We founded 4BT in 2016 upon seeing a clear need to Rethink, Reshape, and Rebuild JOC. Our goal is to assure
1. LEAN planning, procurement, and project delivery processes were deployed in a manner that is mutually beneficial to all participants and stakeholders
2. Full financial transparency and audit-worthy compliance
3. JOC solutions that do not burden users with excessive fees and costs. and
4. Cost data was truly reflective of local market conditions, by locally researching all construction labor, material, and equipment costs.
4BT’s business location is Houston, TX. Our team members are located across the United States, including California, Arizona, Texas, Midwest, Southeast, and the Northeast. Our innovative and exclusively offered products and services include LEAN construction collaboration frameworks, locally researched construction cost data, and enterprise-level SAAS technology. Our clients largely include the public sector including universities, counties, cities, and their awarded JOC construction contractors. We also have certain private corporations using our construction cost data for their specialized products and services. Lastly, our products and services are used by the Allied States Cooperative.
4BT offers free trials of our SAAS technology, inclusive of our locally researched construction cost data to any qualified owner interested in a JOC Program as well as a discount to CJE members that decide to deploy solutions. Multi-level, and multi-level training is also available including on-site, virtual, and regional… advanced and introductory.
Our 4BT Building-in-Cloud SaaS technology stands alone in providing Program Management, Contract Management, Proposal/Bid Management, Estimate Management, Document Management, Location Management, Building Management, Asset/Component Management, and Contractor/Subcontractor Management, as well as the ability to integrate BIM information and view BIM models. That said, our construction cost data is organized using CSI MasterFormat and therefore could be easily integrated within appropriate technology applications.
Our SaaS technology supports multiple co-efficients and then associated and locks co-efficient to specified JOC contract and awarded contractors. Non-prepriced items are automatically tracked and in terms of both identification and usage.
4BT SaaS technology enables the creation and use of non-prepriced line items. Most importantly the UPB itself is locked and can only be changed per contract specifications. Additional non-prepriced line items can be easily created from existing UPB line times at a detailed level, include changes to material, labor, crew, and equipment costs. All changes at noted and maintained perpetually. All non-prepriced line item are automatically tagged as such, and there used is track and calculated. For example, a proposal will note the dollar are percentage of non-prepriced line items as well as highlight their individual usage.
All of the above are included within our standard pricing.
Out construction cost research methodology includes sampling local contractor pricing. Additionally we research all aspects of local market conditions using our robust 4BT cost research methodology. Our 4BT 5% rule(TM) is also used. If we find a variance of 5% or greater in areas in which work is being done, we create a separate UPB. Line items include local labor trades inclusive of fringes, material costs, and equipment costs within targeted areas.
The 4BT UPB is changed based upon JOC contract requirements. That said, we recommend that labor be updated quarterly, and the UPB be updated annually for mutually approved (owner and 4BT) line item additions. Approved annual additions of line items become part of the standard UPB for the associated JOC.
4BT’s UPB’s and cost data are always locally researched. We do not use national averages or cost factors. The use of national averages and cost factors can introduce significant error in cost data.
We believe a properly researched UPB should enable a contractor to submit a co-efficient of greater than 1.0. For example, a UPB should reflect the local cost of construction minus contractor profit and overhead. Thus a contractor’s bid co-efficient for standard hour construction is generally in the 1.10-1.30 range.
A partial listing of 4BT’s support services includes:
JOC Program Development
JOC Program Oversight, Including Formal and Informal Compliance Audits
JOC SaaS Technology Customization
Multi-level and Multi-format training
24/7 JOC Technology User Support Services Online, Phone, email.