QUANTA SERVICES

SAVING TIME AND EFFORT

Quanta also appreciates the control InEight Estimate gives over cost breakdown and unit item/pay item structures. Instead of trying to conform to a rigid vendor-created database of pieces and parts, Quanta can create the database to match its own business exactly. “When we’re building an estimate, the estimator uses the work procedure prepared by our technical advisors to create, item by item, the cost breakdown structure, tailoring the cost items to include the exact labor, equipment, and productivity rates that will be needed,” says Greer. “Right away, I have all the details, directly in my cost breakdown structure. It’s a very powerful tool.”

For Quanta Energized Services projects in particular, where working on live high-voltage power lines raises project complexity considerably, Greer’s team reviews estimates not only with project managers but also with subject matter experts in the field. These SMEs want to see each bid in terms of the schedule, because that way they can picture the workflow and use their experience to correct any mistaken assumptions. The team can then make appropriate changes to the schedule — for example, the expected duration of a task — bring it back into InEight Estimate and immediately update the bid without any further back and forth.

For Quanta Energized Services, InEight Estimate’s Excel integration saves significant time and effort when working with different union jurisdictions, each of which has a unique base-wage scale and fringe benefits. “Rather than having to set up unique labor resources or separate templates for each jurisdiction, we use Excel to update rates and fringe benefits according to a standard template for each jurisdiction we work in,” says Greer. “We can update rates in a simple table format, so we only need to enter changes to benefits one time rather than for each individual labor resource. This powerful feature sets InEight Estimate apart.”

TIGHT CONTROL OVER COST BREAKDOWN

Today, twenty operating units within Quanta are using InEight Estimate through a single enterprise agreement that makes it fast and easy for group companies to adopt the solution.

“Although I would like to see every estimator use InEight Estimate, we mandate its use for Energized Services projects, because of their complexity and risk — and for projects outside North America, to ensure a consistent and standardized approach,” says Greer. “The InEight solution also enables us to blend costs in multiple currencies as they are actually incurred, and display the total in any currency, which is a great benefit for international work.”

Estimate gives Quanta full control over its cost-breakdown structure, so that the company can support its customers’ desired cost structures while working in its own preferred way. “The unit prices that customers want to see don’t always reflect how we’re going to do the work,” says Greer. “Being able to assign cost items to unique pay items is a powerful advantage. With InEight Estimate, it’s easy to manage both views of the world so that we and our customers get the information we want.”