Sage Estimating vs. Trimble Accubid

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.

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

• Same format Spreadsheet
• Ability to adjust by percentages
• Ability to separate phases into categories

Incentivized

• Depth of customization
• Intergrations
• Industry specific

Incentivized

• 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.

Incentivized

• 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

It is a good product and meets all of our needs

Incentivized

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.

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

For our needs and after completing a valued score card SAGE has always exceeded our min. requirements

Incentivized

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

Incentivized

• Manupulation of existing data is very user friendly thanks to "Database Manager".
• A bit pricey

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