TrustRadius Insights for BuildingConnected, an Autodesk product are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
Efficient Organization and Management: Many users have found BuildingConnected to be helpful in keeping track of multiple jobs at once, allowing for efficient organization and management of bid invites into different categories such as won, lost, pending, and archived.
Centralized Storage and Accessibility: Reviewers appreciate that BuildingConnected serves as a central location for general contractors to store and update files and addendums, making it convenient to access all necessary project information in one place. This feature has been praised by several users.
Enhanced Collaboration and Coordination: BuildingConnected's ability to show which contractors are bidding on the same job has been highly valued by reviewers. This functionality promotes better coordination of estimating efforts among subcontractors, leading to improved collaboration throughout the bidding process.
After barely giving us any time for the pro trial, we've had nothing but issues. After the trial expired and we decided not to subscribe, all bid invites were coincidentally erased. Now jobs that I've already accepted are starting to randomly go missing. To me, it's almost like they are punishing our company for not wanting to pay for their awful and overpriced service.
Pros
Charging for any small benefits.
Withholding pertinent information until you pay for a subscription.
Lack of communication after an issue has been addressed.
Cons
In my experience, honesty and integrity with customers
I think they need better customer Support
In my experience, fair pricing
Likelihood to Recommend
BuildingConnected, an Autodesk product, does everything that most offices can do on a simple spreadsheet but cost your company thousands of dollars a year
Being a structural steel estimator, we have used BuildingConnected, an Autodesk on numerous occasions for accessing available projects. It's easy to use, easy to organize projects, and has given us the opportunity to seek out new customers. BuildingConnected, an Autodesk does a great job at tracking current bids, submitted bids, bids won, and documentation.
Pros
organized folders
ease of downloadable construction prints
Projects and companies are easy to find
Cons
Could use geographic location of the project
some kind of auto setting to archive bids after their date
Likelihood to Recommend
When receiving RFQ's from companies within a manageable distant from our location, it has been very helpfull. Receiving RFQ's for projects outside of our work area, it is just a waste of time. The projects available are well organized and give date due of proposal.
Company does alot of bid work and collaborates with customers who do the same. Needed a good software to be able to communicate and manage all of the information. We also source out work with subcontractors and needed a good way to track it. It also provides a place to distribute drawings and specifications for projects.
Pros
Managing bid lists
Distributing drawings and documents
Finding subcontractors
Collaboration between our teams and our customers
Cons
Hard to export to other programs
Hard to communicate with customers using other software
Likelihood to Recommend
It is pretty good software that is not buggy. Works great as a place to share documents with customers, which is our main use for the software. It makes tasks easier to track for our project managers. It saves us time to see where the information goes and who has received it.
BuildingConnected is being used as our primary bid management software at a $500MM+ general contracting company. We use it to find and solicit bidders, manage trade packages, distribute and document drawing/specification issuance and at times to level/balance bids. It is used company-wide not just in our typical market location, but nationwide. Its most powerful tool is the ability to find qualified trade companies that are capable of doing work in the area of your project.
Pros
Finding/filtering subcontracting companies by discipline.
Managing bid lists (who is bidding, who is not bidding, who is undecided).
Distributing/managing documents and distributing them to potential bidders.
Cons
Exporting data to other programs.
Integrations with other construction project management software.
Likelihood to Recommend
BuildingConnected is a great tool for construction managers and general contractors working over a wide area that rely on collecting multiple bids. BuildingConnected does a great job at presenting new contractors that may fit the bill for who you need to look at and price a job. Its simple interface allows you to easily see who the main point of contact is at a company, and place comments for your team to review after corresponding with these companies.
VU
Verified User
Project Manager in Engineering (201-500 employees)
I use BuildingConnected to list projects bidding. I use the free version. I upload plans and invite Subcontractors to bid on the projects. BuildingConnected helps me find out of town subs fast and easy.
Pros
The planroom is great and easy to upload.
Get for out of town projects! Finding subs fast!
Cons
The free version only allows you to list so many projects.
Likelihood to Recommend
The plan room is straightforward to update! It's hard finding out of town subcontractors, and BuildingConnected lets me use their subs.
BuildingConnected is being used by our estimating department and operation teams during preconstruction. BuildingConnected solves the problem of preconstruction invitations, document control, and bid leveling.
