BizPortz is an industry leader in full-featured construction take-off, accounting and job costing software.
Formation and History of the Company
BizPortz, Inc. was independently and privately formed in August, 1999 by the President of the National Frame Building Association in response to expressed needs on the part of contractors and suppliers in the approximately $11 billion post-frame construction industry. Members of the industry are investors in BizPortz and serve on the BizPortz Board of Directors. The industry is relatively specialized and mature, yet fraught with inefficiency and lacking technological advantages for daily tasks - the needs BizPortz products are designed to meet.
From July 2000 to January 2003, the company engaged in intense concept-development and business planning activities, including critical review of its initial ideas with respect to technology and market. BizPortz benefited considerably from the opportunity to learn from the experience of other Internet companies. As of January 2004, the company began a limited launch its business operations with its initial product - PostFrame Manager.
Following deployment of the company's initial post-frame platform, BizPortz anticipates continued steady, supplier/intermediary-driven expansion into other sectors of the building materials market as many suppliers, intermediaries and contractors serve adjacent markets as well.
Overview and Business Concept
Building materials are a $250 billion market in the US. On average, they account for 40% of all construction costs and around 50% of office staff time for most builders including doing take-offs, estimating, researching sources, verifying specifications, ordering, scheduling, etc.. BizPortz provides services that introduce new levels of efficiency to both sides of the building materials market by linking builders (and subcontractors) electronically with their suppliers. Over time this service enables significant reductions in sales and procurement costs.
The driving force of BizPortz's business on the builder side is the desire to increase the professionalism, accuracy, and speed of their estimates (minutes instead of hours days or weeks), and to reduce the cost, difficulty, and time required for materials estimating, selection and procurement (savings go straight to a builder's bottom line). On the supplier side it is the desire to improve and strengthen ties with customers and reduce operating costs. For intermediaries, such as lumber yards and building supply centers, it is similarly the desire to forge deeper relationships with customers, offer new value-added services to builders and thereby increase market share while also improving margins through the use of the BizPortz computer assisted selling tools. BizPortz products and services are carefully designed to integrate with one another and the in-house systems of our customers to meet each of these desires.
In order to be effective in providing these tools, BizPortz has carefully chosen its location on the spectrum of ease to difficulty of use balanced with limited vs. extensive accuracy/capabilities.
Today, most people have made use of a spreadsheet at one point or another and spreadsheets represent a fairly simple user interface, but are severely limited in what they can accomplish with respect to truly adaptable building estimation, drawing and reporting. If a powerful spreadsheet is set up, the average user cannot simply change it to meet their needs in estimating a complex building. CAD systems, on the other hand, can draw virtually any complex structure imaginable. However, in order to use CAD systems, users must participate in extensive training sessions. And even then, the CAD systems are not adaptable in producing custom methodology building materials lists. BizPortz tools bring the two ends of both spectrums together. BizPortz tools are extremely simple for daily use (most users don't even require any training) and yet provide a tremendous level capabilities with extremely detailed accuracy and control.
In addition, the user interface for all BizPortz products is exactly the same - click, drag, click, change attribute, done. This not only provides for ultimate efficiency (i.e. just click right where you want an opening) but also allows for a user that is familiar with one of the BizPortz products to be equally familiar with one they've never used. i.e. If one knows how to click and drag to create a building, it's easy to click and drag to create a multi-level deck too. This simple, consistent approach to all BizPortz tools further extends the tremendous capabilities of our software without any extensive training of users being necessary. Furthermore, it enables any number of types of user interface - typical PC/mouse, touch-screen kiosk, tablet PC, cell phone PCs, etc.
And best yet for the end consumer and the seller: one knows they have it right because WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get. The BizPortz 3D virtual rendering of the project being estimated is the ultimate illustration that the project is completed as desired/specified. If not, simply click to change.
BizPortz computer assisted selling software products and services introduce new levels of sales process enhancement, efficiency and productivity to both sides of the building materials chain in increments, starting with the highest priority needs of each market participant.
Unique advantages of the BizPortz marketplace solutions include:
Corporate Leadership
The BizPortz management team is comprised of individuals with a diverse combination of backgrounds and experience.
The Board includes active members of the post-frame construction industry.
Management Team:
James T. (Tom) Knight, Founder, President, Chief Marketing Officer (Former President [31 years] of the National Frame Building Association)
Scott McKinney, Chief Financial Officer & Administration (Former CFO of the National Frame Building Association)
Gary L. Alston, Software Architect (30 years experience programming and consulting for Fortune 500 companies)
