Genentech relies on its in-house construction specialists to add offices, laboratories, manufacturing sites and warehouses to meet the demands of its rapidly growing biotechnology and pharmaceutical business. About a year ago, these construction professionals replaced their spreadsheet-based capital estimating system with Timberline software to manage their projects, which Igor Mac Kay reports range in cost from $50,000 to $250,000.

Mac Kay states, "I have improved consistency in my report preparation, as well as developed better and more consistent pricing. Things sum up and multiply correctly and it appears relatively reliable."

Having eliminated the need to back-track to try and locate errors or typos that were normally made with the previous spreadsheet system, the team's ability to prepare capital cost estimates sped up dramatically. In fact, as a result of using Timberline, Gentech's, productivity has increased about 20%. In addition, Mac Kay reports much improvement due to the system's ability to convert information. A team now can take existing information and quickly adapt it to meet a similar project's needs in a different locale, he said.

While Timberline's software is strong, the user documentation leaves a lot to be desired. Mac Kay explains that because of the documentation's short-comings, hands-on training is ongoing in order to make the most out of the solution's wealth of capabilities.

Rating: 6.5.