TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

e-Builder

Score7.3 out of 10

16 Reviews and Ratings

What is e-Builder?

e-Builder is a cloud-based construction program management solution that manages capital program cost, schedule, and documents. It allows owners to measure and manage the capital project delivery process from planning, design, procurement, construction and operations.

Top Performing Features

  • Plan markups & sharing

    Users can annotate plans from the field and easily share plans/markups with other project stakeholders.

    Category average: 8.2

  • Issue tracking & punchlists

    Users can track issues from the field, and create punchlists upon substantial completion.

    Category average: 8.2

  • Jobsite reports

    Users can create and share reports on jobsite safety, daily progress, etc.

    Category average: 8.2

Areas for Improvement

  • Collaboration & approvals

    Users can comment, send messages, and/or approve documents.

    Category average: 8.1

  • Mobile app

    Users can easily access the system from the field on mobile devices such as phones and tablets.

    Category average: 7.4

  • Photo documentation

    Users can document construction progress and/or issues by uploading photos from the field.

    Category average: 8.5

e-Builder helps us build better

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

e-Builder is being used by our organization to make tracking of projects easier. I work in higher education and we have in house project management and we are the main users, but it also is being used to allow all of the stakeholders involved in a project access to the documents and costs associated with a project. Previous to having e-Builder, project managers tended to keep project information on their personal computers or in shared drives. Different PM's arranged their files differently and it was often difficult to determine where things were if a PM left or handed a project over to another person. With e-Builder implementation, we have a central document repository and a folder structure that is the same across all projects. It also allows direct integration with our financial systems which makes it easier to track project costs.

Pros

  • Provide a document structure that is easy to navigate. All documents, even within a process, are stored in the document structure and easily accessed by those with the correct permissions.
  • Scheduling, especially with the new module is easy. It is helpful with a large organization where many hands touch projects to be able to forecast workloads (we have an in house engineering team who reviews all projects during their design phase)
  • Allows for easy interface with contractors and makes the submittal process more straightforward.

Cons

  • We have MS Project 2016 and it doesn't interface with the new schedule module.
  • We have multiple layers of submittal approvals. Additional functionality to reflect how submittals are reviewed would be great.
  • The new schedule module Save button is in a location that is not intuitive to look for. If it could auto save or not be all the way on the upper right hand side, it would be easier to use.

Return on Investment

  • Has added extra steps to processes that were previously easier. And I work for a university that complicates everything
  • Has more than cut in half the time it takes to generate reports about project status
  • Has made project management more efficient

Other Software Used

Workday Human Capital Management, Qualtrics

Overall a Solid Product at a Good Price

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

e-Builder is used for all construction projects at the University - currently approx. 545.

It provides a solid, single-platform for all project participants (both internal and external - currently approx. 700) from all phases of the project life cycle (planning, design, construction and close-out) to more efficiently and effectively achieve the desired outcome.

Pros

  • Structured processes.
  • Cost management.
  • Document management.
  • Reports.

Cons

  • General interface a bit dated.
  • Process page layouts - need greater ability to customize.
  • Out-of-office delegation could use improvement.

Return on Investment

  • Significant reduction (days) in processing times for approvals.
  • Significant reduction in project close-out time and corresponding increases in OM quality.
  • Hugely significant improvement to visibility of costs (planned, actual and forecasted).

Alternatives Considered

PMWeb and AiM

Usability

A- builder not E-builder

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We would use e- Builder to create reports and build new dashboards. The company has been pretty happy with the results. My guys are not the most tech savviest so this website makes things an easy breeze. My boss previously used this at her old company so she comes with 3+ plus years experience. It's a very well-organized software for construction project management. This software covers all the bases from documentation to project closeout as needed for a construction project.

Pros

  • Dashboards
  • Reports
  • Audits
  • Closeouts
  • Sharing

Cons

  • slow system after hours
  • refreshment
  • more training videos
  • Updates

Return on Investment

  • user friendly
  • file structure
  • project progress

Other Software Used

QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise, QuickBooks Online, Zoho Assist

Great product to manage project delivery

Pros

  • Workflows.
  • Cost management.
  • Document management.

Cons

  • The capital planning module could be enhanced.
  • More reporting options for advanced users would be great.
  • Performance has been improving, which is good.

Return on Investment

  • Delivery processes are more transparent for project teams.
  • Management of project documentation.

e-Builder, works for me.

Pros

  • Easy organization once it is set up in the system correctly.
  • On time notifications of updates or changes.
  • Fast submission of invoices for processing. Usually notifies the appropriate personnel shortly after I submit it. Payment is prompt.

Cons

  • The layout of the site. It can be overwhelming the first time you encounter it. Needs to be a little less cluttered, a little more appealing.

Return on Investment

  • Helps us manage specific projects well, and we have seen payment of our submitted invoices being processed faster than other clients. We are quite happy.

Other Software Used

Procore, QuickBooks Premier

Usability