What You Need to Know: DESTINI Cloud's Cost Library takes over Data Manager as the backbone of preconstruction cost data. It's a total reconsideration of how cost data should be structured, accessed, and governed. With a modernized interface, expanded capabilities, role-based access controls, flat data exports, and deeper integration with takeoff and analytics, Cost Library is designed to do more than store cost data. It's designed to make cost data work harder across everything preconstruction teams build on top of it.
Every estimate starts with cost data. Before a line item can be priced, before an assembly can be built, before a bid can be submitted - the cost data has to be there. If the data is wrong, outdated, or hard to access, everything built on top of it carries that risk forward.
For years, DESTINI customers have managed cost data through Data Manager. It worked. It built the cost infrastructure that teams depended on for estimates, assemblies, rate tables, and crews. But it also had limitations - a UI that reflected an older generation of software design, workflows that were harder to navigate than they needed to be, and gaps in what it could do that accumulated over time on customer wish lists.
Cost Library is the answer to those wish lists. Built as the cost data foundation for DESTINI Cloud, it takes everything Data Manager did and rebuilds it with a modern architecture, expanded capabilities, and a clearer vision of what cost data infrastructure should enable as preconstruction practice evolves.
Cost Library contains everything estimators depend on: line items, assemblies, rate tables, crews, and all the cost data that makes estimate development possible. The foundation is the same. What's built on top of it is different.
The most significant expansion is scope. Where Data Manager was primarily an estimating cost tool, Cost Library is designed to receive data from takeoff as well - connecting quantity data and cost data in a single governed environment rather than treating them as separate systems that need to be reconciled. As the platform evolves, Cost Library is positioned to become a more comprehensive cost data tool, not just the place where assembly pricing lives.
The Conditions Library - Beck Technology's approach to organizing and standardizing takeoff conditions across projects - will also integrate directly into Cost Library as that capability rolls out. This means the cost data that drives estimates and the condition data that drives takeoff will share the same governed foundation, creating continuity that currently requires manual bridging between separate systems.
Hub subscription data is fully within Cost Library as well. Beck Technology's team builds and maintains all hub and hub subscription data, assemblies, and line item data directly within the platform - which means the cost data customers access reflects the same governed, maintained, and tested foundation that DESTINI has built for preconstruction teams over thirty years.
The improvements in Cost Library over Data Manager address specific concerns that customers and internal teams identified over years of working with Data Manager's constraints.
Flat data exports change how teams work with cost data outside the platform. Data Manager had missing pieces and parts in its exports - users working with exported data had to account for gaps and fill them in manually. Cost Library exports data in a flat structure, meaning all information is visible and accessible at once. Teams working with exported cost data get what they need without reconstruction.
WBS assignment at the assembly level addresses one of the most consistent items on the Data Manager wish list. Cost Library allows WBS to be assigned directly to assemblies, and line items within those assemblies inherit the WBS values automatically. This means WBS properties carry through the estimate structure without requiring manual assignment at the line item level - a change that saves significant time on complex estimates and ensures WBS consistency in a way that previously required discipline rather than system enforcement.
A modernized UI reflects how software design has evolved. Cost Library's interface is web-based, visually clean, and organized around how cost data is actually used rather than how it was historically stored. Teams new to the platform can orient themselves faster. Experienced users find the workflows more intuitive than the older system's navigation required.
Role-based access controls introduce governance capabilities that Data Manager didn't support. Organizations can now restrict who has access to specific cost data - protecting proprietary pricing, controlling what different roles can view or modify, and ensuring that sensitive cost intelligence doesn't circulate beyond the teams that need it. For multi-office firms with different permission requirements across regions or roles, this is a meaningful security and governance improvement.
Easier workflow throughout. The flow of building and managing cost data in Cost Library is designed to be more understandable from end to end - not just for the team members who have managed cost data for years, but for teams onboarding new estimators who need to learn the system efficiently.
Good cost data quality requires ongoing investment in building, testing, and maintaining the data that estimates depend on.
Beck Technology's team is responsible for building and maintaining all cost data within Cost Library - hub data, hub subscription data, assemblies, line item data, and the conditions library data as it integrates. This isn't a static archive. It's an actively maintained data foundation that reflects the same commitment to accuracy and completeness that preconstruction teams need their estimates to reflect.
As Cost Library rolls out, the team is working directly with customers to ensure the transition from Data Manager is smooth and that the new capabilities are understood and adopted effectively. Beck Technology takes the customer partnership seriously - not just at the point of sale, but through the ongoing work of supporting how teams use the platform, gathering feedback on what needs refinement, and continuing to develop Cost Library capabilities based on what customers actually need.
Online training resources and help center documentation support customers who want to get started independently. Direct engagement supports customers who want guided adoption. Both paths reflect the same commitment: that Cost Library's value is only realized when customers can use it effectively.
Cost Library is the foundation. DESTINI Analytics is what becomes possible when that foundation connects to the rest of the world.
DESTINI Analytics gives preconstruction teams four distinct ways to access and work with their own data - and the combination of those four avenues with the security and compliance infrastructure required to make them viable is what makes this a genuinely significant development for how preconstruction data gets used.
Embedded reports within DESTINI Cloud provide a single pane of glass for analytics directly in the platform. Teams that want insights without leaving their estimating environment access Power BI reports embedded within the workflow - no export, no separate tool, no context switching.
API access to their own data is the capability that opens the most doors. Teams can consume their DESTINI data in external analytics tools, custom applications, or any platform that accepts API data. The key qualifier: this is their own data, accessed securely, with SOC2 compliance and GDPR protections ensuring that access is authorized and that no team can access another team's data. The openness is real. So are the safeguards.
Direct table access through a semantic model serves teams who want to build their own reports. Rather than being limited to pre-built analytics, customers can access the underlying data tables directly, build custom analyses that answer their specific questions, and develop reporting that reflects how their organization thinks about preconstruction performance rather than how any vendor defines it.
Hosted Power BI reports allow customers to bring their own Power BI files into DESTINI Cloud for hosting within the platform. Workspace separation and security maintain the integrity of each customer's environment while enabling the flexibility of custom report development.
The API access that DESTINI Analytics provides isn't just valuable for individual customers. It opens the partner ecosystem in ways that weren't previously possible.
Third-party platforms that want to integrate with DESTINI can now build those integrations more seamlessly through standard API endpoints rather than requiring custom data extraction work. This lowers the barrier to meaningful integration - which means customers benefit from a growing ecosystem of tools that connect to their preconstruction data without requiring bespoke integration projects for each connection.
For customers who are already using analytics platforms, business intelligence tools, or custom applications alongside DESTINI Estimator, this is the bridge that was previously missing. Their preconstruction data - the estimates, cost libraries, and project intelligence built in DESTINI - can now flow into those environments in a governed, secure, compliant way.
The combination of Cost Library's structured data foundation and DESTINI Analytics' open access model is what makes this more than a feature release. It's the architecture of a platform that treats preconstruction data as a strategic asset that should be accessible, analyzable, and connectable - not trapped inside a single application.
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