In Southwestern Ontario, Canada, the London and District Construction Association has taken the next step in the electronic bidding process. Dubbed the “Private Electronic Plansroom”, this is an extension on the success their existing electronic plansroom.
The existing plansroom permits all subscribed members to view plans and specifications on-line to assess each project before requesting electronic or hard copy plans or driving to the association building in London.
This new extension of service creates a private viewing room for invited contractors and subtrades only. As a designer or developer, you can decide who you would like to bid your work and add them to your bidders list. As a general contractor, you can protect design bid quotes by allowing only trusted, preferred subtrades to know that this project is out for bid.
As a member of the electronic plan room, you have access to this service at no extra charge. Now that’s value added.
To use this service, you would send a set of drawings and specifications along with a bidders list to the administrator of the Private Electronic Plansroom. The administrator does the rest – including tracking all traffic and providing a CD of activity after closing.
If bidders have viewed the project and would like drawings printed, the association looks after the printing – for a small fee – and will even arrange to courier the drawings to the trade. Documents are viewed in .pdf format and can be self-printed.
No software is required by the users, other than an internet connection. All software is web-based java script.
Trades who are not members of the electronic plansroom can access the information on a fee per project basis as well. The administrator even trains all users as required. And very little training is required The system is set up to be as user friendly as possible.
Projects can be updated and information can be added as the project progresses – which is ideal for design-build projects. Change notifications are even e-mailed as required by the plansroom administrator.
This service frees-up designers, developers and general contractors to do more important tasks than chasing bidders to price their projects.
By: Brian A Schmidt