Benchmark Estimating Software vs. iTWO costX vs. Wrike

I have used it for bulk earthworks, for roadworks, stormwater drainage, sewer reticulation, water reticulation, and associated works. It's easy to use a process called subcontractor manager to get multiple sub-contractor prices into your estimate for quick comparison, then pick the one that you really want to use in the estimate. It also has a process called auto allocation which can almost fully automate your estimating process, bringing in Items from the library that match the items in your bid. Haven't found a scenario that it's less appropriate, it all comes down to how detailed you set up your initial item library and resource library.

Incentivized

Easy to use, one-stop for all construction-related tasks. The best thing is the split-screen, during the Bill of Quantity verification users can see for what part of the design Bill of Quantity is generated. Auto-updating of Design is another good feature.

Incentivized

I believe it's well suited if you have multiple jobs/projects that you need to keep organized. We work with multiple job types from print/creative to web, copy and digital ads so it helps us stay organized. I don't think it would be suitable for a company that doesn't have a lot of jobs to manage. We average over 1,200 requests a year.

Incentivized

• Progress Claims
• Standard quotes

Incentivized

• Allows multiple users to work on the same estimate at once. This is huge!! Not only can we team up on a project that has a quick deadline but we can also simultaneously collaborate on database updates.
• Performs your takeoff on CAD drawings or vector PDFs. Your typical takeoff software does takeoff on an unintelligent PDF. I say unintelligent because the process you go through is simply to trace the boundaries of your shape. This is time-consuming and can lead to mistakes. With CostX your cursor will stick to the line lines and takeoff the exact measurement. This has cut our takeoff time by 75%. The best part is that this is done in the same software as your estimating software. There are a few software's that have takeoff and estimating in one but CostX is the only one the provides CAD smart takeoff.
• CostX is a lot like Excel. You have the flexibility to set up your workbooks the way your project team thinks. For example, ours is set up to evaluate labor in two ways; productivity (man-hours per widget) or crew hours (3 guys for two days for a given activity).
• Reports are very flexible and the report writers is much easier than Crystal reports.
• If you subscribe to the full version of CostX this provides the most powerful feature of them all......Auto-Revisioning. This function will compare two sets of drawings, identify the changes on a color coded drawing, ask for you to approve the changes and then update your estimate and takeoff. You can even use this to produce custom print outs for RFI's show your design team what changed.
• Your estimating workbooks are live-linked to your takeoff. As you make adjustments to your takeoff your estimate updates accordingly. The workbook has color coded text to hep your team understand whats behind your estimate; Black = manually input, Blue = rates linked to database, and Green = quantity linked to take-off.
• Full integrated subcontractor comparison. We use to do this in excel to compare multiple bidders across every division.
• This is also color coded for a streamlined review process; green = quote, blue = estimate, purple = plug, and orange = other.
• Built in error checking notifies you if you forgot to normalize an item on your subcontractor comparison.
• In the near future the software will be available online allowing you to use remotely.

Incentivized

• Excellent dashboards that are easy to use and give amazing insights.
• User friendly interface that is also easy to interact with.
• Lot of integrations.
• Robust project and task management features.
• Facilitate seamless team collaboration and communication.
• Highly customizable and multiple project views.

• I haven't found anything yet. Benchmark is constantly evolving and adding new processes, I believe it keeps up to date with what it's users want.

Incentivized

• iTwo Costx has 3D features that may require enhancement in terms of Look and feel perspective.
• The eye Function section view feature may require enhancement. But I am not sure how much more we can bring it to scale
• Not seen Cloud base service. So that easy to use from any where.

Incentivized

• Email alerts sometimes send too slowly.
• If you put a project on hold, it can be hard to find it once you are ready to return to it.
• Sometimes there are too many steps/tasks and the main page can get cluttered.

Incentivized

I wish that Wrike had more drag and drop functionality that would be connected to assignee and also I wish that the finish date of a task would update to the date where you checked completed. It does not do that. Also finishing a task doesn't move the start date of the next task it "protects your time in that way", but our management team wants us to quickly see what we have down the pipeline rather than having to scroll down the list of upcoming tasks.

Incentivized

It does take some time and work to really understand and use it properly, but I think the accessibility to help and documentation make that completely feasible. Once you know how to use it, I find it to be very user-friendly, and have very few complaints.

Incentivized

Over two years of (almost) daily usage without outages. Don't remember any errors. I give it 9 only because some Wrike plugins (for online document edit) are based on NPAPI architecture. These types of plugins are being phased out in new browsers, and NPAPI plugins are disabled by default in recent versions of Chrome so you have to do some browser adjustments when you switch browsers or move to another computer.

Wrike tasks loads fine, but I hate clicking files and wait for a bit of time since it is powerpoint or word, Wrike assumes I want to open those on Wrike. My suggestion is to link it to office 365 so we do not need Wrike based decoder for PPTX and DOCX

Incentivized

The support guys were always helping and sorted out issues we had very quickly.

Incentivized

During my learning phase with Wrike, I initially struggled with setting up automation rules and request forms. However, Wrike support was always my go-to, resolving issues within seconds or minutes. Their assistance made the learning process much easier. My best experience was receiving step-by-step screenshots to follow, with the support team on standby until I was completely satisfied.

Incentivized

We had staff in person provide some training

Incentivized

I love the Wrike training options. Wrike Discover has tons of courses, learning plans, certifications, etc. This is an area where Wrike definitely shines! I wish these resources were more in your face for new people, because it seems like a lot of coworkers didn't know all of this training was available to them.

Incentivized

There are a lot of bells and whistles in Wrike, and not all of it is easy or intuitive to understand once it's plopped in your lap. It's easier when there are a few choice people who understand Wrike as a platform and articulate it in such a way where it makes it easy to pass it along to others in the group

I have always found that Benchmark allows for a more rapid compilation of the estimate through the library system. It can also allow for easy duplication of an estimate for a second stage etc, using the original rates in the resources, or at a click of a button, reverting to updated resources from the library. I have found that other systems rely on a great number of spreadsheet type operations that can easily be changed in the estimate and can lead to errors if copied to another estimate.

Incentivized

We are not aware of another software that has fully integrated take-off, subcontractor comparison, estimating and reporting besides CostX.

Incentivized

Jira did not at all help us get our work done as content creators. I think that was because Jira wasn't quite right for our uses. Wrike fits our needs so much better. I can't tell you enough the relief I felt when we adopted Wrike and I never had to use Jira again.

Incentivized

company purchase

Incentivized

The sky is the limit for what can be done in Wrike. We started with 1 use case and within 5 months we migrated several key business practices over to Wrike because they were easier to manage. Use cases so far: process improvement, management review, corrective actions, maintenance requests, month-end financial closing, and document management. As we grow, it's easy to imagine putting even more into Wrike where it becomes a cornerstone for how we do business

I do not use professional services.

Incentivized

• Benchmark has created standardisation in quotes and tenders.
• Created standard progress claims.

Incentivized

• Easy to Collaborate Between the Team members. Saves a lot of work
• Integrate with multiple types of data drawing which saves efforts in converting the design.
• Bill of Quantity export can be done based on the Design section and can share with contractors for Quotes. Instead of just downloading the whole report and then editing for the required pack.

Incentivized

• Different teams (e.g., contracting, compliance, provider relations) can view updates in real time, comment directly on tasks, and escalate items when needed.
• Wrike allows us to template the contracting process (from intake to signature) to ensure consistency across payers and reduce administrative overhead.
• Leadership can see the status of negotiations at a glance, identify bottlenecks, and prioritize resources accordingly.

Incentivized