As general contractors look to technology for an edge in the slowing commercial construction market, Web-based bidding programs are helping them to connecting bid information, subcontractors, and proposals. A 2008 survey by the Construction Financial Management Association found that 62% of general contractors participated in Web-based construction bidding vs. 43% in 2006.
Web-based bid invitation programs, such as iSqFt.com, SmartBidNet.com and Smartprojectnews.com, give general contractors a private, secure place to invite subcontractors and suppliers to view and bid on their projects, distribute construction documents, and generally streamline the bidding process. The leader in the industry is Cincinnati-based iSqFt with about 700 contractor customers that each pay a fee of $1,800 to $10,000 with extra fees to add users and pre-qualification tools. SmartBidNet and the recently launched Smart Project News are quickly gaining customers.
SmartBidNet: Managing subcontractors
SmartBidNet, College Station, Texas, is the brainchild of founder and president James Benham. Benham invented the program while he was a student at Texas A&M University as a replacement for fax-based subcontractor management services such as Bidfax. Unlike other programs, SmartBidNet's is aimed directly at the general contractor. It makes mundane tasks such as subcontractor bidding, RFIs, and the sharing of construction documents easier.
In SmartBidNet's simple interface, general contractors can create a “favorites” list of subcontractors organized by location, skills, federal minority status, and other criteria for an annual fee. Bidders such as subs have free, 24-hour access to project plans, specs, and other information on any project a general contractor posts to its SmartBidNet page. SmartBidNet also offers comprehensive subcontractor pre-qualification management. SmartBidNet charges by the user and starts at $4,000 a year for its service and only charges extra fees for fax communications.
SmartBidNet has 30 employees, including 17 software engineers, and releases an updated version of SmartBidNet.com every month. Some of the recent improvements to the site include an iPhone app, a pre-qualification form builder, and open XML integration.
Smart Project News: Supplying leads
Smart Project News is a recently launched online subscription service created to provide both general contractors and subcontractors with project information and leads. Users can browse thousands of commercial construction projects from parent company Reed Construction Data's North American project databases and quickly identify the jobs with the most potential. (Note: Reed Construction Data and BD+C are owned by the same parent corporation, Reed Elsevier, Inc.)
Smart Project News users can select a specific project stage—planning, bidding, post-bid, etc.—to search for project opportunities, or they can cast a wider net and search for all projects in the database. Users can also limit their searches by distance, Zip code, (e.g., “10-mile radius from Charlotte, N.C.”), project value, bid date, and owner type. You can also limit searches to prequalified and invited bidders. You can save projects you're interested in into a tab on the Smart Project News site and submit bids online. Users can also set up automated e-mail updates for projects in their area.
The application's project listings provide names and phone numbers of the entire Building Team for a post-bid project; for most projects, the service also supplies plans that can be downloaded as image files. For projects in the planning stage, Smart Project News provides an owner contact, general project information telling where the project lead was originally published, and special categories (e.g., “federal stimulus package project”).
Subscription costs for Smart Project News are determined by the user's location (state, province, or metro area) but average around $1,800 a year. Customers can also go to smartprojectnews.com and buy leads by the project through Reed Construction Data's SmartLeads service, at $150 a project. The Smart Project News service was launched in August.
“As bonding is ratcheted up we're seeing prequalification happening more often,” said SmartBidNet's Benham. “Our sales cycle has picked up as a result of that. Our customers are fighting for the work out there.”
Related Stories
| Nov 16, 2010
Calculating office building performance? Yep, there’s an app for that
123 Zero build is a free tool for calculating the performance of a market-ready carbon-neutral office building design. The app estimates the discounted payback for constructing a zero emissions office building in any U.S. location, including the investment needed for photovoltaics to offset annual carbon emissions, payback calculations, estimated first costs for a highly energy efficient building, photovoltaic costs, discount rates, and user-specified fuel escalation rates.
| Nov 9, 2010
12 incredible objects being made with 3D printers today
BD+C has reported on how 3D printers are attracting the attention of AEC firms. Now you can see how other creative types are utilizing this fascinating printing technology. Among the printed items: King Tut’s remains, designer shoes, and the world’s smallest Rubik’s Cube.
| Nov 5, 2010
New Millennium’s Gary Heasley on BIM, LEED, and the nonresidential market
Gary Heasley, president of New Millennium Building Systems, Fort Wayne, Ind., and EVP of its parent company, Steel Dynamics, Inc., tells BD+C’s Robert Cassidy about the Steel Joist Manufacturer’s westward expansion, its push to create BIM tools for its products, LEED, and the outlook for the nonresidential construction market.
| Nov 2, 2010
Energy Analysis No Longer a Luxury
Back in the halcyon days of 2006, energy analysis of building design and performance was a luxury. Sure, many forward-thinking AEC firms ran their designs through services such as Autodesk’s Green Building Studio and IES’s Virtual Environment, and some facility managers used Honeywell’s Energy Manager and other monitoring software. Today, however, knowing exactly how much energy your building will produce and use is survival of the fittest as energy costs and green design requirements demand precision.
| Oct 13, 2010
Test run on the HP Z200 SFF Good Value in a Small Package
Contributing Editor Jeff Yoders tests a new small-form factor, workstation-class desktop in Hewlett-Packard’s line that combines performance of its minitower machine with a smaller chassis and a lower price.
| Oct 13, 2010
Prefab Trailblazer
The $137 million, 12-story, 500,000-sf Miami Valley Hospital cardiac center, Dayton, Ohio, is the first major hospital project in the U.S. to have made extensive use of prefabricated components in its design and construction.