Revised 4/2/97
Operational Note:
Structnet is a system designed to improve communications between vendors and customers in the construction industry. The Internet is an extremely effective and efficient means of accumulating and disseminating information world wide. Although the Construction Industry is world wide in scope, it is still a very regionally oriented business. The challenge is to utilize a world wide communications tool to satisfy regional needs. Structnet has exploited the universal advantages of the Internet and reduced the disadvantages through its unique system of data management .
The system is designed for use by all participants in the construction process. Developers, Designers, General Contractors, Subcontractors, Suppliers, Manufacturers, and ancillary businesses like attorneys, accountants and insurance. it is designed as a meeting place to closely match the needs of the customer with the products, services, and operating regions of the vendor.
Although the system is written for all participants in this industry, in the interest of clarity these instructions and overview will refer specifically to the General Contractor as the buyer or customer, and the Subcontractor as the seller or vendor.
The system is designed in two basic parts. 1. The vendor management system and 2. the General Contractor selection system.
This system is designed to accumulate all of the information contained in the marketing profile of the Subcontractor including the type of work he specializes in, (e.g.. plastering, drywall, painting), The type of jobs that he wishes to pursue (e.g. Commercial Industrial, Residential, Heavy and Highway, Underground). The range of value for the projects he wishes to pursue, (e.g.. residential projects from $1,000,000 to $20,000,000) and the regions in which he wishes to pursue each of these trades. If the Subcontractor wishes to pursue plastering projects (only) in Las Vegas , yet pursue plastering and drywall projects in Los Angeles, and painting only in San Francisco, the profile will convey those desires. The vendor will only be contacted by general contractors using the system for projects that fit the subcontractors profile. This reduces the number of requests for proposal (RFP) to be answered by the subcontractor.
The system includes the subcontractors contact information including his e-mail address and his web site address in addition to his market profile. This allows the general contractor to have instant access to the subcontractors web site which should contain the information generally included in his company brochure. The e-mail address gives the general contractor direct e-mail access to the vendor.
General Contractor, Vendor Selection System
The process of selecting subcontractors for a specific project is time consuming and usually somewhat of a shotgun system. The general contractor usually knows subcontractors in areas in which he has completed many building projects, but it is more difficult to bid in a region that is less familiar to him or one in which he needs new suppliers with different skills.
The system is designed for ease of use by the general contractor. His process will be to sit down at his computer and input the project information into the forms provided . The process matches the project requirements with the subcontractors marketing profile.
Tutorial
Place your basic company information on the Structnet system. Overview
ADD NEW MARKET DATA
Become A Member. Place your market profile here
Select "ADD NEW MARKETING INFO." and complete the form.
Add Your CompanyMarket Profile:
Creating a Home Page:
Simple company Search:
Additional Job Information Your Suppliers May Want to Know
BACK TO MAIN
Please fill in all the information a Supplier needs to know to make an informed bid on your project. You may cut and paste information right into this form.
Suggested information includes:
Job Name:
Job Address:
Bid Date:
Bid Time:
Estimator: Name, URL, Email address
Location of Archectectural Drawings and Specs ( Physical address and URL:)
E-mail Tricks:
1.Did you know that you could paste an E-mail address directly into an E-mail document or this bid request form? Just write the complete address of the website where the plans, and specs. reside. See Granville Black Construction Demo site: http://blackconstruction.com/projects_bidding/project_a/bidding_project_a.htm
In order to thoroughly understand the process we will walk through the forms to be completed. Click here to put you at the start. The screen says " Structnet The future of Construction".
Next we will review the vendor data selection in order to understand the kinds of data that each subcontractor wants to put into his marketing profile. click on the Vendor -- Data Section link. This will take you to a screen called "VENDOR DATA OPTIONS"
You are working in a screen system called frames. Notice that you can point your browser at the boundary between these two screens , click and hold your left mouse button (if you have a right handed mouse), and drag the boundary back and fourth to give you more room to operate and more room to read, as you prefer. These movable frames exist throughout the site, you need to become familiar with them. Please grab them and move them around. Be BOLD.
