Bid and pursuit tracking
A firm may track dozens of potential projects at once, each with a bid date, estimated value, and probability. A pursuit pipeline shows which bids are due, which need a go or no-go decision, and where the effort is going. Recording why bids are won or lost, including price, schedule, and relationships, helps the firm choose better pursuits and strengthen weaker areas.
Go or no-go reviews improve with data. A short checklist covering fit, capacity, competition, and margin turns a debate into a decision.
Owners, developers and the relationship map
Repeat work comes from people: owners, developers, architects, and public agencies. A map of who knows whom, who has hired the firm before, and what was said at the last meeting prevents the loss of knowledge when someone retires or leaves. Contacts and organizations should be linked to projects, so the history of every relationship is visible.
- Link contacts to the projects they were involved in, not just the company.
- Track upcoming project announcements and public procurement notices.
- Assign a relationship owner for each key client.
Subcontractors, suppliers and prequalification
A firm depends on subcontractors and suppliers, whose qualifications, insurance, safety records, and performance matter. A directory with trades, regions, certificates, and past performance supports bid coverage and compliance. A portal can invite subcontractors to submit documents and bids, reducing email handling for estimators.
Experience Cloud for portals →Prequalification, safety records and compliance documents
Owners increasingly ask for safety statistics, insurance certificates, bonding capacity, and references as part of the bid. Keeping these documents current in one place, with expiry reminders, saves a scramble before every submission. A structured record of past projects, with scope, value, owner, and outcome, can be searched when a similar bid arrives, which helps estimators respond faster and with more relevant experience.
The same discipline supports your own subcontractors. Before a trade is awarded work, the system can confirm that insurance and safety documents are valid, which reduces risk on site.
Handoff to project delivery and the finance system
When a bid is won, the details should travel with it: scope, contract value, key dates, and stakeholders. Creating the project in the delivery and accounting system from the won opportunity avoids re-keying and gives the project manager the context from the pursuit. Connecting to the job-cost system lets leadership compare estimated and actual margin over time.
Decisions to settle before configuration starts
- What counts as an opportunity? Decide at what point a potential project enters the pipeline, such as an invitation to bid versus an early lead.
- How is probability set? Agree stage definitions and criteria so forecasts are comparable across estimators.
- Who maintains subcontractor records? Name an owner for qualification data and set expiry reminders for insurance and certificates.
- What moves to the finance system? List the data that should pass on a win, and who creates the project to avoid duplicates.
A realistic first 90 days
- Days 1 to 30. Consolidate pursuits from estimators' lists, define stages and go or no-go criteria, and load key owners and subcontractors.
- Days 31 to 60. Run weekly pursuit reviews from Salesforce and launch the subcontractor directory with expiry alerts.
- Days 61 to 90. Connect won opportunities to project creation and review win rates by client type and project size.
Pitfalls in construction rollouts
- Estimators who see it as extra work. Make the system save them effort, for example by pre-filling bid information from past similar projects.
- Treating every contact equally. A directory of thousands of names is noise. Prioritize active relationships.
- Unreliable subcontractor data. Expired insurance is a risk. Automate reminders and block selection when documents lapse.
- No handoff discipline. If project managers never see the pursuit notes, the knowledge is lost at the most valuable moment.
