What Is The Best Construction Bid Management Software?

What Is The Subcontractor Bidding Process In Construction?

The subcontractor bidding process is the process by which main contractors select subcontractors to work on various elements of their construction projects. Once takeoff is completed and a bill of quantities has been put together, the next step in cost estimating is to put together an invitation to tender for every part of a construction project which needs to be completed.

These requests for bids are sent out to qualified subcontractors, either pulled from the contractors’ contacts or solicited from a website such as Builders Profile.

An invitation to tender will include essential information such as the scope of the work required, the budget and the timeline of the work. These are collected in document packages and sent out to relevant subcontractors.

The main contractor will then evaluate and compare the proposals received, select the most competitive bids and begin contract negotiations.

What Is Construction Bid Management Software?

Subcontractor construction bid management software is a type of software that helps contractors and construction companies manage the bidding process for subcontractor work.

This software can help with tasks such as:

• Creating and sending bid requests: Subcontractor bid management software can help you create and send bid requests to potential subcontractors. This can save you time and effort, and it can also help you ensure that all of your bids are submitted on time and in the correct format.
• Tracking bids: Subcontractor bid management software can help you track bids as they come in. This can help you stay organised and make sure that you don't miss any important deadlines.
• Comparing bids: Subcontractor bid management software can help you compare bids from different subcontractors. This can help you make informed decisions about which subcontractor to hire. A manual approach would usually involve using Excel to compare subcontractor bids, where data input errors are common.
• Managing subcontractor relationships: Subcontractor bid management software can help you manage your relationships with subcontractors. This can help you keep track of who you've worked with in the past, and it can also help you build relationships with new subcontractors.

Subcontractor bid management software can prove to be a valuable tool for contractors and construction companies. It can help you streamline the bidding process, track bids, compare bids, and help both build and improve relationships with subcontractors.

Why Use Construction Bid Management Software?

If you're a contractor or construction company that regularly bids on subcontractor work, then subcontractor bid management software can be an indispensable investment that can help you improve your efficiency, accuracy, visibility, and decision-making.

Benefits of using subcontractor bid management software include:

Speeds Up The Subcontractor Bid Management Process

Subcontractor bid management software can help you save time and effort by automating many of the tasks involved in the bidding process. This includes easily collating and editing document packages, automating the details inputted into invitation to tender letters, creating side-by-side bid comparisons and automatically posting your invitation to tender on online boards used by subcontractors.

Improves The Accuracy Of Your Bids and Estimates

Subcontractor bid management software can help you ensure that all of your bids are accurate and compliant with the project's requirements. Bid comparisons are particularly useful as you can ensure that the bid you decide to negotiate with covers all of the needs of the project. If your bid management software is part of your construction estimating software package, you can also link bids to your current estimate and bill of quantities to ensure everything is covered, saving time or need for rework in the future.

Increases Visibility Across Your Teams And Processes

Subcontractor bid management software can help you track bids and subcontractor relationships, giving you greater visibility into the bidding process. It can also help with collaboration across your internal estimating and project team, ensuring everyone is working on the same system instead of across several inboxes where essential information may be lost.

Improves Decision-Making In Your Construction Projects

Using bid comparisons in subcontractor bid management software can help you make informed decisions about which subcontractors to hire, based both on their bids and your past experiences with them.

What Are The Different Types Of Construction Bidding Software?

 

1. The ‘Manual’ Approach – Using DropBox and Emails

Benefit – Low cost

Drawbacks – Hard to track, involves a lot of admin, danger of missed connections

For many contractors without access to subcontractor bid management software, the main approach to requesting and tracking bids is a ‘manual’ approach, where requests for tender and relevant documents are sent via email using services such as DropBox and WeTransfer.

