Class Descriptions
Computer Information
We recommend that you bring your own laptop computer for the training. By bringing your own computer, you will be able to test-drive the pre-release versions of HeavyBid, HeavyJob, and The Dispatcher before you give your feedback on Saturday. Since many computer bags look alike, make sure to have proper identification on your bag.
Internet is generally not free; however, there will be a free hotspot in the hotel and the convention center.
- HeavyBid
- HeavyJob
- Equipment
- Executive
- IT
- Intro to HCSS
What All of Your Estimators Must Know About HeavyBid
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- What data is estimate-specific and what is system-wide
- Where to change data rapidly and save lots of time
- Understanding which preferences affect just you and which affect everybody
- Understand which changes affect only the current cost item vs changing an entire bid
- Know what is being backed up with backups, when to do them, and all about restoring
- Using the Estimate Review to catch potential errors
- Various ways to audit changes in your estimate
- What happens when I run the bid summary and when should I run it?
- What reports must I absolutely look at and what should I be looking for?
Features that Chief Estimators Can Use to Manage HeavyBid
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
- Where to keep track of versions/addendums of an estimate
- Comparing different versions of the same estimate against each other to find changes
- Managing your list of historical estimates so reference material can be found easily
- Flagging activities so that you know what you have and haven’t reviewed
- Using color and text formatting to easily identify the major items in a bid
- Tracking changes in your bid and who/when the change happened
- Reviewing system options for security and passwords
- Monitoring multiple estimates for cost changes on bid day
Ways to Find Possible Errors in Your Estimate
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
- Looking for possible errors in your estimate, such as:
- Missed taxes
- Items still plugged
- Surprises in burden and overtime
- Zero costs and prices
- Items bid for less than cost
- Inconsistent units
- Inconsistent crews
- Treatment of Bid/Takeoff Quantities
- Lump sum items that got copied
- Quickly navigate to problematic items in an estimate to correct any mistakes.
- Printing and viewing reports that highlight things to check
Advanced Ways to Adjust Equipment Rates in Your Estimate
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- Ways to finely tune equipment ownership or rental costs.
- Scaling back operating costs while maintaining ownership costs when equipment is not being used the whole time on site.
- Accounting for equipment having extensive mobilization costs.
- Using the purchase and salvage method for some equipment
- Costing compound pieces of equipment
Avoid Time-Consuming Entry by Using the Different Copy Options
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- Copying estimate data from other estimates into the current one
- Using “library” estimates to copy massive amounts of estimate data
- Copying setup data such as labor rates
- Using filtering to quickly find estimates to copy from
- Quickly copying biditems and activities within the current estimate
- Copying/Merging partial estimates from stand-alones to the network
- Making an exact copy of an estimate for alternates/versions/budgets
- Copying new codes from the current estimate into system data
Conforming the Estimate and Creating a Job Budget
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- Preparing budgets intentionally to get better quantity and cost reporting
- Handling indirect costs to make them more easily tracked
- How to recode and/or combine items to facilitate job tracking.
- Pulling costs such as overtime, fuel, burden, and taxes from your bid for easier tracking.
- What to do with spreads such as holding accounts
- Issues with bid/takeoff differences
- Electronically sending budgets to HeavyJob and your accounting system
Control Your Solicitation Activity with Our Invitation to Bid Module
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- How to do a one-time set up of vendors that makes each solicitation cycle much faster
- Creating various template letters to reduce typing
- If desired, how to specify the items you are requesting to be quoted
- How to push addendum notices to vendors you have already solicited
- How to record all communications related to solicitations
- Create printed communication logs that can be submitted for good faith efforts.
Cost Spreading Techniques to Reduce Entry
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- How to work up costs for batch plants and spread them to where the result is used
- How to work up unit costs for anything to be used throughout the estimate
- Spreading the costs of compound pieces of equipment such as barges
- Using indirect costs for general spreads and targeted spreads
- Using addons and other automatic calculations to derive indirect costs
- Overriding computer generated spread amounts
- Understanding reporting when spreads have been used
- Considerations for exporting to accounting when spreads have been used
Creating Quick, Attractive, and Accurate Bid Proposals
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- Creating pre-formatted proposal templates once for use in all your bids
- Including your own company logo on bid proposals
- Printing a proposal for multiple primes at once.
