Company: EstimateOne
Founders: Mike Ashcroft and Andrew Ritchie
Website: https://estimateone.co.uk/
About EstimateOne
Where it all began
EstimateOne, founded 14 years ago by Mike Ashcroft and Andrew Ritchie, and now operating in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand, was born out of a simple yet pervasive problem in the construction industry: the tedious nature of tender send-outs. Founded by an estimator himself, one of the founders possessed firsthand experience of the frustrations inherent in the manual processes required during tender time.
The problem EstimateOne solves
Before a shovel even hits the ground in a construction process, multiple contractors need to bid for the job. This bidding requires submitting a tender, which includes an estimated price of the build. Say if they were building a new block of flats, the contractor would be required to get quotes from every single trade on the job (including painters, plumbers, concreters and everything in between). For the contractor to be confident they’re getting the pricing right, they usually send out requests for quotes to about 10 different companies per trade – hoping to get at least 3 quotes back. In the end – that’s a lot of documents.
Going back just over 10 years, contractors would need to post all of these documents in the mail. We’re talking hundreds of pages of documents to each quoting company. And every time the documents require changing, they’d have to send them all out again.
Basic tech solutions helped somewhat – the problem is keeping track of who has which document. They tend to get lost in endless messy email threads and Dropbox links.
EstimateOne helps two key audience types; the contractor (also called ‘main contractor’) – who needs to put together the tender, and the trades who are quoting (also referred to as the ‘subcontractor’).
For the main contractor, EstimateOne;
helps them easily send bulky and custom document sets to subcontractors
records who has, and hasn’t opened documents (this removes risk as document disputes are common in construction)
opens them up to a network of subcontractors, so they can receive even more quotes and be even more sure of their tender price.
For subcontractors, EstimateOne;
shows them new jobs in their area, allowing them to submit a quote
lets them network with main contractors so they can build new relationships
Ultimately, it’s all about making a fairer construction industry. Subcontractors can access more work, and main contractors can submit safer, faster and more accurate tenders.
The results
The results so far have been remarkable. With a robust customer base, exceeding 50,000, and a decade-long track record as Australia’s largest tendering platform, EstimateOne tackles the global demand for streamlining the cumbersome tendering process. Expanding successfully into international markets, the company has garnered esteemed clients from the UK and Ireland’s construction industry elite. Notable industry leaders among their clients include Structure Tone, Britcon, LST Projects, JJ Rhatigan, Collen, Mercury, Conack, and King & Moffatt.
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