Electrical and Low Voltage Databases: Comprehensive and Continually Updated

Competitive advantage

ConEst’s electrical estimating software helps customers gain a competitive advantage by delivering a comprehensive database which they can also customize to fit their unique business processes.

Director of Product Development/QA, Allan Goodwin, says that greater knowledge of IntelliBid Software helps customers produce estimates more accurately and more quickly. “The ability to create the assemblies you need and want will get you through an estimate so much faster than trying to hunt and search everything — so that if you do have somebody working on your database for you, you can really get quick at the estimates. That’s the whole idea behind the program is just to get the process done faster.”

Database maintenance is a constant process

The team in charge of maintaining ConEst’s database of items and assemblies are former electricians and estimators. Goodwin says that integrating the most recent additions to electrical and low voltage databases is the result of constant contact with customers.

In 2018, ConEst customer Titan Electric integrated its low voltage and electrical databases into one database as part of an IT overhaul which also included moving its IntelliBid software into the cloud. “Our IT group assisted in getting our database onto the hosted version, but ConEst handled 90% of the issues. They really made it very simple.”

As of March 2019, the ConEst had 482,675 assemblies and 130,582 items in its database. “We add the items to the database, assign labor used to them, cost codes, subtotals and pictures. Then we put them in the libraries so that they are accessible for the users to take them off and create assemblies for them.” said Goodwin

Ideally, customers should connect with ConEst monthly or even weekly for pricing updates. Customers who are working on an estimate may also choose to innovate and add items or assemblies as part of the estimation process.

Titan Electric, based in Itasca, Illinois, provides electrical and communications services in 40 states. CEO Dan Neswold says, “We’re constantly changing our database with regard to our assemblies – once we have assemblies then ConEst will come up with a better way or we get better at it as far as learning the formulas and learning how to use the formulas and such. It’s always evolving.”

Neswold says everyone at Titan Electric is thrilled with the combined databases, and the company’s operations have run more smoothly and faster since they began hosting ConEst in the cloud. Because IntelliBid is a management tool and not just a calculator, Neswold says he’s assigned several employees to one-on-one training with ConEst. “We’re just going to continue to learn together, between us and ConEst. We’re going to make it easier for the project managers and the estimators to both bid and run work. It’s exciting.”