Announcing the Top Rated Construction Software for 2018

Emily Sue Tomac
February 9, 2018
Awards, Vertical-Specific

Announcing the Top Rated Construction Software for 2018

Today, we awarded the 2018 TrustRadius Top Rated badges for Construction Software. The TrustRadius Top Rated awards are unique in that they are an unbiased reflection of customer sentiment, based solely on user satisfaction scores. They are not influenced by analyst opinion, the vendor’s company size, popularity, site traffic, or status as a TrustRadius customer.

Construction software helps general contractors, subcontractors, and building companies manage different phases of the construction process, including bidding, estimating/takeoff, project management, building information management (BIM), job site data collection and reporting, document management and collaboration, accounting, and client management. Some vendors in the space offer a portfolio of different tools that cover most or all phases of construction, while other vendors offer a lighter weight product focused on a specific need, like safety or collaboration on building plans.

Many businesses in the construction industry are just getting started with construction software, partly due to limited IT resources and expertise. Often construction employees aren’t as comfortable implementing or using new digital solutions when they’re used to pen and paper processes, so usability and ease of adoption should be among the top considerations when evaluating construction software.

Here are the winners:

Overall Top Rated

Procore

Procore is a cloud-based construction project management suite that allows construction team members and other project stakeholders to collaborate on contracts, RFIs, submittals, schedules, drawings, etc. whether they’re at the office or on an iPad at the construction site.

Procore has saved time on most if not all administrative functions. Creation of subcontracts, RFIs and submittals takes much less time than it used to and the ability to access anything from the Cloud is priceless. Procore has allowed document control to be more organized and easier to actually “control” with much less reliance on outdated information on paper documents. Provides instant access to the latest and greatest documents thus saving time and money. Procore has allowed the field to be able to stay on top of items that affect the building of the projects. Easy access to updated drawings, RFI responses, submittals, and issue tracking through inspections. This has decreased mistakes made in the building process, thus saving time and money, as well.”

Danielle Manchion | Assistant Project Manager | VRD Contracting Inc.

Bluebeam Revu

Bluebeam Revu is a PDF construction document management tool. It’s an alternative to Adobe Acrobat that has extra functionality specific to construction documents, drawings in particular (like color-coded changes, scaling, layered and hyperlinked drawings, collaborative markups, etc.), as well as a more user-friendly interface, according to reviewers.

“Bluebeam offers a huge array of tools that enhance communication between the owner, architect, and contractor which minimizes construction errors in the field. Combine, split, extract, reorder, markup, flatten, scale, compare and distribute PDFs – Pretty much anything you want to do with a PDF can be done in this software. The key aspect here is the user-friendliness of the document controls. No training is needed to get started with the basics.”

Tony Grass | Project Engineer | Mortenson

PlanGrid

PlanGrid is a construction productivity tool that streamlines document access and approval processes, with the goal of improving collaboration between contractors and owners on documents like plans, markups, punchlists, jobsite reports, RFIs, as-built drawings, etc. PlanGrid can integrate with users’ cloud storage systems like Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box, as well as with other construction software like CMiC or eSUB.

Implementing PlanGrid throughout our operation has drastically reduced construction errors due to working with out of date plans. PlanGrid has allowed me personally as a PM responsible for multiple projects to easily stay on top of and in touch with all of them. The ability to have full project documentation at my fingertips wherever I am, even when I don’t have excellent cell service, is invaluable. PlanGrid has reduced the time spent printing and delivering new drawings to job sites by 80% throughout our firm.”

James Nolan | Project Manager/Estimator | Hard Rock Concrete, Inc.

HCSS

HCSS is a suite of estimating, operations, project management, safety, and equipment management tools for contractors in civil and industrial construction industries. HeavyBid, the estimating component, is the most widely used piece of the suite–though reviewers on TrustRadius also weigh in on the benefits of HeavyJob, HCSS Dispatcher, HCSS Telematics, HCSS Safety, Equipment360, HCSS Safety, and other modules, and how they work together.

HCSS provides a good platform for comparing costs of one plan, vs. another plan while utilizing the same crews, equipment resources etc. We produce a LOT of estimates through our office with not many people.”

