ConstructionOnline

This is the best new "toy" I've had in years. I feel like a kid in a candy store!

Opmerkingen: Saves time. Makes it easy to find stuff. Helps you stay organized. Keeps subs, vendors, owners, architects, vendors all on the same page.

Pluspunten:

I am a new user of this kind of software. A few months ago I did not even know that something like this existed. It has opened a whole new world for me and I am blown away by what this software can do. We demo'ed a few competing products before making a choice and it was the wide range of features at the most competitive price that sold us on ConstructionOnline. I especially like the messaging feature which is basically an email system dedicated to one specific project.

Minpunten:

There is nothing I really dislike about ConstructionOnline, there are just some features I do not use as they do not meet my needs as a commercial general contractor. For example, I do not use Estimating and Change Orders as they seem to be less robust than some of the other software products. These features seem to be geared more towards the residential market. However, I realize it is hard to be everything for everyone. A feature, I think, that would be nice would be the ability to sign documents electronically. Maybe one can do it through Redline; if so, I have not been able to figure it out yet. As a general contractor one has to collect submittal packages from vendors and subcontractors, review them, and then attach a separate sheet to the package, that contains your stamp of approval/comments/signature on it, before you forward the submittal package on to the architect/engineer for review. On this submittal sheet there is space for the different reviewers to add their stamps as well. It would be nice if ConstructionOnline could generate this submittal sheet that you can attach to submittal packages sent to you. Currently, I generate the submittal sheet in another project management program, print it, place my stamp on it, sign it, scan it back into my computer, upload it to a pdf editor, add it to the submittal package file, and then upload the combined file to ConstructionOnline. It would be nice if you could do it all in ConstructionOnline.

My best investment ever

Opmerkingen: My sales person was great. Very detailed and gave me his number to call with problems but I didn't have any. This has been the best experience. I would recommend anyone to give UDA a try.

Pluspunten:

installation was as simple as clicking a link. Very user friendly and easy to install. Technical support is available but I never used it because I had no issues. I was able to do everything myself.

Minpunten:

I have not identified any issues. I am able to manage my projects from beginning to end. This is exactly what I needed.

Almost, but missed the mark

Opmerkingen: Customer service is very helpful for the product they have. Unfortunately they miss on some pretty basis stuff. We have been told for over a year that development team is working on some of the basic fixes and still nothing changes.

Pluspunten:

Estimation portion is good. Job costing is fair.

Minpunten:

It does not have the ability to provide clients with add/alternate pricing. Seems like a very basic feature that most construction companies are asked to provide. This one slipped by us through all the demo's and we have been frustrated for over a year with this. Have to manually do work arounds. Also we are a commercial construction company that does about 300 jobs a year. The software does not even have the ability to assign each project a job #. With as many jobs going on, we have to be able to cost every purchase and we do that using job #'s and PO#'s. We are manually assigning each job a number. These are just two of the larger misses on this software.

Construction Online is a Must Have

Opmerkingen: Our company has used Construction Online for almost 10 years now. The UDA team made the tailoring of their product to our specific needs really easy and the learning curve with our organization was quite short. Construction Online has improved every aspect from our estimating to our production and the whole client experience. I would never start another project without the full workings of it going through Construction Online.

Pluspunten:

Our primarily use for Construction Online is estimating, scheduling and job costing, and these features have been integral to our success as a company. We can easily build budgets for our clients, schedule projects and then track the job costing throughout the duration of the project. Everything can be built with templates which saves numerous hours and the real time job costing helps guides decisions throughout the build. The scheduling has allowed our project managers to plan well in advance which has created a smooth construction process.

Minpunten:

The documents which can be autogenerated are great but I have found it quite tough to customize them to a format which can be sent directly to our clients or trade partners. This is more of just a personal preference rather than a drawback to the product.

Conversion

Pluspunten:

Organization, flexibility, ease in creating catalogues, ease in entering estimates

Minpunten:

Finding a clients phone number when in the opportunity is frustrating. Also, there are not enough fields to enter phone numbers and emails.