e-Builder vs. Viewpoint Spectrum

Well suited for the owner's side of managing multiple projects as it allows for all aspects of a project from development to closeout to be managed on one platform. Not as appropriate for a general contractor as there is better software out there. e-Builder's app is not as effective as others.

Incentivized

The Installation team is amazing. They provide clear guidance at the beginning of the process regarding what is expected and what needs to be done. The implementation manager follows up monthly with you to make sure you are on track and if you need additional help. They are very helpful and responsive in resolving issues.

Incentivized

• Provide a document structure that is easy to navigate. All documents, even within a process, are stored in the document structure and easily accessed by those with the correct permissions.
• Scheduling, especially with the new module is easy. It is helpful with a large organization where many hands touch projects to be able to forecast workloads (we have an in house engineering team who reviews all projects during their design phase)
• Allows for easy interface with contractors and makes the submittal process more straightforward.

Incentivized

• Job Costing - Viewpoint Spectrum handles job costing per project, per work order, per site, and gives us an up to date analysis of the project.
• HR - helps to keep all of the training certifications and HR incidents in a consistent and manageable order for all Managers to use.

Incentivized

• The restrictions in formatting, and sorting of information rendered, in a way, affects the reporting output.
• At certain times of day, e-Builder traffic causes the loading of filtered searches to take a while. This is probably common regardless of the site or software used.
• More complicated reporting has some limitation, though the program is highly efficient in assisting with simple format reports.

Incentivized

• Support isn't readily available. You can submit a ticket and wait days before it's picked up. Even critical issues (system outages) can wait an hour or two before someone responds.
• Large companies will feel limited. This product wasn't designed to handle large amounts of data, and performance seems to slow when there are more than 80 concurrent users.
• The new developments are limited. HR Management is less robust than a third-party product specializing in HR Management. Viewpoint Analytics is nowhere near as robust as Power BI or Tableau.

Incentivized

Because again, one of our biggest clients entrusts E-builder to work with their systems. And its functions work for us as well.

Incentivized

The product is working for us and the cost to implement a new system does not warrant the expense.

Incentivized

Simple, because have a used it for the past two years, so i'm very familiar with the particular aspects of its program that I need to accomplish my tasks.

Incentivized

There's a little bit of a learning curve, but once you've been working in the system for a while, it becomes second nature. I would say that out of all of the other software that I've personally used, Spectrum has been the easiest one to pick up and learn quickly

Incentivized

I've never seen Spectrum down

For the most part the product is very reliable. Since we are hosted we sometimes have connectivity issues but I would say that is more our ISP than Spectrum.

Incentivized

Again, because our technical support is great. He doesn't always answer the phone but he definitely responds to emails fairly quickly. In addition, I like that he actually resolves an issue and I have yet to encounter the same issue twice. Actually, I haven't encountered many issues at all in the two years I have used the software.

Incentivized

The support has recently changed. Last year, you could call in and get an immediate response. Now that doesn't seem possible unless you have an urgent situation with access to the software, payroll or payables. I have found that using chat or e-mail works nicely for the most part, but sometimes I feel it would be easier if someone from support would jump on our site and take a first-hand look rather than going back and forth

Incentivized

Our trainer was excellent and navigated the time zone differences expertly. She gave us test assignments to complete and was available for questions at any time.

Incentivized

1. Set up the time to get training on the sytem before you go all in.

2. Listen, ask questions and actually practice using the tools and features while in class. It helps tremendously with becoming comfortable and remembering how things work.

3. Don't be afraid to mess up. They are helpful and will help resolve your issue in a timely manner

Incentivized

My only insight would be to take time in your implementation and training process; ours was six weeks from start to finish.

Incentivized

We have not compared other plans since the boss prefers this program from personal experience. But from using this program for 2 years I can see why we don't need to compare. Why fix something that isn't broken? It gets the job done, yes we might run into some issues but I feel like with all companies that can happen

Incentivized

I have previously used Sage Masterbuilder, another construction industry software. This has been a number of years ago. The company I am working for already had Spectrum and have been using it for as long as it has been around when it was known as Forefront. Based on conversations I've had with the personnel that were here at the time of purchase, Spectrum clicked off all the boxes they were looking for.

Incentivized

You can grant user specific access which is nice. Project managers do not need all the same modules as Accounting. But Accounting does need access to PM modules as well

• Has added extra steps to processes that were previously easier. And I work for a university that complicates everything
• Has more than cut in half the time it takes to generate reports about project status
• Has made project management more efficient

Incentivized

• [In my opinion,] it takes at LEAST twice as long to do our jobs now.
• [I feel like] we are paranoid about something not being printed correctly because of [what I believe are] buggy text fields.
• [In my experience,] we still have to refer to a physical file cabinet with paper, even though a main point of switching was to go paperless.
• [In our experience,] screens can now be "locked", so we can't see something if our coworker is also looking at it.
• [I believe that] the financial hit our company took from this switch was astronomical. [In my opinion:] Beware!