- Handling subtotals, alternates, A + B bids
- Making proposals that show/hide individual prices, quantities, totals, etc.
- Creating proposals in Word and/or Excel to match an owner’s specified format
Efficiently Closing the Bid on Bid Day
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- Overview of the bid summary and quote management
- Making sure you meet your minority goals or good faith effort
- Bid/takeoff quantity differences and pricing strategies
- Auditing changes from various review points
- Checking for potential errors
- Freezing prices and using “closing” accounts to absorb last-minute changes
- Dealing with caps on mob, sales tax, contingency, and rounding
- Configuring the system to show custom key decision-making indicators
- Quickly double-check and then submit printed or electronic bids
HeavyBid 101 Training - A
Thursday 9:00 am – 4:15 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 2:00 pm
- A two day immersion class for estimators not very familiar with HeavyBid
- How HeavyBid organizes an estimate to make the process easy to follow
- Understand what data is stored system-wide vs estimate-specific
- Saving time by using “master” (template) estimates
- How resources are structured and used
- Basic cost entry methods
- Spreading indirect costs and computing markup
- Reviewing your estimate
- Overview of closing out a bid including quote management
This is the same class as HeavyBid 101 Training - B, except that it starts Thursday morning and ends with enough time on Friday to take two more advanced classes.
HeavyBid 101 Training - B
Thursday 1:30 pm – 4:15 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
- A two day immersion class for estimators not very familiar with HeavyBid
- How HeavyBid organizes an estimate to make the process easy to follow
- Understand what data is stored system-wide vs estimate-specific
- Saving time by using “master” (template) estimates
- How resources are structured and used
- Basic cost entry methods
- Spreading indirect costs and computing markup
- Reviewing your estimate
- Overview of closing out a bid including quote management
This is the same class as HeavyBid 101 Training - A, except that it starts Thursday afternoon and ends Friday at 5:00 pm.
HeavyBid 102 Training
Thursday 1:30 pm – 4:15 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
- Faster-moving version of HeavyBid 101
- For those with some HeavyBid background or great computer skills
- Covers all material from HeavyBid 101, plus:
- Advanced cost spreading techniques
- Creating and using custom calculation routines
- Codebook structures for better time-saving automation
- Better understanding of quote management and bid day procedures
How to Quickly Change Anything in Your Estimate
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- Fast ways to change a lot of data at once including:
- Labor rates, labor burdens, equipment rates, materials, calendars, crews, productions, summary groupings, markups, tax, escalation, overtime, etc.
Improving Flexibility with Excel Imports, Exports, and Linking
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- What kind of data that you can import into HeavyBid if you can get it into Excel
- When you can save time by exporting to Excel, making changes, and importing
- Customizing grids and sending them directly to Excel as a simple report writer
- Using Excel takeoff sheets to get and maintain quantities in HeavyBid
- Overview of using Excel for custom HeavyBid calculations
- Pre-formatting Excel templates to quickly print custom proposals on bid day
Keeping Track of Material Activity in HeavyBid
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- How to code materials/subs to get the reporting that you want
- The various places to change material/sub costs & the consequences
- How to deal with waste
- How to know whether or not your rates are still plugs
- How to find inconsistencies in materials costs and units of measure
- Pricing your major materials/subs in the quote system
- Understanding the capabilities for material reporting
- Writing purchase orders / subcontract agreements from HeavyBid
Methods of Setting Equipment Rates and Using Them in the Estimate
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- Breaking equipment costs down by components that can be quickly adjusted
- How to apply factors such as fuel prices to quickly re-calculate the entire estimate
- How the arithmetic in computing equipment prices works
- How to designate an equipment as using fixed cost/hour rates
- Considerations in calculating ownership costs
- Fast ways to make last minute changes to your equipment costs
Methods to Analyze and Select Vendors in the Quote System
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- Use of plugs to check your quotes
- Differences in analyzing subs vs materials
- Awarding work one-item at a time or for a package
- Comparing quotes for subs who quote on multiple packages
- Creating “What If” scenarios to best meet minority requirements
- Quickly entering and tracking last minute changes
- Consequences of non-additive items on quotes and vendor selections
- The changes in your estimate that affect quote management
- Creating purchase orders and subcontracts from HeavyBid
Quickly Build Estimates with Well-Organized Codebooks
