My name is Bill Carey. I started out as a carpenter over 40 years ago. I soon moved into the construction office and started creating estimates. I've been at it ever since.
When I originally came to work for Sigma after 30 years of estimating in Chicago and New York,
I was excited to return to the art and process of estimation, and looked forward to making Sigma more consistent with the uniqueness of North American estimation practices and procedures. But there was always a cultural divide that needed to be crossed. As much as I made lifelong friends with the folks in Denmark, nothing compare to the American estimators.
So I was saddened when Sigma was bought by EG and they decided to focus on Europe and withdraw from the NA market, but thrilled that Rulon Allred, who has a long history in construction software, became the NA reseller for Sigma, and asked me to be part of the team that would transform Sigma into a NA powerhouse estimating solution.
While Estimating America is a startup, the products we represent have a strong, solid place in construction estimating in North America. We currently represent Sigma Estimates, Planswift and Square Take off, with other products that have national recognition coming soon.
One of my greatest wishes at Sigma was to create a forum on the website for users and estimators in general. A place to share templates and libraries, tricks, and hacks. A place where you could ask questions and find ways of using Sigma that most folks don’t know about.
I’ll be in that forum everyday and if I can’t answer your questions about Sigma I’ll find the answer from one of the developers in Denmark and post as quickly as I can. And estimating questions in general will be well received and should lead to some good discussions about best practices, opportunities, workflow, and general “how do you do it” requests. And if you want to complain and vent, we’ll pretend to listen. 😉
I’ll be writing many of the post but I will also enlist and publish commentary from other seasoned estimators, manufacturers, project managers, architects, etc. We are open to suggestions about format and content on both the forum and the blog.
As Estimating America grows, we hope you’ll be a part of it.