Estimating electrical, datacom, and automated building systems work is all about time.Sounds elementary? Of course, estimating is about labor hours! But, that’s not what I’m talking about.

At smaller companies, the contractor is the estimator. Many estimates are done in the evening’s later hours (and into the morning). Tired people make mistakes; when these occur in hard-dollar bids, they can be costly.

At other companies, the responsibility belongs to an estimator/project manager. There’s a lot going on in this person’s life. Yet the estimate can’t be treated as some sort of “let’s-get-this-outta-the-way” work item.

People who do nothing but electrical estimating exist, too. I’ve observed (in my more than 40 years of electrical construction experience) that these folks are usually pressed for time, too.

So the “time” I want to talk about is – the estimator’s time. It’s precious. It’s limited. And every moment must be productive. The estimate is the most important computation an electrical contracting firm will do. It can be the difference between a profit and a loss on a given job; a key omission can even do in a whole firm.

Can we find ways to preserve the estimator’s time? Can we eliminate wasted minutes, hours, and days? Must the estimator spend time doing things that don’t move the ball forward?

Or can the estimator’s time be invested, instead, in finding ways a contractor’s crew can get a given electrical project done faster, smarter, and better?

An Ideal World

In an ideal world, an electrical estimator will know all kinds of mathematics . . . but wouldn’t do any. Computers are really good at math; we should find ways to let them do it.

Plus, the estimator ideally would never, ever resort to a piece of paper. Even when visiting a site to get started on estimating a retrofit, the process shouldn’t involve scribbling notes, reading and transcribing them later, and then (a third encounter with the info) entering them into an estimate. In addition to the sheer waste of time and effort here, there’s a heightened chance of error.

Updating estimates when updated project plans are sent over by engineers and architects would not, if we had our way, be laborious. Change-order estimates wouldn’t be a sweat.

How about that really big job, at a larger electrical contractor? Wouldn’t it be swell if the job could be broken up and given to three, four or five estimators – and their efforts all compiled, in real time?

And of course, for datacom contractors – many of whom still use paper or computer spreadsheets to do estimates – things could be a lot easier.

What’s Here, Now

All of the elements of “the ideal world” are here – today. My company, McCormick Systems, routinely provides these options to our contractor customers. I’ll bet some of our competitors do at least some of this, too.

Consider the datacom (or automated building systems) contractor. I’ve worked a booth at BICSI events for the past few years. These contractors walk away from our booth surprised at how easy and productive datacom estimating can be (and how inexpensively they can obtain a starter system).

Automated take-off is here, today. If your company can get digital plans from architects and engineers, you can – with a little up-front effort – have the computer do the counting. McCormick’s version of this, called CAD Estimating, counts everything.

• You tell it what the symbols on a drawing mean and it counts all of them.
• There are no miscounts.
• What about omissions? The system gives you a list of symbols it didn’t count. Pay attention to this list and you won’t ever again miss a transformer or a back-up generator.

Special Solutions

McCormick has won awards for “best new product” at The NECA Show nine times; our company’s been around for just 27 years. The reason: We were founded by a contractor, and as a result, we listen to contractors.

That’s why we developed a Remote Take-Off product. Estimators can take a system with them, doing off-site estimate on a laptop, or a handheld. No double- or triple-monkeying around with the data (and for some of us, this eliminates the problem of trying to read our own handwriting from notes taken on a job site).

We have special products to handle change orders and even a program, called T-Bill, which handles time and material billing.

Larger contractors say they enjoy our system’s multi-user advantages. They divide a big job into segments (pipe-and-wire, fixtures, datacom, etc.) – and give pieces to different estimators. This crew can estimate in real time, on separate machines, without the need to merge or compile the estimate later.

We Learn from You

McCormick has learned a great deal from its customers. Much of what’s discussed above came into being after we received contractor and estimator requests.

Consider the use of two screens for estimating. Estimators working with our system usually have a number of takeoff windows open at the same time. This greatly speeds an estimate – but the estimator can be slowed when some windows must be minimized because of screen size (and then enlarged when needed later).

Why slow down? At our recent User’s Conference, McCormick showed off a rather mundane application – a single computer with two screens. Our customers loved it. Rather easily (and inexpensively) they can now have many separate estimating windows open at the same time . . . without the need to frequently minimize and/or enlarge any.

As noted earlier, the watchword is “time” – or, if you like, estimator productivity.

An estimator who spends time clicking windows open and closed, merging segregated estimates from a non-multi-user system, or doing a monotonous task (counting fixtures) won’t get time to think.

On the other hand, the estimator who invests time thinking about a given project, finding ways to do it smarter-faster-better, will make the contractor money.

Manrod, an Illinois electrical contractor for 35 years, is a member of NECA’s Academy of Electrical Contracting. Since selling his firm, he’s worked as a trainer for McCormick Systems (www.mccormicksys.com) of Chandler, Ariz., the leader in electrical estimating systems.