: About Me

"IT Industry Website", a leading online Information Technology (IT) media company, provides IT companies with ROI-focused marketing programs to generate leads, shorten sales cycles, and grow revenues.

With its network of 44 technology-specific websites and over 5 million active registered members, "IT Industry Website" is a primary web destination for IT professionals researching which products to purchase. The company is also a leading provider of independent, peer and vendor content, a leading distributor of white papers, and a leading producer of vendor-sponsored webcasts and podcasts for the IT market. Its websites are complemented by numerous invitation-only events and three magazines. We provide proven branding and lead generation programs to over 1,000 advertisers including Cisco, Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, SAP and Symantec.

*ARTICLE GUIDELINES*

Note: Whenever possible, please phrase your responses as a quote that we could use in the final article. For example: "We are using this product to do XYZ on up to a dozen projects at a time. It keeps us on track and helps eliminate errors that often crept in when we used spreadsheets"

Sample resulting content for Construction Software Review site:

User
Company
Location
(Web/blog)
Type of business
Business size
Experience
Software tools used

Until he began using (estimator tool) late in 2006, Joe Smith spent most of his time with blueprints, spreadsheets, and a calculator. "I figure it took me maybe 20 hours of solid work to connect what the client wanted with what the architect designed and what we could actually deliver. I'd say about half of that time was spent checking and reconciling conflicting information."

Now that Smith is using (estimator tool), he gets that work done in about 5 hours. "(estimator tool) is really good at organizing all the data into a single place and showing me where the discrepancies are. It also has a library of past projects that I can use as a template to figure out the costs for stuff we do all the time."

Smith's business is primarily in residential remodeling, which means he's often working with "mystery materials" in the existing structure. The tool's Handi-hours feature helps Joe get a grasp on projects involving more obscure tradesmen.

"On one job, we found special digital security locks that needed to be first removed and then replaced in a special way. We knew what the sub would charge but not how much time it needed from my guys. To my surprise, (estimator tool) was able to supply a ballpark time and materials estimate that later turned out to be pretty accurate. It probably saved me a couple hours of additional research."

Smith says the product does have few shortcomings: it doesn't integrate seamlessly with his Excel spreadsheets, so he has to manually transfer spreadsheet data into his tool. And the company's help desk is only open from 10 to 3PST Monday through Friday; Smith says that since most contractors do their estimates after hours he'd prefer them to be more available. And while (estimator tools) sample projects and data libraries are very accurate, he warns others to verify everything.

"Overall, it's a good tool, and it's saved me a ton of time and money. I would recommend it to any residential remodeler doing whole-house renovations."

"IT Industry Website" is a pseudonym for our Marketplace publisher.

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