| Budget [message #366024] |
Fri, 03 October 2008 20:25  |
 Howard Gabriel
Messages: 6
Registered: September 2008 |
Newbie |
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Hey all,
Curious as to the methods from designers for budgeting.
Budget seems to come up bright and early in the design stage (program/conceptual stage actually). What methods do you guys generally go by for budgeting equipment and infratructure at this stage.
Do you assume things may change dramatically by later phases?
What are the resources you typically use for budgeting equipment, cable, infrastructure, etc.? Is there something handy out there that makes the job easy(ier) or do you use manufacturer retail pricing?
Many thanks.
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| Re: Budget [message #366035 is a reply to message #366024 ] |
Fri, 03 October 2008 22:15  |
Brad Weber
Messages: 1488
Registered: December 2005
Location: Marietta, GA |
Has No Life |
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I think you'll find a number of methods used depending on the designer's experience, the type of project, the accuracy required and so forth. Some people use list or list plus some percentage as an installed cost, others use dealer cost for equipment and estimate labor separately while some do both and compare them. The biggest problem I see with using a more detailed cost estimating process early on is that you typically do not have all the details defined at that point. An example would be cabling, you can estimate a per foot cost for each type of cable and the run lengths involved but how often does anyone have all that information when they're doing an initial estimate? So a "lot" sum may make more sense, at least initially.
I generally do not try to provide a cost estimate for infrastructure (conduit, raceway, power, etc.) as that information has to be confirmed by others and is usually part of other budgets. I may sometimes do something very rough like X% of system cost, but not line item pricing.
I always hope things won't change dramatically later, budgets are usually set early on and it is often difficult to make major changes to the budget later in the process. That is one reason why I prefer to start conservative, most clients seem to prefer the budget estimate being higher than the final cost rather than the other way around.
Brad Weber
muse Audio Video
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| Re: Budget [message #366954 is a reply to message #366436 ] |
Tue, 07 October 2008 15:36 |
Brad Weber
Messages: 1488
Registered: December 2005
Location: Marietta, GA |
Has No Life |
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I don't believe there are any centralized resources for this. Several of the Councils within InfoComm have been working on a standardized pricing/product data format for a number or years but I don't think it has been widely implemented. But even that would is just for equipment pricing.
Some of the programs like d-tools let you setup a database and create assemblies and even options for assemblies, but I think you still have to enter all the data and set things up manually.
How I determine budgets is the result of many years in both the consulting and contracting aspects of the business. There are objective factor such as the direct price of a product, but there are also subjective factors that come from experience and that a software solution may have difficulty addressing.
I do rely greatly on pricing from the manufacturers. In some cases the manufacturers are very willing to provide dealer and MAP/list pricing data, many manufacturers will not release dealer pricing to anyone other than authorized dealers but will provide list pricing to Consultants. However, some manufacturers insist that you go through a local dealer or distributor for any pricing, I tell those manufacturers it doesn't matter then, if I can't do my job and independently budget or verify pricing for their products, then their products simply won't get specified or accepted. It is surprising how often that all of a sudden makes pricing available.
Brad Weber
muse Audio Video
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