I thought I would do a blog on my advice to construction companies who have been affected by the COVID 19 virus. I know many companies have closed their offices and employees are working from home. Obviously estimators have to remote in to work on HeavyBid. To maximize your license utilization set a time limit on how long HeavyBid can be left open with no actions. I usually have companies set this at 2 hours but 1 hour might be more appropriate if estimators are having trouble getting an open slot. It is a good idea to have this setup anyway. Another suggestion is to utilize Insights. See my blog on this subject LINK. So if someone needs to review an estimate they can download a Cost report without taking up a license – keeping everyone working. Insights is available for Advanced and Comp Versions.

Another area that I can see construction companies really leveraging (and most are not at this time) is in the area of communication. Using email to communicate to employees in today’s technology offering can be compared to using two cans with a string between them (which is great fun for children!). Most of the companies I visit today have Office 365 which has Teams or like HCSS use a Chat app like found in Google. Teams works well as it is flexible where a team can be one on one group or an entire set of project managers or estimators. I use Teams even with just one employee and I can scroll quickly back to prior conversations, store files to be worked on, have almost instant communication, and even start a remote meeting. Once you use this type of app you will wonder how you lived without it all this time. Interested in more info and help setting it up? Here in my blog there is a “Contact” tab. Fill this out and William, my faithful employee (Son #4) will call you and help you set up your first Team. No charge and with or without the virus news you need to get this done and start using this valuable tool.