On January 11, Sage acquired Bridgetown Software, the creator of BidMatrix, a cloud-native bid analysis tool for construction 

"At a high level, the whole reason why Bridgetown and BidMatrix made so much sense for Sage is that Bridgetown created a cloud native platform and built bid analysis and bid-day functionality as the first application on that platform," says Julie Adams, senior vice president of product for construction and real estate at Sage. "It integrates with existing Sage estimating tools, as well as other estimating tools and it provides complimentary value-added functionality."

BidMatrix has integrations with Procore, BuildingConnected, SmartBid and Trimble WinEst in addition to Sage Estimating. Bridgetown launched BidMatrix and its company in 2020. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

"By joining forces we can accelerate our combined vision to build out richer capabilities on BidMatrix’s powerful cloud platform, immediately complementing and evolving Sage’s current estimating solution with tools that increase productivity, improve bid-to-awarded project ratios, and maximize growth and profitability," says Steve Watt, president and CEO of Bridgetown Software. 

Watt was previously a market manager for estimating and cost planning at Trimble and director of estimating products at Sage before founding Bridgetown Software with partner David Moyer in 2020. Both saw the need to modernize bid processes from spreadsheets and other processes that don't share project data in relational databases. Moyer writes a blog on Bridgetown's site and even recounts anecdotes such as "A Nightmare on Spreadsheet." 

Adams said Watt will be leading Sage's preconstruction strategy and product roadmap upon completion of the deal this year. Bridgetown's other employees will also come with the acquisition.

"There have been a number of estimating systems in the market... but nobody had really created a ... collaborative tool for closing out the bid and making that selection of subcontractors," Watt says. "We [Watt and Moyer] did have a long-term vision of building a cloud-based estimating tool but we didn't publicize that right out of the gate. We spent time building a collaborative environment."

Adams said Sage and BidMatrix will immediately begin work to bring all of the features and functionality of BidMatrix into Sage Estimating, expanding on the pre-existing integrations they have already built with Sage's system.