Pipeline Suite Bid Management Software

Pros

Very user friendly
Gives you all you need for bidding process
- it can send the correspondence via your email
- simple to add new trades and contacts
- simple to define divisions
- you can track the invitations
- nice and neat reports
Last but not least! A GREAT Customer Service!

Cons

Customising the email tamples is not that easy and fast
It is not powerful for multiple tender packages, it is absolutely perfect for a single Tender

Pros

Subs don't have to sign up to respond. The reply to email address is my own, not a corporate email. Customer support is unreal! Always available and quick to respond to all my questions. Database is private.

Cons

Could be a little more user friendly interface. The screens are small. A little pricey for this product.

We are sold on Pipeline Suite. We researched numerous products to help us solicit bids. No company was so responsive as Pipeline and no company exceeded our expectations, and continues to do so, like Pipeline Suite!

Pros

We are a general contractor who has been around 75 years and we have been soliciting bids pretty much the same way for all that time. We really didn't realize what a colossal waste of time and effort our old system was until we started using Pipeline Suite. We used to try to get plans and specs to our subs and suppliers by email, on dropbox, by fax or even by snail mail. Now we just click on the star to add them to our project and they have access to all the project information. Our subs and suppliers love it. I head comments like, "If more contractors did this I wouldn't have to pay for an online plan service". This program has been a real game changer, and in a time of increased competition, this gives us the edge we need! Thanks Pipeline Suite!

We recommend Pipeline Suite!

Pros

We like the ease of running project reports during the bidding process to see in real-time subcontractor participation. Support is top-notch and quick in reply. Uploading and organizing project files is a breeze.

Pipeline is constantly updating and adding new features, users can even make suggestions for new features that are then voted on by other Pipeline users and then reviewed by the Pipeline team.

Pros

So easy to learn! Month-to-month billing! A helpful person a phone call away. Pipeline was a perfect fit for our team, we aren't a big company but we send out enough invitations to bid to make this cost effective. Pipeline helps us stay organized. Having our files accessible online instead of just our server in the office is a great feature. We love that we can track who we've sent bids to, and quickly add a new sub and get a set of files sent to them in literally a minute. I've sent bid invites from my phone when I wasn't near a computer.

Cons

Because Pipeline is accessible from any where, I get calls at home to add another bidder to our list, darnit Pipeline I don't want to work all day!

First, let me make the statement that I don't easily provide good reviews. The service is great, every time I call, someone answers and assist us in what ever questions we have. this is easy to use, and it works very well. I've search many other products, this company is big enough to support the needs of a large company and small enough to care, no matter what size you are.

Pros

many features, but I love the new "add Notice" feature.

Cons

I wish the pre-qual form was not an extra, but they assisted by providing the 1st year at a discounted rate.

Any suggestions or recommendations are listened to and acted on. On the very few occasions where I've contacted the Help button, I've had an answer right away. We have had this as our only program for the last ten years and don't plan on changing to anything else.

Pros

Awesome program. It's extremely easy to use and understand. Everything is right at your finger tips.

Cons

I don't have any problems with the program. All I have is positives regarding the program. Everyone should try it.

My subcontractors have been giving Pipeline high praise. For ease of use and the reliability of the subcontractor portal. They say they have had negative experiences with other such websites. I’m also benefiting by association in that the subcontractors believe Pueblo has “its act together” because we are employing this service.

Pros

Assistance in setting up service. Customization ability. Monthly training provided. Price point!!!

Cons

I rated this website/software high for ease of use, but don't mistake that for not needing training. You need to invest time to train and build it out. Once that initial investment of time is done, it's pretty low maintenance to maintain it.

I have been in Construction from the 1990's, and this is one of the best tools that I have in the estimating field. The customer support is better than competitors and the Support Team will take a time to get to know you and your business.

Pros

That the support team finds qualified subcontractors for me to send out my ITB's

Cons

I wish they had a bid board so Contractors could view any open jobs in their area to see about getting more work. (just a thought, you all could get something like Team viewer to have a secured login to the customers PC so you could do almost a hands on training!!!!!)

Advice to Others

The support staff will walk you through each step of the way. It might seem overwhelming at first, but they will get you through it...

I researched a total of (6) programs. The comparison was eye opening. The presentation and demo was very informative.
No one pressured from Pipeline pressured me during the process. I spoke with some of my subcontractors for feed back and they all liked Pipeline.
They felt it was a user friendly program and that is important to me. If my subs like the program, they will be more apt to bid. Some programs were so costly and did not offer the features that Pipeline has. Overall Pipeline is the best option for the money.

Pros

Ease of use and you get a lot for your money. It is an AWESOME program.

Cons

None that I have found so far.

Advice to Others

Do your research and you will find PIPELINE is the best!

