Trimble Buys Trade Service to Build Out Estimating, Project Management Software

Trade Service Co., San Diego, has been acquired by Trimble, Sunnyvale, Calif., a big name in project management software, estimating systems and related tools for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) market.

The company made its first foray into the electrical business with its 2010 purchase of Accubid, a provider of estimating software for electrical contractors. In recent years, it also acquired QuickPen and WinEst estimating software for the plumbing market, and Google SketchUp, a 3-D drawing program for architects and designers. Overall,Trimble is a $2 billion publicly held company with 7,000 employees.

Trade Service will be in Trimble’s Engineering and Construction segment and will work with Trimble businesses in this unit to integrate its product and pricing information into the other estimating packages and help the company build out its offering of BIM (building information management) data.

Bryn Fosburgh, Trimble vice president, said in the press release announcing the acquisition, “Real-time specification and pricing information are key elements to the construction bidding process as well as the overall building construction lifecycle. Tightly integrating Trade Service data into Trimble’s estimating solutions as well as using the information to extend the value of BIM data to the owner is a strategic goal of connecting key workflows across the design, build and operate continuum.”

“Adding efficiency and accuracy to the bidding and estimating process has been, and will continue to be, one of our core values,” said Tony Dubreville, president and CEO of Trade Service, in the release. “Integrating our extensive data solutions with the Trimble Buildings product line will provide the marketplace with valuable solutions that go beyond what is available today. Working together we can serve the entire supply chain from manufacturers through the end user with richer content, while streamlining commerce with optimal speed and efficiency. We’re excited to contribute our expertise and comprehensive databases to serve as complete solutions for Trimble’s clients, as well as enhancing our offering to our Trade Service customer base.”

In an exclusive phone interview with Tod Moore, Trade Service’s senior vice president, and Jarrod Klug, marketing communications manager, Trimble Buildings, MEP Division, Westminster, Colo., Electrical Marketing learned more about Trimble’s business focus and what Trade Service’s management team believes their company offers Trimble. Moore said all members of Trade Service’s executive team would continue on at Trimble and that Trade Service is excited about the market expansion opportunities the company will offer.

Acquisitions have been an important part of Trimble’s growth since the company was founded by Charles Trimble and two executives from Hewlett-Packard in 1978. Krug says the company has always let profitable additions to its portfolio operate autonomously. Trimble has acquired several dozen firms over the years in the GPS positioning and navigation fields where it got its start, as well as in the project management and estimating markets.

Moore believes the acquisition will help eliminate some of the construction supply chain’s inefficiencies in the distributor-contractor relationship that have been under discussion in the electrical market for so long. “We can now bring that together in a broader way than ever happened in the past,” he said. “The vast majority of distributors are using our data.”

Krug says the acquisition will help Trimble take inefficiencies out of the design part of the construction process. One of the company’s key aims, he says, is to offer a “fabricatable” design tool, meaning architects and other users can use its software to produce designs that can actually be used on the construction site. “When an architect draws something or creates a design, nine times out of ten the intent isn’t to actually carry it to the construction of the building,” he says. “Nine times out of ten, architectural-based drawings have to be redrawn at the level of the subcontractor.”

“A lot of that fabrication today is done on-site and it is inefficient,” adds Moore. “If it could come prefabricated to the jobsite, the gains are huge.”

One of the key initiatives at Trimble right now is implementing BIM (building information management) technology into its software. Moore says that while Trade Service does not yet have specific fields in its product records for BIM data, it expects to eventually be a provider of this data. “Adding BIM has not been a requirement yet,” he said. “Manufacturers don’t have the capability of developing that data on their own. The industry has been screaming for a provider of all that BIM data.  There are companies out there that kind of do it, but nobody ties it together with the product and pricing information behind it, manufacturers catalog pages and spec sheets. We are in the best position to do that.”

With the acquisition Trade Service will now have the same parent company as AccuBid, one of the largest providers of estimating tools for electrical contractors and a major customer for its product data. But Moore said this shouldn’t affect the relationships Trade Service has with other providers of estimating software for electrical contractors, including McCormick Systems Inc., Chandler, Ariz.; and ConEst Software Systems, Manchester, N.H.; and the Estimation software package now owned by Maxwell Systems, King of Prussia, Pa. “We are not expecting those relationships to change,” said Moore. “We go a long way back with McCormick, ConEst and Estimation. We have very good relationships with the leadership at those companies and at the sales level. We have talked with all of them in the last day or two.”

Trimble’s website offers quite a bit of detail on the dozens of acquisitions it has made over the years, and on the diverse array of applications for its software products in the agricultural and construction markets. While Trimble is a well-known entity in the construction market because of its broad package of project management software and survey tools, it’s also a big player in the agricultural market, where its GPS, navigation and mapping tools help farmers improve crop performance  and help livestock managers get the most out of their herds.

On the acquisition front, one of its most interesting deals was its 2012 purchase of Google’s SketchUp, a 3D modeling tool used by architects, engineers and other designers to design, model and visualize buildings. According to information on Trimble’s website, as part of the SketchUp platform, Trimble is partnering with Google on running and further developing SketchUp’s 3D Warehouse, an online repository where users can find, share, store and collaborate on 3D models.

Trimble claims  on its website that it has already created “the de-facto standard” for field data models and project management tools for its key markets. “SketchUp, together with these existing capabilities, will provide a stand-alone and enterprise solution that will enable an integrated and seamless workflow to reduce rework and improve productivity for the customer,” it says. “Users will be able to collect data, design, model and collaborate on one platform. The combined capability will enhance Trimble’s ability to extend its existing market applications including the cadastral (mapping), heavy civil, and building and construction industries.”