FastPIPE

When I first looked into FastEST products in 1997, there were plenty of other options out there. Over time, we have watched those competing companies get bought out, merge with others and some go out of business altogether.

Accuracy is a big concern when it comes to estimating in general. With the high pressure to kick out large volumes of estimates, mistakes are easy to make and in some cases, cost people their businesses. FastEST provides a high level of transparency in their products, making it very easy for managers to review estimates before they are sent out. All of the data is exported to excel where it can be analyzed, cut and diced into manageable chunks and quickly compared to historical data. Many other programs claim to do this, but are not as seamless.

We are fortunate to belong to several trade organizations and had the opportunity to ask our competitors what programs they were using. We were amazed to find out they had spent thousands of dollars on other programs and never made it to full implementation. After talking with these people the reason why became more and more apparent. If it is not intuitive and easy to understand, it will simply not get used. Many estimators are brought up through the ranks in the field, into the office and expected to understand computers. FastEST shines in the power of simplicity. While most other programs require a week training or more, we can have someone up and going in a matter of a few hours. The interface is very user-friendly.

When its crunch time a call back or a response to an email is too long to wait! Although I would have to say emergencies have been quite rare with the program, when issues have arisen, a quick phone call and the support staff will get you back on your feet. Like anyone that knows what they are doing, they make it look easy and they are almost always done in a matter of minutes. Other programs we have used require an email to be sent before you are even placed in the queue.

In 1997 when I first started using the program, we were doing strip malls and gas stations. We now use the program to estimate all manner of public and medical facilities well into the ten million dollar range. This is a product that can help you grow your business and grow with your business. We have been fortunate to have FastEST as a partner in our business and contribute much of our success to the power of the program.

I like that it does everything that you can do

Many years ago we realized our old estimating software was not efficient with regards to assemblies and reports - we had too many estimators spending time making reports for operations, rather than helping cost new opportunities. After reviewing several softwares, we found that the support from FASTPIPE during the sales process was a good indication of how they would be after the sale - they were top-notch all the way. We immediately noticed the setup and training was easy and that we could send data to operations and let them run reports however they wanted, which saved us time. The cost was also much more competitive than several other options, which is a nice benefit.