There are three basic sections to this page. The "Add a new Vendor" section is for use by the web master, that's me. We are the only ones that can add new vendors to the system, so skip this one and focus on the second one which is "Edit an existing Vendor". For this tutorial place the word "granvill" in the first box (First 8 characters). and the password "rocks" in the vendor password then press the "EDIT " button. You should get a record screen called "Vendor Update", which contains the company information as well as several records indicating Granville Black Construction Co.'s marketing profile.
Granville Black Construction Co. brief :
Our featured company, Granville Black const., is a very versatile company that does a wide verity of work in different areas of the country. They are not only manufacturers of products but regional suppliers of products, general contractors, and subcontractors installing those products. How would you like to wear all of those hats? Well, this is a demonstration not real life, but it will give you some idea of what these trades would look like.
The company basic information, starts with the company name, and ends with notes. This section is the base information for the company . Note that in the box labeled "URL:", there is a web site address for their company. Click on this URL and see where it takes you. Note that it takes you directly to the companies web site, with its advertising and company profile. Now click the X in the upper right hand corner of the web page which will take you back to the Vendor Update section. Now click the words "info@blackconstruction.com" below "E-MAIL ADDRESS" Note that it pops up an E-mail document, already addressed to the web master for Granville Black Construction company" The document is already for you to fill in the information that you are requesting from Granville. As with most e-mail programs, it already contains your return address and personal information. All you have to do is fill in something about the subject, and write your message in the, then click the send button and it is gone. No fuss, no muss. Go ahead, it wont hurt anything. Be ADVENTUROUS, You won't break it, and if you do break it, let me know so we can fix it. If it breaks, it wasn't any good anyway. If it works will just get an e-mail which will inflate my ego.
If you moved or changed your phone numbers, or wished to change your password, you have full control of this function for your site. Click on "Edit Vendor Data" and modify what you want. If you did change some data, then press "RESET" button, which will put the data back where it was originally. Go to the scroll down the bottom of the page and click "SUBMIT" which will complete the process.
You will issue your own password when you put your market profile into the system. This will allow you to make changes in your vendor information and profile at any time you wish. If you wish to change your password, you may do this at your leisure. If you have multiple offices in different districts, you will be listed in each district one time with an office address. Each contractors basic record requires a different password.
The emerging contractors are contractors that have qualified for Federal, State or Local assistants programs like Cal Trans. The contractor should note WBE for Women Business Enterprise, or MBE Minority Business Enterprise. The details of your qualifying agencies and the explanation should be on your web site or in the notes section of this data base. Click here for further information.
URL: (Universal Resource Locator) Website address to the common folk.
This is your web site address. Anyone can click on this address and go directly to your web site. The most important use of this address is in the General Contractors selection system as briefly described above. The tutorial for this section is below.
Self Evident. If you are affiliated with AGC in different districts, you will have multiple entries in the system. One for each district.
Use the 5 digit zip code of your office location.
You do not have to put in the "( )", or the "-" they will be formatted for you.
Place your E-mail address here. As your company gets more organized using e-mail, you probably will want this to go to your sales department. This address is the one that will receive E-mail from the General Contractors selection system. If you have several E-mail addresses for different departments, they can be located in your web site.
Contact: The person within your organization to take the initial sales contacts.
A code system designed to show what construction oriented groups to which your company belongs. AGC of California has a code system that shows its name, the district in which they are members, and what kind of contractor or member that they are.
Union, Open Shop or Blank
Here you can place several pages of text to thoroughly describe your company. With AGC of California, the initial description is the notes written in the "Constructor Membership Directory".
Your market profile is a series of records that establishes the type work that you wish to do and where you want to do it.
You will notice that there are several records in this vendor update section. These are the records that establish the market profile for the contractor. Click here for an example of a multiple segment market profile.
Granville Black Construction Co. :
Remember our versatile fictitious company that does a wide verity of work in different areas of the country. Here is a look at the company and all of those hats.
