The benefits to my customers are numerous. From the ability to understand through the use of cost models for construction costs, my clients are better able to make decisions. The ability to manage my plants facility costs are also a key deliverable.

This software is the foundation for my entire business offering. It is a highly regarded cost database in almost every industry. The ability to understand impacts of geographic location and timing are unprecedented in the software industry. The full range of the offering by RS means online is a very important standardization across multiple sectors. I highly recommend the software to any company or person that is responsible for cost management activities in their business.

There are no negatives to the software. It takes a while to truly understand how do you manipulate the data sequence but again it is without any constructive defect.

It's OK overall, but the absolutely most glaring thing missing, is that this program has not been implemented into app form. I have been looking online for any evidence that this is on the horizon and I have not seen any indication of it. As a project manager working in the field and in charge of proposals, it is the single largest inconvenience of my entire job to have to stop and find some place to sit down with wifi access to do an estimate on the go. That coupled with the other cons I listed in the previous inquiry makes it beyond frustrating.

Overall, its interface is user friendly for the most part.

Its several lag on load time when scrolling. That the database lacks almost anything that is specialty or modern technology. Pricing is a joke at best and forces me to struggle with almost every proposal (FYI, I have been using this product since it was just a book). The annual cost increases are always a sticker shock. I understand as a product grows in popularity and comprehensiveness that there is a need for cost increase for the logistics of it alone, but the price increases seem to jump by leaps and bounds. This can be very hard to encumber, especially when used for a contract that is not as lucrative but requires your software.

Using the Online version takes more time than the CD version and the lack of ability to tailor the costlist view in the Online version when compared to the CD version is a significant deficiency that I hope can be modified.

I like the ability to access my estimates from any location with a good internet connection.

The online version does not permit "tailoring" of the costlist window at the bottom when completing an estimate. In the CD Version, you can hide columns that are not needed without having scroll from right to left in the costlist screen. Additionally, when you enter Notes in the CD version, they are displayed and it's easy to copy notes from one line item to another. The online version is cumbersome when entering notes and after closing the note, you can't see it without opening the note screen again. If the costlist display screen in the Online version can be modified to allow Users to tailor what they see and to display the notes once entered, this will SIGNIFICANTLY improve the User interface.

Frequent database updates and ease of use.

The biggest issue is the lack of ability to modify user accounts in bulk. It takes me 5 minutes to delete a single user license. I need to add and delete up to 60 users every 6 months. It takes me days to add and delete these users to our organization account. This is a major issue for us. We also hope that RS Means will recognize the value of customers like Roger Williams University’s Construction Management Program as an academic/educational user. We train and graduate 40-50 construction management professionals every year and have been teaching them RS Means in multiple courses. As a leading construction management education provider we receive free educational licenses for almost all of our specialized software packages. That is not the case for RS Means. Thanks to CSR we have been getting a discounted set of licenses over multiple years. However, if it was not for him personally advocating for us, it seems unlikely that the remaining team at RS Means would support such access for us.

We use RSMeans Data online in different courses in the construction project management program. It a great online cost data and great tool have it.

The software has different levels of estimating (square foot estimate at early phase of project during feasibility study, assembly estimate during schematic phase and unit price for detailed estimate). Ease to use, and exporting report to MSExcel.

It is all in imperial units (inches, feet, square foot etc..). There is no feature in the software to convert imperial unit to metric unit and the user must have an option to either work in imperial unit or metric unit. All construction drawing in Canada are in metric unit. Second, if someone works in imperial unit and generates a report, there must a feature in software to easily convert the result or report to metric unit. Third,there must be a feature in the software that enable the user to integrate the online cost data to AutoCAD, Revit, MSProject, Primavera Project Planner P6, Primavera Risk Management and other construction management software etc...