RSMeans Data Online Reviews - Page 3

Offers accurate unit prices for specific areas, eliminates toggling between applications for estimating, quick turn-around times for bids

No ability to filter searches, i.e. filter search within specific line item, sometimes when searching in the search bar the word does not register when hitting "enter", you must manually click the "Search" button

Ease of use - I mean we can get $/UOM regarding any construction work based on any location in US/CANADA.

Price of packages - It seems bit high. Also, you must consider that teams will be using this - so please consider increasing the number of users for an account

Great for quickly estimating larger budgets. RSMeans Cost Data is second to none. I find it is extremely accurate. Great tool for developers, project managers and estimators.

It is expensive. But I have found it is well worth the money.

ease of use, costing data is updated on a regular basis

thinks that i like least are addressed in more expensive packages

I like the ease of searching for a "needle in a haystack". I can drill down quite far to get detailed item pricing

Not enough parameters for square foot estimates. I would like to see the ability to put more info in when I start the square foot estimate

The software is user friendly and gives a good foundation for cost estimating.

Sometimes I find the cost estimate to be rather low compared to actual bids.

How I can break down my estimates into individual lines items

The process of changing the city/state locations

We switched from e-books to RSMeans Online and it has been great! Our team finds it more interactive, easier to find information, and overall a great experience.

There are so many different packages and customizations which is good on one hand, but also a bit much as some people want more functions while others wouldn't necessarily use them.

Hi Caitlin - Thank you for submitting your feedback and we are glad to hear that your experience after switching to RSMeans Data Online has been great! We've passed your feedback along to the Product Development team to take into consideration for future enhancements of the packages and customizations.

Current and up to date information with the online version.

Sometimes difficult to find the correct line item and you have to refer back to the book to find exactly what you are looking for.

Rs means has a good database with a timely update with the latest prices.

Rs Means is not best with the user friendly

Hello Shobhit - Thank you for taking the time to submit feedback of your experience with RSMeans Data Online. We have provided your feedback to the Product Development team around user friendliness to be considered in future enhancements.

The ability to create valuations of a variety of different buildings

I'm a fiscal manager not a civil engineer so it is difficult to look at those huge lists of interchangeable components to what goes into a building

I do not like that you do not have an product for Academia as this product is used by students and if you want students to learn you need to help librarians provide right access. Access in academia works best with ip addresses and not by seats. Also, when we need access which is for a week or two in the semester it for the whole classroom and we cannot use the products if it only for 2 users as we cannot afford any more seats.

none at this time

I like the tools RSMEANS gives for guidance if you are unfamiliar with a particular trade.

The auto logout is annoying. It would be better if you got a log out on your own.

I like that it is a comprehensive database of all of the RS Means Books in one easy to access, online database. Searching for items is fairly easy. Adjusting prices for markets and quarters of the year is easy with one touch of a button

The descriptions of items are long and if you try to extend the description field so that you can understand what item you are looking at, you lose some of the productivity and cost data fields. The viewing box could stand to be larger to allow for more data to be visible

The catalogue does contain a fair amount of line items.

I need to create my own system. I need to search for items with different terms. Line items sometimes may be too generic or too specific. It's not consistent.

The ease of looking up specific material items.

The inclusion of new technology pricing has a wait.

Industry standard. "We used MEANS for pricing" - lets people know where the price baseline comes from and most constructors are familiar with the system.

The lack of assemblies. My specialty is electrical construction - lots of parts and pieces. It would be best to create an assemblies section of MEANS. 1. Conduit with supports and boxes. Create an assembly that has supports and "x amount of boxes" per foot of conduit. 2. Wiring device assemblies - include all the parts and pieces plus some branch circuit. Have assemblies tailored for tennant finish, warehouse, etc. 3. Fixture assemblies. Assemblies are much more efficient for use at the MEANS level of pricing. Independent count of individual fittings isn't critical, so having an assemblies section would be much more effective, but more accurate than a square foot number.

The details provided when building an estimate is immeasurable

Training is needed when doing speciality estimates

As a fire protection contractor, I use RSMeans data to estimate field time for change order work on government projects. This method has been acceptable to the corps of engineers, and provides a fair and reasonable estimate of time. In addition, I like the ability to save the estimate in an Excel spreadsheet, and add a total labor calculation to the file.

RSMeans data does provide data on new installations, but does not provide data choices for reworking of existing systems that I could find, such as demolition or reworking of sprinkler drops, etc... for a tenant improvement. Also, I do not use the material cost estimate portion of the work.... only because we provide actual quotes of materials, including freight costs, to the project site.

Huge range of trades to choose from, updated cost lists by quarter, ease of use.

The only thing we don't like is that the table doesn't display properly when the browser window is collapsed to half screen.

Relatively easy to use after some training. Automatically adjusts costs for regions.

The determination of which "package" is appropriate for our use extremely cumbersome and difficult. Our current package covers most of the line items we need, but there are some that it doesn't cover. We still purchase the book every couple of years as it includes many line items our online package does not cover.

Power software with cost data. Love the cost index feature. I like the ability to build an estimate.

Difficulty in searching for desired methods/products and less than desirable estimating section.

Acesss is easy as in you can always get logged in

With no training (that doesnt cost a bunch of money) It is extremely difficult to figure out how to make it work. Almost impossible actually