DESTINI Estimator Makes Things Easier Than Excel—Macallan Construction Case Study

Atlanta, Georgia-based commercial contractor, Macallan Construction specializes in retail/restaurant, assisted living, interiors, historic restoration, higher education, community clubhouses, medical office, parks and recreation as well as religious and non-profit projects. Founded in 2002, their mission, much like Beck Technology’s is “to improve the quality of life of our people, partners, and clients.”

To do that effectively, an organization needs to examine its internal processes to make sure they are as efficient, easy, and streamlined as possible. The preconstruction team was using Excel for estimating before deciding to switch to DESTINI Estimator and DESTINI Bid Day in 2022.

The Challenge

Experiencing a shortage of personnel, Macallan had upper management and project managers stepping into the role of estimator. It was imperative that the team find a multi-user friendly database-driven tool to streamline their estimating efforts.

Before switching to the DESTINI platform, the preconstruction team was using Excel. Chad Ricks, an estimator at Macallan says, “One of the things Excel is great at is it does use sums, but the bad part about that is that if you don’t have the sums in the right locations, or you start adding line items here and there, sum totals can just become a nightmare. Hard to track down, hard to find problems with them.” And with a shortage of staff, Macallan just couldn’t afford the time it takes to deal with problems in Excel.

The Solution

Through the software evaluation process and seeing the cost history abilities, understanding the reporting, and viewing the integration between DESTINI Bid Day and DESTINI Estimator, Macallan was won over. Chad says, “The best thing I like about Estimator is that I don’t have to worry about sums. The fees table is also really helpful – it comes up with all the fees and makes sure that all those are calculable, and if I need to add or delete a fee, it’s very easy and simple, whereas Excel can get cumbersome in that area. Also, adding rows and making them equal out – I don’t have to worry about values becoming mixed up in Estimator, I can add a row or subtract a row. I can manipulate it the way I need to, whereas in Excel it takes a lot more work.”

Another feature Macallan takes advantage of is templates. Chad says, “I can set up templates to where line items are already in the job to where I don’t have to include line items.” Templates allow DESTINI Estimator users to set up similar projects, saving the team a lot of time during the estimating process.

The Results

Though learning new software can have its challenges, Beck Technology’s team provides training in a variety of ways—one-on-one phone calls, videos, and articles are provided and can even be customized to your specific questions. Chad says, “Once you get into and start using it, then it becomes a lot easier. The more you use it, the deeper you can go, and there’s always something new around the corner. I find something new in the software every day.”

Training starts during the implementation phase; however, Beck Technology continues to provide training to users. When you switch to the DESTINI suite of preconstruction software, you will be assigned a customer success specialist who makes it easy to schedule calls with to walk you through any challenges or issues you might be facing. Chad mentions, “…that initial course was very good but then the continuing education afterward has been very helpful.”

If you are tired of the cumbersome work in Excel, click the button below to schedule a demo of the DESTINI suite of preconstruction programs.