Nick why is the price $99.00? The ASTM can be downloaded for between $49.00 and $69.00. Just wondering why a member of INACHI and Home Gauge would want to spend more money on this? Your thoughts?
Because ASTM doesn’t have a commercial SOP (although they have mis-titled their scope of work permission form).
There exists only one commercial SOP in our industry: www.nachi.org/comsop.htm, open and free to all.
Nick,
Check out MasterCheckList Pro.
It retails for $495 but the InterNACHI member price is only $195.
We have had commercial software for many years. In fact, we had commercial software long before we even thought about going into home inspection.
We are still the only major publisher of inspection report software based on the ICC International Property Maintenance Code. Buyers of existing large commercial buildings as well as smaller commercial property investors often prefer IPMC compliance inspections. New commercial construction inspections are almost exclusively done following Master Format.
Between 1992-1999, most of our customers were project managers, contractors, engineers, architects, and major corporations. The inspection industry has changed quite a lot in the 16 years we have been in business and construction has changed too. We have stayed on top of those changes.
While most of the commercial construction industry was still very locked into Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in the 1990’s, I was teaching and promoting Earned Value Analysis/Earned Value Management (EVA/EVM) at a program we (MSI) ran in cooperation with Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Our first major move into the report business was with a program called PCTS that I started developing the mid 1980’s. When we started MSI in August of 1992, PCTS was the only report system of its kind. Intended for new construction and major renovations, it could be used as an inspection report, a project accounting program, and a project financial analysis program (Net Present Value, Break-Even analysis, etc.). It was different from other software in that it combined PERT/CPM and WBS concepts with accounting and financial analysis.
Ten years ago, very few contractors, project managers, or Owner’s Reps (inspectors) had ever even heard of EVA/EVM. If they had, it was because they took PM courses in pursuit of an engineering or architecture degree. Today, large contractors, all commercial Project Managers, and Owner’s Reps need are expected to have a solid understanding of EVA and EVM.
Microsoft Project and other PM software such as Primavera began incorporating more EVA/EVM features into their software. I wasn’t going to try to compete with either Microsoft or Primavera for obvious reasons. We finally discontinued development of PCTS after its final release eleven years ago in 1997. For more than 10 years it was the only report software of its kind.
I have not yet looked at what Russ and Sean have done with their commercial inspection report. I know that when they set out to do something, they set out to do it right.
What I do know is that I have looked at a lot of so-called commercial inspection report software and it is obvious that the software was an attempt to transfer home inspection knowledge into the commercial world.
I have been involved with commercial buildings for almost all of my thirty-four year career. Doing commercial inspections is a great way to earn a living but inspection software alone does not make a person a commercial building inspector.
More important than the software itself is having software that is backed by people who understand the industry. At MSI, we see inspection software as being merely a tool. It is the knowledge and experience behind the software that matters most.
George, get me a press release announcing your www.nachi.org/comsop.htm based commercial software and I’ll add it here: http://www.nachi.org/comsop.htm#18