Contractors Cast Wider Net for Estimating Help

Oct 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Tom Zind, Freelance Writer

“We were wanting to go after both more jobs and bigger jobs, and we were pretty slow in the estimating process,” he says. “With 30 years of experience, the firm helps us come up with accurate numbers that we, of course, still have to fine-tune based on our knowledge of this market.”

Over a period of four months, Voroshuck says, the outside estimator, who uses Accubid and a mix of other estimating software products, has had a hand in more than a dozen projects. He credits him for helping land the company's biggest job to date: a $900,000 job at the Palace of Fine Arts Theatre in San Francisco. Voroshuck was so confident with the estimator's numbers that he tacked on another $30,000 and still won the bid. “We really wanted that job, but it involved some very intense estimating work,” he says. “He was able to do the estimating work for us, and we were able to get the job.”

Now, Voroshuck says, he's comfortable enough with the contracting arrangement that he's shelved plans to hire a full-time estimator. Even though he pays for estimating jobs he doesn't get, Voroshuck says using an outside estimator appears to make more financial sense.

“I think we'll use him even more,” he says. “I'd like to eventually have him doing all of our estimating work.”

At the other end of the spectrum, though, are contractors like Tri-City and E-J Electric Installation Co., Long Island City, N.Y., who don't see a place for estimating contractors in their operations.

Putting issues of software capabilities aside, Mark Jackson, vice president of estimating for E-J, says the company needs to be fully engaged in the estimating and bidding process. By immersing itself in that all-important function, the company continues building a vital knowledge base, stays current with continual changes in estimating and bidding protocol, and retains control.

“We think it's a lot easier to do in-house,” says Jackson. “We don't want to be in a position of getting a folder with the numbers two days before the bid is due. Project documents today are onerous, to say the least, and they're coming in less complete than ever — and often can involve two, three, four iterations. The work requires an estimator to understand our system and how things are supposed to work.”

Clearly, contractors are taking all of that and more into account when assessing the value of using contracted estimating help. While the answers may be different for each, there's little doubt contractors are giving more thought than ever to how to best accomplish a task that lies at the heart of any successful electrical job.

Zind is a freelance writer based in Lee's Summit, Mo.

Sidebar: Is Estimating Losing Its Allure?

Can someone whose work is essentially discarded 85% of the time be content in his job? That's more than an idle question for electrical contractors today. By some contractors' accounts, it's getting harder to find qualified project estimators these days. With the average contractor landing just one of every seven jobs bid, it's easy to see why it might be hard to interest people in taking part in a process where failure is routine. It may also help explain why some contractors are turning to more advanced software tools for estimating as well as outside estimating services.

That may be just part of the reason Matt Firestone, chief estimator with Commonwealth Electric Company of the Midwest, Lincoln, Neb., says young people entering the business are showing less interest in estimating. “University construction professional training is geared more toward how to be a project manager, and I think young people view being an estimator as something less than that,” he says. “The position doesn't seem to be glorified, and there may be the thought that if you're just estimating, then you're not making the money and running things. But it's obviously very important.”

Still, at Commonwealth, estimating is at least a weigh station on the path to positions of project manager or higher. All project managers, he says, start out learning at least the rudiments of estimating, a function Commonwealth views as fundamental to the business. “You must be able to understand how to price work,” he says.

Mark Jackson, vice president of estimating at E-J Electric Installation Co., Long Island City, N.Y., says the challenge of finding and keeping dedicated estimators has led his company to cross-train more of its 700-plus employees in estimating. “It is harder to find estimators these days partly because there's no glamour in the position,” he says. “Finding people who are competent is difficult, but we have a good team here now of four or five senior people who regularly estimate. We'll pull people in from the field when it's necessary.”