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December 8, 2009
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December 8, 2009
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Monday
Jul262010

Salt Lake City's Enterprise features SmartBidNet

Editor Barbara Rattle discusses SmartBidNet and why Utah-based general contractors are big fans.

"Three Utah-based general contractors have opted to embrace SmartBidNet, a product created in 2006 by College Station, Texas-based JB Knowledge, which is headed by James Benham. More than 100 general contractors in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean are now using SmartBidNet, which is dedicated solely to serving the needs of general contractors seeking subcontractors."

READ MORE

Tuesday
Jul202010

v 10.10.6 | Date: 07/20/2010

  • Duplicate Search: When adding companies, the duplicate search allows the user to click on the matching companies to view their information
  • Adding Companies: When adding companies, the default for account manager and office is now the user's info and office
  • Admin: Changed order of menu items on left to alphabetical
  • Prequal: Added Form Build Out phase for prequal forms. In that phase, the GC will be able to invite and run the entire process with their fake/test company and still make changes to the prequal form before moving the prequal form to Live status
  • Edit Mail: Added table and cut/copy/paste features onto the bid project edit mail tab
Wednesday
Jun092010

v 10.10.5 | Date: 06/09/2010

  • Users can now export Bid Lists in PDF form
  • Users can now add general notes to a company location on the company location screen, above contacts list
  • "Add Contacts" on the prequal form has been reorganized so that the phone number follows the company
  • When navigating the prequal form from the subcontractor side, clicking "Back" or "Next" now prompts a dialog pop-up asking if the user would like to save their data
  • Now have the ability to specify a field type on questions involving a data grid in prequal forms
  • When adding a prequal question, users can now select "HTML text" and paste a question in HTML form
  • When viewing a prequal in the review process, an option to "View RFI History" has been added
Sunday
May302010

v 10.10.4 | Date: 05/30/2010

  • Now handles all bounced email messages, flagging them as bad emails and showing them in a new Bad Email Report under Reports; the bad emails and the reasons for failure will also show in the communication report on each bid project
  • Users can now initiate a general communication or a prequal communication to an individual user at a specific company
  • New queue for prequal users called '11 month expiration queue' that shows all prequal responses that are over 11 months old
  • Now have the ability to send a communication to print, instead of email or fax; all communications sent to print will be logged in the communication log as having been sent
  • Prequal system can now preview forms on the web or in PDF
  • Corrected miscellaneous bugs
Sunday
May162010

v 10.10.3 | Date: 05/16/2010

  • Can now limit the ability to access company records and projects to only the GC users from the corresponding GC office
  • Admin->Trades can now show 95 and 04 trades not mapped to the public registry
  • Now have the option on a system to be able to sync data between a Company's HQ location and other locations. Can set the default setting of sync for all new subs from the Admin->General Settings menu.
  • In bid package management, changed the trade code selector popin box to the standard that is used in the rest of the program.
  • Display all certifications codes separated by commas on all Invitees screens.
  • Now only showing one line item per responding company on the prequal responses tab.
  • System now prevents 2 people from overwriting each others data on a prequal response.
  • Corrected bugs with Zip & Download, Contacts on Excel Export and vCard alignment.


Thursday
May062010

v 10.10.2 | Date: 05/06/2010

  • Under Admin->Trades, Added excel documents for download with all the trade code data, including private and public 95, private and public 04 and a mapping table
  • Under Admin->Options, now have a system default to 'Selected Subs by user specific' and 'Use Different Invitation for each user' when creating a new project
  • Made at least one trade code mandatory for public website sub registration
  • Added feature to notify the project/bid manager when a sub opts out of the database or project
  • Added option to restrict the subs ability to change their areas of work
  • Added bid project recycle bin to view deleted projects
  • Changed Prequal module to prevent prequal requests from moving to Estimating VP if there are outstanding RFIs that need to be issued


Sunday
Apr252010

v 10.10.1 | Date: 04/25/2010

  • Added interchangable support for old and new trade code formats
  • Added support for subs to self register and fill out prequal forms on a public website
  • Added real time floating widgets on the right side of the screen for notifications, bid projects and communication status
  • Change User delete function so that it re-assigns that user's bid projects to a selected user


Tuesday
Apr202010

Ottawa Business Journal | Construction Bidding Goes Online

Date: 04/20/2010

When the Ottawa-based chief estimator at general contracting firm Pomerleau needed to invite subcontractors to bid on a job, he’d often program the fax to send documents overnight. But even doing that, he says, was sometimes insufficient. The machine would often remain tied up the next day.

