The Story
After retiring from Morrison-Knudsen, a civil engineering and construction company with over a century of history in the United States, Mike Gillespie and four other veterans of MK decided to pick up where their previous employer had left off and created 5RMK.
Mike graduated from Utah State University with a degree in Civil Engineering, then spent 2.5 years serving in the US Army where he learned the skills of a powderman. Beginning work for MK as a powderman and junior engineer, eventually climbing up the ladder to become vice-president of engineering and estimating at Morrison-Knudsen. Mike now operates as 5RMK’s Manager of Planning and Estimating.
Based in Boise, Idaho, 5RMK retains the depth of experience in the construction industry from its predecessor. With years of familiarity with the construction, engineering, and resource development industries, 5RMK is proud to continue a tradition that truly spans the globe.
“5RMK is made up of several people who retired from Morrison-Knudsen or left Morrison-Knudsen when the company merged with Washington Group, and later with URS. 5RMK is made up of a group of professional construction people, all of us have field experience-- actually building things. Most of us have had the opportunity to work in the office estimating, planning, putting together a proposal for a project, and then going out and actually building the project.”
“We are a small company that does project planning and project estimating. We also assist clients with equipment selection. We help clients with risk analysis, as well as environmental and safety planning, as well as construction logic planning. We also provide construction oversight during construction.”
The Challenge
After decades of contributing to some of the most important infrastructure projects in American history, such as the Hoover Dam and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, Morrison-Knudsen was eventually absorbed by Washington Group and later URS Corporation. Undeterred, Mike and four of his fellows got together to create 5RMK.
Undeterred, Mike and four of his fellows got together to create 5RMK. However, one of the consequences of this arrangement was no longer having access to the in-house estimating software the Morrison-Knudsen vets were familiar with.
“At Morrison-Knudsen we developed a software estimating program called CAES (Computer Assisted Estimating System), and that was our primary estimating software until we left MK. When we left, that's when we started looking for a system that we wanted to purchase.”
Previous solutions
“When we first got together we still used CAES to some extent, as we were looking for a new system to replace it with. We did use and develop Excel programs, but found them to be really not satisfactory.”
As is the case all over the industry, there has been a general falloff in Excel use in the past few years. Bids sometimes require vast quantities of data, and Excel simply lacks any security features that would limit the possibility of human error. Real-time integration of data and flexibility are additional reasons why products like Estimator are increasingly in demand for construction professionals.
“We looked at several other systems on the market. HCSS we certainly have experience with, and we use HCSS now to some extent because we have a client that demands it. We had a fella by the name of Jed deMers review several systems and talk to a lot of people and so on before we finally selected SharpeSoft.”
Getting in contact
“We were first introduced to SharpeSoft when we worked on some projects in Florida, and the contractor working there used SharpeSoft. We had a lot of respect for that contractor (Barnard Construction Company), so we took a close look at SharpeSoft because of that.”
In addition to easily accessible reviews, word of mouth is one of the biggest contributing factors for potential customers when considering buying a product–and estimating software is no different. SharpeSoft is proud to build a product like the Estimator that earns the recommendation of our trusted and respected partner companies.
Interaction with SharpeSoft
“When we first bought into it, we all traveled down to the northern California main office. Five or six of us went down and took a day or a day and a half of training, which helped us get started, and then the rest of it was we just really bugged you guys as we estimated. We learned more and more about the system and what it could do. In the last 12 years you guys have done a lot of improvements and a lot of growth of the program. Some of the improvements were at our suggestion which made our lives easier. So that's worked well for us.”
How has SharpeSoft helped
“I think we felt like SharpeSoft would definitely meet the needs of 5RMK and the kind of estimating we do. Being able to set up offices, with each office having its own unique tables and data, was especially useful for us. When we go to South America and you got $2 an hour labor, versus going into Canada or California where you have $100 an hour labor, obviously you don't want to mix up your databases.”
“We do preconstruction...About 2/3rds of our work is international. We have done projects in South America: in Peru, and in Chile. We've done projects in East Russia, as well as in Egypt and other Middle East countries. We have worked in Australia and Papa New Guinea. And of course in Mexico and Canada as well. So we felt like SharpeSoft would definitely meet our needs. Cost and support were very important to us as well.”
The international market is no barrier to entry for the SharpeSoft Estimator. From different labor rates to conversion between Imperial and metric units on the fly, the Estimator has no limits when it comes to assisting companies investing in a broader market scope.
Would you recommend SharpeSoft to others?
Absolutely.