and shared contacts. It has been a major improvement over previous systems.