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BuildingConnected is a valuable tool for companies in the construction industry, specifically their estimating and operation teams. Users …
Overview
What is BuildingConnected, an Autodesk product?
BuildingConnected is an online preconstruction platform supporting communication and collaboration with contractors, subcontractors, and real estate owners. The platform supports bid management with cost tracking and analytics, relationship tracking, alerting, and unlimited bid invitations. BuildingConnected was acquired by Autodesk in…
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Popular Features
- Bid creation (12)8.888%
- Plan distribution & viewing (15)4.444%
- Document sharing (16)4.040%
- Plan markups & sharing (11)4.040%
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What is BuildingConnected, an Autodesk product?
BuildingConnected is an online preconstruction platform supporting communication and collaboration with contractors, subcontractors, and real estate owners. The platform supports bid management with cost tracking and analytics, relationship tracking, alerting, and unlimited bid invitations.…
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What is BuildingConnected, an Autodesk product?
BuildingConnected is an online preconstruction communications and bidding management platform. It heavily features a communications network and online database of and for general contractors, subcontractors, and owners. BuildingConnected is designed for functionality for each of these groups.
General contractors are offered bid management and comparison capabilities. BuildingConnected also supports historical cost and relationship tracking and real-time reporting for live projects. TradeTapp also assists with subcontractor prequalification processes.
BuildingConnected’s primary offering for subcontractors is an online Bid Board designed to enable full visibility and workflow within subcontractors’ organizations during the bidding process. The bid board features bid analytics, estimator performance tracking, and other reporting capabilities. It also allows for variable user permissions for data security purposes.
BuildingConnected provides real estate owners with access to its online network of general contractors and subcontractors. It also provides online bidding support.
BuildingConnected, an Autodesk product Video
BuildingConnected - The Leader in Preconstruction
BuildingConnected, an Autodesk product Technical Details
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
|---|---|
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
BuildingConnected is an online preconstruction platform supporting communication and collaboration with contractors, subcontractors, and real estate owners. The platform supports bid management with cost tracking and analytics, relationship tracking, alerting, and unlimited bid invitations. BuildingConnected was acquired by Autodesk in 2018.
Reviewers rate Bid creation highest, with a score of 8.8.
The most common users of BuildingConnected, an Autodesk product are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Community Insights
TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!
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BuildingConnected is a valuable tool for companies in the construction industry, specifically their estimating and operation teams. Users appreciate how it helps them stay organized and informed during the preconstruction phase of projects. With BuildingConnected, users can easily log on each day to check for updates on the jobs they are estimating, eliminating the worry of missing important emails or notifications. This software is particularly beneficial for finding qualified and insured local contractors based on geographic radius location, which aligns with the company's business model of hiring local subcontractors. It manages the entire process from project creation to subcontractor invitations, including project descriptions, architectural drawings, and scope of work descriptions.
One key advantage of using BuildingConnected is its real-time view of subcontractors' bidding intent, allowing for easy tracking of subcontractor coverage. Contractors appreciate being able to see which jobs they are bidding on, whether proposals have been submitted, and if any due dates are approaching. The user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate and provides a comprehensive database of contractors. The time-saving capabilities of BuildingConnected are also noteworthy, as it allows users to set up a job in minutes instead of hours, while providing real-time information on subcontractors' actions such as viewing and downloading bid packages.
BuildingConnected also serves the compliance department by helping prequalify new subcontractors. Users rely on this software to locate upcoming commercial construction opportunities, download plans and specifications, and keep bid invites organized. It is used across multiple office locations, ensuring real-time updates and easy access to project information for the preconstruction department. The effectiveness of BuildingConnected is evident in how it has streamlined bid management, trade package management, and document distribution for a general contracting company. Estimators find it invaluable for tracking bids, making comments, and staying updated on any changes within the bidding process. Furthermore, this software facilitates effective communication both externally with subcontractors and internally within the organization.
While BuildingConnected offers numerous benefits, some users have encountered issues with the trial and subscription process, which have occasionally resulted in missing bid invites and jobs. However, overall, the positive experiences and efficiency gains brought about by BuildingConnected make it an essential tool for construction companies during the preconstruction phase of projects.
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.
Integration with Microsoft: Some users have expressed the need for better integration with Microsoft, such as the ability to add the software as a calendar and make edits directly from Outlook. They feel that this would improve their workflow and streamline their project management tasks.
