Today’s Bidding And Estimating Software format of both the proposal and/or accom-panying set of reports needs to be both cus-tomized and professional in appearance. Increasingly, cleaning businesses are turning to software solutions — both offline and now online to meet the challenge. It’s A No-brainer The trend in the cleaning industry is that people need to be more competitive. Unfortunately, there are many compa-nies that cut costs illegally by hiring undocumented workers or keeping some employees off the books. Companies can’t really pull back their services — they can’t do less — they have to still keep the high quality of their services. So, instead of forcing clients to price shop, your company has to stand out from the competition and prove that you are more efficient and worth the investment. Price is big deciding factor. As a result, people are looking toward bidding and estimating software pro-grams for help. Technology such as estimating soft-ware programs have been known to help automate business processes to save time and ultimately save money. The cost of bidding and estimating soft-ware programs compared to the time sav-ings is minimal and allow custodial pro-fessionals to do more with the limited time and resources they have. That is why those companies who are using these programs to automate business processes are finding them-selves being more competitive and wining more bids. — Michael Jenkins, president of CleanBrain Software Inc. Garbage In, Garbage Out This commonly used phrase, which high-lights the importance of entering useful, detailed and accurate data into computer programs, applies to the building informa-tion workloaded into bidding and estimating software as well. This critical building information can now include actual room dimensions, the type of flooring, area breakdown by use as well as more subjective factors such as degree of difficulty or density. Fortunately, many of today’s bidding and estimating software programs also allow users to dramatically improve the accuracy of the bid by moving beyond a one-size-fits-all approach to a more customized one where the wording of the cleaning task, the frequency and the degree of difficulty can be entered on an area-specific basis — rather than just for the building as a whole. For example, while a certain level of scheduled dusting duties may be called for on an infrequent basis for a seldom used conference room, a very different kind, level and frequency of dusting or cleaning duties may be called for in a patient examination room in a medical building. While janitorial bidding and estimating software programs are useful for standard office cleaning situations, which call for common tasks such as vacuuming carpet-ing or emptying trash containers, they are, in many cases, also capable of much more. Any number of periodic cleaning tasks such as high-speed burnishing, for exam-ple, can be used as input data in some of these programs. Where an appropriate production rate can be determined, nearly any cleaning task can generally be programmed into the software. Industry associations offer useful refer-ence guides for a wide variety of cleaning tasks. Individual production rate studies can also provide useful insight into the efficien-cy of the cleaning from your own company or department. With an increasing number of bidding and estimating software programs offering online components, data can be downloaded and analyzed nearly anywhere. compete successfully in a competitive envi-ronment that rewards only those who can demonstrate ability to layout and bid on an extensive and varied list of requirements from routine to periodic and from basic to specialized. Cleaning businesses want the bidding and estimating software to be user-friendly and more flexible than ever before, allowing them to change nearly everything from the names of areas and wording of tasks to the frequency of each task and the order in which they appear in the proposal. Many building owners and managers will only consider using those cleaning contrac-tors who can not only meet this new, high-er level of detail and accuracy, but who can also show they can deliver the services cost effectively. Bidding and estimating software addresses both ends of this equation. On the front end, the software needs to permit the user to enter building data and task specifications that are accurate and measurable. Everything from a detailed list of cus-tomized cleaning tasks and frequencies to the actual fixture counts in specialized areas of the building must be accounted for. On the back end, the resulting layout and New Developments One of the most recent developments in janitorial bidding software is the move to go “online.” This next wave of online bidding and esti-mating software programs offers additional opportunities for improvements in ease of use, accuracy and professionalism. With technology leading the way, bidding and estimating software is positioned to improve even more in the future. These advancements are just in time to meet the ever increasing demands for accuracy, detail and professionalism from cleaning businesses as well as building owners and managers. CM 22 CM/Cleaning & Maintenance Management ® • May 2010
CMM – Archives May 2010: 22
