Sundt Construction—headquartered in Tempe, Ariz.—is one of the nation’s oldest and largest construction companies. For more than 120 years, Sundt has participated in many landmark projects, including building the town of Los Alamos, N.M.—where the first atomic bomb was built—and relocating the London Bridge to Lake Havasu, Ariz. Today, the company works across the U.S. in markets including civil, transportation, mining, industrial, power, water treatment and commercial building.
Sundt is consistently recognized as a top contractor with a commitment to staying on the cutting edge of new technologies. For example, Sundt’s civil group uses HeavyBid estimating software from HCSS to work efficiently and maintain profits. (Annually, Sundt bids billions of dollars of work throughout the lower 48 States, Hawaii, and Guam.)
“HeavyBid is flexible, allowing us to bid both lump sum and unit price projects for over 50 different owners per year,” said Mike James, a preconstruction manager for heavy/civil at Sundt. “HeavyBid has given us the flexibility to utilize a centralized Arizona estimating staff that can seamlessly deal with labor rates that fluctuate over $40 per hour between regions. In addition to labor costs, a dynamic equipment library that can be adjusted for widely fluctuating operating rates (e.g. fuel, maintenance) is instrumental to our success.”
In 2012, Sundt began piloting HeavyJob to manage its new construction projects. The company liked it so much that it is now rolling out HeavyJob across many of its market segments and testing the new iPad mobile applications at its subsidiary, Foley Masonry and Tile.
“The best thing about HeavyJob is knowing where we stand every day on our projects,” said Scott Miller, a project engineer at Sundt. “In the past, we wouldn’t have current cost information until we had the accounting reports, but this was sometimes too late to make necessary changes. Now we have instant feedback, so we can make changes and stay profitable.”
“The knowledge captured by HeavyJob improves our cost estimates and ultimately increases our competitiveness in numerous markets,” said James.
“We’ve enjoyed working with HCSS on the HeavyJob implementation,” said Miller. “Our companies have similar cultures where both are employee-owned and are working to stay on the cutting edge of technology so we can provide high levels of service to our customers. It’s been a great partnership, and we appreciate how committed HCSS is to our success.”
