Willis Smith Construction is the largest locally owned construction company in Southwest Florida. For over 50 years, they have been providing high quality planning and construction services. With continued growth in the last few years, more estimates keep coming into the preconstruction department.
Before implementing DESTINI Estimator construction estimating software, Willis Smith’s preconstruction department used Excel and each preconstruction manager and estimator were working in individual files and having to combine tabs. The formatting was all a little bit different and when reviewing the final estimate, there were missing formulas and links. As Robbie Gronbach, Director of Preconstruction at Willis Smith, says, “the risk was just getting too much.”
As many of you can probably relate, the time it was taking to pull all the information together before presenting it was “getting frustrating,” Robbie explains.
Having previous experience with Beck Technology's tech solutions, Robbie and his team chose DESTINI Estimator for their estimating platform. In the following webinar, Robbie explains how DESTINI Estimator has saved his team a lot of time.
Robbie says, ““We’ve been able to get work accomplished faster and do more estimates. If we can streamline the workflow for a single project, that means we can add more projects to the roster, and in this time that we’re in right now that has been essential.
Team Estimating Saves You Time
The Team Estimating feature in DESTINI Estimator allows multiple people to work in the same estimate at the same time.
For Robbie and his team, this feature allows them to get work done much faster so they can do more estimates. For example, reviewing each other’s work is quicker and easier and they can cross reference the data.
The Willis Smith preconstruction team has a column specific for internal notes set up in Team Estimating so if someone adds a new note, the note is automatically highlighted. Anyone in the estimate can see updated notes, questions, comments, and scope gaps in real time.
Technology Solves Preconstruction Problems
Robbie says, “we solve a lot of potential problems, we solve a lot of pitfalls during preconstruction by asking questions and reviewing drawings.” DESTINI Estimator’s integration with BIM 360 allows Wills Smith’s precon team to pull quantities from the model quickly and map them through their historical cost.
Why Willis Smith Choose DESTINI Estimator
Because a large majority of estimators are used to Excel, it can be extremely challenging to switch software, especially when having to deal with such a large backlog. Robbie’s team particularly likes the ease of use of DESTINI Estimator because of its Excel-like feel. He says it is user-friendly and it is a platform with “easy buttons.”
Robbie says, “We had looked at some other stuff that was very mechanical and required you to go into different tables and different lists before you could adjust something. It was laborious.”
If you are ready for a dynamic, one-stop-shop estimating system that will save you time and create better estimates, click the button below to request your demo of DESTINI Estimator today.
