How it Began

In the fall of 2004 after almost 20 years of commercial and residential development and general contracting experience, Centerville Properties' CEO, Jeff Dunham, had a vision for a “better way” to manage the bid and plan distribution process. He developed a plan without adding more staff and investing in more complicated and expensive hardware & software.

Jeff realized that the demands of bidding were great, and he understood the importance of preparing for and launching a successful project for bid was always difficult and time-consuming. These facts were only the first hurdles to overcome.

The next concerns he had to address were how to manage the telephone calls, faxes and emails from the potential list of Subcontractors that Jeff’s team knew, and how to involve the Subcontractors that Centerville’s print reproduction house broadcast to. Also, it was not entirely clear exactly who had reviewed their plans in the public plan room, or who had actually paid and received Centerville’s plans.

Moreover, Jeff thought of the Subcontractors and the hours they invest annually to learn of new projects and acquire plans. After determining the project fit, how much time is required to prepare the bids and submit them in a somewhat timely manner. Another critical problem with the bidding process was the addition of the Subcontractors interfacing with project owners like Jeff and the need to expand the Subcontractor base.

This vision to solve the Project Owners' difficulty with the entire bidding process and to expedite the Subcontractors determination if the project was a fit, without investing extensive time and money, resulted in the development of the company called BidHub.

Today, BidHub is an ASP model for the construction industry that requires no purchase of expensive hardware or software. It helps construction professionals to better manage their company’s overall workflow relative to bid preparation, bid letting, plan distribution and receiving of bids in a private, simple and organized manner.

The company’s principles are based on “keeping it simple, efficient and organized for all Users” - regardless of their level of sophistication with computers and or the Web. At BidHub, project owners and Subcontractors can come together in a private community to collaborate seamlessly, effortlessly and economically.

This innovative suite of products enabled Centerville Properties to successfully launch more than $20 million dollars in commercial and land development projects, while simultaneously saving Centerville several hundreds of thousands of dollars in reducing project budgets and internal man-hours.

Centerville's Subcontractor's significantly reduced their time in determining a project’s fit, and when Subcontractors selected the digital plan option, their overall printing cost was reduced by more than two-thirds and questions regarding the project fell to less than 2% of all Subcontractors needing additional information.

Since BidHub’s inception, Subcontractors have embraced the system. They understand the value and appreciate Centerville’s efforts in solving a difficult, time consuming and expensive problem. All this was accomplished in a profitable manner for their growing business. If you would like to learn more about how BidHub can deliver value to your firm, please contact us.