Causeway Estimating, the industry-standard pre-contract tendering and bidding software, has been chosen as the solo solution for Interclass Plc’s estimating team
Interclass Plc is a family-owned, Midlands-based, general contractor that turns over roughly £30m a year, providing new build, design and build, extension and refurbishment services to both public and private sectors across 3 divisions: construction, surfacing and civil engineering.
Sean Randle, estimating manager at Interclass Plc, is responsible for a team of three estimators and one assistant, tells us why they chose Causeway Estimating after unsatisfactory experiences with other estimating solutions.
A new hire sang the praises of Causeway
Causeway Estimating is the industry standard pre-contract tendering and bidding solution that integrates take-off, pricing, supply chain collaboration and outturn cost data to optimise the work-winning process.
Interclass Plc have previously used two different estimating solutions since transitioning away from spreadsheets, but Sean believes that Causeway Estimating will succeed where others have struggled.
Lack of customer support has been a common issue for Interclass Plc
“It’s important,” says Sean. “You probably don’t need support often, but it’s an issue when something stops working the right way.”
Customer support can be overlooked as a crucial consideration in the construction buying process, often, you don’t see how much this matters until an issue hits.
Sean says: “When you’re trying to produce an estimate, take off from drawings and price jobs while up against a deadline, you need the system up and running. You can’t afford downtime.”
Causeway customers get an exceptionally high standard of customer support. Everyone has a dedicated account manager available by phone or email, no matter the query.
Keeping prelim data within the solution Interclass
Interclass Plc’s estimating team is close to reaching a construction nirvana where spreadsheets are left to the history books. Right now, with their current software solution they need to have a prelim book in Excel.
“We take our estimating software’s raw data i.e. labour, plant, materials, and subcontract values,” says Sean. “We put that into the spreadsheet and add our prelims, overheads and profit. That gives us our tender figure.”
In the future, prelims along with the ability to allow for overheads and profit will live in Causeway Estimating, completely removing spreadsheets from the equation.
“We need to do everything we can to get rid of that spreadsheet with one piece of software doing everything. The opportunity is there with Causeway where it’s possibly not with others.”
Causeway offers a range of software solutions for the entire construction lifecycle
For departments with one requirement, like estimating software, there will always be other solutions that could also help them.
“It was a bit of a lightbulb moment for my colleagues,” says Sean. “It was important to me too.
“You have other products that we could bolt on that would deal with things like supply chain management, which we’re grappling with at the moment. I wanted to move forward with a company that can support us, not just in estimating, but all the way through, and that’s Causeway.”
Excellence and collaboration
Interclass Plc value excellence and collaboration, and both are at the heart of what Causeway do.
Causeway encourages customers to put forward suggestions at the relationship level, through account managers, and the user level. Individual users can submit ideas and feedback directly in the software.
“You’re the facilitator because you’re the ones with the ability to develop your software and make it better for everybody,” says Sean.
A happy and healthy relationship requires frequent, open communication, and not only when problems happen. It’s a two way-way street. Honest customer feedback helps inform the product roadmap, ensuring the best possible experience for everyone involved.
Causeway Estimating helps contractors and subcontractors manage the bidding and tendering process. If you’d like to see how Causeway Estimating could make an instant difference to your business, book your 30-minute demo here.