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
- Create standard items of work that can create one or multiple tasks at once
- Estimating private work faster with pre-built pick-lists of tasks
- Make sure the easy time-saving DOT subcontract items are setup
- Make sure your DOT imports at least partially build your cost estimate
- Benefits of standardizing activity codes with crews, materials, and productions
- Setting up coding to make exporting to accounting faster
- Define quote folders to reduce time setting up for taking quotes
Save Time by Embedding Custom Spreadsheets in Your Estimates
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- How to use spreadsheets to make custom calculation templates in HeavyBid
- Using your existing Excel spreadsheets as custom calculation templates
- Creating spreadsheet calculations on-the-fly for something unusual or new
- Copying your own custom calculations within an estimate
- Formatting the spreadsheets so they look good on reports
- How to use spreadsheet cells to drive data in HeavyBid
- Sending your spreadsheet calculations to HeavyJob
- When to link to Excel takeoff data vs using custom spreadsheet calculations
Setting Up HeavyBid to Rapidly Take and Analyze Quotes
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- How to setup HeavyBid to manage the quote process as quickly as possible
- Using automated tools to shorten the time it takes to get ready for quotes
- Fast ways to enter items into the estimate that will be quoted on
- How to handle scope items
- Using quote packages to make comparisons easier
- Taking and comparing quotes
- Dealing with last-minute changes and cuts
- Fully understand how changes move between the estimate and quote system
Stay in Control with Our New, Faster, Centralized Escalation Routine
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- Make sure jobs over a year take into account escalation
- Escalate by general cost types and/or specific resources
- Quickly schedule your work so escalation is calculated where the cost truly occurs
- How to handle escalation for items you are taking quotes on
- How to handle escalation in labor contracts
- Reviewing escalation cost in your estimate
Using Alternates to Arrive at the Best Possible Bid
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- Creating work comparison alternates, pricing options & owner alternates
- Making packages so that you can quickly switch back and forth during the bid.
- Quickly evaluate cost and price differences between packages.
- Ways to present alternates as a bid proposal option to an owner
- Manage the spreading of indirect cost to alternate items
Using the Bid Summary to Develop Realistic Unit Costs
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- How the Bid Summary turns a cost estimate into a bid
- Calculating markup, bond, and extra “addons” to include in the bid
- Controlling how indirects, markups, etc are spread to pay items
- Considerations for how to handle bid/takeoff quantity differences
- Knowing when the bid summary needs to be run and when it is overkill
Using the Quote System to Compare Your Work Against Subcontractors
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- Quickly setting up a comparison mode whether you anticipated it early or not
- Adjusting the scope of sub quotes to include work you may have to do for them
- Understanding how to switch from a sub to your work and what is happening
- Seeing how your profit affects comparisons
- Making sure you know which you are using before the bid is submitted
What Every Foremen/Superintendent Should Be Doing with HeavyJob
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- Items that anybody can be doing successfully in the field
- Ensure that your foremen are at least 50% faster than they were with paperwork
- Quickly filling out time cards that account for ALL employee and equipment hours
- Capture diary notes, photographs, documents, and forms from people who can’t type well
- Considerations for tracking quantities effectively
- Recording safety meetings with almost no additional effort
- Bookmarking important data for easy future retrieval
- Helping your foremen see how they are doing everyday against the plan
Conforming the Estimate and Creating a Job Budget
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- Preparing budgets intentionally to get better quantity and cost reporting
- Handling indirect costs to make them more easily tracked
- How to recode and/or combine items to facilitate job tracking.
- Pulling costs such as overtime, fuel, burden, and taxes from your bid for easier tracking.
- What to do with spreads such as holding accounts
- Issues with bid/takeoff differences
Connected and Disconnected Models of Field Entry
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- Efficiently use different models of field entry to maximize use of available licenses
- When to use which model and why
- Understanding the new direct field entry model that does not use a manager license
- Setting up user groups to manage your user security rights
- Integrating sign-ons with Active Directory to avoid having multiple passwords
- Utilize cloud services to free up IT and access HeavyJob from anywhere
- Using touchscreen devices such as the iPad and Tablet PC.
