How ProEst helped improve estimating collaboration and workflow.
One of northern California’s premier commercial builders, Blach Construction has created and renovated educational, institutional, mixed-use and work- place structures for Bay Area clients since 1970. In the fifty years since its inception, Blach has grown to include over 200 employees in two locations and maintains relationships with more than 650 qualified subcontractors. Last year, the company prepared 120+ estimates and generated $300M+ in revenue, with goals of $400M-500M+ within the next five years.
After years of trial and error, Blach was eager to settle on an estimating platform that fully met their expectations—and they got it. From the very first day of ProEst implementation, Gravelle saw marked improvements in user convenience and workflow. “The biggest benefit for us was how easy the solution was to use out of the gate. It’s easier to set up templates, it’s easier to find items in the database and it’s easier to share your estimates with other people in the department, all in real-time.” It was that “shareability,” says Gravelle, that immediately set ProEst apart from other solutions the company had used before. With ProEst, he noted, every estimator has access to every estimate, making it simpler to edit on the go and still have accurate and updated information in time to present to their clients. Gravelle especially appreciates embedded ProEst task features, that allow multiple users to contribute to the same estimate—connectivity and collaboration tools that changed the game for Blach estimators.
ProEst makes it easy to make changes on the fly, because every estimator has access to every estimate."
Gravelle was equally impressed with the engagement of the ProEst team. Their willingness to meet face-to-face at the company’s San Jose headquarters spoke volumes, he said, about ProEst’s belief in their product and commitment to client success. Multiple training options was an advantage, too; Blach used in-person tutorials and embedded training videos to educate new users on ProEst features and functions, flexibility that accelerated adoption and led to more productive estimating right away. “ProEst has a really good educational video section within the software,” said Gravelle, “so it’s easy for somebody to watch how to do things and basically learn the program themselves.”
As a company, Blach construction has a strong commitment to innovative building concepts, materials and techniques, and found that ProEst supported their vision for future-forward thinking and growth. In the past year alone, says Gravelle, Blach has doubled their estimate output—from 60 to 120—and achieved significant increases in annual revenue, forecast to reach $400m-500m within the next few years. According to Gravelle, those are the kind of results that prove the day-to-day value of ProEst and differentiate the platform from other estimating products. He summed it up this way: “If your company needs to customize, change and share estimates without a hassle, and not be tied down to license agreements, then ProEst is kind of a no-brainer”.
