INTEGRATING COST DATA INTO INTERNAL SOFTWARE

The Firm: Established in 1938, CTA Architects Engineers was an early adopter of integrated architectural and engineering services. It has grown to have a national presence with 14 office locations across the United States. The firm prides itself on providing construction cost estimates that are typically wit–8 percent of actual costs. As such, it is able to provide true value-engineering services that can lead to real cost savings for its clients.

The Challenge: John Bolton is a senior architect with the firm. He has 30 years of experience in the architecture and engineering field and knows his way around a construction estimate. John uses his expertise to create cost-effective designs for clients without sacrificing quality. He regularly provides accurate value engineering, which the firm defines as the practice of identifying cost-effective alternatives to preexisting solutions while meeting project requirements. The challenge for John and the CTA team is to identify and use reliable, comprehensive cost data that demonstrates the real budget impacts of any given choice. In these cases, details really do matter.

The Solution: To provide its clients with reliable cost estimating and value engineering, CTA uses an in-house software program that incorporates construction cost data from an objective third-party source. This goes a long way toward establishing credibility with its clients and gives the design team a level of comfort on the reliability of their estimates. “The level of detail we are able generate shows that CTA understands the details of the designs,” John says. “Our estimates indicate to the client a real possibility of potential cost impacts versus a lump sum number.”

The level of detail that CTA has available in the third-party data for each estimate lays a strong foundation for its value-engineering process. Itemized material, labor, equipment, and productivity costs allow CTA to demonstrate an accurate financial impact related to each choice of material or building system being scrutinized for value engineering. John has found this to be far more effective than simply showing clients a lump sum.

The Results: CTA has seen the tangible benefits of using independent, third-party data to power its construction estimates. First, it directly contributes to the firm producing estimates within 3–8 percent of contractor pricing during design-build projects.

Further, the detail provided by the independent data helps implement value engineering during the design process, not just at the construction stage. John explains, “Independent data allows the design team to incorporate costs into a project. As we understand the impacts, we are able to coordinate with contractors to achieve the best costs for the client.”

BUILDING CLIENT TRUST AND ACCURATE ESTIMATES WITH INDEPENDENT COST DATA

The Firm: Christopher Gartner founded his construction management firm over 33 years ago. In that time, GARTNER & Associates has demonstrated great cost-estimating success by working on $4 billion worth of projects nationwide with more than 400 completed projects. On a recent $35-million renovation project, the firm achieved a 4 percent degree of accuracy on its cost estimates.

The Challenge: With more than four decades of personal industry experience, Christopher Garnter is well experienced in managing construction projects. Clients hire his firm to assemble project teams and facilitate their subsequent construction builds. Throughout his time in the industry, Chris has observed that owners tend to ask two questions: How much will it cost, and when will it be done? To answer these questions, Chris is expected to prepare management plans that include budgets running the entire life of their projects from preliminary design through construction and even for all change orders.

The challenge behind providing these ongoing estimates is up-to-date, accurate cost data. Historical data is often a solid starting point, but Chris has found more information is required to provide a truly reliable and current estimate. In particular, he has observed more estimating mistakes have been made through omissions of work rather than pricing incorrectly. He knows that a careful eye on the true scope of work is the key to estimating that work accurately.

The Solution: For more than three decades, GARTNER & Associates has relied on third-party, independent cost data to build its estimates. Chris explains, “Every project we get involved in, we try to analyze things so that when our owners make decisions, they know what the costs are going to be. You’re only as good as the budgets you provide. So you want to be thorough—detail counts. That’s why we rely on updated, independent data throughout the life of a project.”

Recognizing the different stages of a project, the firm first uses a square-foot cost database during initial budgeting, which provides the building components required to develop accurate assemblies-level cost estimates. This gives Chris a big-picture vantage point and ensures no tasks or materials are falling through the budgetary cracks. It also provides him and the owner with a solid idea of the high-level costs for budget and approval purposes. From there, itemized unit cost estimates are then created to hone in on better defined costing and detail out specific aspects of the project to increase accuracy. Independent data is further leveraged during change orders to ensure costs are reasonable for all parties involved.

The Results: GARTNER & Associates has completed more than 400 projects over the past three decades, and independent, third-party cost data has played a significant role in these successes. Chris has seen the tangible benefits of the accuracy of the database firsthand.

For example, his team shepherded the $35-million renovation of the California Building, an elegant mixed-use space in downtown New Orleans. Projecting the cost of transforming a World War II-era structure into a modern combination of retail and luxury living is no small task, but his team’s project estimate came within less than 4 percent of the final cost. On a separate project for a shopping center in Austin, Texas, the GARTNER cost estimate proved to be with 0.5 percent of the contractor’s bid.

Creating detailed estimates during the planning stages of a project using independent data ensures accuracy and helps Chris and the GARTNER team build trust with clients. Without localized and accurate construction cost data, Chris’ team would struggle in building reliable estimates—especially for work of which it was previously unfamiliar. GARTNER & Associates mitigates its risk and provides its clients budgets that are accurate, dependable, and thorough.