Record #1 shows a (Vendor Type: Contractor ) that builds (Job Type: Commercial Industrial), that builds in the area from (Zip Code Min: 93000) to (Zip code Max: 95000) [Southern to Mid California}who's project value is from (Min Value: $100,000) to (Max Value: $5,000,000) and is a General Contractor (Cost Code Min: 300) to (Cost code Max: 304).
Lets edit this record or at least look at it in edit mode. You can change any of the data in this mode, but I would appreciate it if you didn't change it, just look at it. Its kind of like the Ferrari at a car show. If you do change it, no one will die, but I will have to re write this tutorial. It was hard enough to do in the first place. I would have a hard time keeping up. If the information is different in the record, you can understand why.
You will notice each record has a small circle next to it. This is called a radio button, like the old radios with their push buttons. You can edit any of the records you want, one at a time, by clicking on the circle. It will put a small dot in it. This is the record you are going to edit, so click on Record #1 and click "EDIT SELECTION".
Click on the down arrow to the far right of the job type box.
Job Type contains a pre selected list of project types. Note that this one is "Commercial: Industrial" If you change it accidentally, please put it back. If you change it on purpose WE WILL KNOW WHO YOU ARE, because computer folks know everything. (Right).
We have selected these categories as our standards to maintain a system parallel to the statistical information produced by the Department of Commerce.
The only Job Type that is not one of the standards is "ALL". This category is designed to allow the subcontractor to select all of the job types without inputting them individually. For example an asphalt paving contractor doesn't usually care if the black stuff he installs is on a Residential or Commercial project, but a residential framing contractor may be very specialized and not wish to do anything but Residential Tracts. This allows him to specialize, and not have to deal with projects in which he is not interested. It also keeps the General Contractor selecting the subs from reviewing or sending RFPs to those that are not interested, and believing he is covered on a trade when he is not.
Under Vendor Type there are two basic groups. Vendors and Associations.
Vendors are broken into three groups, Contractors, (General Contractors or Subcontractors) which are usually regional, Suppliers (local suppliers of products, e.g. building material suppliers), which are usually regional, and Manufacturers which are usually not regional.
Associations are broken into groups, Trade Associations and Unions. These groups are also listed in this search engine. Even though these groups would not normally be selected to bid a project, they may be a good source of vendors or man power for a project. An association can be the conduit between the General Contractor and the subcontractors that do not have e-mail.
Zip Code Min: & Zip Code Max. (Zip Code Range)
The locations that this contractor wants to do work as a General Contractor is between zip code 93000 and 95000, which is in Southern and Central California.. To find which zip code ranges to use, regional maps are generated. Click on one of these two maps for an example. (Southern California) and (Northern California)
These are values of the projects that are being requested by the general contractor not just the value of the sub trade. When selecting the value to put into this category be generous with your value ranges.
This is the cost code system established by the Construction Specification Institute, and endorsed by most architects, engineers and public bodies. Near the bottom of the screen there is a "Show Cost Codes" button. Click on this and you will see the cost codes and descriptions show up on the right side of the screen. For a detailed description of the CSI cost code system, click here. The cost code list can be hidden by clicking on the same button. The screens load faster if this list is not showing when it is not needed.
The CSI MASTERFORMAT starts at number 1000 and extends to 16,999. We have taken the liberty to use the numbers 1 - 999 for Architects, Engineers, Consultants, General Contractors and other Pre-Construction items that are not specifically included in the MASTERFORMAT number system.
I would suggest when establishing the numbers to put into your cost code range, that you select the lowest number for the minimum and the number just prior to the next category not included in your trade.
Submit Information:
Select the "SUBMIT" button below cost code to complete the process. This data is now included in the profile for the company. When you are complete, go to the top of the screen and select "Back To Main"
From the main screen select "Vendor -- Data Section". Scroll down to the section called "SEARCH VENDORS:.
This search is designed to accept requests in any or all of the fields shown, except for Password and Date. Without a password, you can only retrieve 15 companies at any one submit ion.
