A provider of software and services in the building industry, Constellation HomeBuilder Systems has two goals: to empower builders with information to drive business objectives and to simplify the process of building homes and condos.
$199
per year per user
QuoteSoft
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Acquired by ConstructConnect from Quote Software, QuoteSoft is a construction and estimation software for mechanical, piping, plumbing, HVAC and ductwork.
NEWSTAR and its ecosystem are well-suited for any homebuilder looking to manage end-to-end operations with software they can rely on. It is a powerful tool supported by many modern integrations to benefit the entire homebuilding business. It would be less applicable for businesses like trades or commercial builders
Quotesoft again is very well suited to any estimating department. I recommend a large screen monitor, but it's far more convenient than the old quick pen table or other methods. It's been great for jobs post mortem as well, we'll go back over as builds and make sure we captured and adjust estimates or change orders. It's also great for illustrating changes, and having all be very accurate.
BuildTopia excels at contract management. Every part of the contract process is able to be managed electronically from initial signing to closing, and can even handle more special cases like contingencies.
BuildTopia manages all of our construction efforts well. All of our floorplans are pre-build in the system, so all we have to do is go in an build out the construction schedule from a pre-made template, and make any alterations from there.
The selections process is always a headache, but BuildTopia makes it pretty painless. Everything is loaded right in to the system while making selections with the client, and more detailed things, like non-standard options, are easy to load in and process.
Once you're over the learning curve, it's fantastic at getting accurate material takeoff. Because one is working off the real PDF prints of the project, it's very easy to get a good material list and takeoff.
Excellent for giving options of transitions and allowing the user to account for the actual 3rd dimension of the project by being able to click and add the sections needed to transition between floors.
The speed in which the user is able to takeoff is so much faster than traditional methods, and more accurate and easier to use than the other options on the market. Prints out great reports showing materials and hours, and lets you color code the systems while estimating so you know you aren't duplicating efforts.
Very flexible as far as how it adjusts for your desired estimate. You can identify per floor, side of the building, system, etc.
Allows for fast on the fly adjustments of sizes, materials and types of transitions with ductwork.
Requests for platform enhancements, while easy to submit and get approved, are slow to be turned around...often a year or more passes before they're implemented.
BuiltTopia, while good for sales and construction, is missing one large thing...a CRM component. The system allows you to manage clients and prospects, but options for email marketing and other CRM-related efforts are lacking.
I'd prefer an 'all in one' as opposed to modules. I believe it's offered in that fashion but it was a touch more expensive. I was able to negotiate a footage takeoff tool for piping, to make it easier and more economical to our specific use, which is 95% dry side hvac estimating.
Would be great if it could be preloaded with Smacna or MCA factors for labor, and also would be great if there was a faster way to update material costs. You do need to stay on top of your material factors and make adjustments per the price of steel and other consumables. The industry has been stable lately, but if for some reason you were lax in updating labor and material factors, you could be off on the estimate. That's true of ANY software or even standard old school estimating approach.
It does require a dongle and a per seat license. The one drawback I don't care for, in a small company with tight cash flow, I do have estimators sharing the seat and scheduling takeoff around each other. Pretty standard though.
The implementations for Constellation’s products are very well-organized and help make the learning curve as simple as can be. NEWSTAR is an incredibly powerful platform and the integrations we are using are modern and easy to adopt.
We were looking at this, as well as quick pen, and other industry standard programs like Wendes. QuoteSoft was far more versatile, user friendly and has proven to be the right choice. No specific equipment outside of a bigger monitor, ease of use, and tech support as well as the online training aspect was fantastic. Felt well supported while we rolled it out.
Overall, our company has saved money by being able to shut down all the various platforms we were using for different departments and transition to just BuildTopia.
Company efforts are more efficient, with all pertinent information being in one place and able to be viewed by everyone as needed.
Efforts of the sales team are better able to be managed and reviewed from afar whereas we only had physical paper trails before.
First positive impact is time saved. We're able with our small team to estimate..ACCURATELY far more projects, thus winning more projects.
Accuracy once we had our factors programmed is fantastic. It's tightened up our material and labor hours and made us more competitive
Definitely has had a great return on investment. Helping to land more projects out of the sheer amount of available time to bid more, as well as being more confident in material costs.