Click here for the full article

Sunday
Mar282010

v 10.9.4 | Date: 03/28/2010

  • Enhanced the bad faxes report on bid projects to allow the user to try to send all bad faxes again (in the case of busy or no answer).
  • Added zip code radius searching on the company search screen.
  • Changed Copy from Bid Project to be able set the pending invites in the source project as pending invites in the destimation project.
  • Changed the duplicate search for adding a company so that it would show the fields that are causing the duplicate alert.
  • Created an option on each project to set the project to run on individual or collaborative mode for selections and communications, respectively.
  • Enhanced the detail allowed for security rules to provide more granular control of security access of users.
  • Enhanced the prequal module to allow the user to select which data gets merged into the applicant's record.
  • Enhanced the prequal module to prevent data from being updated on the live database from the prequal form until the data has been accepted by the initial reviewer.

Monday
Mar082010

v 10.9.3 | Date: 03/08/2010

  • Updates to Minority Report on Bid Project:
    • Export Minority list by Category (Export By Category to Excel)
    • Export Minority list by Alpha (Export By Alpha to Excel)
    • Export Communication Report (Export Communication Log to Excel)
    • Export all communication to Minorities (PDF) - Every communication to every minority (Export All Communication to PDF)
  • When adding subs to a bid project who were not set to receive bid invites, we now keep their 'do not receive bid invites' status. You can still choose to change their invite status later
  • Changed attachment limit for invitations to 5MB
  • As soon as a user sumbits a communication to send, we now show that record as being scheduled in the reports->communication tab of the bid project
  • Corrected formatting display for custom fields of type 'Money'
  • Now allow for editing of sub contractor's state licenses
  • Enlarged text input on custom fields
  • Corrected miscellaneous errors


Sunday
Feb142010

The Salt Lake Tribune | Software Helping Contractors Forge Ties With Subs

Date: 02/14/2010

Several Utah contractors are using a new software program that allows them to interact more easily with subcontractors so they can submit more successful job bids.

Called SmartBidNet, the program enables contractors to keep better track of available subcontractors for different types of projects and gives subcontractors online access to blueprints and other materials pertinent to a project.

Click here for the full article

 

Sunday
Feb142010

v 10.9.1 | Date: 02/14/2010

  • New Project Settings Box for Bid Project Settings
  • Added Internal Office to Sub Contractor Records and Bid Projects
  • Added Bid List Approval Procedure
  • Enlarged folder, set and subfolder text fields for project files
  • Added NAICS 2007 management for sub contractors
  • Renamed Classification to “License Class/Type”
  • Added 3 new fields to sub financial information
  • Completed Prequal Review Process (Initial Review of Completeness, Financial Review, Precon Exec Recommendation and Estimating VP Approval)
  • Improved Prequal Form Builder: Reorganized Company and Location Info, Displaying all Location Contacts by default, Changed Contact Title field from drop down to input, Added the option to add contacts for each location, changed presentations of work areas by location, modified certification questions


Monday
Jan042010

v 10.8.1 | Date: 01/04/2010

  • Restructured Custom Fields to allow for several new types of custom fields, including multiple selection.
  • Added Areas of Work option for the admin menu, enabling a GC to define custom areas of work for their subs.
  • Added Organization Type to Company Records
  • Moved Qualification Status, DUNS, IRS EIN and Website to Company Record Level from Location Level
  • Added State License Management


