Why Russell Construction Switched to DESTINI Estimator

Russell Construction based out of Davenport, Iowa, with an office in St. Louis, Missouri, is a professional services firm providing commercial construction and development services across the Midwest. In business since 1983, Russell’s vision for the future is to be the “preferred partner by our clients offering fully integrated services in our chosen markets” by 2025.

Russell’s core values are:

  • Appreciating people
  • Client-centric
  • Community
  • Integrity
  • Safety
  • Innovation

Client satisfaction is of the utmost importance to Russell which they are committed to staying on budget, delivering on time, and focusing on forming long-lasting collaborative relationships with clients and their community.

For Russell to fulfill their mission, goals, and live by their core values, they must be able to work efficiently and accurately, presenting their absolute best work to owners.

Preconstruction is the foundation of any project and without a streamlined process and a way to store and recall data, makes estimating laborious. Russell’s preconstruction team was using Sage and Excel for creating their estimates. However, the preconstruction team was spending too much time working out broken formulas. Tom Quinn, Russell’s Director of Preconstruction knew, that to hit their growth goals, they needed to make a change. He set out to find a solution to replace the struggles they were having with the multiple tools they were using.

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The Challenge

For general contractors, in particular those with multiple offices, disconnected workflows caused by multiple software and the lack of collaboration and standardization leads to more than just broken formulas.

For preconstruction teams that work in multiple estimating platforms and who don’t all work in the same office, three major problems arise:

  1. Silos of information
  2. Inconsistent standards
  3. Outdated and inefficient methods
With data scattered throughout a company, you spent too much time chasing it down and checking its accuracy, without the total picture to make the best project decisions. Without a standardized way to create estimates, you can’t analyze past projects or present a cohesive estimate to owners.

The Solution

What Problems does DESTINI Estimator solve?

DESTINI Estimator allows Russell Construction to challenge its internal estimates by comparing current estimates with past estimates and analyze prices that don’t align. They can also justify their pricing to clients. The historical cost feature in DESTINI Estimator presents cohesive and factual data to owners.

What Sets DESTINI Estimator Apart?

Tom says, “What I really like about it is just the amount of data that is contained within the estimate and the ability to filter, sort, and manipulate that data any way you want. The way you can present the information in different ways to our clients is pretty amazing.”

One of the biggest benefits to Russell is DESTINI Estimator’s built-in 2D and 3D takeoff. It has eliminated the need to use any other tool. Tom says, “That is a big thing being able to have a one-stop-shop for everything we want to do.”

In this video customer testimonial, Tom Quinn answers these questions about Beck Technology’s innovative construction estimating software, DESTINI Estimator:

  1. What problems does DESTINI Estimator solve?
  2. How has the implementation process been?
  3. What sets DESTINI Estimator apart?