Interview with François JOUBERT Head of Pricing Studies at DEMATHIEU BARD CONSTRUCTION

An independent group established 160 years ago, DEMATHIEU BARD is one of the key figures in the French Construction and Property trade sector. As a subsidiary of DEMATHIEU BARD, the company DEMATHIEU BARD CONSTRUCTION is renowned for their technical expertise and skills in constructing structures which are both modern and exceptional.

In 2019, the Groupe accumulated 3800 employees, and achieved turnover of 1.6 billion euros.

 

François Joubert works in the Pricing Studies Department for the Direction of Infrastructures and Civil Engineering. The sector regroups markets associated with the construction of structures, underground infrastructures, and railway infrastructures. This activity has generated a turnover over 220 million euros, including 50% in the United States of America.

 

François Joubert, you’re currently Head of Pricing Studies for Civil Engineering Infrastructure at DEMATHIEU BARD CONSTRUCTION. Can you tell us about your work?

“My work consists of carrying out pricing studies for our projects, and using these to precisely define our cost price, and then our sales price.

Based on the totals of the quotes, they’re validated internally either by the agency, or by the Direction of Civil Engineering Infrastructures. We often work with amounts reaching several millions of euros – sometimes over hundreds of million.”

 

For around 2 years now, you’ve been using QDV7 ULTIMATE. Can you explain why you switched costing software?

Our old costing software ceased to be published, so we needed to find a new one. Following a market benchmark, we chose QDV7. We also completed 2 pricing studies in parallel with QDV7, so we could compare it with other solutions of the same type, and so we could verify our choice.

 

What are the competitive advantages that you’ve found in using QDV7 ULTIMATE?

The QDV7 software is a lot simpler, navigation between tabs is easy and intuitive, and you can work on 2 screens using the libraries interfaced with QDV. It saves us a lot of time for our costing.

Could you give us an idea of how much time you saved, compared to before? 

Yes, we save at least 30% more time now, and I think that we’ll see even more improvements in the margins, by optimising QCD7. We currently only use a portion of the software’s features. For example, the versioning of the pricing study allows us to recover the entire history of the project in just a few clicks. As another example, the integration of our Excel sales sheet in QDV7 ULTIMATE also saves us time, and reduces the risk of errors.

 

Could you tell us about the launch and configuration of QDV7 ULTIMATE at DEMATHIEU BARD CONSTRUCTION? Who handled it, and how long did it take?

The company EURO ID TECHNOLOGIES handled the launch. Configuration took several months, using specifications that we had drafted, covering the results we expected and the responses to our needs. We also completed part of the configuration after taking training courses from QDV7 ULTIMATE Administrator. I myself am an administrator and user of QDV7. Today, we’re pretty much autonomous in regard to our new costing tool.

 

Any other comments?

QDV7 is a software that is continuously evolving in line with its clients’ needs. For example, the publisher has created a new feature dedicated to administrative sub-detail breakdowns in the 2021 version. We’re actually going to do some training on this at the beginning of March. A lot of other features are being improved and/or developed.

Another positive point is the reactivity and responses provided by the customer support team and hotline. We’ve often received effective, and helpful, responses within the same day.

There are a few bugs to work out, but that’s normal for any new software version, and the IAES publisher who handles level 2 maintenance is extremely reactive!

 

Overall, we’re really satisfied with QDV7 ULTIMATE.

By |2021-02-26T08:24:11+00:00February 26th, 2021|Advantages of Estimating Software|0 Comments

Release of the new version of QDV7 2021

Nous sommes ravis d’annoncer que la nouvelle version de QDV7 est sortie au début du mois, le 10 janvier. Depuis le lundi 11 janvier, tous nos clients bénéficiant de mises à jour en ligne sont automatiquement mis à jour vers cette dernière version.

 

Pour ceux d’entre vous qui utilisent Windows 7 et Office 2010, nous aimerions attirer votre attention sur le fait que ces deux versions ne sont plus compatibles avec Microsoft et que QDV7 ne fonctionnera pas correctement avec ce système d’exploitation et la suite Microsoft. Nous vous proposons de mettre à niveau vers Windows 10 et Office 2013, 2016, 2019 ou 365.

 

Nous avons pris la décision de ne produire qu’une seule version officielle par an, et de modifier la convention de dénomination pour chacune des versions. Cette version est nommée QDV 2021, au lieu de QDV 7.21.1.

