HBXL finishes 2009 in celebration
Published: Wednesday, December 02, 2009
HBXL, the country’s leading building software developer, has topped off a successful year of trading with the announcement that they have won this year's ‘Best Product Range’ award in the national Best Business Awards.
Best Business Award 2009
This award is recognised nationally for the best product range – a collection of solutions that represent outstanding value and work together in a unique way. HBXL came out top for their impressive range of software products designed specially for the construction industry, that both work independently or can link seamlessly together to share information.
The judges said: "In the current recessionary environment it is more important than ever to win new business whenever the opportunity arises and EstimatorXpress plays a key role in ensuring builders deliver fast, accurate and detailed quotes thereby increasing their chances of winning that business. This product is completed by a range of other software solutions designed to support quality builders and help them to grow and develop their businesses.”
New merchant links
HBXL have now sold nearly 12,000 software licences to builders throughout the UK representing a major share of the SME builder market, and in the second half of 2009 have teamed up with two national builders merchants – Keyline and Travis Perkins to provide live material pricing 24/7 to their EstimatorXpress customers.
EstimatorXpress is the market leading estimating software for builders and allows users to not only produce an accurate estimate and professional quote quickly and easily, but also a complete cost breakdown and build program, amongst other reports, which really does help win the work – in fact EstimatorXpress customers have been proven to win 230% more business!
Joanna Mulgrew, director at HBXL said: “2009 was a difficult year for the building industry but due to the unique nature of our products, the ability to help builders adapt to market demands and the continual investment in the development of new products, HBXL has ended 2009 in a particularly strong position. When times are hard builders need to use everything they can to win work and our software does exactly that and has meant a boom in enquiries and builders looking at HBXL software – and in particular EstimatorXpress."
New HBXL website
But HBXL are not resting on their laurels and are investing heavily as they look to continue their growth in the market. A new website launched in September is the result of tens of thousands of pounds of development over a 6 month period, which has improved their online support, events and video technology.
Speaking again Joanna said: “The new website was a huge project which we brought together using various external web developers and our own in-house marketing team and software developers. The project required extensive planning and research into what builders need to see on the site.”
HBXL have also invested in new Webinar technology to run live online seminars and events to reach builder software users and prospects, and have recently invested in the World’s leading CRM package ‘Salesforce’ to manage their customers needs and interact with the new company website.
HBXL invest in sustainability
On top of this, HBXL are investing a further £1.2 million in software product development over the next 2 years by teaming up with Bristol’s University of West of England (UWE). The project is to enhance HBXL’s product range so that from an early design stage buildings meet the new government standard Code of Sustainable Homes that will become mandatory in 2010 for all builders.
The software is to be based on an enhanced version of HBXL’s existing CAD software PlansXpress and a re-engineered version of EstimatorXpress combined with a new environmental module to provide real time feed back of environmental impacts and costs as the design is being developed.
With EstimatorXpress, PlansXpress, ContractsXpert and Health & Safety Xpert packages, no other software developer comes close to providing such a powerful suite of software designed specifically for the small to medium size builder and in the next 12 months there are substantial plans to enhance the entire product range further with free updates and upgrades to all customers subscribed to their Support & Updates programme.
Leading building software company
It means the Bristol-based company is well placed to consolidate its position as the leading supplier of building software as the company enters its 10th year of business.
“We’re very excited about the plans for 2010 especially the link with UWE. This will enable us to tap into a hugely valuable resource and give students real time experience of working on a product that will then go to market.
“The HBXL team is constantly looking for ways to improve the products and level of service and is why we’re always evolving. It’s this attention to detail that makes HBXL and its products so unique and why we’re all looking forward to 2010 with relish.”
For further information on HBXL please call T: 0870 850 2444 or visit the web site www.hbxl.co.uk