ConstructConnect Bid Management vs. IFS Applications vs. Premier Construction Software

SmartBid is also very useful for conducting sub-contracting analysis and management simulations in the didactic field. The procedures for sharing documents are helpful, but the graphic can be improved. Many forms can be pre-filled. This helps a lot in saving time and money! SmartBid is great for exporting and/or sending single or mass emails. However, as mentioned, it would be useful to simplify some pre-construction processes and improve the overall communication

Incentivized

Order to cash processes and scenario are implemented natively in IFS. An HR module exists for career management also (objectives, comportments, training, mobility) but may be improved in terms of workflow validation (e.g. training to validate by a manager) or reporting.

Incentivized

Jonas is well suited for the construction industry and for trades that work in construction. The functionality and features are set up to streamline the processes that take place daily, weekly, and monthly. You are also able to manage the big picture and track your company's information for multiple years, making it a scalable software. Our administration and project managers can streamline work from the field to the office through Jonas and we feel that is one of the biggest benefits to Jonas

Incentivized

• It's very easy to set up a job and manage who receives solicitations. You can also keep detailed notes on who've you contacted and see if they're actually downloading and reviewing the documents.
• You can add a confidentiality agreement clause which they must accept before accessing the documents. It then stores this information if it ever needs to be accessed. This is much cleaner and easier then sending out a NDA form and having the subcontractor return it before actually sending drawings/docs.
• You can send Invitations to Bid and set it up to continue sending these ITB's until the subcontractor responds. However, this can also be a negative point because once you set up a delayed ITB, it doesn't update as the subcontractors view and respond to the ITB's. So if a sub is "Not Responded" and you set up a delayed ITB to fire off every day for 5 days, and the sub responds after day 2, that sub will continue to receive ITB's for all 5 days.
• Uploading drawings is quick and easy. It's especially convenient if you link to one of your cloud services such as Egnyte, Google Drive, etc.
• The search tools are quick and easy and often very accessible from any page.

Incentivized

• It supports the web version in most later versions.
• It provides various mobile versions of the applications as mobile apps to cater various areas.
• IFS Applications allows easy configurations of the application without going for costly customization.
• It covers almost every areas of an industrial company so any other third party applications are minimum.
• It allows safer and easier built-in options for integrations capabilities.

Incentivized

• Job Dashboard gives you a great summary of that job at a glance. I can even pull direct reports based on the fact that there are drill-downs.
• I can go right to the receipt with the GL report drill-down capabilities.
• Workflows make the product accessible from anywhere for approval when I have people on the road.
• Dragging and dropping reports to in AP will then go to documents under the job it is attached to.

Incentivized

• Create sub categories under other trades that allow to better narrow down the exact jobs you are looking for.
• Not send repeatetive emails for the same projects.
• Make the service more affordable to small business's looking to grow.

Incentivized

• Handling massive volumes of data can be improved.

Incentivized

• Workflows could be more customized
• Invoice and Subcontractor portals could be easier to use
• Blanket changes across jobs when a policy/template is changed

Incentivized

The system is very difficult to use, overly complex, and difficult to learn. It also has limitations that are hard to overcome.

Using Premier Construction Software is intuitive. Most of the modules work the same way, so once you learn to use one, the others come easily.

Incentivized

SmartBid has an excellent support team that is always at your service. Any problem I've had (when I've even had them) has been resolved almost immediately, along with tips on how to avoid them in the future. If you're looking for a program with excellent customer service, look no further than SmartBid.

Incentivized

We have been unable to get answers to our questions, solutions to our problems, and they don't seem interested in working in the construction industry.

Jonas Premier has some of the best support we've received in this business. Whenever there is an issue or question, we receive a response in a timely manner and get follow up as well. We have never had an issue getting something resolved and our feedback is always taken into account

Incentivized

iSqFt is a solid competitor in the bidding/estimating platform world but as a user, Building Connected is the front runner. iSqFt lacks on the collaboration side and isn't as easy to use and access as its competitors. Building Connected is used by most of our clients so it's easier to use because there is more information in one place.

Incentivized

IFS Applications is based on Agile Technology which allows organizations to reconfigure user interface as per user requirements and make it user-friendly. Other applications are lagging on many fronts like User Interface, Online help document availability, Implementation methodology, and post-implementation expenses.

We came away from Sage 100. We looked at Computerease and Foundation among a few others. These two were looked at most seriously.

Incentivized

• SmartBid helps eliminate jumping all over the place, all your invites are on one system.
• It allows us to see who and how many general contractors are bidding, let’s us know if it’s a job worth spending time on.

Incentivized

• Reporting is now centralized and managed. Previously, reports were outside the information systems and there was a risk of incoherence.
• Accounting controls are now in place on the overall processes, including production, which helped the company to reduce closing periods or to produce more easily official mandatory accounting files yearly.
• Interfaces between the CRM forecast tool and IFS helped to keep the tools in sync, and to decrease the processing times prior to production launch.

Incentivized

• Jonas has positively impacted our Accounts Payable and Receivable department by making tracking and processing organized and streamlined. Previously we were having to track invoices and payments through emails and various formats. We are now able to connect each AP or AR invoice to the job and subcontractor, keep track of the billing due dates, and have all the paperwork generated from Jonas.

Incentivized