Case study:
ConQuest Gives Essential Cost Transparency to M. Lambe
Access ConQuest helped midlands-based civil engineering company M. Lambe save money and time with easy-to-use yet functionally rich estimating software.
Business size
Medium
Industry
Civil Engineering
Product
Access Conquest
Challenge
- M. Lambe were creating bills of quantities from legacy spreadsheets, with no ability to perform takeoff from initial designs.
Approach
- The civil engineering company chose Access ConQuest to provide clarity and speed to its estimating process.
Results
- M. Lambe are now able to perform takeoffs and produce accurate costings fast – with the ability to quickly rework and adapt to any last minute changes.
Founded in 1983, M. Lambe Construction has grown into one of the leading civil engineering firms in the Midlands, with projects ranging from essential infrastructure to newbuild projects with 700+ homes.
With a focus on earthworks, foundations, highway construction and substructures, M. Lambe has won multiple awards and continues to increase its reach to projects across the West and East Midlands.
From Confusion With Excel to Clarity With Access ConQuest
Before moving to the ConQuest system, M. Lambe calculated their bills of quantities on legacy spreadsheets built on Excel. This system was labour-intensive, repetitive and prone to human error.
ConQuest, suited to civil engineering projects with its extensive library of over 10 million priced items, including industry-tested constants and outputs for all types of Civils work, was implemented across the firm to help streamline the estimating process.
ConQuest’s takeoff module also allowed the firm to get involved in full takeoff and produce their own bill of quantities directly from CAD and PDF files.
In the video below, Guy Bainbridge explains how moving from static Excel spreadsheets to ConQuest’s more dynamic system has given the estimating process clarity at M Lambe.
Guy Bainbridge, Estimating Manager at M. Lambe, describes how easy it is to use ConQuest to individually price items using the estimating module.
Bid Structuring Made Simple With Access ConQuest
ConQuest’s ease-of-use and visibility has provided many advantages to M. Lambe. With every bill and rate visible across the estimating, management and finance teams, every team member is now accountable for their role within a project.
100% clarity on costs, output, build-ups and resources on ConQuest has provided a myriad of benefits to the costing and bid process that an Excel spreadsheet can’t provide, meaning the M. Lambe team can quote with complete confidence.
In the video below, Guy Bainbridge explains how estimates are built using stored items, working from existing templates and selecting items from ConQuest’s vast library of costed items – from foundations to roofing.
Having libraries of rates means you can markup materials individually rather than across the job – it gives us ownership and clarity, so we know exactly what we've got at every step of the project.
Costing Projects Quickly With Access ConQuest
One of the leading benefits of Access ConQuest is the collaboration and speed enabled by the solution. ConQuest allows users to pull from pre-populated templates, edit historical data from previous projects and section out costings for each team member to work collaboratively on a single project.
Lambe’s team of estimators can now work leaner and smarter in order to produce – and win – more bids for upcoming schemes in the Midlands. Trainees within the business quickly adapt to ConQuest and can fill out quotes using stored items or copying existing bills – meaning more time can be spent on value-added work within the estimating team.
Guy Bainbridge explains the benefits of how bids built on ConQuest provides speed and transparency that can’t be achieved on Excel.
It’s great that we can produce a bill, and then if something goes up at the last minute, we can change our library rate, and that will update on the bill – whereas in the old days when you had to use Excel, we would have to redo the bill
Smooth Implementation, Custom Training & Full Support From The Access Group
At Access Construction, we are proud of both our products and the support we provide to our 1,000+ clients in the construction sector.
M. Lambe have been using ConQuest for over 15 years and we have supported them throughout their journey and growth, including opening a new office in Derby to expand their reach across the East Midlands.
Our training days, customised to the specific needs of each client and user are ‘brilliant’ according to Guy Bainbridge, and our helpline support is ‘always really helpful – whenever we phone, which isn’t often’. The software itself is simple to implement alongside existing systems. Ben Chambers, IT Manager at M. Lambe, says the software has given systems at M. Lambe ‘no issues at all’ with years of use.
