GradeBeam.com Convinces Battered Construction Industry to Stop 'Just Getting By'

CHICAGO, March 16 /PRNewswire/ -- While the construction industry as a whole has taken a huge dive in the current economic climate, its leading online communications network, www.GradeBeam.com, is seeing a major upturn in its user base and transaction flow. The company connects general contractors, subcontractors, blueprinters and other related suppliers in a single, secure and fully managed online environment. Close to 300,000 firms are now actively connected to GradeBeam.com and the number of electronic private project opportunities exchanged over its system has exceeded 11 million. The company also reports that its membership base has doubled in the last year.

One Simple Proposition Prompts Positive Response

To mark its tenth year in business, GradeBeam.com engaged Chicago-based, Get Stirred Up, to conduct a major rebranding initiative that included updating the company's positioning, corporate identity, website, and marketing materials. The new strategy and messaging all leverage the key value proposition: "Is Your Company Just 'Getting By' When You Could Be 'GradeBeaming'?" The message/call-to-action has been quickly embraced by both the key industry players as well as the smaller, independent contractors, as they discover all the benefits that come from "GradeBeaming"—which are simply summed up in the company's new tagline: "CONNECT. COMMUNICATE. CONSTRUCT."

Bryan Jurewicz, GradeBeam.com's CEO, explains: "Coming from the construction industry ourselves, we understand just how hard our colleagues are working to stay afloat in this tough economy. We know that they are spending more time and more money competing for a reduced number of project opportunities, struggling to keep in touch with a changing landscape of vendors and contractors, and asking their suppliers to juggle responsibilities way beyond the scope of their primary expertise. All that effort is definitely helping them 'get by,' but they're increasingly realizing that leveraging our online service drastically improves their ability to work on more projects with highly qualified professionals in less time. Contractors are simplifying their process of communicating detailed construction information, and most importantly, reducing wasted overhead expenses."

In fact, GradeBeam.com's research shows that its general contractor clients improve their communication efficiencies by up to 90% and their members from the subcontractor community receive an average of 13 times more private project opportunities than those who aren't registered with GradeBeam.com. The company's data also indicates that GradeBeamers are spending an average of 4 to 6 hours on the site per day instead of the days, paper and fuel they used to spend chasing projects.

Conveying Impact vs. Touting Features

One of the key tenets of GradeBeam.com's new branding strategy is to regularly convey specific and tangible examples of how its service makes an impact throughout all of its communication materials. "Most technology companies tout features, we focus on results," says Jurewicz. One example of this approach is the company's launch of its weekly online newsletter which is titled "'BeamerBoons"—whose subtitle reads: "How GradeBeam.com Is Helping Construction Professionals Thrive."

In the inaugural issue of this publication, there's news of a general contractor saving more than $52,000 in document distribution costs on one single project, as a result of using GradeBeam.com. There's another example of a contractor who used GradeBeam.com to land contracts for an Enterprise Rent-A-Car location at O'Hare Airport, a major ALDI supermarket, two different area Walmarts, and Rush Hospital.

About GradeBeam.com

GradeBeam.com is the only fully managed online communications network built BY and FOR the construction industry. Founded in 2000, the Chicago-based company serves all of North America, providing a secure, online resource for the exchange of information, allowing industry professionals to post, manage and access critical project information at a central location. GradeBeam.com simplifies and expedites the massive information exchange that occurs in all construction projects, including invitations-to-bid (ITBs), drawing/specification distribution, corrections, addenda, requests for information and responses.

General contractors use GradeBeam.com to post project information online, search for subcontractors and suppliers, send bid invitations, distribute paper documents through local printing firms, track bid responses and issue project change information. Subcontractors and suppliers use GradeBeam.com to control and promote their company's qualifications in one central database, find public construction opportunities, receive private bid invitations, review project information online and expand their market.

For more information, please visit www.GradeBeam.com.

SOURCE GradeBeam.com