Construction Software Companies & Consultants in Londonderry, NH

Conest Software Systems, based in Londonderry, New Hampshire, makes estimating, takeoff and reporting software for contractors who price electrical work. The company has served the trade since 1989 and is now a unit of the JDM Technology Group under the name Conest Corporation. Its customers include electrical, low voltage, datacom and solar firms, and it presents its products as one integrated system rather than a set of unrelated utilities.

IntelliBid Estimating

IntelliBid is the core estimating product. Its database holds over 140,000 items and more than 500,000 ready-made assemblies, including manufacturer-specific entries from brands such as Leviton, Hubbell, Siemens, Panduit and Schneider Electric. Standard labor units are preinstalled, and estimators can choose among six levels of installation difficulty. Automatic Labor Factoring then corrects hours for mounting height, number of floors, run length and quantities.

Material prices can be updated through the NetPricer, EPIC and TRA-SER services, which are licensed separately, or imported from a spreadsheet. The software can compare costs among as many as ten local suppliers and store special pricing for individual projects. It is sold in three editions:

• Standard covers the full database, JobSpec for specification-driven takeoff, automatic labor factoring and unlimited phasing.
• Plus includes Smart Substitution using NEC tables, takeoff count sheets, and the AssemblyVue, ItemVue and JobVue screens.
• Pro goes further with change orders, temporary job-specific assemblies, enhanced proposals and bid analysis.

Takeoff, Analytics and Cloud Hosting

SureCount handles digital takeoff straight from electronic drawings. Its patented Auto Count feature tallies every symbol type on a sheet in a single pass, while point-and-click tools measure branch and feeder runs. When drawings are revised, an overlay comparison marks what was added or removed. Material and labor are assigned during takeoff and flow directly into IntelliBid, so nothing has to be keyed in twice.

Conest Connect is a reporting add-on built on existing IntelliBid data. Users can create custom reports and dashboards, drill into job details, monitor estimator performance, and plan purchasing, labor and workload across one job or several.

CE Cloud serves up IntelliBid, SureCount and Connect from a secure data center with daily encrypted backups, accessible from Windows and Mac machines, Chromebooks, and the Chrome and Firefox browsers. A further module, Electrical Formulas, performs trade-specific calculations and works alongside IntelliBid or as a standalone program.

Deployment, Support and Fit

Components may be purchased individually or as a bundled package, and they run on a local PC, a company network or the cloud. Technical help comes from a US-based team, backed by remote support sessions. Training takes the form of virtual classes, webinars, a video library and sessions arranged on request.

Conest suggests different starting points depending on the size of the contractor:

• Small and growing shops can begin with IntelliBid Standard and upgrade later.
• Multi-crew commercial contractors can turn to Plus or Pro for more advanced bidding capability.
• Multi-office companies can use CE Cloud for a shared central database without hosting a local server, while Connect combines data across jobs.

Overall, Conest differentiates itself through decades of focus on the electrical trades, a large library of prebuilt assemblies and its patented counting technology. Its software spans the whole bid process, from drawing takeoff through estimate preparation to analysis after the bid.