Trimble e-Builder Reviews - Page 3

My Agency is involved in the construction of a number of projects for the State of Georgia; e-Builder provides a platform whereby many points of information, data, etc. pertaining to these projects are available within a click or two of my mouse.

My main interaction with e-Builder is the filling out of work progress forms; in the beginning, there were a few very frustrating shortcomings in the form process; after contacts with your IT department, most have been corrected; the chief of these was how easy it was to lose data that you had just entered in the forms; a current nuisance [that I'm sure has always existed] is the inability to "Tab" from some parts of the form to adjacent parts.

I like the custom aspects of this software. With the help of the support agents we have been able to really customize some of the features for our project. We use lots of custom processes and flows to manage workflow and control QA/QC of documents. The interface is also easy to use.

The price is a major con. This software is very expensive but I would say that it is worth the cost. Another con is how complex the software is to use. We have to have a support agent to help with management and had to have an entire team to help with setup. This is not an out of the box solution. You will need some assistance from tremble and eBuilder staff.

I love the workflows in e-Builder. It cuts down on paper, the time it takes to get docs routed for signatures, allows for tracking and provides transparency.

e-Builder is not intuitive to set up. Without someone with experience it is hard to make configuration decisions during implementation.

The communication tools available for all project participants. This transparency gives all participants a better control of real time reporting and management.

Some of the modules still feeling a little cumbersome- Scheduling seems a little tedious to set up, and make revisions.

The cost module is very powerful. The cash flow curves are helpful in projecting the amounts that we plan on spending. The BI module is also very good, for most things. I like the features of the documents module, such as emailing files and sharing folders with non account holders. They also have a good support service.

Construction management can use some improvement. This includes improvement to the meeting module, daily reports and punch list. I've also seen issues with the schedule. It's not the best at recognizing milestone tasks and requires some work arounds.

Many uses across the project management field. Numerous projects with numerous users can access all the same stored information at the same time. Sending RFI, Submittals, transmittals, meetings, reports etc and then sending & placing the requisite information in the other users court - its fantastic.

Very limited in customization (which could be down to the way the project was set up) and tedious amount of clicking to get through to where you need to, and then having to start again when go on to next task rather than just going to next item (report, submittal, photo etc)

There are still a few areas where e-B is making improvements. Particularly with document management retrieval and including metadata options. It holds collective information for the ability of everyone to see simultaneous. e Builder is a good construction management tool for the inspectors and construction manager, project manager, contractors, City staff and legal and audit teams.

Often lags in the afternoon. Hope the upgrades fix this. We needed better file naming rules. e-Builder needs a better search tool.

Submittal process is great until you try and change a comment, system doesn't allow a coordinator to change or delete a comment that he or she may have placed. Bummer. Reports are clean and easy to configure with excel.

See above comments regarding my issues and or concerns.. If the issue with comments can be cleaned up it would help a lot. Also when a revision is created I had an instance where the submittal could not be returned to the subcontractor who issued it. Related tried and couldn't provide a solution.

Keeps track of all the process like submittals, RFI, Bulletin, CO, PA, and FA. Also user friendly.

Sometime server are very slow while uploading file or sometime it does not accept the file

I like how e-Builder has a cost management, program schedule capability, and structured workflow processes that allow our users to control their projects from start-to-finish. The new implementation features that will be rolled out in the coming months will also be a valuable asset to our future growth with e-Builder that we are excited to be a part of.

Some of the more advanced features of e-Builder (BI, reporting, dashboards, etc.) require a higher level of sophistication that is sometimes difficult for our organization to "bridge the gap" when it comes to effectively utilizing these features. If some of the background coding was done by e-Builder in lieu of our forces, this would be more helpful for us specifically.

The system is robust and has great and useful features

Need to have a better reporting mechanism especially the dynamic grid reporting. not able to approve outside of the account user that is very frustrating trying to advocate the software to our C suite folks.

The structuring has saved us a lot of time and effort. Addition of information has been an easy process, and the security of knowing these materials are stored here and not to be tampered with has been relieving.

Not having a visual representation of the material takes a lot of guessing when opening files. Also, when creating larger reports, the program has a tendency to crash. More built-in reporting capabilities would be much appreciated.

Again, I like the vibrant look of Ebuilder versus other software that handle project database management. I also like how the filter performs when selecting various processes to view.

My least favorite of Ebuilder is not being able to easily drag files over into the system. I also am not crazy about how there is no 'reports' on the side tabs when inside a specific project. The process is to the top tabs, select reports, then select the project. A 'reports' tab on the side tabs would be helpful so you do not have to exit the project just to run a report

E-Builder is an all-encompassing program that helps with document control and invoices.

Items that are in certain users courts stay there without any indication on if the item will move to the next step. Also, no follow up notifications are sent to users who may not know items are in their court. There should be a better way to print summaries of submittals and RFI processes.

EB has a lot of featured that that in my opinion important from the project management perspective. however, it is not all available for everyone and depend on the credential access that the user has. All the features I found it friendly and easy to use after I understand them

A full user help need to be available for all users in order to see and understand the EB capabilities and may ask the admin to have it available to use. That is a challenge that we are facing during using EB

Works well for document storage and sharing.

RFI function is difficult to work with. It is hard to make sure the request is going to the right person.

I like that the software includes everything that can occurs on a project. everything is easily self contain and there is no need to use other software to manage a project.

At first its not intuitive, reports are limited especially when trying to compare a schedule to a specific line item in the cost. You can only report at the project level.

The collaboration features in my mind, are what make this document most useful. The transparency it allows by seeing who has a document in their court I found very critical in establishing ownership.

The initial learning curve is high but I think that was also encumbered by how the file system was set up by our construction managers.

I like that is allows the user use it as-is out of the box and to customize it to suit their needs. I also enjoy the (nearly) everywhere availability and accessibility since it is web based and that you are always working with real time information. e-Builder has always had an improvement attitude, so they are always working to make the software better.

I would really like to see more hands on training options outside of the annual conference so that users can take better advantage of this excellent tool.

It has the potential to be a great tool, giving feedback on the status of invoices entered. It is great having the ability to see the progress and process of invoices entered. It would be better if the processes established were followed consistently.

I cannot invoice until the process of commitments has been entered. I have no prior notice that they have been unless I look, usually, they are not there. I have to wait for that usually. It would be a far more seamless process if the commitments were entered when the POs are issued and there would be no guessing or waiting. I would have the ability to invoice via e-Builder the same day I actually invoice thru our system. Currently, I have to re-invoice once the commitment is added to have a current date on the invoice to upload. It is double work, wait and not a smooth process.

This is my first time working with a product like e-Builder, so I cannot compare it to any project management software out there. Saying that, I like e-Builder because it is super easy and user friendly. I utilize the home page and the workflow in your court feature a lot.

It can be frustrating when e-Builder is slow. I have the indicator on my home page that tell me when e-Builder is slow. The "bar" changes color from green to yellow or red. Today, the entire morning the bar color was red. Right now, at 12:37 pm the bar color became yellow. I do experience slowness every week.

It is flexible to be configured in different ways for different businesses and tastes

The performance issue is becoming more consistent

The most impactful feature of e-Builder for our organization is process module. The MM, having the reminders set and all of the functions in processes have been made a visible change to the current workflows.

I've seen the Cost module solid and not userfriendly as much as the other modules.

Thank you for the review, Sara. We're so pleased that you're finding value in e-Builder and we greatly appreciate the feedback about the Cost Module. We will work to make improvements.