Originally founded as a fabrication shop in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1987, The Shaw Group has evolved into a diverse engineering, construction, technology, fabrication, and environmental services organization. It is established in over 170 locations, has 21,000 employees and is the world’s leading solutions based company that develops designs, builds, maintains, and operates programs and facilities for their clients. Shaw has become one of the world’s only vertically-integrated providers of comprehensive engineering, procurement, construction, technology, maintenance, fabrication, manufacturing, consulting, remediation, and facilities management services for government and private sector clients in the power, energy, chemical, environmental, infrastructure, emergency response, homeland security and nuclear services markets.

What was needed …

With the acquisition of Stone & Webster in 2000 and an ongoing pattern of growth, The Shaw Group needed to plan for and implement a cost estimating system that met the diverse needs of the corporation.

Steps taken …

The first step of this multi-year engagement was multiple discovery sessions with executives, managers and end users to assess current work processes and then plan future work and data flow in order to provide a common platform to share resources and develop consistent, predictable data.

The ensuing estimating solutions were designed using custom applications, based around Microsoft Excel® and Sage Timberline Estimating. In addition training with customized materials, a help desk and on-line support with an information knowledgebase was developed. “Train the Trainer” programs were established so that future users could easily get up to speed on the various systems.

Results …

This solution provides The Shaw Group with a standardized, enterprise estimating that supports various estimate types, conceptual to as-built condition supported by composite-based summary estimates to component-based detailed (definitive) estimates. The strategy of combining commercial off-the-shelf software, custom application and professional services enabled The Shaw Group to meet their schedule and budget constraints and provides a migration path for maintaining and updating their system as the company’s business strategy changes. The system is deployed across the various operating groups throughout the enterprise.