Ensign has launched its new electrical take-off and estimating package, Ensign X. A combination of its innovative Auto Take-Off software and its award-winning Electrical Estimating software, Ensign X enables users to win more profitable contracts in the shortest time possible.
The new software is a product of over 40 years of experience in the estimating software business. With a focus on providing electrical contractors of all sizes with the tools to stay ahead of the competition, Ensign understands that a contractor’s time is money, and no contractor can afford for either to be in short supply.
Ensign’s director Jonathan Goulstine says: “We’re very happy to announce the official launch of Ensign X. As we’ve been successfully trading for 42 years, we understand the deepest frustrations of the electrical sector.
“Ensign X is an exciting advancement, not only for us as a team but for the industry in general. It combines the best of everything we do in one package for the first time, particularly features we’ve developed specifically to make life easier for electrical contractors.”
After collaborating with commercial contractors in the electrical industry, Ensign’s development team has focused on delivering features that specifically relate to the problems which tend to slow electrical estimators down when putting together quotes. Some of these key features include:
- Auto-Counting – Instead of manually counting symbols on electrical drawings, Ensign’s Auto Take-Off software allows users to define just one symbol and instantly search for all instances of that symbol across the entire drawing. This helps hugely with both time saving and overall accuracy.
- Intelligent Assemblies – To maximise pricing accuracy, pre-set assemblies and associated items can be added automatically when completing take-offs in Ensign X. For example, a 300mmm cable tray assembly will automatically add the tray, connections, supports and bends automatically, simply by measuring a run.
- Background Removal – Complex drawings tend to create headaches for electrical contractors due to the sheer amount of irrelevant information they contain. Ensign X enables users to automatically remove this background clutter with a single click, making it much quicker and easier to focus on the details that are relevant to the electrical estimating process.
- Revision Management – Because tenders are usually subject to change, this can cause issues when an electrical estimate has already been started. To make handling these changes as simple as possible, Ensign X enables users to make adjustments on the take-off screen and seamlessly carry these changes through to the estimate. The ability to replace entire drawing files with the latest revisions is a user-friendly feature which makes it easy to see immediately where alterations have been made.
Estimating is a fundamental process for winning new business, and ensuring estimates are accurate is crucial for a business with hopes of survival or growth. Miscalculations and simple human errors are inevitable when using more manual methods such as pen and paper, which makes the latest software developments from companies like Ensign particularly relevant to many electrical contractors. The construction industry is naturally becoming digitalised and embracing the change from manual to automated processes.
However, this progress has lagged behind many other industries, and pressure is increasing for contractors to keep shifting towards more modern ways of staying competitive. According to a report published by the World Built Environment Forum in 2020, 72% of construction specialists claimed that “digital transformation is a priority”, yet almost a third of them said they spend less than 3% of their total turnover on anything digital.
Trends across the industry seem to indicate that progress is continuing to accelerate, so it stands to reason that more and more electrical contractors will be turning to the latest solutions such as Ensign X in order to keep up with their competitors in a challenging business environment.
For more information about how Ensign X helps electrical contractors, take a look at the Ensign website.
