DEVELOPMENT OF A WEB BASED CONSTRUCTION ESTIMATING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR SMALL – MEDIUM SCALE CONTRACTOR

The progress of institutions is largely determined by the ability to make use of computer technology. The study aimed to design a web-based estimating management system that would help the freelance contractor to estimate the overall project costs and applying descriptive analytics; to develop the proposed construction estimating management system for small-medium scale contractor that is accessible anytime and anywhere using open source technologies such as PHP and MySQL; and 3. to evaluate the acceptability of the proposed construction estimating management system by gathering important feedback from users. ISO 25010 standard for software quality was utilized, to evaluate the functionality, reliability, performance, usability, maintainability, and security of the project. Based on the responses of freelance contractors from NEMA Construction and JAWO builders, freelance contractors, engineers and computer experts an average weighted mean 4.4 was observed which is interpreted as strongly agree to the functionality, reliability, performance, usability, maintainability, and security of the project. The following conclusions were made after conducting a thorough investigation and gathering of data. Moreover, it was proven that the system can let the client view and have a copy of the quotation. Applying descriptive analytics for the company's revenue helps the company to monitor the status of the construction project. The respondents of the study always encountered a degree of difficulty on using the traditional method and it indicates that the respondents experienced problems in rough estimating, organizing previous projects, retrieving old records that can be used as a basis for new projects and monitoring the revenue of the company. Important features are considered in the development of the system such as login, logout, viewing of data reports, search projects, project category, company's revenue, and help assistant. It is important that everyone must engage in upgrading the style of what we know in the past by means of the learning experience and utilizing modern technology is one way to accomplish. Hence, the researcher recommends that the developed Construction Estimating Management System (CEMS) needs to be studied more and enhance more in terms of its function technicalities for there might be more to be considered on it. In order to attain more accuracy, it is highly recommended that the system will have additional features for the different option given by the client such as adding other construction project category such as tiling, landscaping, metal fabrication, carpentry, metal fencing, etc. Also, it is recommended that the system should be upgraded into a larger scale that can estimate even on multiple floors of a house or buildings.