How Prashant Sharma Leveraged Cloud-Based Estimating to Meet a Concurrent 4-Week Deadline

An RFP just landed on your desk.

The scope is massive, the drawings are conceptual at best. Your team is at capacity, and you’ve got another major estimate due yourself. You need to reach out for help to additional resources, not located in your region. 

Traditionally, managing a distributed team of estimators would mean spending more time coordinating than actually estimating. 

But what if there was another way?

Meet Prashant Sharma, a seasoned estimator at DPR Construction, one of the nation’s largest general contractors with a preconstruction team of over 350 professionals globally. 

Faced with an incredibly complex estimate and a tight four-week deadline, Prashant used Ediphi, a cloud-based estimating platform, to unite a distributed team, accelerate collaboration, and deliver a 70+ page budget. What might have taken one to two weeks longer using traditional methods was completed on time — with higher accuracy and fewer bottlenecks.

Here’s how he did it.

The man behind the method

Prashant’s journey from structural engineer to Stanford post-grad to a Bay Area preconstruction leader at DPR has been guided by one constant: a passion for how technology can transform the way buildings are planned and priced. 

"What tools could I use? What tools should I use? And how can I leverage virtual data for more efficient, detailed, and accurate planning?" Prashant recalls asking himself early in his career.

This curiosity, coupled with an industry evolving from traditional estimating to cutting-edge cloud-based tools, has refined his approach to estimating.

He sees two things that separate the good estimators from the great.

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1. Constant adaptation. “The rate of change is faster than it was even a few years ago,” says Prashant. Staying flexible with new tools isn’t optional. It’s survival.
2. Obsession with the detail. Estimators have to love diving deep into the specifics that make or break a bid or estimate - tools should help you go deeper into project specifics faster not avoid looking at details. “A good estimator loves diving deep into the specifics and uses digital tools to get there faster,” he adds.

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These values and the right technology proved essential when a particularly challenging budget landed on his desk.

Complex technical building, four weeks, and limited data

Prashant was already deep into another project when a new RFP arrived. 

One project. Five separate sorts within the estimate: analytical labs, offices, amenity spaces, and support spaces; essentially, five different estimates. 

Drawings that were at an early programmatic level, but the estimate was desired to be binding, a guaranteed price the owner could use for funding. And a four-week turnaround.

"The only way that I could accomplish this was to utilize additional help from other estimators, some of whom were many time zones away since we were all slammed with deadlines locally," Prashant recalls, " the team was comprised of great estimators, but some had not worked on a complex life science building before."

With 7 estimators working together, this scenario typically involves endless spreadsheets, version control issues, and manual consolidation of over 1,500 cells of data. With team members scattered across regions, aligning efforts would have consumed time they simply didn’t have.

The cloud based collaboration solution: Ediphi

Instead of trying to work harder, Prashant worked differently.

Using Ediphi, he unlocked two game-changing advantages:

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1. Real-time multi-user collaboration. Because Ediphi is a cloud-built preconstruction tool, Prashant got his team of estimators across multiple time zones all working on the same estimate simultaneously. “Changes were happening live, and I could see them as they occurred, giving feedback instantly rather than waiting weeks to review a final draft,” Prashant explains.
2. Structured data, built for estimators. Ediphi’s design mirrors the way estimators think, with built-in room area sheets, unit mixes, and formula structuring. Supporting estimators could input data directly into the shared system, eliminating duplicate work and accelerating progress.
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Unlike legacy estimating tools that often feel like “the control panel of a jet,” Prashant found Ediphi intuitive. “Eight or nine clicks on the screen — that’s all that your have to grasp,” he says. The platform cut two to three days of setup time, letting the team focus on the estimate itself.

Most importantly, Ediphi enabled every discipline, including specialist estimators for mechanical, electrical, plumbing, fire protection, to contribute within the same estimate themselves, ensuring alignment across the board.

The four-week deadline and beyond

Week four arrived, and something unusual happened. 

Instead of scrambling to consolidate conflicting spreadsheets, Prashant’s team was doing what estimators actually wanted to do in the final week: review and refine.

“This time should be spent identifying gaps or fine-tuning quantities,” says Prashant. “We were actually doing that, rather than collecting and formatting everyone’s work.”

Even when last-minute changes came in (as they always do), the team adjusted seamlessly in real time. The estimate was delivered on deadline — without the usual panic.

That project became a valuable proof point: adopting a new tool like Ediphi didn’t slow the team down with a steep learning curve. Instead, it boosted productivity from day one. Prashant sees this as a repeatable model for future projects.

Beyond enabling seamless collaboration, Ediphi’s structured, live data opens the door to long-term advantages across preconstruction. With more data available across projects, teams can build on past work and drive even greater efficiency over time.

The takeaway: when complex projects arise, whether hospitals, labs, or large-scale data centers, estimators can approach them with greater speed, accuracy, and confidence.

If you’re interested in how Ediphi can help you, too, book a demo.