Candy - Avis

What I like most about Candy is the ease of using the product. Once you are set up and start going it makes your work a lot easier. It safes time and money, and in business time is money. I love how I can do my programming, subcontracting and pricing all at once. Project Management is made more efficient with Candy.

Initially getting all the "meat" for estimating of projects (Masters) can be a challenge. Pricing per license can get a little expensive if you do not make use of the program a lot.

CCS providing user-friendly cost modelling solutions for construction projects to manage project cost from tender stage to until project completion.

The CCS detailed cost estimation model help to produce a number of cost reports which will help during the decision-making process in the tender stage, as well as this cost model can use to establish the post contract cost control process, and able to produce cost reports such as cost to completion, cost value reconciliation and cash flow statements, etc.

Its required more time for the establishment of master CCS, and also only one estimator can work in one project, if two estimators work for one project by dividing into two parts, later if required to merge into one file, it is possible but not simple.

The simplicity of the software and features as well as the depth of accuracy.

Integration with BS, Support on Candy & BS, company-specific requirements and customization, Multi-Level user security and restrictions, consultation services.

The package allows one to price the project to the last screw and then enables one to analyse the project and fully understand where the cost is and what areas require special attention.
Generally 80% of the cost is in 20% of the items.
The programming module of Candy is by far one of the most advanced programs available. It assists in monitoring the design information for construction. It enables one to link the estimate to the programme and get out detailed accurate cash flows, labour and resource histograms.

It is a rather expensive package with a monthly cost per package and companies tend to look for alternative cheaper packages.
So far have managed to convince company to stay with candy

I enjoy the estimating and valuations . I like the fact that you can customize it for your own uses.

The difficulty and amount of time that it takes to programme on CCS. There is a lack of clarity of how to link everything and pricing multiple items with the same description.

Very good estimating software rates can be built easily and utilize efficiently,no other software can compete in term of estimating and valuation

Functionality of QTO is very bad and inefficient,it is way behind other on screen measurements softwares.

1) Complete package
2) Cradle to Grave
3) Able to use in motivation contractual claims
4) Interlinked between Tender, Costing, Measurement, Programs, Cash flow, Claims etc

1) To get the full use of the product the user needs to spend a lot of time working on it
2) The constant changes require aren't always apparent to the user
3) Artificial Intelligence has not been implemented in the product, where the program could understand your thinking process and assist with the creation and general work process
4) Artificial Intelligence could also be used for the more mundane chores, leaving the User to spend more time with the creative process
5) Artificial Intelligence could be used to monitor the original implementation and subsequent betterment due to AI. Time is precious, and if we can do the same work faster, with assistance from AI that would be a major plus

01. Can use a bill of quantities to allocate resources to tender- or construction programmes and therefore come to sensible programme activity durations very quickly.
02. Access to help (have built up a good relationship with the reps over the years & have always had excellent service).
03. The ease of using macros, saves me loads of time, especially when linking multiple activity strings.

Used to be able to import more fields when importing new programme activities; would like the option of importing text 01 to text 05 as well.

I have experience with MS Project and Oracle Primavera for project management works and during the initial period, I struggled a lot to learn these softwares. But recently I got introduced with Candy and it is really simple to understand and more powerful to work. It is the most suited software for the construction firm and price-wise also the preferable option to go with Candy.

It always difficult to correct the mistakes and functional wise, MS Project is far better to compare with Candy. The popularity of this software is very low and there are very limited numbers of online tutorials available for Candy.

Coding system
Resource manager
Subcontract adjudicator
Buildsmart integration
Planning links
Candy Support

Candy courses a must for beginners .

This software designed in such a way that it satisfy the need of all contractors/engineer.
We can get ' n ' number of types of reports it helps you in financial planning, cash flow,resource planning, mobilization etc.
It makes your estimation process easy and most effective way.

Price is not affordable for small firms and free lancers and some of commands need to be more friendly like MS excel, however if you practice candy even you can achieve required speediness in work

Most of what I use Candy for is the QTO and Estimating portions.

I find them very useful and quick to use. I do enjoy that the software is continually being updated and changing to make it easier to use and more streamlined.

As I mostly use the QTO function, I do come across a few minor bugs. Sometimes QTO will crash or state that there is an unexpected error; or sometimes the length or area tools will bug out when inserting new point etc. However this is not a major issue.

The way in which you can customise everything to yourself and your business, making it easy to do everything for a project on one program.

The program is very complex and to get started and acquanited with every aspect of the program is near on impossible.

The planning side. It is critical to all our projects and allows you to manage all activities

Not easy to translate to stakeholders unfamiliar to programs. More dashboard views would be great. IRS all mono colour - therefore not easy to manage consultants. Same for LL Schedules.

-No chances of arithmetical errors
-Generating Reports makes it very useful to review the tenders/project
- Easy to change the price of particular resource which will change the price in overall BOQ
- Able to add different mark up for each trades

- Initial setup for pricing/estimation takes time
- Not able to export pdf BOQ

the software is user friendly and easy accessible. after going through the practice book i was able to understand about 80% of how the software works

the manual and software quantity take off need some improvement. calculation from QTO (not the result) are hard to export onto worksheets

It is very useful to review the budget and compare with the actual cost. Also it helps to notify the loss early and forecast for the Project can be verified every month or whenever need.

It is very difficult to understand and mainly confusion about codes. Also to note that time taken process during switch over menu (eg. Cost allowable to Valuation)

From an estimating perspective, the easy with which an estimate can be constructed (from baseline and from a database) is effective in getting tenders out quckly and in time

The interface between programming and estimate. After working with MS Projects, it seeds the programming function is a bit limited

The ease of use, the user interface is so simple to toggle through and for one to get used to. In terms of Quantity Take offs, one may do this in a matter of half what they would if done manually

The frequent updates only really , otherwise I am happy with the product

Easy to use and can be used to prepare transparent estimates from first principles for any construction project

The electronic quantity taking off facility could be improved

Having cost control and program functions in one software package

The program function , especially long leads and information schedule must be updated and made more user friendly

easy to use
Friendly interface
Good Reports structure

Limited number of Characters for the Resources
Some Bugs that appear instantly need to be fixed for good . (like the storage area Error)

It has a wide range of features, and anyone can work on it, even if it is just using the basics like me to do estimating.

It can be difficult to use sometimes, but it is not necessarily the software's fault, it might be a lack of experience.
One major con for me is that the software doesn't have an undo function to go back a step or more.

User friendly. Easy to learn. Powerful tool.

Printing reports can be cumbersome. Is there a faster way to set yp multiple reports in one click?

Low risk of errors in estimating. Programming function is great.

Adjudicator Detailing. Cash flow modelling.