Efficiently Track Trucks, Materials, and Subs
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- Shortcuts to quickly enter truck tickets to capture their cost
- Using load counts as a shortcut to calculate production/haul quantities
- Help your foremen easily enter materials associated with production
- Using P.O.s to quickly enter material quantities received
- How to record subcontract activity
Managing HeavyJob Processes Efficiently
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- How to make changes that affect multiple jobs
- Transferring data from the network system to the disconnected field systems
- How to automatically update disconnected field systems
- Avoiding double entry getting data from your accounting system into HeavyJob
- Using batch processes to automate recurring daily work
Payroll Export Time Savers to Use Every Pay Cycle
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- How data moves electronically from HeavyJob to your accounting system
- How the setup options control which hours are sent to accounting
- Verifying employee/equipment hours without having to call any foremen
- Quickly find foremen who have not submitted time
- How the approval process works and who should be doing it
- Notify foreman of missing and rejected time cards via text messages from HeavyJob
- How to be confident that there are no errors before exporting to payroll
- How to make corrections/changes after payroll is processed
Realistic Planning and Forecasting
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- Create “what if” scenarios in the field to plan ahead
- Communicating plans/forecast between field and office
- Forecasting the cost of finishing your work
- Changing field budgets based off the revised cost to complete forecast
- Customizing your own cost to complete reports
Reviewing and Correcting Data Faster and Easier
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- Create a multi-level approval process
- Efficiently approve/reject time cards
- See where you stand at all times in the approval process
- Help the foremen catch errors before they send in their data
- Build your own menu to perform daily tasks for all your jobs
- Quickly review and reconcile production quantities
- How to easily replace codes from a temporary to a permanent one
- Re-calculate costs when you have rate changes
System Settings and Coding Structures for Your HeavyJob Administrator
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- Ways to make it easier for your foremen to find their relevant cost codes
- Understanding setup options that help track special information for certain jobs
- How HeavyJob coding relates to your accounting codes
- User preferences versus System preferences
- Using security features to protect data
- Tracking material transactions better by using vendors and purchase orders
The Human Side of Introducing HeavyJob to Your Foremen
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
- Effectively introduce HeavyJob to field personnel to get their buy in
- Learn training methods that will give users a positive experience
- How to present HeavyJob as a valuable tool, not just extra work
Track More Data More Quickly - Advanced Daily Field Entry
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- How to handle overtime, shift work, absence, standby time, etc
- Recording progress quantities on cost codes by section
- How to handle employees with multiple rate classifications
- How to handle per diem, subsistence, and other labor pay addons
- Track breaks, meter readings and fuel
- Cross-checking equipment hours with GPS and labor hours with time clock systems
- Shortcuts to enter time for people/crews who go to multiple jobs per day
Using HeavyJob to Stay on Top of Change Orders and T&M
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- New this year - Substantially changed features that you can use now
- Fast way to identify and document potential changes to the job
- Track potential changes and look for new revenue opportunities
- Turn potential changes into formal change orders or T&M work
- Stay on top of change items statuses
- Creating budget and revenue items that incorporate both costs and revenue
- How to track change order revenue in the Pay Estimate Summary
- Manage T&M work, print bills, and export directly into systems such as NiceTouch (CA)
Using HeavyJob to Substantiate Claims and Extra Work
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- How to tag cost codes to quickly identify extra work items
- Use electronic forms as part of an effort to become paperless
- When necessary, capture signatures electronically
- Managing and notating digital photos and documents including GPS camera functionality
- Search through mountains of electronic data and create reports in seconds
- How to show the history of changes with audit trails
Using the Pay Estimate to Track Billings and Sub Payments
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- How pay items can be automatically created
- Setting up flexible billing periods
- How to use field-reported quantities to drive the pay quantities
- How to use the Pay Estimate Summary for quantity negotiations
- How to handle stored materials and change orders
- Preparing and revising invoices and tracking payments
- Tracking and reconciling subcontractor progress quantities
- Tracking subcontractor bills and payments
Advanced Techniques for Automating Your Shop
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- How using maintenance templates can save hours of setup time
- Simplify the collection of meter readings from the field
- Control part inventories using purchasing and receiving
- Store your equipment documents in Equipment360’s electronic filing cabinet
- Reduce redundant entry by integrating with accounting and paperless environments
- Make better decisions with custom reports, charts and graphs
Beyond Basics - Taking The Dispatcher to the Next Level
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
- Learn how to use The Dispatcher to implement small tool accountability.
- Using Inventory tracking to keep up with trench boxes, road plates and barricades.
