Suffolk’s preconstruction team needed a better way to connect estimating with workforce planning. By integrating Ediphi and Bridgit, they built a seamless, data-driven workflow that reduced staffing cycles, improved coordination, and drove significantly higher revenue per estimator.
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reduction in staffing cycles
reduction in the number of people required for workforce planning coordination
increase in revenue per estimator
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Headquarters:
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Annual Projects:
Large national portfolio across multiple sectors (hundreds of projects across the U.S.)
Team Size:
~3,000–3,500 employees
Specialization:
Construction management, general contracting, and design-build across commercial, healthcare, education, residential, aviation, and mission-critical projects
They wagered that a preconstruction process designed to protect the integrity of every piece of information — one that begins in estimating and flows directly into workforce planning and project execution — would lead to more profitable projects and growth.
Two platforms power that engine: Ediphi, which structures how Suffolk builds project estimates, and Bridgit, which turns those estimates into strategic workforce plans across the company’s portfolio.
Together, Bridgit and Ediphi form Suffolk’s integrated approach to estimating and workforce management; cost logic, roles, timelines, and team decisions flow directly from preconstruction and planning into execution.
“When we think about the success or challenges of a project, a lot of that is baked into preconstruction. Our operations in the last year have been better than at any other point in the company's history, and Ediphi and Bridgit are the two core things that drive that.”— As Brendan O’Riordan, Director of Portfolio Intelligence at Suffolk, puts it:
Suffolk manages one of the largest portfolios in the country.
In Boston alone, the company’s largest office, dozens of major projects are running concurrently that all require large project teams.
Just imagine the planning…
Preconstruction teams responsible for building accurate estimates and determining; not just what the job would cost, but exactly the team it would take to build it.
The pieces rarely aligned.
“We used to use a simple Excel sheet to keep track of who might be available soon,” explains Steven Jennings, Project Manager and Operations Performance Manager at Suffolk.
For a 3,000+ person organization + contractors? Yikes.
Steven continues, “A staffing meeting would basically be: ‘This person’s job is finishing in a month. Who wants them next?’ People didn’t know what was next for them and projects were understaffed until someone happened to become available.”
It was an inefficient and reactive process where leadership teams spent hours verifying information and reconciling spreadsheets. Meanwhile, estimating teams were building project budgets without a fully integrated view of workforce availability.
So, they built something new.
Talk to Suffolk’s National Director of Preconstruction Scott Menard for more than a few minutes and he’ll articulate everything that a connected platform should be.
He muses about connected digital ecosystems — where data flows across the entire lifecycle of a project so teams can “use data when we need data for any use case.”
The ideal state is putting in information one time and anyone who needs it has access to it.- Scott Menard, National Director of Preconstruction at Suffolk
That top-down vision starts in Ediphi.
Instead of relying on percentage-based assumptions, Suffolk starts with data. Estimators use Ediphi’s shared historical database and collaborate in real time to build consistent, high-quality estimates then refine them from first principles — defining GCGRs based on the real team required to execute the job, when they start, when they roll off, and how they’re utilized.
“Ediphi trains our teams to think from first principles,” says Brendan. “We can’t just say general conditions are a percentage of cost. We have to build the team that’s actually required to execute the project — when people start, when they roll off, and how they’re utilized.”
To make that level of detail practical across their dozens of projects and offices, Suffolk relies on Ediphi’s cloud-based estimating environment, where historical pricing data lives inside the cloud and estimators reference what worked before to model the unique conditions of every new project.
The result is a high-fidelity picture of the project early in the lifecycle.
“If you solve for the budget first, you risk creating a plan that doesn’t actually work in the field,” Brendan explains.
By structuring estimates this way, Ediphi produces something far more powerful than a cost breakdown: it creates a data model of the project itself.
And that’s where the connection to workforce planning begins.
The estimating work done in Ediphi produces the fundamental building blocks Bridgit uses later.