 

Nous continuerons bien sûr à publier autant de versions bêta avant, avec le potentiel de plusieurs versions officielles, si nous avons besoin de corrections. Ces versions seront désignées QDV2021, mais leur numéro d’index sera 7.21.1, .2, .3, etc.

 

Vous pouvez installer la dernière version officielle ici:

http://www.iaes-software.com/downloads/Setup_QDV_7.exe

 

Comme vous l’avez sûrement remarqué, QDV inclut désormais le nom de l’année de publication. Une version officielle sera publiée au début de chaque année.

 

Avant de mettre en lumière les fonctionnalités commerciales, dont nous parlons dans un prochain article, lorsque vous ouvrez cette dernière version, vous constaterez que vous êtes présenté avec une interface utilisateur qui intègre le nouveau design, en ligne avec le Microsoft Directives Office 2019/365 .

Vous pouvez également trouver des liens pour la traduction électronique de notre mémo «Quoi de neuf».

 

Dans la section «Divers», parmi d’autres nouveautés, vous voyez la possibilité d’intégrer une image dans une colonne spécifique lors de la fusion de documents Word, ainsi que la génération de documents Word qui peuvent prendre en compte des quantités nulles.

 

Dans la section «Outils QDV pour Excel», ainsi que de nombreuses autres fonctionnalités, vous trouverez la résolution automatique des anomalies aux différences finies, ainsi que le traitement des coûts bruts.

 

Dans le paragraphe «Module de recherche», vous trouverez l’option de recherche dans les listes de colonnes. C’est encore une autre fonctionnalité qui vous fera gagner un temps précieux.

 

Enfin, dans la section «Programmation», vous trouverez la protection par mot de passe des macros, où vous pouvez masquer vos codes.

 

Vous pouvez trouver la liste complète de nos nouvelles fonctionnalités ici:

http://iaes-software.com/whatsnew/qdv/HTML/

By |2021-01-27T05:06:01+00:00January 25th, 2021|Advantages of Estimating Software|0 Comments

Why Should You Use QDV Advanced Estimating Software

Regardless of what industry you’re in or what size your company has, a well-managed cost management process assists you to control the budget of your business. Not only does cost management help you predict imminent expenditures but also reduce the chance of going over budget.

Over the last few years, the cost management process has changed considerably. The API-driven estimating software has replaced the old methods of cost management.

If you’re still using whiteboards or spreadsheets, it is time to move to advanced estimating tools that are better than the old ones and much more capable of doing financial analysis, cost auditing, and ultimately help in cost-saving.

One such tool is QDV by Quick Devis. It is one of the most powerful yet user-friendly tools that has been successfully used in different industries, ranging from automotive to aerospace to defense to electricity to engineering.

Launched in the year 1991, several global leaders, including Renault Automotive, Thales Group, General Electric, and many more rely on this amazing cost management software for precise project estimations. On the contrary, for small and medium-sized organizations, it has proven to be an ideal way to enhance project estimations. There is no dearth of small companies that have configured QDV as their cost management software.

The good thing about this software is, its user interface is similar to Microsoft Word and Excel, so you can easily learn its functionalities. Even newbies can quickly work with it after the practice of a few hours. Another thing that makes this estimating software unique is that it can export to Word and PDF formats, without making any changes to the original layout.

Now let’s talk about some of the advantages this cost management software has to offer your business:

Easy Way to Organize All Your Documents

QDV helps you accumulate all the data related to your business’ expenses into a single database. Not only does it ensure the reliability of the information but also make it easier for your managers and other staff access it any time. Since all documents are interactively linked, it makes strategic planning more practical.

Error & Expense Reduction

Once you have inserted all your data into a system, there is virtually no risk of damaging essential files. Moreover, as this cost estimating software automates the entire cost management process, it saves time and reduces the labor cost to a large extent.

Dynamic Costing & Pricing

With QDV, you can expect to achieve accurate management of expenses and incredible flexibility to compute selling prices.

Since this software has Excel Workbook integrated, there is no limit to calculate your margins; include tax rules; and breakdown your costs. Moreover, with this advanced tool, you can calculate cost escalation in the long term.

API-Driven
Since QDV supports application programming interface, you have the liberty to customize this cost management software as per your need. It is entirely up to you whether you want to make it a pricing software, a CPQ software, or a project cost estimating software.

Additionally, you may use it as a safeguard for your data and link to the CRM to avoid dual inputs.

So, if you’re looking for a cost management software to manage your business’ expenses and increase productivity, give this fantastic estimating software a try.

By |2020-05-21T13:45:11+00:00January 30th, 2020|Advantages of Estimating Software|0 Comments
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