BuildingConnected makes it very easy to view the subcontractor's history for access to the site and viewing of documents.
Cons
There was a previous glitch where bid forms have been updated by subcontractors that have accessed a former version are not able to access the updated/new bid form.
I would like to see the ability for BuildingConnected to automatically send a bid reminder to bidders at a set amount of time prior to the bid date.
Likelihood to Recommend
BuildingConnected is well suited for ALL new projects going out to bid or budgeting. BuildingConnected is not well suited for change order pricing or Addendum pricing where one subcontractor has already been selected per trade.
Since the Davao business model is to hire local Subcontractors for various trades - BuildingConnected is the most beneficial tool in finding qualified and insured local Contractors based on the geographic radius location next to our business clients. BuildingConnected managed the entire process from project creation using project descriptions and attached architectural drawings and or other supporting material, Individual Trades selection, and specific scope of work descriptions and Subcontractor invitations. We have a real-time view of Subs who view, decline bidding, or interested in bidding as well as sending the bids automatically through the system, or IF they send the bids through email, we can easily upload the bid proposal to their invitation. This also allows us easy tracking for Subcontractor coverage received, which is a KPI (Key Performance Indicators) to upper management of the coverage required for the company's projects.
Pros
Handles the entire Bidding Process from job creation to bid proposal receiving.
Allows the upload and management of any supporting documentation required.
Cons
Stronger Sub search for situations in which we are not creating and publishing a project within BuildingConnected. In many instances, we simply need to find a trade subcontractor immediately. We cannot waste time in creating, publishing a project, documentation, files, etc., etc.. We should have an excellent advanced search window for this purpose.
Likelihood to Recommend
Manage the entire bidding process is where BuildingConnected excels. An Advanced quick search for trades is where BuildingConnected still needs work.
BuildingConnected is currently being used by our estimating department and our compliance department. Our estimating department uses it to bid out projects to subcontractors. They are able to send all subs bid packages and collect their bids. They are also able to do bid leveling. Our compliance department uses BuildingConnected to prequalify new subcontractors.
Pros
It makes it easy to send out bid packages with just one click.
It allows us to easily bid level returned bids from subcontractors.
Likelihood to Recommend
BuildingConnected is extremely useful for contractors looking to keep their bid process organized and streamlined.
BuildingConnected is our main source for all things bid related. As an estimator, I use BuildingConnected to keep track of all of my undecided, accepted, submitted, and archived bids. I'm able to make comments viewable to the other estimators in my organization for future reference, and see any updates as they come through. BuildingConnected has streamlined our bid process and we are now more efficient than ever.
Pros
Organization
Internal Communication
Cons
Bid Opportunities I'm Unaware Of
People Reaching Out Too Often
Likelihood to Recommend
It is perfect for anyone in construction - whether you're an estimator or project manager. BuildingConnected is the go-to resource to help you stay on top of your projects. It is not as appropriate for people that are not in the construction field. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to be more organized.
We use BuildingConnected to keep track of job invites from other general contractors and owners. Our whole company uses it, I currently facilitate our jobs we intend to estimate and I use BuildingConnected to keep track of all the jobs and changes. We use to have to operate through email correspondence but now with BuildingConnected I am able to just log on every morning to see if the jobs we are estimating have any updates and do not have to worry about missing an email.
Pros
Helps keep track of multiple jobs at once
Helps sort your bid invites into won/lost/pending/archived etc.
It is a central location where general contractors can put all their updated files and addendum
Lets you see which contractors are bidding the same job so you can coordinate your estimating
Cons
I like that you can download multiple files as a single zip file, but some times I want to just download multiple files as individual non-zipped files
I wish there was better integration with Microsoft such as being able to add it as a calendar and edit from Outlook
I wish there were analytics that tracked who won, by how much, spreads and trends from our numbers so we can be more competitive
Likelihood to Recommend
If you have multiple offices, multiple building divisions you install, and multiple estimators - this program will definitely help keep things straight. A lot of our needs are for management of our estimates and quotes - knowing who you bid and how long ago can help land more jobs when following up. You can use it to do take-offs and submit bids but we tend to use other native programs for this work as they are central to our PM work environment. If you don't have anything to do take-offs or formally submit bids, this is program is a great way to get up and running and organized.