SmartBid Reviews

As a general contractor/construction manager firm, we use SmartBid on almost all of our projects. It's a great tool to let our subcontractors and suppliers know what projects we're bidding on, and ensure we have proper coverage for the scope of work involved. I was part of the initial setup when our company first began using SmartBid. We used to make a "call list" and someone would actually call up to a few hundred subs and suppliers for every project we bid. WOW. I can't believe we wasted so much time! Now, just a few clicks of a button and all of our bidding documents are in one, easily accessible place, and all the appropriate subs and suppliers are notified! Amazing!

The initial setup was a bit time-consuming. This was partly due to our own company's massively outdated subcontractor and supplier list. Most of our time was spent "trimming the fat" and updating old contact information. There are also limited user profiles, when it would be nice to have more people in our company be able to interact with SmartBid.

I enjoy that smartbid streamlines the bidding process in construction. It allows you to upload drawings & specifications, as well as selecting trades to solicit to easily. Most bidding softwares are too complex for small subcontractors to understand and easily access documents. Smartbid offers ease of use for these subcontractors as well as allowing subcontractors to benefit the way the general contractor is. Having the availability to create takeoffs in Smartbid for the subcontractors you invite is so important.

The only thing I struggle with for Smartbid is the options to having subcontractors change their information within the program. We would like to see that subcontractors can update their license information as well as contacts for their company. Hopefully changes will be made in the future to allow these features to be utilized.

I do like the way a project is created and the publishing features. I do feel that it was advantageous in the way we were able to take a project that we were going to bid and get the information out to the trades

I hated the fact that their database is so out of date. Many times our bid invite was going out to the wrong person or that person was no longer with the company. The software needs some form of check and balance to ensure that the information is accurate and that companies are keeping thier information correct.

Hi Todd, Thank you for your review! In SmartBid, clients primarily rely on results from their own private database, which they alone maintain. Use of our SmartInsight database of contractors is included with SmartBid as an additional resource for those situations where you will need additional subcontractor coverage, and is especially helpful when you find that you're bidding in a market...

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Great software to organize all of your Subcontractors and Vendors. Very easy to edit, add, or delete company names and contacts. Many categories for each company, including work types, DBE choices, unique categories to your company. Many fields get pre-filled, and make it quick to input data. Great reporting, exporting, and sending single or mass emails. Updates for bids or just company reports.

There are so many features, sometimes users can double up information. It's better to keep track of what users can modify specific items within each company. It's easy to have multiple entries of the same company. So user monitoring is key.

Smartbid is easy to implement and is very user friendly.

Requiring bidders to submit thru Smartbid is cumbersome to setup.

It gives you all you need to manage a bidding process. - multiple divisions - pick the trades based on so many items, like area code, location, division and etc. - track who has been reviewing the document, who is interested who is not and etc - customised tender packages And lots of other features

Weak in searching- you should know how exactly the trade has been saved, otherwise you should try multiple entries. It’s tricky to add new contacts to the trades and send the invitation for a recent tender It is not that much user friendly and needs time to be expert

The break downs and overall features of this product make it very useful for bidding large projects.

I think if the communication section could be more personalized so it seems as if the user is sending a email directly and not through smart bid. Most people are overrun in emails and a personalized touch may invite more participants to open there email. Does not update the date without refreshing the page. gets confusing when making calls.

We are able to store potentiometer trade partners and send out communications regarding projects with ease. Trade partners are able to respond to the bid invitation and they are able to upload their proposal.

This software still has a couple of kinks. If at anytime you click the back button, you will be required to log back into the program.

I love the ease of use and the ability to distribute the information we need to get to our subs with such ease. The program is easy to use, but does not lack in its capabilities. For bidding purposes it makes my life so much easier knowing all the available information is getting distributed to everyone that needs to see it.

I have not come across any cons while working with the software. The only issue I have when using this is selecting the contractors to send bids to, but that is just because it is a strain on the eyes.

By simplifying the pre-construction process and improving the overall communication, comparing bids and track projects.

