Trimble e-Builder Reviews

User friendly system and allows you to capture information necessary for your project.

Comments: Good financial reporting on projects and status of where things sit with what actor. Hold accountability with PMs, Directors, and Executive Directors.
Very good auditing tool that can help score performance on internal staff and outside consultants or contractors.

Pros:

Easy to build reports and dashboards. Building customized reports and workflows. Easy to use system. Allows everything to tie back to a project, include cost, budget, documents, forms, invoices, change orders, task orders, etc.

Cons:

System runs slow around noon-3pm EST. As an EB Admin, certain functionalities when creating forms are uneditable or would require you to remove a field and start over again. Dashboards do not quickly refresh with up to date changes made in processes or reports. Sometimes it takes almost 6hrs to refresh a dashboard based on new changes. Would like to see more online youtube training videos on certain modules (i.e., BI Reports, Schedule, Cashflows, etc.)

e-Builder is great for project management from start to finish

Comments: e-Builder is beneficial to companies doing project management, design management, contract management, budgeting and document storage.

Pros:

I like the document management and contract management functions.

Cons:

I don't think it is user friendly to the degree that, in order to one thing done, you have to apply it in many different areas of the software. If you skip one application, it is void.

Review of e-Builder by 10+ year System Administrator

Pros:

The amazing configurability and functionality of the Processes (Structured Workflow) module. The ability to setup custom Reports and automate execution and delivery of such Reports. That this product is available from anywhere with a browser and an internet connection.

Cons:

There are (seemingly low-cost, short turnaround time) fixes and enhancements that could significantly enhance overall functionality that have not been implemented for years. While the Reporting module does a pretty solid job reporting on the most needed data, there is a fairly large amount of underlying data that is not accessible via the Reporting module.

Overall Review

Comments: We are able to archive all of our documents and speed up our processes with this software. I has really helped with our reporting to our clients and providing as-built information to them.

Pros:

The software is user friendly, and has a great file structure for ease of use. You can tailor the processes to fit your organization and their processes, which is fantastic. Training is easy to provide to non users.

Cons:

Sometimes the uploading of documents is too slow.

Great Product

Comments: Still making up mind, would like to explore cost management more

Pros:

User friendly, flexibility of managing and creating processes.

Cons:

Some limitations with processes and workflows

Not intuitive

Comments: It is an absolute horror show. it is quite possibly the worst thing that has ever happened to me at this job. I want to quit because of it.

Pros:

If I could use it properly, I might be able to answer this question, but in almost 2 years of using it, I still have not mastered it. And I am not stupid.

Cons:

Too many e-mails. If you use it daily you can see what's in your dashboard. VERY HARD to use, not intuitive, difficult to do EVERYTHING, compared to prior software. Does not integrate with Oracle, processes are overly complex and do not follow the correct path.

E-Builder

Pros:

Ease of use, once we understood the process

Cons:

Multiple implementation teams made initial setup frustrating

Awesome Product

Comments: Very good product, will be a great asset for our use

Pros:

The ability to manage capital projects efficiently

Cons:

You can make ebuilder very complex and confuse users.

Builder review

Comments: As an administrator I and my team have done more than was done during implementation. It is a reasonably intuitive system and we are getting things where they need to be

Pros:

Compiling all project data in one place as a one source of truth

Cons:

The implementation was very long with extended periods where both sides were unproductive and we were not given any initial product training so we could effectively engage with the implementation team

Used to hate it, now I tolerate it

Pros:

+Extremely customisable. This is construction management software that you can tailor to fit the needs of your project. I've used e-Builder for three (3) different higher education institutions and each University is able to tailor e-Builder to fit the project's needs. +Notifications. E-Builder will email you a notification when you have a RFI to respond to, when you have a submittal to review, when you've been copied on a RFI response, etc. This is very helpful and allows you to notify multiple individuals at once through the software. It also keeps a record. +Documentation. E-Builder is meant to store documentation and it does excel in this. I've used e-Builder to access submittals, RFIs, drawing revisions, etc. on long term projects (24-36 month construction) when sometimes the documentation was uploaded years back. E-Builder does not put a time limit on an upload, so you can always access it.

