AccuLynx vs. Bentley ProjectWise

If you have a home exterior company this is the best software!! Especially roof, gutters & siding. If you run a different company like you only handle decks, landscaping or maybe drywall, etc. This would not be the software for you

Incentivized

ProjectWise is good for really large projects with many team members. I would not recommend it for small projects or those with a small team of people working on them. It is best for technical people and those who plan to use it daily. There are better FTP options out there if you just want to use them for file sharing.

• Tracking progress of project
• Note/Message Keeping
• Reports

Incentivized

• It works for collaboration
• The backend is customisable to do work that other document management systems just cannot do.

• Pricing in the database for each item is done manually due to the merger of two large suppliers nationally who decided to write their own database and estimating program and disconnect themselves from AccuLynx that had the ability to automatically update pricing. I feel that was a huge mistake on the part of the supplier. AccuLynx is trying to rectify that relationship.
• It's unfortunate that the only calendaring option is Google Calendar. We are very tied to Outlook which we feel is more user-friendly and we know it well.

Incentivized

• many users cannot be in the same file at the same time
• files are not automatically freed upon closure
• copying files to another ProjectWise folder is complicated. There is an option to copy, another to copy to, etc.

Until someone shows me something more efficient or has features that are more streamlined and time is saved by all then I am all ears and ready to listen to that presentation. I wouldn't care at this point if I had to abandon QB if the system had it's own integrated accounting system otherwise it has to be able to do all and more of the features of QB and the CRM side also has to have/do more than AccuLynx features.

Incentivized

They can always improve and we are very successful when calling support. I would suggest they keep their support technicians available later for the west coast contractors who need help at the end of the day. We've come to know many of the techs because we call to offer suggestions but there's a process for us to follow for that.

Incentivized

JobNimbus you have to customize it yourself and it's very time consuming to get it up and running efficiently and smoothly. AccuLynx is very intuitive and easy to use. This helps so much especially in the construction side. Also, AccuLynx can estimate easily which JobNimbus does not do at all. Buildertrend is good but really more for General Contractors who are builders. Not exterior remodelers.

Incentivized

Bentley ProjectWise from a user perspective just does not stack up to even something as simple as Dropbox. ProjectWise is powerful, it is capable, it has a ton of features. The best implementation I have seen from Projectwise is where the admins unlocked everything and let the users do as they please defeating everything it stood for and using it as a big Dropbox account, though even then the user interface couldn't be improved still causing significant workflow delays. I would reluctantly leave a good company if they implement ProjectWise, I respect that it's powerful for system admins but it sucks for users. This means 2-10% of what it is used for is well designed while the other 98-90% of its functions are just bogged down by a lack of development in its user interface and I say this as someone who has periodically used it over the last 10 years and seen no effective improvement in usability. Bentley ProjectWise was one of the first I believe to do this type of system, but as is common with being the first is you don't keep up with the times and bring a lot of baggage with you.

• The software is expensive, but if everyone utilizes it to its capacity it's well worth it.
• Less time is spent searching for information because it is all at your fingertips.
• Increased productivity in the overall company, which means we can handle a higher work load = higher revenue.

Incentivized

• It has saved us time in archiving and versioning documents
• It has saved us effort in backing up files and restoring them when mistakes are made
• It has had an overall positive impact on our bottom line by helping with file sharing and collaboration