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Fridays with Vico

The Fridays with Vico webinars are a free, educational series geared at general contractors and owners. Our topics range from BIM trends, to case studies and best practices, to new concepts for the industry.

Winning with BIM Strategies in a Hard Bid

Vico Services, the professional BIM consulting services side of Vico Software, is rolling out a four-part webinar series specifically for General Contractors: Mastering the Hard Bid with BIM. The series will explore the advantages of 4D scheduling, 5D cost planning, constructability and coordination, and the knowledge base that ties cost and time to the geometry.

In a hard bid scenario it's the lowest bid that wins. The Owner surely is getting a great price from the bidders: a price that can be as much as 30% below projected cost. But experienced Owners know that these hard bids come with hidden costs including change orders, delays, and claims that end up costing them additional money. But even if those extra charges were to add 20% to the cost of the winning hard bid the owner has still realized a 10% saving over the original projected cost.

Vico Services, with other 350 successful 5D BIM projects around the world, has developed specific strategies for winning business in a hard bid world. The four-part webinar series will examine scheduling, estimating, and coordination strategies that can effectively set your company apart from the other bidders.

This webinar series is for you and your firm if:

>>	Hard bids have become the de facto bidding process in your market;
>>	You want to develop hard bid strategies quickly, but might not have time to develop a BIM;
>>	You know you'll discover change orders during the project, but you want to find them sooner;
>>	You understand that construction-caliber quantities drive a more precise schedule and estimate - you just haven't seen it in action;
>>	You want to protect your fee and believe that 4D and 5D BIM done right will mitigate project risk.

Part 1. Mastering the Schedule to Mitigate Risk and Keep Your Profit

In an environment where there are smaller projects with plenty of bidders under a hard bid edict, it's imperative that you remain competitive on your fees and general conditions. How so? At-risk General Conditions are typically 7-11% and getting skinnier in this economy. In a hard bid, if your schedule extends even just one month, you're bound to pay the whole expense. And that expense knocks up against the 7-11%.

How can General Contractors master the schedule, even in hard bid conditions? In this special Fridays with Vico webinar, we'll demonstrate how Vico Control can help you bid a shorter schedule, as well as manage and meet that tighter schedule. Vico Control also allows you to vet the credibility of the bids from subs with whom you'll be sharing the risk. The software and methodology gives you a much clearer, farther-forward-look at the project so you and your team can make adjustments earlier. In addition, you also gain the ability to do what-if scenarios and strategize how you will bid the job: you'll better understand how to attack the project and prepare a more competitive price based on schedule control.

It's counter-intuitive to think that a tighter schedule mitigates risk. But you haven't seen Vico Control, our quantities-driven, location-based, and resource-balanced scheduling solution.

Part 2. Mastering 5D Cost Planning for a Hard Bid Project.

In this webinar, we'll examine the difference that construction-caliber quantities bring to the cost plan and schedule. Cost planning allows you to build multiple iterations of the estimate linked to the model progression specification so that every change can be costed, not only in terms of dollar value but also schedule flux.

We'll demonstrate how you can calculate the cost of the project a a very high level of detail for the parts that are high risk, and leave it at a lower level of detail for those parts that you are subbing out. We'll also show how to use the model's visual feedback to determine whether you included everything in your cost plan. If an area or element is not highlighted, it's not in the cost plan!

We'll also demonstrate Cost Planner's markup feature that allows GCs to quickly define and refine profit margins on line items. And the Add-On feature allows you to add non-direct cost margins such as contingency, bonding, and insurance. Finally, you can communicate the calculated price to management, showing how the bid was developed from the baseline cost plan. This tactic is also useful if the owner allows an open book proposal.

Part 3. Mastering 3D and 4D Constructability for a Hard Bid Project.

It's easy to think that you're done with BIM after you've run a clash detection. But in actuality, the true BIM has just begun. Not only do you need to organize objects in space, but you also have to organize the project timeline. These RFIs turn into Change Orders which greatly impact the duration and cost of your project. We'll illustrate how to best manage the coordination process to iron out constructability and scheduling issues earlier rather than later.

Part 4. The BIM Knowledge Base of Cost and Time Elements.

There's a growing database of construction elements for BIM models, but did you know that best practices illustrate that you should also have a BIM database of cost and time elements? This knowledge base permits you to build resource-loaded schedules and cost-loaded estimates. But the question remains: Do you build it or buy it?

In the end, it's all about building trust with the Owner by working in concert, adding value every step of the way. Doing it right the first time yields untold value. Using BIM even in hard-bid situations permits and even encourages this collaborative approach. Let's work with the hand we've been dealt and make it win.

The Vico Blogs contain more information on hard bids. Please review the following posts for more insight:

Hard Bids - Back to the Future Construction-Style

Reduce Project Risk with Location-Based Schedules

Location-Based Scheduling from the Owner's Point of View

Why a 4D Schedule Must Be More than a Movie

Learn from your peers with your peers at Fridays with Vico.

System Requirements
PC-based attendees:
Windows® 2000, XP Home, XP Pro, 2003 Server, Vista

Macintosh®-based attendees:
Mac OS® X 10.4 (Tiger®) or newer