Cons:

-Training is definitely required to use e-Builder. It can be confusing with different terminologies used such as "forms", "processes", etc. I just need to find submittals and RFIs but can easily get lost. Without training, it is easy to hate e-Builder, just like I did in the beginning. -Cost - this is not a cheap software and licenses can be costly.

Construction Software

Pros:

Everything is linked together, and you can see how other processes are related to one another.

Cons:

When you open a construction observation or any process it will open in a new window without giving you the option to open in a new tab.

Great program to replace an old outdated system

Comments: Great, we have streamlined our old outdated paper processes and allow things to run much smoother and quicker. Our Construction Managers can now manage many more contracts due to the increased efficiencies.

Pros:

The ability to customize and design e-Builder to work within your organization. E-Builder has proven to be a useful tool to replace our old paper systems with new customized processes.

Cons:

The existing submittals process is very clunky and needs to be optimized. The e-Builder app is basically useless for what we do.

Project Controls point of view

Comments: Daily user, its the first thing i start may day with. I notice some improvements, but wished some of the integration and imports where much easier for a user who is unable to use the API.

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

Sometimes a Harmonica Is More Appropriate than an Orchestra

Comments: I am a Materials Coordinator. Per my Agency's format- I am mostly in folders: Progress Photos ("04"-07); 03-01-09; 03-08 through 12-all subfolders; 03-16-01-all subfolders; 03-16 & 17-all subfolders. I look at submittals via Submittal Register. Processes I use most is consultant daily activity report (DR_) and equipment report (DARCA).

Pros:

It is a method to get at much info into an electronic format. As in the Microsoft Office software, the method of entering info into e-Builder vary from Process to Submittal, etc. In short, no consistency. I use the file naming convention format for record keeping for non-e-Builder projects.

Cons:

Unable to get a simple Excel list of file names, with upload date (a harmonica), found in a folder directly from e-Builder software. It drives me nuts I can only see two or three documents in the tiny window when I do materials review & file naming consistency. I create my own Excel sheet manually. I select an individual document, "Properties", copy the file name into an Excel spreadsheet-repeat steps. When a log can be created directly from e-Builder (an orchestra), it is in WORD (useless for sorting) in narrow columns stuffing long file names in multiple rows & extra useless verbiage filling the remaining columns. It can be edited, with the time wasted doing that, create an Excel spreadsheet manually. In the file naming convention, there is no File TYPE ID to identify material certification info (photo of object's marking, pdf of paper tag, cutsheet) collected in the field. Currently I use "MS_" for "Materials Sh**t." Sorting by "MS_" brings up lots of "Miscellaneous" documents when doing closeout review. Adding suffice "TAG_" would help; it appears to not conflict with the current file naming File TYPE IDs.

Review

Comments: Tracking processes, Change Orders, looking for stored documents, managing invoices, etc.

Pros:

Not easy to use at all. Many issues may be due to the implementation and not you. The owner of the enterprise is Broward County Public Schools, so I really don't know if the issues are due to you, or to the owner.

Cons:

When I want to export a list into Excel, its easy to do. BUT...if the list goes over to another page, then I have to go to the second page, and generate ANOTHER spreadsheet. Then I have two spreadsheets with identical name that I have to consolidate.Also, When I print an attachment (and by print it can be show as a pdf or word document, E-Builder does not keep the name of the document and gives it a generic name. If I have several of those PDFs open, I don't know which is which.I only understand about 10% of the software capabilities. Not user-friendly AT ALL. It is absolutely counter-intuitive to do anything, and training here is exceedingly poor.I like to produce charts. I've tried to self learn how to do so. Impossible.I see there is something like a Dashboard. This would be so useful to customize so as to have a lot of important information on a single screen or report, but it has been impossible for me to get ahead on this.

Expensive but useful

Comments: Overall, if you can afford it, you wont find a better project management software. This really can do it all. This is a top to bottom management software that really can manage all aspects of project management. For some projects this is a little overkill. There are so many features. If you're working on $100k project this might not be the software for you. If you're working on a $100M project I would highly recommend it.

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

E-Builder Review

Comments: e-Builder is a good software to track construction projects and document construction progress, issues, and solutions. Project history is tracked very well.

