BSD Customer Case Study: 
CostLink A/E Helps Roth & Associates Produce Professional-Looking Estimates

Since 1915, the Roth name has been synonymous with providing superior design and construction services to residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional clients.

John E. Roth started his first business in 1915 designing and constructing concrete bridges in the Southeastern Michigan area. What started as a specialized engineering practice has grown into a one stop shop for any phase of a building project.

The Roth Companies consists of four businesses, each of which has strengths that address different stages of their clients’ projects. The A/E, construction management, real estate development, and consulting firms can either work independently on individual pieces or work together as a complete solution. Either way, they share a common history and a common goal — their clients’ satisfaction.

For close to 100 years, three generations of the Roth family have been ensuring quality design and construction projects completed on time and within budget. Roth completed projects can be seen throughout the Southeastern Michigan area and Eastern United States.

The Roth Companies have also constructed many high profile religious structures in the area, receiving awards from industry associations and organizations including the Engineering Society of Detroit, American Institute of Architects and Masonry Institute of Michigan.

The Need: Whether it is construction materials, drafting supplies or management systems, The Roth Companies have always wanted the best tools for their company and their clients. As users of BSD’s SpecLink for their specification writing, they wanted to bring that same level of ease and professionalism to their estimating process.

Mark Roth, President of Roth & Associates, remarks, “We wanted to be able to prepare an estimate of probable costs for a project in a professional-looking format. And we needed to be able to do this no matter where we started the project, even in the schematic or preliminary design phase. Before we started using CostLink A/E, we basically did everything by hand. We had to look up the information, then type up the estimate or use a spreadsheet.” With years of experience in design, estimating and construction, Roth & Associates recognized a good solution when they saw it and decided to make CostLink A/E part of their toolset.

The Solution: Roth estimates that by switching to CostLink A/E, his firm has achieved 40% time savings over their previous method. In addition to time savings, Roth has experienced several other productivity advantages with CostLink A/E. He says, “We now have the ability to quickly update an estimate. And we can easily compare the costs of alternate design solutions.”

The Outcome: What Roth likes best about BSD CostLink A/E is the ability to build an estimate by combining both the assembly costs and unit price costs — allowing him to provide clients with a complete estimate in a format he is proud to present.