InEight vs. PlanSwift, by ConstructConnect

It's definitely a good tool for progress tracking, as well as time tracking. The ability to forecast quantities provide an even better scenario, closer to the reality, supporting even change management. The change management is also a good method, besides the fact of rework if you think in the whole process of issue creation, promoting to PCO, promote to CCO, execute the issue, move to change in controls, and so on... just now I think having all in a single place would minimize the manual work and maybe increase the engagement on it. About a negative point, I'd use a feature that appears to be in all modules. It's pretty much a cosmetic, but it impact in the productivity, a lot. For all fields you will fill with information, whenever your mouse hover over it, a tooltip appears, impeding you to continue, so you have to walk around, click in a place that's not being covered by that tooltip, go back to your keyboard and continue... again, it's a cosmetic, but having this in a Monday, with a full job to plan, claim quantities, and whatever else, it's annoying.

Incentivized

I use PlanSwift for all my projects - it has just cut my time by a major percentage when it comes to quantifying a blueprint. At times there are funky areas, which are just hard to calculate on paper. It also has a great tool for scaling according to the dimensions, so if a drawing is missing a scale, you can always allot a scale by giving directions and then marking the points. I use this tool to check the scale as well - sometimes the drawings say something but the scale if off and you are left with an incorrect take-off. The dimension tool is a good way to check that. We don't use it much for pricing purposes though, we have found other software which are more robust when it comes to estimation, but we can see using PlanSwift for pricing sometime in the future.

Incentivized

• Tagging segments of work.
• User defined views and descriptions for all screens.
• Customizable ribbons to provide an efficient use of the software.
• Multiple layers/dependents to allow for an extreme drill down of the work and the ability to roll up to a more useful level for upper management review.
• You can bid the work as you would build it, in detail.

Incentivized

• Easy to use and intuitive.
• Accurate data to use for projects, allowing for a central hub for all teams to work from.
• It's a central stop from take off and plan review all the way to plugging numbers into our estimating.
• The ability to link through SharePoint, which always access from any user and location.

Incentivized

• Provide a simpler version (cliff notes) of the knowledge database
• Offer versions of InEight for smaller companies, i.e. less than 20 emplyees, under $5M in revenue
• When an estimate is complete, offer a dialog box to ask if the job was won, lost, or still in progress. We tend to leave most of our estimates in the bidding column. This is a user error, but the prompt would be helpful.

Incentivized

• Submittals are not user friendly in PlanGrid. In fact, this is the one feature we would like to see improved.
• Billing is based on how many users you have. It would be very nice if they would do it based on revenue or other factors such as other programs do.

Incentivized

Some features with InEight's TeamBinder are worthy of single use, however the review feature and subsequent revision and version numbering could be improved. We will be aiming to roll out the package to encompass our internal documentation in the near future and will be in a better position to judge the usability after that point in time.

Incentivized

It's become the go to program for our takeoffs. We have tried others but this is the simplest.

Incentivized

I would give it an 8 out of 10 because the software can be a bit cumbersome to new users. It also takes a long time to set up the library and input all of your companies needs so that the software will provide the level of service required to estimate projects. However, once the software is set up it is a powerful tool. We only use a portion of what the software is capable of delivering

Incentivized

Plan Swift is a user friendly program that makes takeoffs easy to perform. Not a whole lot of knowledge or skill is required.

Incentivized

Never had an issue

Incentivized

Plan Swift is only as fast as your computer system and internet

Incentivized

We are new to the use of the system, and so far, we have not reached out for any support. The only support we have requested so far is the development of a training program that involves other staff - some are to learn the use of the program, and some are for informational purposes in understanding the capabilities of InEight.

Incentivized

I have called once needing support. I was asking about the "compare" tool to compare different versions. They told be about their desktop app and I downloaded. They answered quickly, you could understand them, and they took care of my question

Incentivized

Since the original inception, I have been required to overhaul the system so that it is more user friendly and combines both aspects of our business, documentation and drawings. Being able to control revision and version numbering has been a key struggle that only staff training has been able to mark this as complete.

Incentivized

just know what use you want to get out of it. In our case it was just to do area take offs.

Incentivized

We looked at HCSS and Bid 2 Win but chose Ineight due to the fact that it seemed more user friendly, plus I had used it at a former company when it was available from the Grantlun Corporation and was very familiar with it in its ease of use and reliability.

Incentivized

Bluebeam is amazing and can accomplish any take-off needs, but you will spend much more time creating your conditions and take off items. It is not as user-friendly as PlanSwift. OST (On screen takeoff). This product is by far better than PlanSwift, as it is amazingly easy to use. However, it is much more expensive. Cloud-based takeoff software -- this kind of software is difficult for me to use because of how slow the pages load and navigate. It's hard to beat that from PlanSwift or OST.

Incentivized

InEight is a good system that has scaled nicely as the company has grown. the tools are still readily available and applicable for our larger scope of work. It has kept up with the growth of the company very nicely

Incentivized

Several of our departments can use the take off feature to assist them in their job responsibilities.

Incentivized

• the positive impact is that it has helped us better gauge staffing and staff jobs appropriately
• negative impact is that it takes a lot of time for new users to learn the software
• the positive impact is that many of our clients use it, making collaboration easier with them
• positive impact is that we can see our percent complete easier
• positive impact is that it is easier to share documents to our team internally

Incentivized

• The estimators' productivity is greatly increased, I do takeoffs in less than half the time with more accuracy and detail captured.
• Easy sharing of what was taken off, I'm able to ensure everything is captured.

Incentivized