Drury Ellard | Senior Estimator | Archer Western Contractors

On-Screen Takeoff

On-Screen Takeoff is a tool used by estimators to perform takeoffs, allowing them to calculate an accurate bid or budget for a construction project and easily share the reasoning behind the estimate. According to reviewers, this makes On-Screen Takeoff a helpful reference during negotiations between subcontractors and contracts, as well as owners and contractors.

“We use On-Screen to do takeoffs to verify our subcontractors’ quantities when they send their proposals in. We also use OST to print out some of our takeoffs which are then shown to the owner in the preconstruction phase of negotiated projects. Very easy to create conditions and to access that condition again and again throughout your project. Navigating the drawings and controls are very easy to use.”

Verified User | Construction Company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Revit

Autodesk’s Revit is a Building Information Management (BIM) tool. It allows users to design and coordinate construction projects with 2D drawings and 3D models of how the layouts, parts, and pieces of a project will fit together.

Revit has three big returns on investment – the first is that the office is much more productive, we can do with two architects the same job that with other methods required 5 or 8 architects. We avoid construction intersection and the quantities are so exact that we don’t buy more than what we need. We can accurately show client how the project is going to look like, and how much it will cost, much quicker than any other methods.”

Nelson David Sanchez Villasmil | Gerente de proyectos de Arquitectura | Stoneleaf Construction LLC

Followup CRM

Followup CRM is a customer relationship management system designed specifically for construction companies to track leads on new business, analyze their sales pipeline, and organize client contacts. It doesn’t necessarily compete with other products in the Construction Software category, but Followup CRM can be a useful addition to the tech stack for construction companies that want a CRM system tailored to their industry’s needs and conventions.

“The owners of our company are able to pull relevant reports (for example, showing which particular neighborhoods we are getting the most business from, which advertising sources are working, how many leads each designer is currently working on, etc.). One of the best things about FollowUp Power is that we can mark things for follow-up several months down the line, which we frequently have a need for since many of our clients are seasonal.”

Betsy Young | Office Administration | DreamMaker Bath & Kitchen

NoteVault

NoteVault is a cloud-based app that enables users in the field to create daily construction site reports with GPS-stamped photos and audio recordings from their mobile phones. NoteVault’s main focus is site safety. Remote project stakeholders are alerted of hazards and incidents based on keywords in the daily reports. Reports also serve as proof of progress to help with worker accountability.

We use NoteVault to do our daily reporting on every construction site that we are on. It allows our foreman an easy way to do their daily reporting very accurately, and instantly. We had trouble having guys try to remember what they needed to report, by the end of the day. This allows them to do it, right as the problems have occurred. With this, there is no lag time, where their details of the event may have become “diluted”.”

Glen Nelson | General Superintendent | Robertson Bright Inc.

In addition to overall top rated awards, we also recognize tools that are top rated in a specific market segment. Company size is one way to help buyers identify the right solutions for their use case. To qualify for these lists, at least 15% of the product’s reviews and ratings must come from that market segment.

Top Rated by Enterprises

Top Rated by Mid-Size Companies

Top Rated by Small Businesses

Congratulations to the winners of the Top Rated Construction Software Award!

Top Rated Criteria

Products included in the Top Rated Construction Software for 2018 list must have been in the top tier of their category TrustMap on Jan. 26, 2018 to earn a Top Rated badge. To qualify for the Construction Software TrustMap, products must have at least 10 reviews and ratings on TrustRadius. Every reviewer is verified and every review is vetted before publication. Products are plotted on the map based on end-user data, including users’ likelihood to recommend scores as well as buyer research patterns. To learn more about TrustMaps and Top Rated methodology, check out this page.

About the Author

Emily Sue Tomac
Emily Sue Tomac is Senior Research Manager at TrustRadius, where she studies reviews, the technology buying and selling process, and buyers and vendors themselves. Her research aims to arm people with the tools and information they need to work better, smarter, and easier. She's on a mission to tell their stories, and drive change in how business technology is bought and sold. Prior to joining TrustRadius, Emily Sue worked on research in linguistics and the digital humanities.

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