Likelihood to Recommend Newforma is a great tool to collaborate with large teams and between firms. It allows for great documentation of transfers, activities, and other procedural aspects of projects that require collaboration between disciplines, for example, MEP, electrical, architectural and technology. For internal use, Newforma has been great for communications tracking and archival, as well as for record-keeping of all the users in a team or number of teams. Many great options are features are unused due to a lack of training or exposure to them, for example, the graphical viewers that can preview CAD, Revit, and other formats, or the markup tool available with the desktop client.
Read full review Sage Estimating was initially created for the construction industry and many of its current users use it to estimate buildings, but it has adapted quite well for the oil and gas industry. If the user is willing to invest the time and energy to develop and maintain their database, I can see it working for any industry. It is very easy to adjust and adapt the database as estimating methods and project designs change. As an example, our accounting department sometimes changes the way projects are reporting in our accounting software. Because I can go through our 9000 line item database in a couple of days, I am always ahead of the curve and can report my estimates in the format they require.
Read full review Pros Newforma sits on top of our previous filing system (Windows Explorer). This was very important to us because we didn't have to change the project numbering system in order to fit Newforma's design. Also, if we were to decide we didn't like it, we could easily revert back to our previous methods. Newforma does a great job of indexing information, making searches much easier by being able to use keywords instead of knowing the exact file location. No more traversing through countless folders before finding what you need. Newforma keeps a read receipt for everything that you submit through it for issue tracking, and keeps an easy to read record of your workflow. Read full review Same format Spreadsheet Ability to adjust by percentages Ability to separate phases into categories Read full review Cons I have found it difficult to locate audits. Some users have issues while uploading project data. Read full review The program has a fairly antiquated user interface such that someone working in it may not feel like they are working with advanced software. Sage Estimating has absolutely no remote access capability outside running it in a Citrix/RDP environment so users have to be using a fat/full client vs. any hopes of access on a mobile device. Read full review Likelihood to Renew It is a good product and meets all of our needs
Read full review Support Rating While I have never asked for support myself, a Newforma representative has been in the office annually to give training seminars and info sessions on how to fully use the product. I find this essential to keep the product relevant and make sure everyone knows its full capabilities and an important part of customer support.
Read full review Sage's support of Estimating is adequate though frankly we rarely need it. Outside of more complex operations such as upgrades and installation problems the program itself is so straightforward that we do not usually have any "issues" and questions that are more about usability can easily be answered in online forums. We trust Sage's capability to answer these questions if needed but rarely use it.
Read full review Alternatives Considered A good competitor against other similar solutions and support is excellent.
Read full review For our needs and after completing a valued score card SAGE has always exceeded our min. requirements
Read full review Return on Investment Newforma makes it easy to transfer, share, archive, and search extensive data sets in a single GUI For it to be effective, all users in a team must receive a basic training and use it consistently Adoption in the industry is good (A/E); many teams use it consistently. Learning to use it once produces time-saving in subsequent projects Read full review Manupulation of existing data is very user friendly thanks to "Database Manager". A bit pricey Read full review ScreenShots