- Keep up with employee skills and certifications
- Communicate daily schedule information easily with batch reporting
Control ALL of Your Fuel Transactions with FuelerPlus
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- How FuelerPlus mobile can replace your pencil and paper fuel sheet
- Track the entire fuel cycle (bulk purchases, transfers, at the pump, etc) in your company
- Use our customized import/ export routines to gather fuel transactions from a variety of third party sources (Gasboy, Fuelman, Wright Express, Phoenix Fuel Systems, etc.)
- Electronically export all fluid transactions to accounting
- Using the Quick Reports to easily create custom pivot table style reports, charts and graphs
- Collect fuel consumption statistics for individual pieces of equipment or organized by equipment type
- Track non-fuel fluids (grease, oil, etc.)
- Send actual fuel consumption statistics to HeavyBid
Equipment360/FuelerPlus User’s Group Meeting
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
- Discuss Equipment360 and FuelerPlus with your peers and HCSS management.
- See what’s on the horizon
- Steer the direction of the products for the next year
- Tell us how we can help you run your business more efficiently
How to Improve Your Resource Utilization Using The Dispatcher
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- Create long term look-aheads
- Get utilization data out of The Dispatcher as well as from HeavyJob and VectrGPS
- Reduce rentals charges by tracking off rent days with statuses
- Make smart moves based on the closest and least used resource.
- Use exception reporting from HeavyJob to find under-reported equipment
- Use daily dispatch to pre-populate time cards and shift times
Running Weekly Planning Meetings with The Dispatcher
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- Use drag and drop scheduling instead of paper and spreadsheets
- See how to instantly catch conflicts and resolve them on the spot
- Learn how to pull in resource loaded activities directly from HeavyBid
- Account for delays and changes with just a few clicks
- Feed planning information directly into your mobilization schedule
- Using The Dispatcher as a company calendar
Take a Bite Out of Your Trucking Costs
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- Using GPS based auditing to get substantial savings in trucking costs
- Choosing the most efficient truckers based on their actual reported performance
- See how The Dispatcher, HeavyJob, VectrGPS, RFID, and electronic tickets can all be used to save trucking costs
- Automate how you track and pay brokered trucks with electronic time slips
- Automatically send truck tickets to HeavyJob and Accounting through VectrGPS
The Dispatcher/VectrGPS User’s Group Meeting
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
- Discuss The Dispatcher and VectrGPS with your peers and HCSS management.
- See what’s on the horizon
- Steer the direction of the products for the next year
- Tell us how we can help you run your business more efficiently
The Many Ways VectrGPS can Save You Substantial Money
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- Monitor real-time production on your trucking based operations
- Use VectrGPS to report equipment hours directly onto a Foreman’s timecard
- Collect equipment data more efficiently than the manual methods used today
- Curb theft and loss by always knowing where equipment is located
- Get alerts when equipment is started at an unexpected hour
- Using GPS-reported hours, mileage, and locations to accurately drive PM schedules in The Dispatcher or Equipment360
Using Equipment360 to Efficiently Manage Your Fleet Maintenance
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
- Using work orders to efficiently plan your work
- Assign your work to the right people
- Collect parts, sublet labor, notes and time
- Figure out the real costs of maintaining your equipment
- Make better buy/sell decisions by using the equipment service history
Using Multiple HCSS Products to Improve Communication Across Your Company
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- Understanding the issues and costs of various integrations
- Understand what can be integrated between HCSS apps and other systems such as accounting and scheduling.
- Not merely theoretical: sample integrations will be shown
- Integration considerations:
- What is involved in getting something integrated?
- What is reasonable to be done in parallel
- Realistic time frames to expect
- Rough costs associated with various integrations
- What HCSS can do to help
Options for Improving Your Safety Program with HCSS Software
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
- Track your entire company safety program with our new Safety Application
- Record job conditions, safety meeting attendance, inspections, and incidents electronically
- Have any safety document in your company history at your fingertips
- Instant access to both your everyday OSHA logs and annual OSHA compliance reports
- Easily find employees with current skills/licenses/certifications & get alerts before they expire and cause you problems
- Simplify field entry time while getting the right safety information to the job
- Keep the equipment/dispatching department in the loop with equipment safety issues
- Get immediate alerting when any incident happens on any of your jobs
Innovative Ways to Use GPS and RFID in Your Company
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- Automating your process for brokered trucking
- Giving foremen equipment GPS hours to cross-check their timecard hours every day
- Using RFID to clock employees in and out of the job site
- Getting alerts when vehicles are not where they should be
- Getting cost effective telematics from your fueler
- Using inexpensive satellite boxes for all your conex boxes and trailers
- Reporting unauthorized equipment use directly to your email inbox
How to Avoid Getting Fleeced on IT Purchases
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
- Understand different acronyms you will likely hear in IT discussions
- Discuss which technologies are basically equivalent
- Learn about general technology pricing strategies and pricing ranges
- Discuss new technologies: which are mature and which are too early?
