Bid Coach: Why it’s Important to Track Construction Project Historical Data

Challenge: 

There are many ways a general contractor can get off track during the preconstruction process – going over budget, going over schedule and ultimately, not winning the project. When the GC does not thoroughly track and compare historical invitation to bid data, they can run into bottlenecks and costly delays. For example, inviting bad/unqualified subcontractors to bid, taking on project types they continue to lose, or working with owners on projects that have failed.  

Analysis: 

Throughout each stage of the invitation to bid process, benchmarks must be closely monitored and compared to historical data to ensure that the project is won on on-time. Discover below the type of data that should be continuously tracked and logged within your company to increase your project won ratio.  

Solution:  

Every general contractor should track their project win/loss ratio. So, what data from those experiences should be monitored within a software or spreadsheet? Check out the below information that should be identified during the precon phase to use as a tool for future bidding practices and to help you win more projects. 

• Owners – It’s important to track the owner on past projects to determine if you have won more projects with them or lost more projects with them. You will obviously not want to prioritize bids on a project from an owner that has continuously not picked you as the project GC. Also, if previous projects have failed under that owner, it’s probably not the best idea to work with them again. 
• Type of Project – Tracking the type of project that your company usually wins or loses the bid to is also important. If you win more commercial or federal projects, then continue to prioritize bids on those specific types.  
• Subcontractors – Keep a list of your top, qualified subcontractors that have responded to your bids in a timely manner, submitted the best proposals and have continuously helped you win more projects.  
• Communication Templates/Channels – What types of ITB templates or channels have worked in the past when you sent out your invitations to bid? Were they formatted emails, plain text emails, phone calls, fax, etc.? Determine the follow up processes that worked and helped you to increase subcontractor response rates and receive qualified proposal to win projects.  
• Project Location – When you track the location of a project, you’ll be able to forecast which areas may have less competition, more qualified subcontractors to work on the project, etc.  
• Team Members – Another item you can track is the team member that worked on the bid. You might have certain estimators that are great at putting together the best bid packages that owners want to select and award you on.