Glendale gives Benchmark Version 7 the Green Flag

Glendale is one of the UK’s leading green service companies working in partnership with both public and private sectors.

Glendale believes in investing in the training of their people and have a thirst for innovation throughout the organisation. They also have a strong commitment to their local communities, ensuring that improvements to the environment are beneficial to all. Glendale’s range of green solutions includes:

Grounds Management
Countryside Management
Commercial Landscaping
Environmental consultancy
Golf Course Management

Glendale operates green space & landscape maintenance projects across the UK and originally purchased Benchmark to help cater to their different areas of work in their varied locations. In addition to being able to do this, they have realised many more benefits with their implementation of Benchmark. Glendale have a network of offices across the southwest, their works include grounds management, woodland management and tree planting, landscaping and arboriculture for a variety of public bodies and private sector companies. Clients include Devon County Council, the Highways Agency and Natural England and leading construction companies such as Kier, Interserve, Carillion and Balfour Beatty.

Meeting the Estimating and Management Needs of Glendale

Mike Dennys is the Chief Estimator and Contracts Manager, producing bids for his own landscaping team and Glendale across the region. Based in Exeter, he and his team needed an estimating system that:

Could be shared and reviewed across all of their branch divisions and with the rest of the Glendale organisation across the UK,
Could be easily understood by non-estimators and management alike,
Was cost-effective in time and money,
Produced accurate prices,
Was easy-to-use,
And, it had to be an all in one system, so Glendale’s management could review from a different office and sign off estimates within the system, with all data held centrally in one location.

Benchmark has been able to meet these requirements and offer further value for the Glendale group.

Glendale and Benchmark: Growing together

Glendale’s relationship with Benchmark started in mid-2008 with the first implementation of software and training. Since then, Glendale and Benchmark have grown together. “Glendale’s existing comprehensive lists of items and rates was made much more accessible and consistent using the Library database function in Benchmark.”

Image of Glendale worker on a Project

Customer understanding is important, and it is the interpretation of client specifications by the Estimators that makes the quoting feature within Benchmark intrinsic to the business: “I especially liked the professional presentation that Benchmark Estimating Software produces. I could show it to clients and the format was immediately understood. It lent itself well to multiple applications” continues Mike.

Mike was very happy with the training and implementation phase of getting Benchmark working within Glendale. He says that “during the recent training course, Benchmark ensured that the software was integrated with our existing system, and was tailored to our specific needs, the Benchmark staff sat with me and understood my process” In his role as Contracts Manager, Mike understands that time is money, "The mark up and spread functions are great. They allow for quick allocation of margin to elements of my estimate and with my time constraints, this is a good function to have."

Recent Successes

Recent successful bids include the award of scrub clearance and fencing for British Airways and the planting of over 100,000 trees across England and Wales. They also found recently that their bid to carry out soft landscaping for Exeter University had been successful. Glendale is currently taking advantage of the recent, successful launch of Benchmark Version 7, with over 60 new functional enhancements, and found the savings in time and money a huge benefit in today’s competitive environment. Mike Dennys says “I am very impressed with Version 7 of Benchmark.” With the increasing emphasis on value for money and trimming of costs, Benchmark is more essential than ever.

Glendale Logo Find out more about Glendale at www.glendale-services.co.uk.

Benchmark’s association with the Landscaping Industry

British Association of Landscape Industries Logo

Benchmark Estimating Software has always been popular with the Landscaping Industry due to its complementary features and flexibility. Benchmark has an active membership with BALI (British Association of Landscape Industries) to reinforce its association with the Landscaping Industry in the United Kingdom.

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