4Clicks for Federal vs. Planview Daptiv vs. Trimble Accubid

If you are considering purchasing this (very expensive) software, there is a 100% chance you are doing so because you have been awarded a Government contract that dictates you use 4Clicks Project Estimator. There are plenty of easier to use estimating packages out in the world, but you can't use any of them if you have a contract that requires 4Clicks.

Incentivized

I would recommend Daptiv for anyone who is look for a collaborative tool that is easy to use and provides excellent results for project management and resource allocation. The tool offers many various capabilities and is not isolated for use with one or two workgroups. Its versatility allows many workgroups across many different organizations to use it. In my previous role, I used Daptiv in both a Project Management and Account Services Information Technology role. In my current workplace, I would like to leverage Daptiv for Product Launch and tracking as well as change request visibility in the Release Management Organization of a pharmaceutical company. Both roles and companies are vastly different however Daptiv would serve a great purpose in both situations although my needs are different.

We use Trimble Accubid to do detailed cost estimates for larger jobs. If a job has a set of blueprints, the software is designed to go through each page systematically to aggregate a bid. Where it is less appropriate are for smaller service jobs. It takes a lot of setup for a new job there are other solutions better suited for service work.

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• The estimates it produces are simple and easy to follow. The formatting is good.
• The tech support provided is very attentive.

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• Resource allocation, when fully integrated provides a in depth view of what everyone is working on, as well as their availability.
• Portfolio reporting provides a good view of where all projects are at in their lifecycle.
• Time tracking is simple to use.

• Depth of customization
• Intergrations
• Industry specific

Incentivized

• The software feels 20 years old. It has not kept up with modern times, and practically functions like an old DOS program.
• Clunky interface, arcane commands.
• Even their training info focuses on hotkeys like this is 1995. Even though I am of an age to remember computers in 1995, the younger generations of managers/estimators are not. It is time to bring the software into the new century!

Incentivized

• In my opinion, APIs / integrations are sometimes coming to their limit
• In my experience, no general archive available - therefore data sets cannot be frozen
• Data roll-up for different hierarchy levels (program / project / sub-project) is very limited, in my opinion.
• In my opinion, when having showing a large number projects navigation on project tab is not very handy

• Needs to update a data base for new emerging markets in energy.
• Separation of some supporting materials into more relevant categories would eliminate number of required click through actions.

Incentivized

As previously mentioned, we were not able to get the product to solve our particular problem. After time spent implementing a custom solution, it was the decision of the executive team to discontinue the agreement. The costs of training the team didn't outweigh the cost of hiring an employee to do the translation of schedules to web view.

The main thing that I have to apologize for is the UI. Does the job but just not the flexible responsive experience that most users are used to.

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In the 3 years I have worked with Daptiv I think it is been down once. The ONLY partial outages I have ever had have been with report automation.

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Good support team! Developed relationships and were very pleasant to talk to. Daptiv went above and beyond on ensuring the customers were satisfied

Accubid can sometimes fall short when it comes to CS. The correct departments aren't always properly delineated, making it difficult to get ahold of the individual most appropriate for your issue. To that end, it has been outsourced to people with accents sometimes difficult to understand. This is my biggest critique

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I recommend using daptiv resources on your implementation to help with setup and training.

WinEst uses much the same database (RS Means/Gordion type) and has a similar interface. It is a bit cheaper.

Incentivized

AdaptiveWork might not necessarily have robust Analytical abilities that Daptiv IBM Cognos BI tool have, but from the introduction I have seen of the product it has impressive capabilities. It is still work in progress and still learning about AdaptiveWork and looking forward to implementing and supporting it in the near future.

I was not involved in the decision-making process to purchase Accubid.

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We are quickly able to add more users as needed.

Incentivized

• As stated before, if you are buying this software, it is because you have a contract forcing you to. While it does work, it is clunky, awkward, and very expensive.
• The price of the software and databases has always been high, but with the fairly recent acquisition of 4Clicks by Gordion (who also bought RS Means for their databases), there is literally no competition. Prices will continue to be very high, with no check on how high they can go.
• Again, can't fault 4Clicks tech support, as I think it is the best in the industry. They know their product and they respond to issues immediately. Considering what we spend a year for this product, however, you would expect nothing less.

Incentivized

• I am in the process of establishing a hard dollar ROI received from Daptiv. However, there have been many soft dollar benefits we have achieved. Soft benefits include IT teams that are more aligned to business objectives, "one version of the truth" for where work is being performed and resources consumed, and more accurate estimation of project requests.

Incentivized

• reduced estimating cost vs pen and paper
• because it's a widely used platform it's easy to recruit estimators to the platform
• works well in a multi estimator environment

Incentivized