The other day I received a call from a nationally ranked architectural firm based in Omaha. They wanted a presentation on our capabilities in estimating. This was the third time I had been asked to do this in the past few years. The first two times I made a presentation nothing ever came of it. I was told that our services were too expensive. So this time I pointedly told them I was not interested in wasting my time.
The caller from the firm sounded surprised and asked why I would not want to work with such a prestigious firm as theirs. I asked them if they were still using a particular firm for their estimating. He acknowledged they were. So I repeated I was not interested since they placed cheap estimating services and the corresponding poor results ahead of good results.
He wondered how I could say such a thing! I mentioned it was easy since their budget versus bid results speak for themselves. My professional experience with this particular firm comes from working on the same projects and from direct knowledge on other projects. The bids on their projects have come in far from the budgeted amount, both on the high and low side. Direct experience is they do not believe what the estimators tell them about project costs during the design period. He was astounded that I knew this information.
Relenting somewhat, and not having anything scheduled for a part of the morning on the day in question, I agreed to meet with them. At the meeting there were eight to ten key principals of their firm in the meeting. I brought my two least experienced estimators with me. One has ten years of estimating and bidding experience and the other fourteen years. I believe we had them outnumbered!
Their key estimating problems were poor estimating accuracy, missed deadlines, inadequate detail, omitted scope, duplicated scope and a host of the other “typical estimating problems” we have seen over the years. Simply and briefly put, I told them we could solve most of their headaches in estimating but they would have to put good results above cheap cost of the services.
It has been a week. We are waiting to hear what they have to say. I wonder what it will be this time – cheap or good results?
Oh By the Way… Contractors and Owners recognize the importance of having reliable estimates. Contractors have experienced estimators on staff for this reason. Owners and contractors are also willing to pay a reasonable price for the right results. Why don’t the architects and engineers have estimators on staff or be willing to pay a reasonable price? Could it be they do not care about the project costs?
