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HeavyBid for Industrial Estimating
November 13, 2017

HeavyBid for Industrial Estimating

Michael Daughters | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Modules Used

  • HeavyBid
  • HCSS Cloud

Overall Satisfaction with HCSS

HCSS offers 24/7 support for any technical issues. They have a tech support team who consists of the people who programmed the software, and thus knows the features inside and out. I have rarely called the tech support line when I was not able to be helped and my issue solved.
I was directly involved in the implementation of the HCSS cloud software package. The HCSS team migrated all of our data to their cloud server and we were up and running in a matter of a few hours, with no hiccups or issues whatsoever. The whole process was completely seamless.
HCSS Heavybid is being used as our estimating software. We use it to manage every proposal and estimate that is produced by Haskell. It is specifically used in our estimating department. The field uses HeavyJob to track and earn progress on projects as they work and progress through the jobs. HeavyBid interfaces with our accounting software, allowing us to dump a code of accounts to actual pay items and bill accordingly.
  • Organized estimates. Especially sub and material management.
  • Structured and consistent.
  • Technical Help. They are available 24 hrs a day for technical issues
  • No math errors. Using MS Excel to estimate always runs with the risk of formula errors.
  • Complicated for new users. The software is so expansive, it is difficult to bring new users up to speed quickly.
  • Expensive. Between the HCSS license and the Cloud service, it is very expensive.
  • Server Based, without the cloud you cannot use it remotely.
Other estimating products I have used consist of ICE/MC2 and MS Excel. ICE was not a good fit for our company, as they have awful technical support and offer very poor training. MS Excel is great for simple estimates where there is not a lot of data being compiled. However neither hold a candle to the power of HCSS Heavybid.
HCSS Heavybid is well suited in a heavy industrial estimating world. It is designed around heavy civil work, bridges, roadways, DOT type work. It even includes a DOT SOV import feature. It is not designed around the CSI code, around commercial or residential construction. The flexibilty in the bid form/SOV creation allows it to be extremely useful for heavy industrial or mechanical/civil work.

HCSS Feature Ratings

HCSS Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
Yes - Premium support is available with all Heavybid user accounts. With the complcated nature of the software, tech support is critical to the success of the estimate, the user, and the software company. without the tech support, the users would fall back to a simpler system. There is also an annual user group meeting where they offer training on specific subjects.
Every time I call for tech support, they handle my issue first hand over the phone. They have the ability to link into you computer and walk through the issue with you on your machine. If the support tech doesn't have the ability to solve your issue, they can escalate it above themselves and bring in a specialist to help you.