Introduction
The Contractors page gives clients a list view of the contractors they are connected to, as well as some critical, high-level metrics. Here, clients can also select a particular contractor and delve deeper into Highwire's underlying data and key insights.
Once you’ve clicked on a contractor, depending on what Highwire subscription you’ve purchased, you can access up to seven separate sections across the horizontal menu bar. Here, we are using Mechanical Services Corp as an illustrative contractor. This article will cover the Company section, as shown in the screenshot below:
This video highlights the beneficial information gathered from Contractors within the Company page.
Summary
The first subsection of the Company page includes a high-level summary of a contractor's services, including trades, specialties, locations, and service areas.
Overview and Trades & Specialties
The first card on the left-hand side, in Summary, provides an overview of the contractor, including any diversity status, safety score badges that the company holds, and a link to their public website. The card to the right gives a quick view of their trades and specialties.
Locations and Service Areas
The Summary section also includes a clear graphic of the contractor’s office location(s) and the geographical area(s) that they service. This information is critical to ensuring that contractors are experienced in performing work in the client’s specific project area.
Capabilities
At the bottom of the Summary section is the Capabilities card, which provides data on the project and client types that the contractor has experience with and the industries they have served. The contractor’s self-reported contract range is also surfaced here.
The following section explains how Highwire analyzes a contractor’s project data to calculate a more precise, unbiased ideal contract range .
Experience
In Experience, Highwire presents the contractor’s project experience at a much deeper level than was provided in the summary. As shown in the screenshot below, contractors provide detailed information on key projects that they’ve completed. There is no limit to the number of projects a contractor can include. Highwire uses that data to calculate an ideal contract range for a contractor. It displays their experience in a bar chart that lets clients quickly identify how a contractor’s specific project history relates to their ideal contract range.
Views
As discussed above, the default view for Experience is based on a contractor’s project/contract history. However, Highwire also allows clients to view a contractor’s data and display it in a way that focuses on the industries that a contractor has worked with or the geographic locations they serve. The two screenshots below show what each filter displays. To access them, click on the button in the upper right of the screen.
Industries
It is often helpful for a client to determine if a contractor has previous experience in their specific industry or a related field. Each industry comes with its own set of complexities during the construction process. Ensuring that your contractors are familiar with a client’s industry can reduce safety and financial risk. Viewing Experience by industry allows a client to get a snapshot view of the contractor’s experience in a specific sector:
Locations
Similarly, a client must gauge whether a contractor can work effectively in a particular geographic area. Work experience in a specific location ensures that a contractor has the resources and an understanding of the local permitting landscape to be efficient and successful. Viewing Experience by location allows a client to get a snapshot view of the contractor’s history in a specific geographic area:
Labor
For many reasons, clients must understand the workforce they are hiring for a single project or across their portfolio. In Labor, a client can evaluate a contractor’s labor breakdown:
Union Labor and Union Relationships
Some clients and projects may have contractual obligations or cooperation agreements for union labor vs. non-union labor. In addition, for certain specialty work, union labor may be required to meet quality standards. Under Union Labor and Union Relationships, Highwire provides data to ensure a client’s obligations are met:
Subcontracting
Understanding what work may be tiered down to subcontractors is important because risk often increases if a client doesn’t have clear organizational controls in place for subcontracted work. Another simple pie chart provides a breakdown of how much work a contractor is self-performing vs. subcontracting:
Employees and Employees vs. Backlog
In addition to the workforce's makeup, the size and structure of a contractor’s organization is an important factor in determining risk. At the bottom of the Labor section, there is detailed information showing whether a contractor has the human resources available to handle current and backlogged work:
Team
In addition to knowing the general size and makeup of a contractor’s workforce, knowing what specific members are available to a client is critical. In Team, a client is provided with names, titles, and contact information for the key members of the contractor’s team:
Entity
Finally, the Company section includes essential information about a contractor’s corporate standing, including supporting documents.
Corporate Entity
In Corporate Entity, a client will find the legal information to confirm that a contractor is incorporated and licensed to perform the services they offer, including tax ID (EIN) and IRS Form W-9:
Officers & Directors
Clients are also able to view the contractor’s corporate officers and directors:
Diversity
In addition to the diversity designations identified in the contractor’s Summary, the certificates and licenses to support those designations (including expiration information) can be found and downloaded in Diversity:
Licenses
In addition to diversity certifications, certain contractors may require other professional licenses depending on their scope of work for a specific project. Clients can confirm license information (including expiration information) and download these documents, as shown in the screenshot below:
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