How Ryan Companies Improved Construction Bid Management

The Ryan Companies is a general contractor headquartered in Minneapolis and renowned for extraordinary commercial real estate projects. Their work spans various industries, and success relies on using BuildingConnected within Autodesk Construction Cloud™ to streamline the bidding and develop relationships with leading subcontractors across an extended network.

The Need for a Collaborative Bidding Process

When the Ryan Companies took a look at their bidding process, they noticed that each of their locations managed the bidding process differently - different bid forms, different levels of detail on cost collection, and different layouts for presenting bid results to clients. Inefficient methodologies - such as Excel - caused significant headaches and extra work for the team.
 

“We used these giant, arduous spreadsheets with multiple tabs to compare bids. It was very confusing: we had a lot of double data entries and multiple project managers working in the same spreadsheet at once, so their work wouldn’t save.”

Rachel Dana
Project Manager

How Collaborative Bidding Improves Relationships with Subcontractors

Ryan Companies adopted BuildingConnected to enable the company to react and respond as “one team,” allowing estimators from all across the country to work on a bid and save time by eliminating repetitive processes. Now they can store their documents and all of their subcontractor reviews in one platform, they’ve significantly reduced errors and inefficiencies.

Now, subcontractors can resubmit their bids directly in BuildingConnected, ensuring the most accurate bid comparison possible. With Bid Leveling, Ryan Companies’ team can make the best choice and confidently present options to owners while saving the team hours of work each week. This allows the team to build better relationships with subcontractors through clear communication, create a more consistent bidding experience, and simplify subs submitting their bids on time.
 

“When we compared our old platform and processes to BuildingConnected, it quickly became apparent how outdated they were. The best thing about BuildingConnected is that it allows us to have consistency and transparency across all of our regions and offices.”

Nicole Waits
Construction Analyst

Why Cloud-based Construction Bid Management Is the Way of the Future

Using BuildingConnected for collaborative bidding helps subcontractors understand the requirements and provide better, more accurate bids. It allows contractors to compare subcontractors side by side and choose the best fit. And it helps owners understand where their money is going and how it is being used.

The effectiveness of BuildingConnected for improving the bidding process has reaped benefits for Ryan Companies throughout the project lifecycle. It saves them time and money and helps them build a better future.
 

“Our subcontractors have enjoyed using BuildingConnected. It allows us to streamline communications, and it works well on their end, too.”

Britta Sortland Ryan
Senior Project Engineer