Sunday
Dec202009

v 10.7.1 | Date: 12/20/2009

  • Contact Titles can now be typed in with the assistance of auto suggest
  • Certifications can now have agency, cert # and expiration date
  • Added the Access Log to the Admin section to show all access attempts
  • Improved the Plan Room to allow searching by file name, and filter by published date, uploaded date and version number
  • Added ability to turn on password strength requirements for all users in a system
  • Now can publish custom privacy policies for custom login clients


Wednesday
Dec092009

Smarter Technology.com | SmartBidNet Offers Smarter Construction Bidding Process

Date: 12/09/2009

But thanks to College Station, Texas-based SmartBidNet, assembling a bid is getting more and more streamlined. The company’s Web-based software package allows contractors to create a database of subcontractors that may be organized in a variety of ways — where they’re located, their level of skills, their federal minority status, their bid participation levels and even a "report card" on their general performance track record. All of this information is then processed and analyzed to rapidly produce a hopefully winning bid. The product also allows for electronically based bid submission, so lead construction contractors don’t have to spend those extra hours on printing, shipping and other traditional logistical needs to get the bid to the potential customer.

Click here for the full article

 

Sunday
Dec062009

v 10.7 | Date: 12/06/2009

  • Can now add sub folders in the plan room
  • Added published date and description to plan room files
  • Added activity link to the plan room to show which subs have, and have not, downloaded a file
  • Changed file deletion so users can undelete documents through a recycle bin
  • Improved Contact Addition on the selection screens to make it easier to add new contacts



Sunday
Nov012009

v 10.6 | Date: 11/01/2009

  • Completely Reworked the way companies are searched for and accessed under the "Companies" menu.
  • Added the ability to manage multiple locations for a sub contractor.
  • Consolidated all Administrative features into the Admin menu.
  • Added the ability to manage offices inside the general contractor and which users are tied to those offices.
  • Moved employee admin to "User Accounts" under "Admin".
  • Modified the central search to show a combined view of companies and people.
  • Modified the Qualified, Invited and Awarded tabs under Bid Projects to combine multiple contacts for a company under one row.

Thursday
Sep032009

Take the hassle out of managing subcontractors

Date: 09/03/2009| Building Design + Construction

Click here for the full article

Friday
Aug072009

Contractors change focus to survive downturn

Date: 08/07/2009| Atlanta Business Chronicle

Click here for the full article

Wednesday
Aug052009

v 10.5 | Date: 08/05/2009

  • Changed Send Communication "Selected Options": Inside a Bid Project, under All Qualified, All Invited and All Awarded. When you click "Send Communication" you can now select the "Selected Subs" plus any other status and the system sends the communication to the combination of both
  • Changed the follow-up widget on the dashboard: Added the column to display the bid project name
  • Added ability to resend to a different email from the communication screen
  • Released the full version of the dynamic Prequal form builder for those clients who have the Prequal module
  • Can now mark a person as Prequal recipient. When you send a prequal communication, it will only be sent to those people
  • Print button on Prequal responses: Now able to generate a PDF version of the prequal responses, full response, summary or an individual section
  • Added Scope Value for each Bid Item: Add Scope value for each package or trade selected in a bid project, display this information under All Qualified, All Invited and All Awarded. We also made a few design changes on tab 2 (Packages and Trades)
  • Expanded ability for creating a new project from a template. Now the available options to copy are Company Groups, Packages/trades, Folders/Sets structure, Email communication and invited subs (these will be added as Pending Invitation in the new project)
  • Added new statuses to bid projects for moving through the negotiation and project awarding process
  • Added tabs to the bid project list and included a search feature by project title or project number
  • Remove Me from the invitees list: Added a footer to "unsubscribe" from a bid project or a system
  • Public Project Skin: We now have the public projects page load the default system skin
  • File Collaboration: Added the ability for Engineers, Architects, Job Supervisors and more to collaborate on bid projects by either having read-only or read-write access to the bid projects. Contact your support rep to have these security groups added to your system