BuildPoint to help EMCOR market 65 units to GCs

REDWOOD SHORES, CALIF. — BuildPoint Corp., a software company that specializes in “provider relationship management” for the construction industry, in mid-August announced that EMCOR Group, one of the country’s largest mechanical contractors, has selected BuildPoint to market EMCOR’s 65 operating companies to general contractors.

EMCOR and BuildPoint will work together to create and manage EMCOR company profiles for electronic distribution to general contractors. The service gives GCs electronic access to comprehensive subcontractor pre-qualification information.

Profiles with basic information, including key contacts, regions served and area of specialization, will be viewable in BuildPoint’s Public Directory, open to all members of the construction community.

In addition, more comprehensive profiles, including industry standard pre-qualification data and project profile sheets for each of EMCOR’s companies, will be accessible to general contractors using BuildPoint’s PRM 2 application.

BuildPoint said that its customers, which include more than 50 of the biggest general contractors in the country, use PRM 2 for project bidding, pre-qualifying subcontractors, tracking subcontractor performance and managing subcontractor information.

The potential benefits to EMCOR include:

* Centralizing pre-qualification processes and reducing the cycle time of responding to pre-qualification requests;

* Providing the right subcontractor profile data to general contractors at the right time;

* Historical tracking of pre-qualification information across all EMCOR companies; and

* Visibility within BuildPoint’s general contractor community and an increase in project opportunities.

EMCOR said its sees its partnership with BuildPoint as a competitive advantage.

“We are very interested in reaching out to the many contractors who follow their key clients in areas of the country where they haven’t worked before. In these situations we want them to work with the EMCOR companies locally that have the expertise and knowledge to make their projects a success,” said Rich Aquino, vice president/business development for EMCOR Group.

“We had been looking for a solution to replace a time-intensive, manual pre-qualification process,” he said. BuildPoint allows us to maintain electronic profiles so that any changes we make are now automatically proliferated to all general contractors using PRM 2. That means no missed opportunities for us and better bottom lines for our companies.”

General contractors say they are increasingly reliant on pre-qualification to mitigate their subcontractor risk exposure.

Jackie Buck, executive vice president/finance and administration for R.D. Olson Construction, explained: “Not every subcontractor we work with can get a bond, and if it’s not in the budget, we have to self-insure. A good percentage of these subcontractors perform well. Since the insurance market has hardened, our job is much more difficult and risky, which is why best practices for pre-qualification are so important. We take on a great deal of out-of-state work, so we’re always looking to build our database of pre-qualified subcontractors in the various markets we serve.The EMCOR profiles will enhance the value we receive from PRM 2.”

EMCOR is a network of more than 65 operating companies with more than 130 locations and 24,000 employees. The company, headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., placed No. 2 in CONTRACTOR’s 2002 Book of Giants with revenue from mechanical work totaling $1.57 billion (May, pg. 19). Earlier this year, EMCOR purchased 19 firms from Comfort Systems; revenues from those firms were not reported in CONTRACTOR’s 2002 Giants report.

EMCOR handles projects from less that $50,000 to in excess of $100 million. EMCOR companies have been in business for an average of 45 years in their respective markets.