CostX® - Construction Estimating Software by Exactal

Here’s just some of our Happy Clients.

"It’s the best in the market that we have reviewed, in terms of ease of use and functionality for 2D and 3D take-off purposes."

Gary Dowden, Preconstruction Director

BAM Construct UK specialises in sustainable design, construction and facilities management. We are leaders in Building Information Modelling and take a whole lifecycle approach to creating, constructing and operating buildings.

“ It’s the best in the market that we have reviewed, in terms of ease of use and functionality for 2D and 3D take-off purposes. ”

— Gary Dowden, Preconstruction Director

The Project

BAM constantly looks for quality and ways of continuously improving our core processes and delivery. With better and more efficient options in the market for take-off, we explored several market leaders to see their current product, future vision and whether they were a fit with our collaborative way of working. CostX was easy to use, and their UK team were keen to learn and develop with us. Value for money was the final ingredient of deal we agreed.

The Outcome

The benefits of making the switch to CostX have been many.

Speed of initial quantification, once the basics are established
Valuation and variation management with supply chain
BoQ production timeframe and subsequent addendums
Accurate and detailed measurements can be produced exceptionally quickly compared to manual take-offs
Speed of use frees up time to spend on filling the gaps, reducing risk and maximising opportunity
Workbooks allow measures to link into sheets that can be used for most cost or value purpose
Once quants are linked between a Revit file and CostX, future amendments of the model/drawings can be done very quickly

We look for suppliers with whom we can collaborate and who can add value. We have formed a national CostX group that will meet every four months, and communicate in between times as well in order to implement CostX effectively and maximise the benefit of it.

Mace International Middle East

"The team here are happy that we made the move to CostX, especially me as I have been overloaded with Cost Plans and I know I would have missed every deadline if I had used our previous software."

Grant Crow, Cost Planning Manager

Granger Construction United States

Athletics South Competition & Performance project

"CostX proved to be an invaluable communication tool during the development of the design. It was very successful in effectively conveying the quantitative estimate information within the 3D environment in a very clear and concise way to the rest of the project team..."

Granger Construction is a Michigan construction company with offices based in Lansing, Grand Rapids and Novi. They have a strong culture based on innovation, teamwork, integrity, inspiration and diligence. Granger has a focus on key relationships with architects, subcontractors, government agencies and of course, customers. They put an emphasis on being collaborative and building long-term relationships while working towards a common goal. They prioritise ensuring that their customers have a positive experience with them while they deliver the highest quality project.

Athletics South Competition & Performance project

Client: The University of Michigan
Product used: CostX
Project: Athletics South Competition & Performance project
Value: US$100 M
Timeframe: Preconstruction Activities started in December 2014 and were substantially completed April 2016

Client’s Requirements

The University of Michigan’s Architecture/Engineering/Construction (AEC) group required Granger to provide two milestone estimates – one at the Design Development (50% complete DD’s) stage and one at the 95% Construction Document (95% CD’s) stage for each of five (5) separate buildings as well as the campus sitework component for the multi-building project area.

The estimate needed to be delivered in The UofM’s 3-level estimate template that is based on the CSI 2012 format. It was also a requirement to reconcile both the DD and CD estimates with an independent national estimating consultant that had already delivered a Schematic Design (SD) estimate for the project and would now also be providing their own DD and CD estimates.

Granger Construction Contributions

Granger made extensive use of the CostX system on this project and created a custom estimate template to meet The UofM’s estimate format requirements. Information from multiple Revit models was leveraged as the primary source of quantity take-off information for the estimates and was supplemented with 2D take-offs from CAD and PDF documents as well. The CostX environment was the primary resource used to communicate the estimate to the rest of the project team during the estimate reconciliation meetings. At the DD estimate reconciliation Granger’s take-offs proved to be highly accurate with net estimate adjustments amounting to less than 0.1%. When it was discovered that the project was approximately 15% over budget at the DD estimate, an exhaustive value engineering effort was launched and over 500 value engineering items were estimated, evaluated, and considered for incorporation into the design to bring the project back within budget.