Likes Best

What I like best about Pipeline Suite is how user friendly and easy to navigate it is.

Likes Least

What I do not like is that there is no search bar option.

Recommendations

Take the time to do the online training seminars and get to know the service operators, they are extremely knowledgeable and very friendly.

Likes Best

I can't speak highly enough for the Pipeline Suite. It has completely streamlined our invitation process. Within a few short days of implementing the suite I honestly couldn't see doing it any other way. From sending out the invitations, to tracking responses, to sending our supplemental bid information this suite cannot be beat. Very pleased!

Likes Least

Would like more latitude in the ability to customize the sub lists. And they desperately need a mobile app.

Recommendations

Buy it, you can't go wrong. We reviewed several different options. From pricing to functionality this was hands down the best option.

Likes Best

Pipeline is very easy to use, especially when sending out large files to subcontractors. I especially like that you can go back and check to see if a sub has received the bid invitation, clicked on the link, and downloaded the file. Great for accountability!

Likes Least

I wish that there was a way to send the bid invitation to yourself so you could see exactly what the invite looks like.

Recommendations

I would say that Pipeline was exactly what our company was looking for.

Likes Best

It's easy to set up and user-friendly.

Likes Least

There should be an easier way to add vendors to the invite list. Make a search and add function.

Recommendations

This program has been thoroughly helpful in the process of estimating. However, if it could help provide a transitional process into the project management side, it would provide to be more helpful. Overall, this program has proven to be a useful and valuable resource in our estimating processes.

Likes Best

It took very little time to learn the how to use Pipeline Suite, and the instruction received was very thorough.

Likes Least

I get error messages every time I upload, even when the upload was successful.

Recommendations

It serves its purpose to complete the tasks needed in my job. They allow their users to make suggestions to the programmers.

Likes Best

Our favorite feature of Pipeline is its ability to track subcontractor activity without requiring a complicated login process. That feature saves us many follow up calls to check on progress while at the same time allowing us not to overburden subs to be part of the program.

Likes Least

The addition of a new vendor after the request has been sent out is a little cumbersome.

Recommendations

Understand what your needs are in the bidding process. If you need software that is as easy to use as an FTP site but also tracks subcontractor activity, this is the perfect product.

Likes Best

Pipeline does just what we need and all their demo promised. We are able to prepare an ITB in minutes instead of hours. The learning curve was non-existent. We were able to load our vendor database and be up and running almost immediately. Our vendors tell us it is the best they see, and they see a lot of different invitations. Our logo is front and center and easy to recognize. We are in control of our database, and it is not shared with our competitors. Selecting vendors is quick and easy and can be duplicated for similar projects, which saves time and effort. We compared four software solutions and chose Pipeline. I'm glad we did.

Likes Least

The hardest thing was to prepare our database for uploading. Pipeline was a great help in making this as easy as it could be.

Recommendations

From the first invitation issued, we have received great bid response, which means winning more jobs, which is the goal. The cost is very competitive. It requires minimal time and effort to issue requests and maintain the database. The ability for vendors to download plans and addenda easily means we receive more bids.

We are a SDVOSB General Contractor and had been using a fax-based program for bid invites. After much research, I found Pipeline Suite, did the FREE demo, and I'm sold! A few of the highlights are that we don't have duplicates anymore, the cost is much more effective, bidders have the ease of responding online as well as updating their information saving us a lot of time on the admin side of things. Our sales rep Rick has been amazing and is always just a quick email away if we have questions. He responds immediately and has always solved any problems we had. I highly recommend Pipeline Suite.

Pipeline Suite is a powerful application that maintains an updatable database, and mates it with tools to efficiently broadcast and track bids from beginning to end. This has helped our company expand its ability to bid more with less during these difficult economic times. It is easy to learn and simple to use, and, best of all, it is constantly evolving so that we can stay out front in a very competitive environment.

I rate it "Five Stars" across the board!

We are a General Contractor and rely heavily on Pipeline to get information on jobs we are bidding out to the subs from which we want quotes. We have used Pipeline since 2005 and couldn't be happier.

I have never experienced customer service like I have with Pipeline. Every question - forget waiting 24-48hrs for a response, they answer almost immediately, certainly within 10-15 minutes. They always have an answer to my problem (and it's typically me that's causing the problem).

I can't think of one thing we'd change and I tell everyone in our industry Pipeline is the best software package we've utilized in years! I don't know how we'd get along without it.

Setting up the job info - choosing the suppliers/subcontracts, uploading the Specs, Drawings & Addenda and sending out the invitations is easy and works great! There is a link so those invited can go online and actually access the info uploaded for their use. It has made an amazing difference in time management and getting the quotes we need, when we need them.

I would highly recommend Pipeline to anyone who wants a Class A rated experience with a software package that works as promised.