SmartBid works very well, yet when it comes to add-ons, one should be careful how to apply such integrations.

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User friendly, and easy to navigate the site. Not too many clicks of the mouse, and has the ability to add and delete unwanted fields. Very fast and friendly customer support for easy or hard questions.

Not too many cons. I am a big fan of this software for the use of getting quotes for bids.

The software is definetly helpfull for distributing the Invitation to Bid to as many subs as possible. It's also easy to set up.

One of the main issues I've had is that you have to be very careful on the spec codes that you assign to the subs. If you input the wrong codes, you will be excluding those subs from the ITB. Also, after so many years of using it, some subs go out of business and you can waste time checking (calling) which subs will be bidding or not.

Thank you for taking the time to review SmartBid Gabriela! We agree that it's very important to have the correct spec codes so that you know what scopes your subcontractors perform. Our Customer Service team can review with you some options for managing those codes and getting update requests out to your subs so that they can tell YOU what scopes they perform. Also, because we maintain our own...

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This software is easy to use, customizable, and their customer service is excellent. yet to find a software that compares.

I would like if it was dummed down a bid for subcontractors. I dont like they have to create a login.

Chris - Thank you for the review and feedback! I wanted to make sure you knew that subcontractors are not required to create a login - they are giving an access code to your project in the email you send and can view documents and bid project details quickly and easily. If you have any doubt, please reach out to support@smartbidnet.com so they can walk you through the process your subs encounter!

Features and ease of use

For users of old fashioned software's, It has a learning curve

Kalpana - Thank you for the honest feedback and review! We're working on some updates to the system that will surely solve any existing learning curves. Please let us know if we can help you further at support@smartbidnet.com. - Liz Welsh, Marketing Director

The ease of use and the right amount of customization. The learning curve is present, but should not hinder a person that is at least somewhat comfortable with computer use. A great product that streamlines the bid process and allows the user the ability to tune the it to their needs.

The incorporation of the pre-qual process and other administrative tools into the software can be a bit clunky, but they still work, however, they require a bit more fiddling with.

It allows for easy submission of a proposal.

I have to log into multiple GCs separately. It doesn't allow several GCs under one email. It does an extremely poor job of providing a bid calendar.

Being able to quickly let our subs know new information at a moments notice.

The user interface needs to be updated. It is very difficult to understand how to send out even basic invitations to bid without the assistance of someone that has used the program for several months.

Kohl - Thank you for the honest feedback and review! We're working on some updates to the system that will get users up and running quicker. In the meantime, please note you can schedule live, one-on-one training at any time with our Customer Service team. Please let us know if we can help you further at support@smartbidnet.com. - Liz Welsh, Marketing Director

I love the ability to compile lists of subcontractors in a database form where we can search them and send Invitations To Bid to them with ease by sending to any subcontractor in a certain area(state/area code/zip code/etc.)

I really cant think of anything that I do not like about SmartBid.

I can't say enough about the pros. It was truly a wonderful software program I loved it all. So easy

It was a bit intimidating at first and took some time to learn. But once I did, nothing really compares. Customer service was exceptional except the quality of the call sounded at times like it was a bad connection Like the Audio was in a tunnel. And some customer service reps had very strong accents.

Very easy to pick up the basics, and a very powerful database tool.

Some of the more in depth features could be very powerful but it would require having more time or assistants to setup for each project.

Communication is the biggest thing for me. Submitting submittals is easier through the website. The cost is really a plus for small business owners.

None so far. So far I have not any issue that I could not resolve myself. Easy to use and manage. I feel confident that if I need customer service I will not have any problems.

There is nothing better than having management software do the work for you. This estimating tool manages large and small estimates with ease. I love sending quick emails for addenda, adding new subs and making this way easier than bogging down emails

I wish it had a few more integration tools but those could honestly be built into the program as we have not even begun to use this program as effectively as we could be.

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Matt - Thank you for the honest feedback and review! I'll make sure our product team sees this note. Please let us know if we can help you further at support@smartbidnet.com. - Liz Welsh, Marketing Director