Estimating

Estimating

• Tech Tools: March 2007

  - Builders and designers relying on Chief Architect to help sell upgrades in kitchens and other parts of the house. - Sage Software to ship Estimating for Master BUILDER in April.

   
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  Supply Chain Progress

  During the rise of the internet era in the late 1990s, while the automotive, aerospace, and most other industries moved forward with B2B e-commerce, BuildNet, the building industry's e-commerce play, failed miserably. The result was that home building lagged far behind most other industries in this...

   
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  Good Planning

  One positive aspect of the housing slowdown is that home builders now have the time to evaluate and ultimately deploy technology that can make their operations more efficient.

   

• Tech Tools: February 2007

  - A new Web-based estimating system offers builders a powerfuland affordable combination of estimating and purchasing features. - The new version of FastTrack Schedule features Mindjet's MindManager.

   

• NAHB Briefs: December 2006

  - Millions of homeowners could face higher taxes in 2011, unless Congress acts to repeal or reform the estate tax. - The Building Systems Councils of the NAHB releases a free publication as a resource for builders and buyers of panelized homes. - The president of Magleby Cos., is named the NAHB's...

   

• Software Bookends

  HOME BUILDERS LOOKING FOR A WAY TO understand HomeFront, the sales and warranty management software from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada–based Zybertech, should think of it as a pair of bookends that run on either side of BuilderMT's purchasing system and the Sage Timberline Office accounting and...

   

• Tech Tools: August 2006

  - Sage Software and Innovaya release a new product to lets builders run an estimate from a 3-D AutoCAD file. - BellSouth and The Weather Channel now offer a new service that provides alerts and warnings of severe weather.

   
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  Easier Estimates

  FOR YEARS, BUILDERS USED A DIGITIZER TO transfer electronic linear counts for the sizes and materials they would need for a job into a digital format for use in an estimating program. But the digitizer, which essentially served as an electronic note pad for the linear information, had its drawbacks.

   
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  Master Upgrade

  Intuit has managed to introduce some useful new user-requested features to Master Builder 10 without taking existing users out of their comfort zones.

   
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  Viable Alternative

  CSG has added sales automation software to its estimating and accounting modules to create a full construction management system