LIVE From IRE 2022 With Estimating Edge!

Vector, the newly launched game-changing technology, and how it seamlessly works with The EDGE. 

Editor's note: The following is the transcript of an interview with Adam Oaks, the CEO of Estimating Edge. You can read the interview below or watch the recorded livestream. 

Karen Edwards: Hello everybody. This is Karen Edwards and I am joined today by Adam Oaks, the CEO of Estimating Edge. And we are at the International Roofing Expo, day one, live from the RoofersCoffeeShop Sound Stage. I'm going to talk to Adam a little bit. There's been some exciting things happening for your company, one of which you were recently acquired. 

Adam Oaks: That's right, yeah. And good morning. 

Karen Edwards: Oh, good morning. 

Adam Oaks: So yeah, we're real excited. In fact, we were acquired by Foundation Software, who is also owned by Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm. And Foundation Software provides accounting, project management, construction community. They really focus on the specialty trade contractors, just like we at the Edge do.  

So obviously roofing is our biggest market and we have roofers that use our service. Well, they have roofers that use their accounting. So we're really excited. The first thing we'll be doing is putting together a seamless integration with the Edge and Foundation so that data can move between accounting systems and our estimating system seamlessly, eliminating duplicate entry and errors. So it's a really great opportunity for our employees, for our customers, couldn't be more excited. 

Karen Edwards: Wow. One of the biggest pain points that contractors tell us they have is that seamless integration and getting your accounting system to talk to your other platforms. So that's going to be huge. 

Adam Oaks: Yeah. In fact, we'll do that through APIs. So it will truly be seamless. It won't be a download, uploads type scenario with Excel or anything, which can be very frustrating. So this will really be all in one system. 

Karen Edwards: Nice. Now you may not know this, but Adam and Estimating Edge are members of the Roofing Technology Think Tank and Adam spoke at our meetup yesterday and gave us a look at this new game changing technology that is kind of, it's live. 

Adam Oaks: It is. 

Karen Edwards: And ready to be used. And it's called Vector. 

Adam Oaks: That's right. So Vector is a new solution that has been in the works for literally years. I joined Estimating Edge about four years ago, and I had left the construction community for probably a decade prior to that. But in my early career, I worked for a company called CMD and we operated plan rooms where people would come in and do their takeoffs manually on blueprints with measuring wheel or tape and write those down on notes, eventually enter them to Excel. And so I watched how takeoff went.  

And so when I joined the Edge, I was blown away why they're estimating tool, the ability to tie all in one system would takeoff and estimate, but able to tie in the labor material in real time, right to the estimate. 

But what I didn't like is the fact that you still have to measure those lines, just like it's a regular blueprint. So you take a mouse and you literally just trace the lines. That's the technology that is everywhere today. And I realized there's more that can be done. So did some research. And we developed a tool that will extract data from a BIM model like Revit. And so if you have a new building that's designed in Revit, you can extract that data and allow that data to automatically create all the takeoff. 

If you're talking about a shopping mall, that could be days worth of work of flicking everything on the roof, tracing the perimeter, everything that you're going, and then you do the estimate. So if you can eliminate that part and just sign conditions or assemblies, then you'll probably eliminate somewhere between 40 to 60% of the work that you've already been doing. That's game changing, like you said.  

And we're taking that further. We're going to be looking at other smart data. A good example will be an EagleView file that comes through and we will be able to extract that same data rebuild the drawing so there's no tracing. And again, eliminate all that work. And it was funny at RT3, Division 7 Roofing was there, a customer of ours. And he came up and said, you've made my day. I'm so tired of tracing all the lines. And so we're excited. 

Karen Edwards: So that was Ryan. Ryan said, I can't wait. We are going to talk about this. And we got to see it. So I imagine that if somebody wants to take a look and see how this works, you've got that at your booth. 

Adam Oaks: Absolutely. We're ready to show it. 

Karen Edwards: So do you know your booth? 

Adam Oaks: Booth 3223. 

Karen Edwards: Oh, yeah, 3223. 

Adam Oaks: Thank you. 

Karen Edwards: You want to stop by and visit the Estimating Edge team and take a look at this Vector. 

Adam Oaks: Or Edge On Site or The EDGE, whatever fits best with you. And by the way, Vector seamlessly works with The EDGE. So after you automatically take off the data out of the smart file, it pushes to The EDGE and you finish your estimate there. 

Karen Edwards: Wow. It's the technology of the future, but it's here today, you guys did it. And it's going to be like we said, game changing and I just remember Ryan saying, I you're going to change my career basically. I don't have to click a mouse anymore. You guys are doing really cool things. We're excited to help you share the news. And really everybody booth 3223, stop by, tell them RoofersCoffeeShop sent you. And check it out. 

Adam Oaks: Or Adam sent you too. 

Karen Edwards: Or Adam, yeah. Adam sent you too. So thanks for joining us. And we're real excited to bring you more news the rest of the day. Follow along on our YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe, ring the bell so that you're notified when we go live. Thanks for joining us today, Adam. 

Adam Oaks: Thank you very much for having me. It was a pleasure. 

Learn more about Estimating Edge in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit estimatingedge.com.