What Pencil-and-Paper Estimating Is Costing You

Many estimators we talk to are looking to upgrade their estimating workflows from pencil & paper to digital takeoff for the first time. While digital takeoff software has been around for a few decades, many have held out because of prohibitive cost for smaller organizations and overly-complex interfaces that require weeks of ramp-up time; time busy estimators seldom have to give. However, with the emergence of new AI capabilities and newer + simpler + more affordable solutions, the upside of efficiency improvements has begun to tip the scales in the decision calculus towards making the change. We hear it over and over again: estimators say "I know we have to make the switch, soon".

Let's walk through the benefits of digital takeoff, how the technology has changed recently with AI, and what to look out for when choosing the tools that will shape the future of your estimation practice.

Why is digital takeoff better than pencil & paper?

What seems like a question with an obvious answer is not quite so when you look under the surface. You value your craft, your accuracy, and the human touch that comes with decades of experience with good bids and bad. If a system has worked for you, your predecessor, and on and on for decades past, "why change something that isn't broken"?

First is speed, naturally. One operation of drawing, measurement, and calculation that might take ~60 seconds manually is instantaneous with software. One click and you have precise to-scale linear lengths of duct with the exact gauge and materials attached, or an accurate quantity count of diffusers without keeping a number in your head.

Second is the ability to scale yourself. Senior estimators looking to increase their organization's bidding capacity (or veteran estimators looking to soon retire) might feel bottlenecked with all the information that lives in their heads—information that can be codified into software, creating digital workflows that can scale to an entire team and beyond.

Third is creating a digital system of record. Numbers scribbled on paper or scattered in spreadsheets are often physically inaccessible, unsearchable, and disconnected from future estimating decisions. A system of record in a digital format allows data to be easily shared with your team or referenced by your future self.

Legacy software and its challenges

So what about the digital estimating tools that have been around for a while? These tools undoubtedly pushed the boundaries of technology when they arrived on the scene around the turn of the century (some of them earlier), and vastly improved estimator workflows in the switch from manual to digital. However, many of these solutions have not evolved with the ever-increasing pace of technology. Most legacy software offerings leave your data stuck on a single computer, provide updates once a quarter (at best), and have failed to keep pace with newer AI offerings. Further, the high cost of licenses has been prohibitive to smaller estimating teams who can't justify the cost for their more localized operations. Finally, complex and confusing user interfaces that require weeks of training—often at the user's expense—are too high a hurdle for estimators stacked with work.

Improvements with AI and modern tooling

Recent developments in AI technology and greater attention to the construction industry has brought a new generation of tools to market. Standing on the shoulders of the legacy giants, better interfaces, affordable web-based tools, and AI-native platforms are beginning to emerge that stand to produce a new wave of efficiency for estimators and the construction industry at large. AI is no longer just a cute chatbot, but a robust intelligence layer over your human work that provides predictions, performs actions, and surfaces insights that would take a human many hours to perform. (There are, as always, some important caveats. Read more about them here in our Layman's Guide to AI Software.)

Now, for perhaps the first time since the digital era, the opportunity cost of not switching your manual workflows to digital is too great to ignore. As competitors race ahead, empowered by AI, increasing capacity and organizational efficiency, those who continue to abstain from these changes will fall farther and farther behind.

For many mechanical estimators reading this post who have long been users of digital estimation tools, this may all sound obvious and redundant...but we know there is a sizable cohort of folks out there who are looking to make the digital leap for the first time. Canaveral is here for you, and ready to help you navigate not only the digital transformation of your organization, but the AI transformation as well.