I have been in this industry since I was 17 years old, so needless to say it’s in my blood. I’ve gone from apprentice to journeyman to foreman to general foreman, to running up to 160 ironworkers and doing 8 to 15 million (labor only) in annual sales.After 15 years in the field, I was brought into the office and started estimating. Soon I was running that portion of the company. But there was one thing that always bothered me. Why did estimating have to be so… old-school? I knew there had to be a better way, so I started digging. I found a takeoff program I liked pretty quickly—On Screen Take Off, which I can’t recommend highly enough. (The ease and quickness that OST provides for doing takeoffs is unmatched.)But there wasn’t really anything on the market for steel erection. I did find a few programs that I tried out, but they just weren’t set up for my needs as an erector. At that point I said “Screw it, let’s do it…” and decided to start creating my own software program.Over the years—with a lot of help from others in the industry—I developed and grew what is now Steel Erection Bid Wizard. Then we created a metal building program as well—Metal Building Bid Wizard. And recently, to fill a need we have developed a project management module called the Project Management Wizard.Now I do software full-time, but I have to say there are days I miss steel erection. But I’ll tell you what makes it easier—Steel Estimating Solutions now has more than 250 erectors using Steel Erection Bid Wizard. And every time I hear them say they can’t believe how close the software is to what they were doing manually—but so much faster—I know I made the right choice.At Steel Estimating Solutions, we have a single purpose: to help steel erectors move into the digital world. Why? We can all agree that the world we work in and live in has gone digital. Do you remember what it was like before cell phones and fax machines? Crazy right? So why would you still be estimating old school?