Sage Estimating...the Granddaddy of General Contracting Estimation Creation Software. It can be trusted but getting long in the tooth.
December 17, 2019
Sage Estimating...the Granddaddy of General Contracting Estimation Creation Software. It can be trusted but getting long in the tooth.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Sage Estimating
Sage Estimating is the main estimating creation package currently being used in our firm. It is primarily used within our preconstruction department though our operations employees will sometimes access and have some light use of the software. It may make the software sound lesser but the main reason we use it is to avoid preconstruction managers using plain Excel to build their estimates. In addition to be a much more refined way of creating an estimate the software works in conjunction with Sage 300 CRE Accounting and Project Management in allowing us to transfer estimates from precon phase to construction phase without having to recreate them again.
- Sage Estimating is very good at providing the users (and eventually clients) with a clean, well broken down estimate of how we have come up with a specific bid amount. It allows consistency among our different precon managers in how they present the final numbers of a bid.
- The way Sage Estimating presents itself to a precon manager/user allows ease of use from the very start such that someone can build a bid with very little training.
- 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.
- The capabilities built into Sage Estimating allow our company to avoid the complexity of having random Excel bids floating around. All our bids are built into the Sage database and available to all users without searching.
- The lack of mobile options require users of the software to always be on a full client vs. mobile device. This limiting factor makes our process a bit more expensive by not allowing estimators to easily work on the go.
We have been using Sage Estimating for close to two decades now. Changing from a base software is always hard as the incumbent package always has an advantage over any new comers. In this case we have considered both Procore Technologies and RedTeam software as an alternate to not only our estimating practices but the whole Project Management suite. In the case of Procore although its mobile capability is far superior the pricing point on it is so high that we had to move on from consideration of it. Our review of RedTeam suggested the software not mature enough for our needs. Sage Estimating's days are numbered if they do not develop better mobility in the application but for now it is the the go-to package for mature GC's.
Do you think Sage Estimating delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Sage Estimating's feature set?
No
Did Sage Estimating live up to sales and marketing promises?
No
Did implementation of Sage Estimating go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Sage Estimating again?
Yes