- Examine the marketing focus of larger tech companies so you can be prepared to understand what you are likely to get pitched on soon
Quick, Thorough, and Effective Ways to Review Estimates
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- The most important reports for catching potential errors
- Looking for potential errors with the Estimate Review feature
- How to track changes after a major bid review
- Understanding how complex quotes got translated into the Quote System
- Various ways to control access as the bid progresses
- Understanding how electronic bidding works including addendums
- Setting up alternates for quick analysis on bid day
The Chief Estimator’s Guide for HeavyBid
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- Concepts that a Chief Estimator needs to know about HeavyBid
- We’ll be giving out the draft of our new Chief Estimator’s guide
- Clarifies complicated and confusing subjects where ignorance can cause errors
- The most likely places to look for potential errors
- Factors that can have a huge impact on your estimate
- Items that can save the most amount of time building every estimate
- Staying on top of bids as you are forced to bid on more projects in less time
Using HCSS Software to Maximize Equipment Availability and Utilization
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
- Making better rental decisions with easily accessible information
- Switching most repair work from reactive to preventative without impacting production
- Accessing long-range equipment schedules while estimating
- Learn how easy it can be to get meter readings and fuel usage for your fleet
- Improving utilization analysis with or without GPS
- Easily find under-reported and mis-reported equipment
What Executives Need to Know About HeavyJob
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- Understand important baseline issues, such as:
- Using actual vs estimated rates
- How you handle overtime and it’s effect on cost reporting
- Tracking time events for equipment such as standby
- Tracking time events for employees such as tardiness or training
- How the budget conforming process can make easier-to-track budgets
- How HeavyJob relates/communicates with Accounting systems
- See what you might consider to start tracking that is easy and cost-effective
- Review big-picture technical options such as:
- Using HeavyJob in either Internet-connected or disconnected mode
- Any potential value in using handheld or ruggedized computers
- HCSS options on the cloud
Configuring Data Transmission over Networks in HCSS Products
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
- Learn how HCSS products transmit data over the network
- Configuring your network for optimal HCSS data transmission
- Understanding FTP & HTTP protocols used for HCSS data transmission
- How to setup an FTP server for HCSS use
- How to configure HCSS services that use HTTP on your network
Data Transfer Options between HCSS and Accounting Systems
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- How we use ETL (Extract,Transform,Load) technology to tightly integrate with other systems
- Learn what the Data Integration Studio is and how it helps get setup files from accounting
- Understand extensive batch integrations capable and how they save considerable time
- Budgets, Material lists and Purchase Orders from HeavyBid
- Labor hours, Equipment usage, and Material receipts from HeavyJob
- Fuel transactions from FuelerPlus
- Maintenance work orders from Equipment360
- Equipment hours and locations from The Dispatcher
How to Use Active Directory for Single Sign-On with HCSS
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
- Understand security concepts behind our products
- Learn about security groups within our products
- Quickly set up SSO for the people already using our apps at your company
- How the HCSS security groups interact with AD in your network
- What to do when you need to add a new user or remove access to our apps
Stay on Top of HCSS Update Procedures
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
- Discuss the typical release schedules of all HCSS software
- Understand the structure and update procedures of all HCSS software
- The fastest way to do updates when you have large amounts of data
- Techniques to preview updates before you apply them
- Determining if you need to apply the latest update
- See how network drives affect the update process
- Learn about some of the new automatic update options
- Find out what HCSS is doing to simplify the update process and make updates easier
IT Field Trip: Tour a Managed Hosting Facility
Friday 8:30 am – 11:00 am
- Gain the understanding of how a data center functions and how it can impact your business
- Experience the facility first-hand with experts in the industry that can provide insight to the benefits of a data center
- See how TW Telecom’s data center features industry specific safe-guards such as:
- Secure access
- Redundant power supplies
- A climate-controlled environment
- Fire detection and prevention systems
