Trimble e-Builder reviews

eBuilder is effective tool for Construction Owners to configure their workflows.

Support for eBuilder could be better especially for teams who have just started to implement the software. There is constant follow-up to tech support for open tickets.

It's simple to use and I can incorporate it with my other programs.

It tends to run pretty slow which slows down my production

Its not innovative at all, falling extremely far behind other software. Its ok for accounting tracking but not good for construction daily uses.

Does nothing for real life construction progress.

e-Builder is a great product for owners who manage large capital budgets with many projects. The cost module interfaces with out GL system so there is no duplicate entry into a capital software. This means increased financial controls but it's great to have all of the information in one place. The e-Builder development team is great at responding to client suggestions and they are continually upgrading the system to make it a powerful tool that is extremely user-friendly.

Granting permissions in the folders is cumbersome if management likes continual change. We have a director who is constantly wanting changes and permission changes are not the easiest to make when you have a large folder structure built with subfolders like in Windows. It would be nice to be able to grant separate permissions for specific tasks but the permissions are set for groups of items. It makes sense but also limits the permissions the system administrator can grant to others.

Centralized aggregation of all project information. User-friendly and portability. Use in the office on your desktop, on all your smart devices-- all project-related information at the tip of your fingers at anytime and anywhere.

While the cost of adoption may be a potential hurdle initially for some small organizations, the benefits it brings to all stakeholders: design/construction/ institutional users will more than pay for itself in the long-term.

Well organized for Program Management.
The way the different workflows are set up makes it easy to use.

Not easy to distinguish between the gray documents (Inactive) and the active ones.
The notifications are not customized enough.

Broad based and organized storage of material and information

Search ability simply was very restrictive

Ease of use to upload documents for projects. Easy to access from anywhere with an internet connection.

I have found the search capabilities to be a little difficult to use some times. It can be difficult when looking for a specific item if you do not know the name of the file by just searching for a key word.

I like the ability to go in and make all the necessary changes to my project with little effort. Setting up new Commitments, process changes and incoming invoices has been relativity easy. I have developed a system for my project and the three years that I have been working in e-Builder I have had a very smooth.

I am definitely not a fan of the recent changes that have been made with the sorting and search features. I loved being able to scroll down my screen and see all the information for my PO's, changes and invoices. Until the latest update. Since then my ability to view the items that I work with the most has been dramatically hindered. I spend more time searching and re searching than ever before. My productivity has plummeted since the new changes. Recently I had to process 26 CCA's at one time, and had to spend an hour or so trying to get them processed. This used to be such an easier process. There is no longer the ability to use the back button on you computer, you must start over from the beginning and this is quite time consuming.

The system is robust and has great and useful features

Need to have a better reporting mechanism especially the dynamic grid reporting.
not able to approve outside of the account user that is very frustrating trying to advocate the software to our C suite folks.

The ease of use, transparency with clients/vendors and ability to use for all project information.

Report (BI) writing is limited. The BI function doesn't allow reporting across different groups of data. Reports can be linked but not the same as being allowed to report on various sections of data.

The ability to keep project information all in one place for all team members to have access to and interact with.

Changes are made by e-Builder developers who then update the client e-Builder platform and the updates "break" previously functioning aspects of the system (i.e. ability to upload files with comments to the submittal review process). Then when the issue is submitted to e-Builder for correction it is ultimately ignored and left unresolved. (Note: this issue has been on-going for more than 30 calendar days with no resolution in sight)

Three features in particular have made my job easier. First, processes are standardized and automated. There is no longer any guesswork as to how something was done, where the paperwork is, or who is holding up holding things up. Second, everything is documented as a byproduct of working through a process. Emails, internally generated documents, contracts, changes orders, submittals, etc. are captured and stored for easy reference. Third, no more paper. We have eliminated scores of filing cabinets, including those storing record documents from previous projects, and everything is now available digitally where ever I go.

Design reviews are frustrating. They require everyone on the distribution list to reply before the process can proceed. In our organization there are some individuals who need to be included in the design review but often do not respond. We typically have an administrator override and terminate the process. I wish there was an option to automatically close the process at the due date.

EB has a lot of featured that that in my opinion important from the project management perspective. however, it is not all available for everyone and depend on the credential access that the user has.
All the features I found it friendly and easy to use after I understand them

A full user help need to be available for all users in order to see and understand the EB capabilities and may ask the admin to have it available to use. That is a challenge that we are facing during using EB

The Progress step of Change Orders, Field Work Order and Pay applications are easily accessible.

This product cannot produce a decent Pay application Report that tells the summary or everything including stored materials etc.

Easy to navigate, important "hot items" displayed clearly on the projects screen.

Using the other features is a learning curve but not difficult. As with most software, the more you use it, the more proficient you become.

Software is user friendly and can handle almost all aspects of a construction project from start to finish. Schedules and costs are easily tracked. Change orders and commitments are detailed and all applicable users can gather necessary information at a few clicks of the mouse.

Some processes have too many steps and actors, which can complicate the workflow and cause potential delays on a project.

It is good at tracking issues and rfis.

The submittal app is very difficult to navigate and use properly.

Ease of use \ dependability \ easy access to outstanding customer service and support \ ability to create custom reports

With ease of use come some limitations in report design. Cannot search by company number to find a company in the contacts module.