While this method can mostly remain free, there are many complications and limitations to the manual subcontractor bidding management method. These include:

• Files only being live for a limited amount of time – so those subcontractors who open their emails later may never access their documents
• Logins required – for some of these services, subcontractors may need to sign up or login to services or enter passwords to view
• Free version limits – Many of these services are available in free versions, but have limits to how much can be uploaded on both single uploads or across an amount of time, and how many emails can be sent.
• Issue of junk mail – Invitations to tender or subcontractor bids can be lost in a spam folder and never recovered.
• No way of tracking opens and bids – This manual method lacks both automation and no useful features such as tracking who has received or opened your emails, with no way for subcontractors to easily claim their intention to bid.

 

2. Using Online Enquiries As Part Of Your Construction Estimating Software

Benefits – Easy for both contractors and subcontractors, rich in features

Drawback – Medium-sized investment

Dedicated construction estimating software is growing in popularity in the construction sector. Replacing building bills of quantities and cost planning on Excel, construction estimating software has a wealth of benefits.

Some construction estimating software on the market, including Access ConQuest, also include modules where estimators can create document packages and requirements lifted directly from their estimates. Integrating with contact lists, these Online Enquiries modules include useful, time-saving features such as letter templates which can be easily edited with essential inputs and side-by-side comparisons of bids.

With a smaller investment required than a large document management system or a fully-integrated ERP, and fast to implement, subcontractors also like using these systems as they use portals which are easy to use and don’t require any password inputs.

 

3. Document Management Systems

Benefits – Great for collaborative working, huge storage capabilities

Drawbacks – Issues with version control, can make it harder for subcontractors to access tenders

Another popular option for subcontractor bud management is managing bids via an established document management system.

Great for working collaboratively within an internal team, a document management system is a centralised system containing all required files within a construction company. Sensitive data is secured securely with a large storage allowance within a Common Data Environment (CDE). Popular systems within the construction industry include Viewpoint, Aconex and Dalux.

While there are many advantages to document management systems in construction, a major issue, particularly within older systems, is version control. Different team members end up saving inaccurate or incomplete drafts, with different document versions being saved across different devices. This leads to obvious issues when it comes to putting together invitations to tender and document packages.

Document management systems are also internal, which can lead to issues of subcontractors struggling to access bid requests when they come through. Much like the manual email and Dropbox systems, subcontractors may have to find themselves entering passwords and struggling to access the documents themselves.

Document management systems also lack any features specific to subcontractor bid management in construction.

 

4. Using Construction Management Software

Benefits – Feature-rich, significantly reduces process and administrative time

Cons – Large investment, part of much bigger system

Another option for main contractors is to invest in a construction management software system which handles subcontractor bid management as an integrated module. Large systems such as COINS, Archdesk and Procore include bid and tender management software as part of their packages, allowing estimators to solicit and manage bids within their management software.

Specially built for the task of subcontractor bid management, these options are rich with features, including tracking bids, and automations which will remove the headaches that come with the subcontractor tender management process.

As part of a bigger system, the data and bids procured from dedicated bid management systems can also integrate into other modules which can further speed up the estimating and preconstruction process within a team.

However, these systems require a large amount of initial investment and time from construction companies. The implementation process can be a long and often-delayed process, where all data from across the business needs to be calibrated into the system.

Construction Bid Management Software – Part Of Access ConQuest

 

Access ConQuest is leading construction estimating software which covers takeoff, a core estimating module and the popular online enquiries module where data can be lifted directly from a bill of quantities and submitted to tender creation and bid management.

Templates can be easily edited and document packages built at speed. These are then sent to subcontractors and automatically posted on the Builders Profile board and ConQuest’s own board which is popular in the UK and Ireland markets.

Over 100,000 enquiries are sent to over 50,000 subcontractors every month via Access ConQuest in the UK, and subcontractors report it is one of the easiest ways to find projects and prefer to receive tenders via ConQuest, where documents are stored securely and remotely. ConQuest users can also easily track email opens, failed sends, intention to bid and submissions.

Those who use ConQuest for bid management report a 20% increase in return tenders.