Natural Estimating is the innovation that software for the construction industry has been lacking. Innovation is about changing or creating a more effective process. Unfortunately, innovation often falls by the way side when developing software, as developers often get stuck replicating a specific process without knowing why. Software development for the construction industry is no exception to being stagnant; however the natural estimating approach is here to innovate.
Natural estimating brings takeoff and estimating together.
Quantity takeoff is performed inside the estimate in natural estimating, which provides two specific and direct benefits: contextualised thinking and simplified processing. Natural estimating gives contextualised thinking, in that the quantity takeoff that you perform, directly controls the estimate. You’re not longer working with abstract numbers inside your estimate, and the takeoff is not just linked to the estimate but inside it. Each item is specifically marked with a changeable result type, that are accessible at any time; whether it is after you’ve completed a shape, once you’ve completed a job or on a later revision. That item is not only viewable at any time, but editable, too. Every action you take is connected, because the takeoff is inside your estimate.
The simplified process of performing your estimating and takeoff is the other direct benefit of natural estimating, you’re not only encouraged to think simpler, but create quotes simpler as well. Let’s look at a couple of examples where some of your traditional estimating software might have a more complex way of working. Let’s take a look at an example, assuming we’re taking the quantities off for a bathroom, with various trades measuring various results like tiles, paint, windows. Where your older systems force you to measure a room to pull the information into the item, natural estimating is performed by selecting the items that are used to build that room and then tracing the wall. The difference is that in natural estimation, your wall is then inside each item, and for each item that bathroom can be edited, be it to change the vertical height to calculate your tiles or to add a percentage to a paint to account for spillage or even to generate your studs from your lineal length. Even if you go back into the bathroom shape and change any element of the shape, you won’t compromise any measurement you’ve modified.
From our extensive in-house testing, we found that by changing what appeared to be a simple shift in processing, we could drastically reduce the time to complete estimates and for the first time in over a decade takeoff and estimating became faster. A popular and accepted theory of multi-tasking by Gerard Weinberg, indicates that a second task can compromise a user’s efficiency by as much as 20%. Tests revealed that a familiar user of both traditional estimating and natural estimating could perform the same job with a natural estimator faster. <
Final results indicated that natural estimating was as much as three times faster.
Not only are you able to get the results into the estimate quicker but the results are more likely to be correct as the manual step of mapping all your takeoff is merged into the step of performing your takeoff. It is much harder to miss items and discrepancies can be picked up immediately. So simply by streamlining the process, so you’re only focussing on one thing: creating a quote, you’re actually operating at peak efficiency.
Beyond this discovery, we found that users of the natural methodology were able to learn how to use the system much quicker than a traditional takeoff system as it better fitted with how they thought about estimating. Not only was initial training time to reach a productive level reduced but the need for retraining was virtually eliminated.
Buildsoft drew on, not only, their thirty years of providing software solutions for the construction industry, but also the feedback and interactions with thousands of their customers. The moment Buildsoft uncovered that perhaps the very links between takeoff and estimating could be examined, things changed. Buildsoft developed Cubit to be the world’s first natural estimator, and lets you estimate in a way that is natural and more efficient than ever before. Estimating and takeoff in Cubit are one and the same, giving you a software package that allows you to produce quotes and tenders from as little as one hour of training and produce them up to three times faster than traditional takeoff software.
If your estimating and takeoff software isn’t innovative, then you’re paying the difference in time and effectiveness. Cubit is the most advanced solution for your takeoff and estimating, bringing you the most cutting edge tools in a simple program designed from the ground up to make you the natural estimator.