the tool of choice for innovative design
Why Penscil?
Working with contracting engineering firms can be risky. An open-and-shut job can go on indefinitely. A bargain can turn into a cash sink. A solution can turn into a problem more daunting than the original. At Penscil, however, we believe we can help you through a process that will avoid these pitfalls.
There are four attributes of Penscil that set us apart from some competing contract engineering firms:
Accuracy: Our T & M estimates are usually within +/-10%. Some contractors will estimate a project in 'perfect world' terms and then overrun the budget and/or schedule by a factor of two or more.
Honesty: We are as honest and accurate as we can be given the nature of project estimation. As Yogi Berra put so wisely "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." We do not bid low to get our foot in the door and we do not estimate a job by what we think it will take to win the work. We estimate a job by the nature and amount of work we think will be required to complete the task as described.
Fair Value: We have stringent criteria for billability. Some contractors will bill portions of hours as full hours and others bill by the day or by the half day if the majority of their focus is on a given project. Penscil bills by the hour (by the half hour for short or sporadic jobs) and, for an hour to be billable, it has to satisfy three tests: 1. It must be a whole hour, not a portion thereof; 2. It must be a productive hour with actual progress made; 3. It must comprise effort in direct pursuit of specific project goals. Though we may work 10 or 12 man-hours per day, we rarely bill more than six.
Ethics: Our principal engineer is committed to his ethical responsibility as a registered Professional Engineer and a member of the IEEE.