The search engine accepts (*) as a wild card for a search.
You may input in multiple fields for one search. If you are looking for Granite Construction, and input Granite Construction in Company, you will find 14 entries. If you input Granite Construction in company and Watsonville in City field, you will find (4) entries for Granite Construction in Watsonville.
If you are not part of our office staff, you will not need to use the "PASSWORD" field of this form. For further information on this field, contact the web master.
Searching for a company with the first name Black, and you write Black and you will find Black Diamond Asphalt. If you search for a name with the word "Black" somewhere in the name then write "*black" and you will find Black Diamond Asphalt and Granville Black Construction.
Select the Code: for the emerging contractor type requested. Placing a (*) in front of the code, will find that code anywhere in the field. e.g. *WBE will find the WBE contractors anywhere in the field.
City and State: Self Explanatory
If you input 93035 in the code, that is the only zip code you will retrieve. If you input 930 in the zip code, you will find everyone from zip code 93000 - 93099
See the code System for details on the codes. Placing a (*) in front of the code, will find that code anywhere in the field.
The shop types are Union, Open Shop, or N/A. N/A means Not Applicable, Not Available or I don't want to tell you.
Date has no search criteria.
If you want to return to the original data before submitting, then put the RESET button.
When you are satisfied with your data, select SUBMIT, which will place the data request into the data system and hopefully return some good information for you.
List of Companies:
When you have finished you should have a list of companies. If you wish to print this information place your cursor inside the large frame, anywhere, and select with your left mouse button. This will select the correct frame for printing. then select the print button at the top of the browser.
(AKA General Contractors Selection System)
Overview
The first part of this tutorial was to show how vendors can make information available about their companies. Up to this time the difficulty has been to disseminate this information in a inexpensive and effective manner. Structnet has found a way to collect this information and prepare (RFP) Request for Proposals, easily, effectively, and inexpensively. The following is the Tutorial for the Vendor Selection System, designed primarily for the General Contractor finding the vendors necessary to bid his project.
If you are not already at the Structnet site, Click Here to put you at the start. The screen should say " Structnet The future of Construction".
Operational Note: You may encounter times during the following process where the upper screan data boxes turn all blue. You can correct this by running the slider bar up and down once. This will put the data boxes back in view.
Overview and Purpose:
Assume that you are a general contractor seeking vendors to
bid and build a project. The purpose of this exercise is to select vendors
for your project. You will enter the basic project information in the right
hand window. Then select all of the trades by CSI cost code from a list
in the left window. The system retrives all of the vendors matching the
criteria from the ititial input information. You then view the contractors
web sites selected by the system. As you view each site you determine if
they are suitable for the project. You will select vendors you wish to
bid the project. At the end of the selection process you will enter more
detailed information on the project and submit it to the system. Two things
happen when the submit button is selected. (1) All vendors that have e-mail
will have an (RFP) sent to them. (2) A Fax document will be prepared for
all of those vendors without e-mail. Print the fax documents and fax them
off directly to the vendor. My guess is that after a few times of faxing
an RFP to a vendor, you will require that they get email.
We ask that you not select vendors with e-mail addresses except for Granville Black Construction or Blackline Design. We are dealing with live amunition here. They vendors selected will receive a copy of your RFP and begin to droole, then we get sued for shorting out their keyboard.
Place your basic company information on the Structnet system. Overview
Go to the Construction Information Center
Select "Structnet Search Engine"
Fill in the data boxes in the "Vendor Selection & Search System" table
Your name "Your Company Name"
Next we will review the vendor data selection in order to understand the kinds of data that each subcontractor wants to put into his marketing profile. click on the "GENERAL CONTRACTOR -- JOB SELECTION" link. This will take you to a screen called "GENERAL CONTRACTOR -- VENDOR SEARCH".
The Project
For this exercise we will assume that the General Contractor is the Famous Granville Black Construction Company. The project is a 40,000 Sq. Ft. Tilt Up concrete Commercial / Industrial building in Oxnard, CA., with the normal 10% offices, site work, landscaping and paving.