Absher Construction Company www.abshernw.com is approaching its seventh decade of operations. From a foundation built by R.L. Absher in 1940 of small kitchen and home remodel projects, Absher Construction has grown into one of the most diverse construction organizations in the Northwest. Absher’s projects are a balance of competitive-bid, negotiated, design/build and construction-management. Their work spans the public and private sectors including commercial, retail, assisted-living, education, medical, corrections, ecumenical, recreational, public-housing and military fields. In the preconstruction arena they have proven their ability to work as a team member with clients, architects and consultant representatives and were awarded top honors in the Public-Sector Projects over $15M category at the national Design-Build Institute of America’s 2007 conference along with their partners in the project.

What was needed …
Like other companies that have been in business for a long time, Absher Construction has progressed through a number of estimating solutions, from manual methods to software solutions, some more successful than others. Absher was dealing with a system based on broken promises and inferior technology. It was important to find a better packaged estimating solution, one that was easy to use and highly configurable to match Absher’s historical data and estimating processes. In addition, a reliable, automated method of transferring estimating data into their project management/accounting system was critical. Finally, Absher wanted a partner, not another vendor, to effectively plan, implement and support the new estimating solution.

Steps Taken: …
Eos Group’s professional services team worked with Absher’s staff to discover corporate requirements and develop an implementation plan. They mapped out a database development strategy and trained the system administrator and key users. Eos Group’s team provided configuration and support services as needed. Once the preconstruction workflows and data configuration were stable, a set of business process integration rules was defined to automate the transfer of estimate data to the project management/accounting system. Using agile design methods, an Eos Group custom solution was quickly developed. Users now manage data integration between systems in just a few clicks.

Results …
Absher’s estimating system was quickly adopted by the estimating staff. It leverages company coding structures, pricing, production rates and assemblies to automate the process of producing estimates. The system supports top-down conceptual and bottom-up detailed estimating for a variety of project delivery methods. David Schneider of Absher says, “With the integration services and training provided by Eos Group we have been able to establish more efficient and effective estimating procedures. This has allowed Absher to bring all of its estimators to a level of expertise that allows them to fully utilize the capabilities of Sage Timberline Office Estimating.“ The system enables users to prepare budgets that easily flow downstream to the project management/accounting system. Future advancements include integration with scheduling and Building Information Modeling systems.