To: Owners, Contractors, Subcontractors, AEs, Facility Managers, Planners, and Procurement Professionals This online class is perfect if you don’t have time to make it to our 2-Day Introductory training classes but could use some help getting started! Getting started is six hours and designed to get you up and going with e4Clicks Project Estimator or...Continue Reading
4Clicks is excited to open our Getting Started class to our strategic business partner, RSMeans! We are now offering a co-branded online training class to serve e4Clicks and JOCWorks clients alike! This online class is perfect if you don’t have time to make it to one of our 2-Day Introductory regional training classes but could use some...Continue Reading
There are several ways to organize estimates. A very small project can be organized using one estimate, while a large project may require up to 10 or even 15 estimates. In the case of 4Clicks’ Project Estimator users, most have multi-year contracts (3 to 5 years in duration). During a multi-year contract, many projects may...Continue Reading
1. Collaboration – “no successful cost estimator is an island”, It is critical to understand the full scope of any project. Collaboration spans discussions with Owners, Contractors, Subs/Trades about the Projects including; site visits and sharing estimates, jointly reviewing/refining, negotiating estimates, and more! 2. Transparency – Despite what you may hear, there is no “secret...Continue Reading
The Unit Price Book and Technical Specifications will be used to support Job Order Contracts for conventional facility construction at the following installations within the USACE Ft. Worth District; Corpus Christi Army Depot, TX, Fort Bliss, TX, Fort Hood, TX, Fort Polk, LA, Fort Sam Houston, TX and White Sands Missile Range, NM.Continue Reading
Join us in Las Vegas, NV for our awesome classes! Take advantage of an opportunity to bring your estimating skills to the next level! 1. The last scheduled 2-day Introductory Course for 2013 – June 19th – 20th 2. 4Clicks’ Estimating with RSMeans – June 18th Our 2-Day Introductory Class is perfect for new e4Clicks...Continue Reading
I recently saw these questions on Linked-in. “Is asking for an estimators/contractors breakdown and takeoff for their proposal a fair request?” “How much information should an estimator give?” In our worlds of JOC and SABER asking detailed unit price breakdowns is not only a reasonably request, but standard practice. Detailed line item estimates, including line...Continue Reading
1-Day Training Class – San Antonio, TX – May 17th, 2013 Who Should Attend? Estimators, Project Managers, Contractors, Owners, AE’s If you currently use RSMeans Cost Data for line item estimating or work on government JOC, SABER, IDIQ, or similar projects…or would like to…this course is for you! REGISTER TODAY Cost: $149.00 per attendee.Continue Reading
You wanted it; now it’s here! This new 1 day class is designed to provide an overview of construction cost estimating, from conceptual to detailed. We also cover important related topics such as finding opportunities, leveraging site visits to avoid pitfalls, discussing useful tips to ensure complete estimates, and so much more! This course is...Continue Reading
Our “2-Day Introductory Class” for e4Clicks Project Estimator is coming up soon, March 13-14, 2013 in Las Vegas, NV. We also are offering a NEW course, “1-Day Construction Cost Estimating 101, featuring RSMeans Cost Data” at NO CHARGE, on March 12, 2013 at the same location. Participants of our 2-Day session are welcome to come...Continue Reading
Just a quick note on the importance of teamwork to you SABER and JOC programs. While we all know the value of Owners, Contractors, and AE’s working together, it’s also important that Procurement, Planning, and PMs/CEs and DPW staff work together. Everyone working with the same data, within software tools; not only saves time, but...Continue Reading
Job order contracting is an innovative procurement technique designed to provide more responsive facility maintenance and repair and minor construction. It is intended to significantly reduce engineering and procurement lead-times by awarding a competitively bid, firm-fixed-price, indefinite-quantity, multitask contract to a single general contractor. The contract consists of detailed task specifications for a multitude of...Continue Reading
Join us in the Springs! e4Clicks Project Estimator Introductory Class – October 17th and 18th 4Clicks will be hosting our awesome 2-day introductory training session in Colorado Springs. Work directly with e4Clicks Project Estimator and do actual detailed item cost estimates with RSMeans Cost Data. You will even take a quick look at Visual Cost...Continue Reading
“The problem with the AIA approach to IPD is it is inherently anti-architect. It explicitly reduces the traditional influence of architects at early stages of a project when the design is being developed. It reduces the influence of the main driver of design excellence, the architect.” While the AIA implementation of Integrated Project Delivery may...Continue Reading
e4Clicks Project Estimator Users, please consider attending our SPOTLIGHT WebCast, 8/23/2012, 3PM EST. Re-pricing an estimate for year-end that wasn’t awarded last fallout? Have a new year-end project similar to an existing one you’ve already done? Come join us! We want to show you how you can shorten down the time it takes to finish...Continue Reading
Maintaining balance across the financial, environmental and operational aspects of every decision, every material and every system. Job Order Contracting – JOC and SABER are great construction delivery methods for sustainability projects. JOC and SABER allow more projects to be done on-time and on-budget, by local contractors who are motivated to succeed.Continue Reading
– e4Clicks Project Estimator Introductory Training – 4clicks.com/training o August 8-9, 2012 – Ontario, CA o August 14-15, 2012 – San Antonio, TX o October 17-18, Colorado Springs, TX – JOC Certificate Program – Alliance for Construction Excellence – ACE – www.ace4aec.com/course/job-order-contracting-joc-certificate-program-08272012 o August 26 – December 10, Phoenix, AZContinue Reading
The Value of Dynamic Costs for Job Order Contracts: Adjusting the costs within a Unit Price Book (UPB) on a regular basis, typically each year, helps to mitigate risk for both the Owner and Contractor by more accurately reflecting actual costs. UPBs can be research and republished annually to reflect a higher degree of accuracy...Continue Reading
While accurate, timely, and transparent cost estimating is critical to the success of any renovation, repair, sustainability, or new construction project, most construction cost estimators (over 55%) continue to rely primarily upon manual methods, hard copy documents, or electronic spreadsheets such as Microsoft Excel. Lack of robust business processes, management practices, proper education and training,...Continue Reading
It’s amazing how many cost estimators exclusively use spreadsheets. In end, this practice creates more problems than it solves. Certainly spreadsheets play an important role, however, study after study has proven them to be inefficient and prone to error when collaboration is required, or when relatively sophisticated databases are commonly used. The solution for Owners,...Continue Reading
Unit price books are unit price-based cost databases referenced by a particular JOC or SABER contract. In some cases UPBs can be task-based; however, this method doesn’t provide a level of detail consistent with the practices of most construction cost estimators. RSMeans is used in the majority of JOC contracts in the United States (over...Continue Reading
Traditional methods such as design-bid-build and even “newer” methods such as design-build are not fully collaborative. The net result is information is not shared by all parties and adversarial components of these methods typically lead to mistrust and waste. Integrated project delivery (IPD) and Job order contracting (JOC), the later also referred to as “IPD-lite”...Continue Reading
What is a coefficient? A multiplier? A factor? These terms describe a number which is applied to the unit price book (UPB) to arrive at the contractual cost for JOC / SABER construction projects. A coefficient of 1.08 means that the contractor will perform each and every line item in the unit price book for...Continue Reading
