ICE® for General Contractors
Speed up takeoff, increase accuracy, and make better use of your time with ICE from RIB MC². Incorporating over 47 years of construction industry experience, ICE thinks like an estimator thinks, and works like an estimator works, increasing your productivity and giving you the consistency you need to bid with confidence. ICE gives you more time to study a job, to find ways of working more efficiently, and to assemble a winning package of quotes and bids.
Cut your takeoff time in half
ICE comes out of the box with over 85 Construction Systems designed to dramatically reduce your takeoff time and increase the accuracy of your estimates. Construction Systems roll up all the characteristics of a building component into a concise Q-and-A format, without resorting to long, tedious lists of repetitive Assemblies, or requiring constant overrides of one-size-fits-all logic. ICE Knowledge Bases give you menus of Construction Systems specific to your business, plus Conceptual Wizards to help you generate detailed estimates from minimal input. Whether you're taking off Structural Concrete, Masonry, Steel, Framing or Interiors you'll find the tools you need to increase your estimating efficiency.
Slicing and dicing your estimate has never been easier
Sort using any of the 35 user definable WBS codes. These fields separate cost breakdown for such things as floors of a building, specific rooms on a floor, base bid vs. alternates, etc. These are user-defined fields and are job specific. By assigning quantities and units of measure to any of the summary categories above, you can generate high-level unit prices so you will be able to analyze estimate summary categories and compare estimates based on both summary amounts and unit prices. You can also apply escalation based on any of these sorts or segregate the costs of different geographic or contractual parts of a project. Breakout your ICE estimate the way that best suits your needs or your clients' needs and print the Reports that you need with the touch of a button.
Completely open reports
ICE comes with dozens of different reports which focus on the audit trail, price information and bill of materials. ICE reports allow you to define levels of detail breakout based on any of the sort fields used during takeoff. The audit trail provided by ICE is unmatched. You can print a Quantity Survey report to show all takeoff done in footings, slabs, masonry, with totals per Construction System. You can also print a Quantity Audit Trail recap report that shows what lines of takeoff generated concrete, brick, pipe, or ductwork and go to that line for corrections if needed. Want to modify the report? No problem. With the RIB MC² Report Designer, ICE allows you to create custom reports to fit your needs. Quickly and easily change fonts, colors, or any aspect of your system reports. That is something you won't get with proprietary report writers. You can also save your reports as PDF's (Portable Document Format). You will be able to easily send them electronically to whomever you choose.
Make use of historical data
The Estimate Explorer Engine contained in ICE allows you to query your previous estimate data for Comparison and Historical Cost Analysis. ICE's Unit Pricing feature allows you to work with prices at the component, trade, or breakout level, up to four levels deep. For example, you can develop and modify a unit price per square foot of slab, per linear foot of a system run, or per equipment connection. With this feature you can easily compare old jobs and use historical pricing for your current jobs. You can also generate high-level unit prices so you will be able to analyze estimate summary categories and compare estimates based on both summary amounts and unit prices.
Powerful Estimating Wizards
Estimating Wizards allow you to create detailed conceptual/budget estimates with ICE. ICE has estimating wizards for retail, office, warehouses and schools. What used to take days, now only takes minutes. Using a typical office building as an example, the Estimating Wizards will automatically generate in a matter of seconds a detailed estimate based on building parameters; length, width, number of rooms, etc. New wizards are developed all the time for ICE, and you can even create your own.
Visual Takeoff Feature
ICE shows you what it looks like before it hits your estimate, catching errors and omissions before they cost you money! The 3D graphics in ICE provide a good representation of the conditions as you describe them and validate your specifications. The Visual Takeoff Graphics can also be printed and packaged with your estimate for presentation.