Pros:

Product is easy to use and very organized.

Cons:

Files are relatively easy to find. I would like to be able to search key words for documents.

e-Builder is very useful

Pros:

This product is very helpful for Project Management. I like the flexibility of the roles and permissions so that each user only sees what they need to see. We can control our data.

Cons:

I would like to see a better way to update many projects at once. A change in the folder structure or adding a budget line can mean going through hundreds of open projects to do the corrections. Adding a new folder also means making sure permissions are set correctly. I would also like to see a search feature in the Managing membership of users. We have hundreds of projects, some with similar names and some names are too long for the space given, so it can be challenging to find the one project to add to a user.

Owner Representative Feedback

Comments: Organization of internal documents has immensely improved in our office. The ability to control the document management has been helpful with a large office and lots of archives. The other more robust and/or complicated features have been a struggle to get the office into. Unfamiliarity with the program has been a difficult hump to get over.

Pros:

the ability to setup controls on functions so that organization and consistency can be maintained. The forms section is great. The fact that it keeps documents and conversation all in one place. It's nice that it can be placed in one persons court to know who needs to take action. It's also very helpful to manage workloads with employees.

Cons:

Implementation of the program to our office has been difficult. It's difficult to fit in the time to understand the program ourselves then train others how to use it. The opportunities are endless when it comes to building processes, forms etc. but the time to build them is tough to find. We could have benefited more from training from an e-Builder team but did not have the funds to purchase it.

eBuilder Review

Pros:

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.

Cons:

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.

E-builder is an expensive file organization software but has good PO tracking

Comments: There are tons of other project management software tools out there - I would not recommend this one.

Pros:

PO tracking abilities are good and the overall user interface is fairly straightforward. E--builder is not quite ready for prime time - we have submitted ideas to them for incorporation so the users have to make the product better. Who has the money/time to give a company ideas so that we can get charged for licensing while they benefit?

Cons:

So many to list. The pricing is horrible for all of the software's limitations. As my title suggests, it is basically a very expensive file organizer. The scheduling platform is awkward, importing files into the file structures is not straightforward, image editing that you want to do and share with your users is very limited and I find that edit images outside of E-builder first and then import them, you cannot record all of your correspondence created within the software (i.e. a full copy of what you sent out to another user), the side layout menu and the top tab organization is not intuitive and you can get completely of one project and into another without realizing it, etc. I would write more but I have to finish making pdfs of files that I need to import into E-builder because I cannot create them within E-builder.

Happy user for almost 10 years

Comments: Improved project management. Drives consistent application of project management processes.

Pros:

Strong program focused on helping Owners efficiently manage capital projects through the design and construction process. Flexible processes allow Owners to customize process flows to match their unique needs. Ability to integrate a wide variety of project team members into the processes helps maximize process efficiency and collaboration. Reports for day to day use are easy to set up, flexible and functional.

Cons:

Schedule module is still clunky. Difficult to drawn data from across modules to create certain types of comprehensive reports. In some cases data must be downloaded to Excel and further manipulated to capture desired analysis. Licensing cost structure can make it cost prohibitive to include project team members outside of the Owner's staff and take full advantage of the collaborate potential of the software.

My review

Pros:

All the features are very impactful, the product is easy to use and integration with our existing business processes were easy

Cons:

An improvement would be to allow read only access permissions to be set at the project level rather than establishing permissions based on the user. That way, all users can view all projects without having write level access to all project files.

eBuilder Saves Time for Municipalities

Comments: eBuilder allowed us to go through the pandemic shutdown without a glitch. All our documents are online and we longer have any filing cabinets whatsoever!

Pros:

The software is super customizable. You can tailor it to work specifically with your workflow and business processes without the need to rewrite the software. Its reporting module is also customizable, and this allows to create reports to be used with super ease for meetings, projects status, schedules, etc... These reports allow to generate customized dashboards.

Cons:

The submittal module can be improved but we created our own construction submittals module that meets our workflow needs.

JS Review

Pros:

I like the ability to customize reports for our specific project

Cons:

User interface needs improvement. It is hard to find documents and work through the software at times