ADVANTAGE vs. Sage Estimating

Any integrated agency (more than just a single-discipline agency) that's looking for a one-stop shop to manage all aspects of running the business would do well to consider Advantage as the single-source tool to do it all. Single-discipline agencies could probably find a less robust tool that's equally as effective for tracking and reporting.

Incentivized

Sage Estimating was initially created for the construction industry and many of its current users use it to estimate buildings, but it has adapted quite well for the oil and gas industry. If the user is willing to invest the time and energy to develop and maintain their database, I can see it working for any industry. It is very easy to adjust and adapt the database as estimating methods and project designs change. As an example, our accounting department sometimes changes the way projects are reporting in our accounting software. Because I can go through our 9000 line item database in a couple of days, I am always ahead of the curve and can report my estimates in the format they require.

Incentivized

• Information from site visits is easily accessible.
• Workflow is easy to use

Incentivized

• Same format Spreadsheet
• Ability to adjust by percentages
• Ability to separate phases into categories

Incentivized

• Advantage is hugely cumbersome. There are hundreds of functions I will never use, and that I'm not sure anyone else in the organization uses.
• The user interface could be better. Every time there's an update, there's a small but definitive learning curve.

Incentivized

• The program has a fairly antiquated user interface such that someone working in it may not feel like they are working with advanced software.
• Sage Estimating has absolutely no remote access capability outside running it in a Citrix/RDP environment so users have to be using a fat/full client vs. any hopes of access on a mobile device.

Incentivized

It is a good product and meets all of our needs

Incentivized

Sage's support of Estimating is adequate though frankly we rarely need it. Outside of more complex operations such as upgrades and installation problems the program itself is so straightforward that we do not usually have any "issues" and questions that are more about usability can easily be answered in online forums. We trust Sage's capability to answer these questions if needed but rarely use it.

Incentivized

We have also used BidClips. I find that Advantage gave us more flexibility with custom estimates & report tracking.

Incentivized

For our needs and after completing a valued score card SAGE has always exceeded our min. requirements

Incentivized

• Advantage has everything to do with our company's ability to run an effective back office.
• When you have a company that does a wide variety of concurrent projects, you need a great tool to manage it all. Advantage does that for us.
• As I am unfamiliar with the pricing model (I'm not a member of the team that negotiates this particular product), I can't provide any true ROI from an overall business perspective.

Incentivized

• Manupulation of existing data is very user friendly thanks to "Database Manager".
• A bit pricey

Incentivized