BidScaler Technologies
Total Subcontractor Scope of Work Control

1. Tell us about the predicaments in the construction industry and how BidScaler Technologies helps construction companies tackle these challenges?

In the construction domain, gaps in subcontractor work scope are an age-old problem that has always caused friction between general contractors and its subcontractors. Most general contractors spend loads of time and resources drafting subcontractor bid instructions and scope of work exhibits by piecing together word documents and spreadsheets. Recent industry changes have exacerbated the problem. We have younger project managers and estimators, incomplete construction plan sets, rapid bid turnaround requirements to win projects, and subcontractors that are spread more thinly than ever. In the rush to get in bids and to buyout the work, GCs are hindered by the fallible and time-consuming legacy approach. Aside from the inefficient use of valuable team resources, just a single scope that is missed when subcontracting the work can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more–not including field delays and additional administrative resources.

To overcome these costly problems, Silicon Valley-based BidScaler Technologies provides a powerful centralized subcontractor scope of work database engine and word processor to help savvy contractors develop detailed, project-specific scopes at lightning speed while leveraging all the knowledge in an organization. Our easy-to-use tool is designed with the intent to bring estimators, project managers, and superintendents on the same page with critical scope of work language for projects.

2. What solutions and services does BidScaler offer to help contractors develop a detailed scope of work?

BidScaler 4.0 is the latest release of our subcontractor scope of work authoring software for general contractors and homebuilders. It’s the first commercially available solution of its kind. Our cloud-based platform gives office and field teams a single location to access trade scope information. By replacing outmoded word documents and spreadsheets, all subcontractor scopes are now available by trade classification to the entire organization with an easy-to-navigate user interface. We've eliminated the need to hunt around for the latest comparable project template and also streamlined the scope assignment process with automation. Leveraging our platform, project-specific subcontractor scopes can be quickly and collaboratively developed with the latest relevant trade scope language.

We also offer professional services to ensure that our customers get the most out of BidScaler. We can help customers get started quickly by loading their existing scopes of work or supplement them with our database content. We offer comprehensive subcontractor scope of work content databases for both commercial construction and high-end custom homes. These robust databases have been developed over decades of methodical documentation by construction experts.

3. What is the key differentiating factor that sets your company apart in the industry?

BidScaler is purpose-built for contractors by construction scope experts. With our deep understanding of the nuts and bolts of construction and subcontracting, we've developed a targeted solution for office and field teams to collaborate on subcontractor scopes at time of bidding or during buyout. BidScaler enables construction companies to scale how they allocate work to subcontractors in a comprehensive and automated manner—always with the most current trade scopes in one centralized location. As companies grow and train staff, standardizing dynamic scope language and work allocation across an organization is critical to efficient subcontracting, risk mitigation, and more profitable projects.

Ease of adoption is also a key differentiator. As a new precision tool in the contractor's software toolbox designed to replace word documents and spreadsheets, BidScaler functions as a companion application to existing software and services. This makes rollout straightforward since existing tools are not supplanted. Also, database implementation is simplified by enabling customers to build their scope databases one trade category at a time. Like any estimating cost database, a subcontractor scope database takes time to build and maintain.

BidScaler is designed with this in mind. Customers can start with their next bid package or subcontract exhibit for a project and build from there. We can also assist with loading an entire database upfront.

4. Could you please share a case study explaining how BidScaler helped its client to overcome their business challenges and attain desired outcomes?

Pankow Builders, a top 15 commercial contractor in California according to ENR, was using the traditional approach to store subcontractor scopes of work saving them in word documents on a project basis on the company server. With each new project, the estimating and field teams would spend time digging through past project scope exhibits to find templates from which to start drafting the new project's sub scopes. The traditional method led to siloed information amongst its teams, absorbed critical team resources, and missed new scopes that could be picked up on current subcontracts to help their subcontractors succeed. To overcome these challenges, Pankow teamed up with BidScaler to implement its industry leading software.

As part of the engagement, BidScaler's industry-respected scope development team consolidated trade scopes for over 25 of Pankow's recently-completed projects and combined them with our industry-leading commercial contractor scope database. Trade category naming and numbering was customized to match Pankow's existing conventions. The result is one of the most powerful subcontractor scope databases in the industry.

Additionally, Pankow self-performs several aspects of the work depending on the project. We worked with them to delineate those scopes that were performed by Pankow versus by the subs. With BidScaler's GC scope category and linked items features, scopes of work performed by Pankow are automatically assigned to the GC category for its field team and specifically excluded from related subcontractor scopes. The results are tighter field coordination and more competitive subcontractor bids.

With BidScaler implemented, Pankow's project teams can now quickly leverage all past project information in one place while collaborating in real-time to generate fast and accurate subcontract scope exhibits for new projects. Teams can easily see the work of their colleagues as references to improve their own project scopes. The executive team now has more visibility and control over subcontractor scope language and can make project teams even more cohesive while mitigating risk across all projects.

5. Can you share details of the firm’s plan for new solutions and technologies that could play a role in the company’s offerings?

With our recent launch, we are laser-focused on listening to our customers' feedback and on continuing to deepen the feature set of our unique solution. To that end, we're excited to announce that at the time of this interview we've just released several new features.

Scopes commonly change or are revised for a variety of reasons through the course of pre-construction to buyout. Scope addendums facilitate easy and trackable revisions to scopes of work during the bidding or contract negotiation process. As work and language is refined prior to contract, BidScaler implements version control coupled with change tracking features comparable to those found in MS Word. This enables changes in scope to be quickly communicated to subs for pricing updates. Project and operations staff are freed from spending hours of admin time trying to piece together additions, revisions, and deletions for one sub's scope that have multiple addendums and risking a clerical error in the final contract scope exhibit.

We've also automated the process of generating a subcontract scope exhibit. Once a sub's scope is completed, negotiated, and approved, the project team can generate a final scope exhibit with a click of a button.

With our internal scope audit report, managers and executives have at their finger tips a concise report showing all scopes assigned to a trade from the company's database, added project-specific scopes, all revisions made throughout the negotiation process, and any scopes in the database that were not assigned to ensure nothing is missed.

Together, these new features allow general contractors to move quickly and seamlessly from initial bid instructions to scope of work subcontract exhibits. We have many more exciting features, functionality, and integrations on our roadmap. While we focus on growth, our mission is to continue delivering solutions that make it easier and faster for contractors to develop accurate subcontractor scopes for projects.