Missing features: According to several reviewers, there are certain features that are missing in the software. For example, users mentioned the absence of options to organize subcontractors by most frequently used and an RFI log. These features would enhance efficiency and organization within the system.
Difficulty exporting data: A number of users have found it challenging to export data to other programs and communicate effectively with customers who use different software platforms. This limitation hampers their ability to collaborate seamlessly across various tools and may lead to inefficiencies in sharing information externally.
Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-3 of 3)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
January 27, 2020
A complete Subcontractor finder and Bid Proposal automated tool vital to any General Contractor working with Subcontractors Nationwide!
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.
- Handles the entire Bidding Process from job creation to bid proposal receiving.
- Allows the upload and management of any supporting documentation required.
- 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.
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- I am not part of Management to investigate ROI matrix.
Have used BlueBook Construction, which has a smooth, quick search for local contractors. Still, they don't allow us the client project creation. I even had issues with them displaying proper project descriptions based upon was receiving inadequate and or erroneous bid proposals, and the engagement manager was not flexible in resolving the problem!
We use BuildingConnected for our estimating department. Prior to BuildingConnected we were using the old email Rolodex and hoping for the best. BuildingConnected's user-friendly UI (User Interface), coupled with its massive database of contractors, made it incredibly easy to organize our pre-construction. Setting up a job is done now in a matter of minutes as opposed to hours. We get real-time information on what our sub-contractors are viewing, downloading, and what their bidding intent is. Communication is streamlined through a message board that is easy to navigate.
- All of these features are dwarfed when you compare it to how incredible the customer service is. Real humans listen to every concern you have and actually make changes based on feedback. This is a fantastic program run by amazing people.
- The clean user interface makes it easy to navigate to what you need in seconds.
- Massive Sub-Contractor database makes it easy to expand your searches and coverage with ease.
- Pre-qualifications. BuildingConnected has a TON of contractors and sometimes we get somebody on there that we don't personally know. Pre-qualifying them right through BuildingConnected means they can start working for us asap.
- Some features are missing. Organizing subs by most used and an RFI log most notably.
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- While I cannot speak to monetary aspects I can say productivity in Estimating has drastically risen. Managing multiple projects is incredibly easier now.
Some of these other products are feature-rich but lack user-friendly features. BuildingConnected, what it lacks in some deeper features, it makes up for in Customer Service and User Friendliness.
January 11, 2019
Upgraded Costs, Downgraded Use
BuildingConnected is used on a regular basis by our Preconstruction Department in at least three of our office locations. It provides everyone in our department with a real-time update on what's going on with our bid lists as they all have the ability to log in and leave notes and/or read each other's notes during the bidding process. It also easily allows subcontractors to access project information.
- BuildingConnected is very user-friendly. It's very hard to "get lost" in the system and is relatively easy for someone new to learn how to use.
- BuildingConnected has an excellent support email set up. When I have sent an email asking them to help a subcontractor get logged in - the response rate is often very quick and typically they are able to effectively solve the issue.
- Their web-based system is never down, at least not that I can remember. It makes me trust their system.
- They are somewhat pushy with wanting companies to upgrade for their paid version. While some of the capabilities of their paid version are worthwhile, we have found that our office would not use most of the features and therefore it's hard for us to justify paying for the upgraded side.
- The file system they have is overall very user-friendly, but if you happen to have a lot of files, it does not give you a count anywhere of how many files you've uploaded and so you still have to check and make sure everything has gone through successfully.
- Their Subcontractor database is built based on companies, such as our ourselves, adding companies to it. What this means is that some locations around the United States have a lot of companies listed while some have next to none. There are also no private listings so once you add the name into the system, it's fair game for your competitors to find the same ones.
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- As of right now, the free version has obviously had a positive impact as it has helped us win jobs while using it. It is not the only reason why we've won, but it has certainly helped.
We use BuildingConnected for our bidding process mainly because of their database feature. Procore does not offer a database outside of using your own. PlanGrid, Dodge & PanTerra have databases, but they don't seem to be as broad as BuildingConnected. SmartBid actually has some decent options, plus they have a great agreement w/ Procore, which we use for all of our construction management or once we have been awarded the job.
Compared to the other systems though, I would say Hands Down that BuildingConnected is one of the easiest systems to use. A 20-minute tutorial will allow someone to jump in and use it.
Compared to the other systems though, I would say Hands Down that BuildingConnected is one of the easiest systems to use. A 20-minute tutorial will allow someone to jump in and use it.