Austin Commercial’s Digital Transformation in Preconstruction with RIB CostX

The Customer

Austin Commercial, one of the largest, most diversified builders in the United States, is recognized for its exceptional safety records and innovative construction solutions across several varied markets, including aviation, healthcare, hospitality, education, fabrication plants, etc. The business has provided management and preconstruction services on a portfolio of major projects across Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, Orlando, and Los Angeles.

Mission

In 2017, Austin Commercial began exploring software solutions that would assist the company to maintain its position as a market leader in preconstruction services. The aim was to leverage technology to improve accuracy and efficiency while integrating 3D takeoff, 2D takeoff, and estimating into a single platform.

Solution

Faced with the evolving preconstruction phase and a challenging industry landscape, Austin Commercial chose RIB CostX to reimagine their processes. This decision stemmed from their dedication to cutting-edge technology, aiming to enhance accuracy, efficiency, and integration. By adopting these advanced digital tools, Austin Commercial sought to support their team’s expertise and maintain their market leadership in preconstruction services.

Result

Implementing RIB CostX has transformed Austin Commercial’s preconstruction processes. The dual approach of 2D and 3D/BIM workflows has improved efficiency, accuracy, and collaboration. With enhanced functionality and real-time data sharing, the team has achieved proactive design insights and reduced project surprises. This digital transformation aligns with Austin’s commitment to trusted results and unmatched effort, driving better-informed decisions and elevating their service offering.

An Industry in Flux

The preconstruction phase is evolving. A challenging industry landscape has elevated the need for a precise preconstruction process, conducted by experienced professionals with the right digital tools at their disposal.

This imperative has driven many preconstruction businesses to rethink and digitally transform their service offering, unlocking greater benefits for themselves and their clients. While advanced software alone cannot guarantee success, these solutions can have a noted impact when deployed by construction professionals who fully understand the industry and the data at hand.

The Austin Commercial team has sought to reimagine their preconstruction processes, with RIB products, RIB CostX and RIB Benchmark, playing key roles in its industry-leading offering.

Moving on from Manual Methods

When it comes to estimating on major projects, the trusty scale ruler has long since gone by the wayside. Although there are several all-in-one construction estimating platforms that can get the job done quickly and efficiently, the best digital solutions in the construction space are designed and constantly developed to be future-proof. Without this commitment from the software supplier, the practicality of an investment will quickly begin to wane.

For Austin Commercial, the decision to implement RIB CostX came about due to their dedication to cutting-edge technology.

“We made the decision in 2017 to explore software packages that could continue to let us be a market leader in preconstruction services,” said VP of Preconstruction Brian Andrews. “Our people and knowledge are at the forefront, but the estimating software we had been using was dated and wasn’t advancing in the changing environment. We wanted a software that could build on our accuracy and knowledge, improve our efficiency, and integrate 3D takeoff, 2D takeoff and estimating into a single platform.”

In implementing RIB CostX, Austin Commercial is able to support their team with a digital software solution that further empowers the strength of the business. Deep industry knowledge across commercial, real estate, aviation, healthcare and manufacturing is at the heart of the enterprise’s success.

“Our team has a commanding knowledge of the industry, throughout preconstruction and into construction,” said Brian Andrews. “We believe in the accuracy, integrity and effort of our people, as well as putting our customer’s needs at the forefront and aiding designers in projects that are landmark in form and function. All of these elements combine to help us gain the customer’s trust.”

Reimagining Preconstruction with RIB CostX

Once a business is selected to lead the preconstruction phase on a major project, there are many vital aspects to consider. Everything from scope to feasibility, budget, scheduling and more must be established in advance. Projects that maintain a Building Information Modelling environment often uncover details that can have a positive impact on downstream planning.

Austin Commercial utilize both the 2D and 3D/BIM capacity of RIB CostX, and this dual approach has paid dividends for their enterprise.

“With RIB CostX, we are able to use BIM model maps to pull quantities out of the 3D models. We use this as a check against our 2D take-off,” said Senior Estimator Allison Koester. “Interrogating the model reveals materials and details that have not made their way into the 2D plans and finish list. This leads to proactive design RFIs that clarify the scope sooner and improve the accuracy of our estimate. Fewer surprises make for a better project.”

The practice of using both 2D and 3D/BIM workflows often represents the best of both worlds for RIB CostX users. Tried and tested 2D estimates continue to be preferred for most projects, while well-executed BIM modelling is a proven game-changer for our industry when it comes to creating value across a project’s lifecycle and boosting collaboration. The team at Austin Commercial concur with this assessment.

“Combining 2D and 3D takeoff with the estimate allows us to be more efficient in our quantification and allows multiple estimators to work together simultaneously within the same takeoff environment,” said Allison Koester.

“Having the ability to share real-time take-off between multiple estimators is a time saver, and ensures more accuracy with less opportunities for duplicated or redundant work.”

The enterprise is planning to expand their use of RIB CostX across other portions of the business in the near future.

“Our North Texas office has been working with RIB CostX developers to enhance the functionality of the software, and we will soon transition completely into RIB CostX for both take-off and estimate development,” said Brian Andrews.

“At full functionality, the estimate line items will be linked to our takeoff and will allow for future updates in rapid progression.”

A Benchmark for the Future

For the Austin Commercial team, it’s not just RIB CostX that is being utilized to help them reimagine their preconstruction. They are also currently working to deploy RIB Benchmark, another RIB product which supports quick and easy conceptual estimating and works hand-in-hand with RIB CostX.

RIB Benchmark is built to support organizations such as Austin Commercial, that possess high-quality historical project information from across the lifespan of their business. This historical data can be used to create conceptual estimates and perform functional analysis of a project, with older figures able to be adjusted for the present day through index factors.

“We are implementing RIB Benchmark to create historical, cost-based and high-level template estimates, which are then imported into RIB CostX for development of conceptual budgets,” said Preconstruction Manager Jacob Seyb. “Using benchmark to generate these detailed parametric estimates will help with target value design and management throughout the preconstruction process. When we fully develop this database of historical projects across market sectors, we can allow for a tie-in with Power BI and analytics for a deeper dive on trends, escalation and value engineering.”

Brian Andrews said that the combination of RIB CostX and Benchmark will provide actionable data and insights for stakeholders at the earliest possible stage.

“At Austin, we begin using RIB CostX as soon as we have drawings, sketches, or conceptual models to work with. By adding RIB Benchmark, we can fine-tune and target our historical information to use as a guide even earlier in a project – before there are drawings even.”

“We have had this knowledge for years, but RIB CostX and Benchmark turn that knowledge into data that we can get to the hands of owners, architects, and designers to help them make better informed decisions about their projects.”

“These platforms are a component of a broader plan to continue to refine our industry leading preconstruction services. The accuracy and efficiency afforded by these platforms is part of our Austin TRUE philosophy… Trusted Results, Unmatched Effort. We are continuing to raise the bar on what we can do for our clients and the timeframe required to provide accurate information that they can make decisions with.”