- Multiple space options, including open racks, lockable cabinets, and caged floor space
- Learn how a data center can function as a business partner rather than just a building facility
IT Field Trip: Preparing for Emergencies and Disaster Recovery Scenarios
Friday 12:15 pm – 1:30 pm
- Planning based on your company’s needs rather than a trying to do everything
- Strategies to qualify scenarios and the likelihood/severity of each one
- Cost options when evaluating the time required to make the transition into emergency mode
- Automatic DR benefits of using hosted solutions as everyday, normal access
- Less expensive off-site data storage, replication and office space options to consider
IT Field Trip: Driving Application Delivery, Consistency, and Redundancy by Using the Cloud
Friday 1:45 pm – 3:00 pm
- Learn what the HCSS Cloud is and actually try it
- Compare the HCSS Cloud’s performance and accessibility to your current environment
- Examine the technical foundation of delivering our apps through the terminal session
- Automated backups, data protection techniques, and simple access methods
- Discuss how the HCSS Cloud can be used as part of your emergency plan
IT Field Trip: Using Replication, Backups, & Recovery to Provide Data Redundancy
Friday 3:15 pm – 4:30 pm
- Organizing the massive amount of data on your network to make it manageable
- Determining the frequency to run back ups for both current and archived files
- Designing your backup sets so they can be recovered quickly
- Examine traditional tape backups as well as new internet-based backup solutions
- The pros and cons of data replication and considerations when implementing
- Replicating to managed or un-managed servers at collocation facilities
- Performing emergency simulations to ensure data backups are good
Equipment 360/FuelerPlus Demo
Friday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
- For anyone who wants a high-level overview of Equipment360 Equipment Maintenance Software and FuelerPlus Fuel Management Software
- Learn how to streamline your shop processes so you can maintain your equipment and get better performance in the field.
- See how Equipment360 collects your data and shares it electronically with HeavyBid, The Dispatcher, and your accounting software.
- Learn how to identify equipment with rising maintenance costs so you can make informed decisions on whether to maintain or sell it.
- See how with FuelerPlus you can track the amount of fuel and other fluids being dispensed into your equipment and how the information flows into other HCSS applications and your accounting software.
HeavyBid Demo
Thursday 9:00 am – 10:15 am
Friday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
- For non-HeavyBid Users who want to find out if HeavyBid can help them bid more work in less time.
- A high-level overview focusing on:
- Ways to quickly build estimates
- Analyze estimates for accuracy and integrity
- Make changes quickly
- Examine alternatives
- Manage quotes
- And stay in control on bid day
HeavyBid: Learn the Differences between Basic, Advanced and Comprehensive
Thursday 10:30 am – 11:45 am
Friday 12:45 pm – 2:00 pm
- Higher levels of HeavyBid provide value in 4 major areas; productivity, integration, administration, and data analysis
- Each higher level contains new features and benefits
- See if the feature differences in higher levels of HeavyBid deliver value to your company
- See why many union companies use HeavyBid Comprehensive
- Learn why larger companies use the Advanced and Comprehensive version of HeavyBid
HeavyJob Demo
Thursday 1:30 pm – 2:45 pm
Friday 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm
- For anyone who wants a high-level overview of HeavyJob Job Management Software
- Learn how HeavyJob can help a company stay profitable when competition is driving down profit margins.
- See a lean business process in which time card and other field data is collected, reviewed, and approved, all without double entry.
- See how this data delivers timely and accurate job data to decision makers throughout the organization.
The HCSS Safety Application Demo
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
- Learn how the HCSS Safety Application is one central location that houses all your safety tools to protect your employees on the job every day.
- See how it gives you the tools to forecast accidents before they happen, allowing you to be proactive instead of reactive.
- Automatically complete and store OSHA 300 and 300A forms electronically, saving countless man-hours.
The Dispatcher/GPS Demo
Friday 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm
- See what makes The Dispatcher the most advanced resource management tool in the industry.
- Learn how The Dispatcher shows superintendents where every employee is, helps project managers plan their work effectively, and assists dispatchers by providing field employees with what they need, when they need it.
- See how Vectr GPS can help you increase your trucking production by identifying bottlenecks and inefficiencies, increase utilization by identifying idle equipment, and help curb theft.