Rather than waiting until the next milestone estimate at 95% CD’s to be reassured that the adopted value engineering items had indeed successfully brought the project back with the budget guidelines, The UofM’s AEC group was so impressed with the CostX estimating system that they engaged Granger Construction to complete another DD-level estimate utilizing CostX. Once the accepted value engineering items had been incorporated into the preliminary design Granger confirmed that the project was back on budget both with this additional DD-level estimate and again with the CD-level estimate. Bid-day result ultimately proved to be very favourable with the project procurement being delivered at approximately 4.0% under the project budget.

Making the Difference

CostX proved to be an invaluable communication tool during the development of the design. It was very successful in effectively conveying the quantitative estimate information within the 3D environment in a very clear and concise way to the rest of the project team which allowed for a very timely and efficient estimate reconciliation process. When an additional DD estimate was requested by the Owner the live links established within CostX allowed for the updates to be made very efficiently so that the Estimating team was able to focus more on higher level tasks at hand as opposed to revising quantity take-offs.

Turner & Townsend Asia

"CostX is a game changer for the modern consultancy service. The ability to be able to capture 100% of the design direct from the 3D model and live link those quantities direct to your estimate, creates transparency in the quality of Turner & Townsend’s service. Which in turn gives greater commercial confidences to our clients. "

Callum Agnew, Associate Director (Asia)

Turner & Townsend is a leading global programme management and construction consultancy that supports organisations that invest in, own and operate assets. Working from 90 offices in 130 countries, they work on projects across the property, infrastructure and natural resources sectors worldwide. They assist organisations by managing risk while maximising value and performance during the construction and operation of their assets.

“ CostX is a game changer for the modern consultancy service. The ability to be able to capture 100% of the design direct from the 3D model and live link those quantities direct to your estimate, creates transparency in the quality of Turner & Townsend’s service. Which in turn gives greater commercial confidences to our clients. ”

— Callum Agnew, Associate Director (Asia)

The Project

Turner & Townsend’s client entered into a dual FEED study with two international consortia of engineering companies to provide competitive FEED designs for the FLNG. Part of the FEED deliverables from each consortium was the development of a Bill of Approximate Quantities at the end of the FEED study that would be used by the clients estimating group to provide an independent estimate of the two FEED designs.

The client’s challenge was to ensure that the BOAQ represented as close as possible the completed scope of the development as the BOAQ would be an integral part of the development of the project value for Sanction. It was therefore paramount that the BOAQ was as accurate as possible. The client requested Turner & Townsend to validate and agree with the FEED Contractor’s the quantities developed to provide assurance to the client on the quantities contained in the BOAQ’s.

The Outcome

Turner & Townsend provided a team to carry out the following in order to fulfil the client’s requirements:

Establish a sound Method of Measurement, based on industry best practice, which will be issued to all FEED contractors to ensure consistency for the BOAQ quantity development from all FEED tenderers. As part of the FEED deliverable, all FEED tenderers were required to submit their BOAQ in CostX native workbook format.
Develop a Code of Accounts and a Work Breakdown Structure with standard estimate templates in CostX for inclusion into the FEED ITT.
Assist in developing the 3D model Structure and Object Parameter Protocols that will enable expedient electronic harvesting using CostX on the FEED Tenderers 3D models.
Develop a milestone program including the required deliverable outputs to be extracted from the 3D model to be included in the FEED ITT.
Provide CostX training and support to client personnel as at the end of the commission Turner & Townsend gave the client a CostX export of the BOAQ which meant the client had a complete interactive, live linked BOAQ.

By using CostX, Turner & Townsend were able to support the client in the validation and development of robust BOAQ’s and control estimates that provided transparency and confidence in the estimated cost of the project. This ensured that the Scope of Works was fully reflected, which will lead to a properly managed project with efficient contract administration.

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