INEIGHT CASE STUDY:
QUANTA SERVICES
ACCELERATING BIDS AND ENHANCING DETAIL
The ability to generate accurate schedules from estimates in a matter of hours rather than days is only one part of the story. With InEight Estimate, managers can now access higher quality information in real time on bids, empowering them to make better decisions faster.
“I remember helping a unit that was just getting started with InEight Estimate,” says Greer. “I was reviewing one of their first bids with a manager, and he said, ‘This looks good, can you double-check all the formulas?’ I immediately said, ‘Done, all the formulas are hard coded into the system and can’t be modified.’ He was stunned that we could immediately submit the bid with full confidence in its accuracy.”
Another key benefit for Quanta is the granularity of detail that InEight Estimate provides. Since Quanta has full control over the cost breakdown structure, the detailed analysis can be as simple or as complex as desired. For a small maintenance job, a simple estimate will probably suffice, while for larger and more complex projects, estimators are free to drill down to the level of detail they need.
“InEight Estimate enables us to see a better bottom line due to more accurate and detailed estimating.”
- Jody Greer, Director of Estimating and Project Controls at Quanta Energized Services
“InEight Estimate enables us to see a better bottom line due to more accurate and detailed estimating,” says Greer. “Just the process of implementing Estimate has made users into better estimators, not least because it’s easier for them to check their assumptions with experts in the field, then refine their estimates accordingly. The way we resource the cost items means that we can specify the exact crew and every piece of equipment for every task. So, when getting ready to mobilize for a new project, we already have a logistics plan in hand, we’ve verified that all the equipment will be available, and we can be productive from day one.”
He adds, “InEight Estimate has had a large impact on projects where we were successful in our bid, in part because of the level of trust by management in the process being used. In these projects, we tend to see less variance between the estimated and the actuals than with legacy Excel estimates.”
When Quanta Energized Services ran into some challenges on projects where the company hadn’t been involved up front in the bidding, the use of InEight Estimate enabled the production of a realistic value-to-complete. This helped Quanta move forward with a plan to salvage the projects and provided a powerful tool to report to the customer on project status.