Communication is one of the most highly valued soft skills. Being able to communicate well often translates to success in many facets of life: school, relationships, and especially jobs. You can be technically excellent at a skill, perhaps even the best in your industry, but it can become meaningless if you don’t know how to communicate your accomplishments and innovations to your audience.
Today, we frequently perceive technology as an impediment to communication, rather than an aid. How many articles have you read pontificating about the loss of intimacy and authenticity in the age of text messages and social media “friends”? But what we so often forget is that technology has transformed communication in many life-changing ways. People across the globe are now just a FaceTime call away. Many jobs can be performed anywhere in the world thanks to the power of platforms like Slack or Teams.
This is especially true in the world of preconstruction. One of the greatest challenges as an estimator is to effectively share and receive data across several different departments. Projects often involve a ton of cooks in the kitchen—general contractors, architects, project owners, and subcontractors all play significant roles throughout the life of a project. So how does technology factor into solving these huge obstacles?
Today’s construction estimating software is specifically being developed in order to eliminate communication barriers. The three major ways that construction estimating software like DESTINI Estimator accomplishes include:
- Centralization of data from past and present projects
- Visualization of data
- Increased standardization of preconstruction efforts
1. Centralization of data from past and present projects
When data exists in too many different places with too many different people, it bogs down a company’s entire preconstruction effort, creating bottlenecks and inconsistencies. When a team is able to use a single construction estimating platform as their source of truth instead of juggling dozens of spreadsheets, they are able to collaborate easier and more quickly, and can then focus their manpower on higher-value activities.
Additionally, a good construction estimating software will allow a company to establish a unified cost history database. This database means that a preconstruction team can begin to build estimate templates and use them to move through new projects at a faster rate while still maintaining accuracy.
2. Visualization of data
One of the biggest communication barriers exists primarily between project owners and a general contractor’s preconstruction team. It’s not always easy for project owners to understand how estimators arrive at their numbers, especially if the estimate is significantly over/under what the project owner had in mind.
The Power BI dashboard in DESTINI Estimator is a very easy way to show project owners an overview of your estimate.
State-of-the-art construction estimating software, like DESTINI Estimator, typically offer integration with Microsoft’s PowerBI program, in which you can directly link your estimate to PowerBI and create a visual dashboard of your data. These dashboards are real-time and highly customizable, meaning that you can show a project owner multiple views that adjust for critical items such as cost by region, overall materials cost, and overall labor cost.
3. Increased standardization of preconstruction efforts
Finally, using up-to-date construction estimating technology means that you can begin to standardize the way you perform estimates across your entire company, even if you have teams at multiple offices. This translates into a faster turnaround for training new hires, more distinctive and recognizable estimates, and stronger, unified messaging from not just the preconstruction department but the general contractor as well.
Interested in updating your communication with construction estimating software too? Just click the button below to schedule of DESTINI Estimator today.
