Key takeaways:

• A side-by-side comparison of Solid Earth’s paper-based job bid and a digital estimation bid in Bluebeam Revu yielded an oversight, which avoided a $50,000-60,000 loss on their first project using Revu
• Using Revu for takeoffs has more than tripled the company’s standard estimation output
• Solid Earth Civil Constructors has now standardized an all-digital estimation process in Revu, getting rid of paper for estimations along with the costs and maintenance of that process

Solid Earth Civil Constructors Senior Estimator Don Peters has been estimating for nearly three decades. While a digitizer scale and straight ruler have long been his tools of the trade, an ultimatum for digital bid submissions from a significant potential client forced Peters to transform his previously paper-based estimation process. “There was a team of estimators from the client in this room and they could all hear the conversation. I was by myself and it was the biggest call to reality. I thought to myself, ‘We need to make a move; we need to make a change now.’” Within three days after receiving the recommendation from a general contractor, Solid Earth purchased Bluebeam Revu, a project efficiency and collaboration solution tailor built for the AEC industry, trusted by over 1.3 million design and construction professionals worldwide to implement a digital estimation process. With no dedicated IT department, Peters turned to Field Operator and Foreman Drake Carter to learn how to use Revu for electronic takeoffs.

Without ever having used Revu or ever having done a takeoff, Carter completed a full jobsite estimate within one day. After a side-by-side comparison of Peters’ paper-based estimation for the same job—a task that took Peters two weeks to complete—Carter’s digital estimation within Revu yielded a mistake on the paper-based estimate that would have cost the company over $50,000. “We go to Bluebeam and away we go. We have everything right there. Revu was an absolute game changer, no doubt about it.”

Since the implementation of Revu for paperless estimation, Solid Earth Civil Constructors has more than tripled their previous standard bidding output, allowing them to control profit margins by being more selective for the jobs they win. “When you look at that in terms of proficiency and the amount of work; I can go to my files. If I look at my 2018 bid files and I look at my 2017 cumulatively, I bid more work by April of 2018 with Bluebeam than I did in all of 2017,” explained Peters.

Equipment World’s 2018 Contractor of the Year has now transformed their business thanks to digital estimation in Revu, as the value of this process has led the company to standardize it as a part of their project bids and delivery.