iSqFt on the right foot
August 16, 2018
iSqFt on the right foot
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with iSqFt
We work with consulting engineers, mechanical contractors, and general contractors on plan and specification construction projects. The general contractor posts plans and specs under the project on the website so bidders and sub contractors can avoid having to pick up paper files and also avoid sending large files through email.
- Even with a "Limited Access" free account, you are able to see all the necessary files. When using it to just look at a job and download documents, this is all you should need. With more access you can see more projects that are out to bid but as a sales engineer for a manufacturer, I receive the bid requests from my contractors who are bidding there is no need to upgrade my access level.
- Documents are very easy to download into a .zip file and you can pick and choose which documents you want to download for specific trades. Plus there is a specific tab for Addenda so you don't have to search through the Documents tab. The tabs also show the amount of files in each tab so you can easily stay up to date on current documents.
- The Dashboard of each job shows the project general contractor and for subcontractors, responding to a bid request is as easy as clicking a button to indicate if you will bud or will not bid. This dashboard also shows location and the project description which are particularly helpful for a manufacturers rep/sales engineer that may not see the project description otherwise.
- The formatting and sizing of the font can be a little clunky at times. The main tabs at the top (Home, Projects, Prequalification, Administration) are rather large while the tabs within the project (Dashboard, Details, Bidder/Packages, etc..) are a little small. For those engineers who spend all day looking at computers and have failing eyesight, this can get to be a pain since the format is also spread out while being small font. If you zoom in to read, it cuts out a lot of the other sections you'd like to see.
- Things are only updated on the project details if they are manually entered. If the company that enters the project into the system only fills out the minimum amount of detail, some of the function of the detail tab is rendered useless. Some of these inputs include value range, number of building, number of stories, total area, etc. which is used by some subcontractors for budget purposes and internal statistics on jobs that are bidding. So what you get out of this section is all that the owner of the projects wants to put in.
- There is a button to submit an RFQ or general question but you must be a subscriber to the software to enter a question. Otherwise it's a long process of going up the chain of command to submit. This makes it confusing for the team fielding the questions since they are coming from different chains of communication. I've had jobs where my questions were completely missed because of this.
- Compared to searching folders in FTP sites for addenda, this is a much easier way to view if there are new addenda right on the home page of the project. This can save a lot of time, especially if the FTP site I am viewing has not been updated to reflect addenda, which is often the case. Then it becomes too late in the bid to submit any questions if required, and sometimes if we miss something regarding our scope in the addenda, we end up eating the cost for it.
- The fact that this avoid having to send files via email is a great advantage. Different company servers have different limits for max file size so this avoids bounce-backs.
- Being able to see the full project description in my position as a sales engineer for a manufacturer is a bid benefit. Sometimes the description describes bid alternates that are not described in the spec and that we wouldn't hear about until after we send out our proposal. It is also helpful to gauge if the job is a renovation, expansion, or new construction.