Because GCGRs within Ediphi already define the roles and timing required to execute the job, it produces many of the same core inputs Bridgit uses to plan high-performing teams across the portfolio:
“The most granular unit of work in Ediphi is the exact same unit needed in Bridgit. That’s why the integration works so well.” - Brendan O’Riordan, Director of Portfolio Intelligence at Suffolk
(Because the data structures align so closely, Suffolk’s data team was able to integrate the systems very quickly, notes Scott)
Once an estimate is developed, workforce plans automatically appear in Bridgit, where operations leaders gain a portfolio-wide view of workforce needs.
This allows teams to see multiple projects, staffing roles, and employee availability in a single interface.
“As you build the estimate in Ediphi, you’re already thinking about the roles required for the job,” says Steve. “That information flows cleanly into Bridgit so we can see multiple projects and staffing plans in one place.”
From there, leadership teams can evaluate project team decisions based on, well, everything…
“You can see the open roles, see the available people, and match them together very quickly. In Bridgit, it becomes almost plug-and-play.”
- Steven Jennings, Project Manager and Operations Performance Manager at Suffolk
The impact of Suffolk’s connected workflow is visible in the day-to-day lives of leadership teams.
Staffing discussions prior required large meetings reviewing spreadsheets and debating personnel assignments like a draft room.
“If you’re not staffing him, I’m taking him!”
“Superintendent needed for April! Who’s got one?”
“Wait, thought she was finishing in March?”
“We would march through that every other week with 20 plus people in the room,” says Brendan. “We’d spend an hour or more going line by line through charts trying to figure out who was available.”
Those meetings look different now. Now, it’s just a handful of decision-makers reviewing what’s already in the system. Most decisions even happen before the meeting begins (shoutout to cloud software).
More importantly, Suffolk has eliminated the uncertainty.
Because projects are estimated in Ediphi using structured, programmatic cost models, staffing discussions in Bridgit start with a clear picture of what the job actually requires.
“We added time back into our people’s lives and we’re getting better outcomes.”
- Brendan O’Riordan, Director of Portfolio Intelligence at Suffolk
Suffolk’s portfolio has grown rapidly in recent years.
Building 17.5-acre, multi-billion-dollar projects in LA, renovations of the most iconic casinos in Vegas; that kind of thing….
The systems they’ve chosen to use to manage preconstruction and workforce planning have played a critical role in ensuring that that growth remains profitable.
“Our revenue growth has been very rapid over the last five years,” Brendan O’Riordan says. “The tools and processes we’ve put in place enable that growth — but more importantly, they help make sure it’s profitable growth.”
With the Ediphi and Bridgit duo, Suffolk is actively:
Even Suffolk’s People and Culture teams benefit from the increased visibility.
“Knowing where someone’s next project assignment is creates a much better experience for employees,” Brendan says with visible pride, “That visibility helps us support people throughout their careers.”
Suffolk’s strategy of using Ediphi and Bridgit ensures that the intent in preconstruction doesn’t disappear once the project begins.
The estimate becomes the staffing plan. The staffing plan becomes the execution plan. And they both directly inform profitability from day one.
“Without tools like this, companies at our scale would be dead in the water.” -
- Scott Menard, Suffolk’s National Director of Preconstruction.
As Suffolk continues to expand nationwide, the ability to build on this connected platform has become their defining advantage.
If you’re looking to improve your planning tech stack, we’d be happy to show you how.
About Ediphi
Ediphi is the most advanced cloud-based estimating software on the market. Chat with us to learn how to streamline preconstruction and empower better decision making, ensuring they consistently guide clients to the right target value design.
About Bridgit
Bridgit is the leading workforce planning tool for construction, with customers that include nearly 40% of the ENR 400, in addition to industry leaders across North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. Learn how Bridgit can help you assign the right people to the right projects, forecast with confidence, and unlock a new degree of operational efficiency.
About Suffolk
Suffolk is a national enterprise that builds, innovates, and invests. Suffolk is an end-to-end business that provides value throughout the entire project lifecycle by leveraging its core construction management services with vertical service lines that include real estate capital investment, design, self-perform construction services, technology start-up investment (Suffolk Technologies), and innovation research and development.
For more information, visit www.suffolk.com and follow Suffolk on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.
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