Pipeline Suite vs. QuoteSoft

Pipeline Suite is a very niche product, but for anyone who has ever dealt with the construction bidding process, you can understand the need for it. With Pipeline Suite, it is so easy to request bids, share documents and plans, and coordinate schedules for submittals. We are able to prequalify sub contractors and vendors at a faster pace as well with the product

Incentivized

Quotesoft again is very well suited to any estimating department. I recommend a large screen monitor, but it's far more convenient than the old quick pen table or other methods. It's been great for jobs post mortem as well, we'll go back over as builds and make sure we captured and adjust estimates or change orders. It's also great for illustrating changes, and having all be very accurate.

Incentivized

• Sharing documents and plans with project stakeholders is a piece of cake.
• The product makes tracking the status of bids so much easier.

Incentivized

• Once you're over the learning curve, it's fantastic at getting accurate material takeoff. Because one is working off the real PDF prints of the project, it's very easy to get a good material list and takeoff.
• Excellent for giving options of transitions and allowing the user to account for the actual 3rd dimension of the project by being able to click and add the sections needed to transition between floors.
• The speed in which the user is able to takeoff is so much faster than traditional methods, and more accurate and easier to use than the other options on the market. Prints out great reports showing materials and hours, and lets you color code the systems while estimating so you know you aren't duplicating efforts.
• Very flexible as far as how it adjusts for your desired estimate. You can identify per floor, side of the building, system, etc.
• Allows for fast on the fly adjustments of sizes, materials and types of transitions with ductwork.

Incentivized

• The onboarding process was difficult for us just because we had some pretty disorganized databases.
• The product is pricey for small to medium sized firms.

Incentivized

• I'd prefer an 'all in one' as opposed to modules. I believe it's offered in that fashion but it was a touch more expensive. I was able to negotiate a footage takeoff tool for piping, to make it easier and more economical to our specific use, which is 95% dry side hvac estimating.
• Would be great if it could be preloaded with Smacna or MCA factors for labor, and also would be great if there was a faster way to update material costs. You do need to stay on top of your material factors and make adjustments per the price of steel and other consumables. The industry has been stable lately, but if for some reason you were lax in updating labor and material factors, you could be off on the estimate. That's true of ANY software or even standard old school estimating approach.
• It does require a dongle and a per seat license. The one drawback I don't care for, in a small company with tight cash flow, I do have estimators sharing the seat and scheduling takeoff around each other. Pretty standard though.

Incentivized

I have found that the customer support team has an understanding of the construction bidding process. They have been able to see issues through our eyes, so to speak, not just through the eyes of a software company. They have always been very timely in their responses and seem to go above and beyond to solve issues

Incentivized

I don't have a lot of personal experience with SmartBid, but from what I hear from other colleagues, Pipeline Suite makes it easier for subcontractors to access documents/plans and to respond to bids. The interface and design of Pipeline Suite is more modern and the user experience is a major upgrade from SmartBid

Incentivized

We were looking at this, as well as quick pen, and other industry standard programs like Wendes. QuoteSoft was far more versatile, user friendly and has proven to be the right choice. No specific equipment outside of a bigger monitor, ease of use, and tech support as well as the online training aspect was fantastic. Felt well supported while we rolled it out.

Incentivized

• We have been able to respond to more bids using Pipeline Suite.
• Our proposals are more accurate and organized, which has made our projects come under budget more often.

Incentivized

• First positive impact is time saved. We're able with our small team to estimate..ACCURATELY far more projects, thus winning more projects.
• Accuracy once we had our factors programmed is fantastic. It's tightened up our material and labor hours and made us more competitive
• Definitely has had a great return on investment. Helping to land more projects out of the sheer amount of available time to bid more, as well as being more confident in material costs.

Incentivized