===================================================================== PROCON CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS Professional Estimating and Tendering Software PROBID - Cost Estimating System WHY ANOTHER ESTIMATING SYSTEM? Many years of direct estimating experience with both manual and computerized systems - and feedback from other organizations struggling to realize the full potential of computerized estimating - convinced us that existing systems would never completely satisfy serious estimators. While users appreciated the precision, efficiency and discipline that computerization promised, they remained frustrated with available systems. They found that: * Many were no more than rating programs. They simply applied arbitrary or externally set unit rates to quantities. * None were practical tendering systems. They allowed the user to add a markup to the total estimated cost, but gave him little control over the way that markup was set, the way in which the markup and overheads were spread, or the rounding and presentation of the submitted tender rates and amounts. * The data entry requirements (item numbering, descriptions, etc.) were so rigid - and so unlike the layout of the Owner's tender document - that it was difficult to relate subtotals in one to the other and impractical to handle "oddities" like overheads, provisional items and nominated subcontracts within the body of the estimate. * Most systems dictated a particular approach to pricing - requiring the estimator to follow a sequence that simplified the program's task in manipulating data but was not the intuitive and variable approach he would normally use. * Many functions (recalculating total cost, generating usage reports, etc.) were slow! * Fundamental facilities, such as flexible Notepads and "built- in" Calculators, were primitive - or non-existent. * Communication with scheduling, billing and costing systems was - at best - rudimentary. * The user interfaces were awkward, non-standard and often counter-intuitive. Combined with inadequate tutorials and manuals, they produced a formidable learning curve. The user had to spend additional time - and money - on training before he was able to use the system. Implementation in larger organizations became a long drawn out and expensive process. * Data integrity and hardware fault tolerance was often poor and no real provisions were provided to support data security, audit trails and error logging. * Advances in electronic input devices - digitizers and scanners - were either ignored or implemented in expensive and awkward ways which effectively deprived most users of the benefits these tools can provide. Over several years we developed a "wish list" of the features that the ideal system should contain. This was translated into design criteria which, in simplified form, are described overleaf. THE IDEAL ESTIMATING SYSTEM SHOULD * Have flexible item numbering and aggregation so that the structure of the tender can parallel the Client's tender document. * Be resource based while still allowing easy direct entry of subcontract and supplier rates. * Allow the user to define his own cost types - or none at all. * Offer true tendering capabilities. The user must have complete control over the calculation of markup and the way the spread is allocated to individual items, sets of items, or cost types. * Handle differences between tender and actual quantities - automatically and logically. * Allow complex assemblies and crews to be defined progressively, by nesting the definitions to any level. Pricing can then proceed quickly without sacrificing control over the level of cost analysis or losing resource usage information. * Allow "linking" of conceptually identical items so that only one has to be priced. * Accommodate naturally and intuitively the pricing of overhead, global, provisional, "write in" and nominated subcontract items. * Allow the user the utmost flexibility in the order in which he prepares a tender. Assist him with intelligent defaults and appropriate warnings. "Hot key" access to "on the fly" data definitions must be provided wherever logical. * Have a library facility for resources, items, suppliers and subcontractors, that can be used both formally and "on the fly", to borrow directly from other estimates. * Provide an "Errors and Omissions" analysis of the Tender Submission to warn the estimator of possible problems. * Provide a professional user interface that follows the emerging desktop standard, without compromising performance on cheaper hardware platforms, and provide intuitive selection capabilities and "intelligent" evaluation of partial or incorrect user input. * Offer optional facilities for integrating scheduling with production rate pricing. Without being "mechanistic", this should allow planning activities to be identified with pricing operations and basic timing information to be provided in the estimate. * Allow "pay" items to be transferred directly into a compatible Contract Billing system. * Provide an option for costcodes to be assigned individually or "en masse". No presumption should be made about the target cost control system. * Offer data integrity and security and provide record date stamping and change IDs. * Have effectively instantaneous response to all user input. More complex operations should be performed so quickly that the user is never conscious of having to wait. Printing must be "batched" so that the user can issue - and save - multiple report requests and make full use of print spoolers or buffers. * Allow direct input from field oriented OCR scanning devices and support page oriented OCR scanners and translation of externally prepared tender item lists. * Have digitizer support fully integrated with the arithmetic expression parser; interrupt driven for maximum performance and reliability; controllable from both the stylus and the keyboard; with automatic scaling; interim and grand totals; good aural and visual feedback and simple intuitive operation so that it requires no special training. * Be frugal in use of computer memory and disk space and insulate the user from the complexities of hardware and system details. * Be readily extensible to accommodate future developments (supplier and subcontract databases, closer integration with scheduling, dynamic sensitivity analysis, AI risk analysis and markup determination, tender history databases, etc.). * Have maximum portability to new operating systems (primarily UNIX, Linux, and Windows), and new hardware platforms, without compromising current performance. PROBID - the IDEAL Estimating & Tendering System - is the result of translating these criteria into a professional software package. ===================================================================== PROCON CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS 3/5-7 Victoria Parade MANLY NSW 2095 Tel: +61 2 9977.6863, Email: sales@procon.com.au =====================================================================