"The real 'wow' moment for us was presenting to our Board of Directors and realizing we had fewer people in the estimating department than before, yet we still surpassed a billion dollars in bids in just seven months. The Board was shocked—they had never seen anything like it."

Ian Maltz, Senior Estimator, Ennis Steel Industries

"With LIFT, we've almost doubled our bid output. We have an unlimited plan that lets all our in-house estimators produce an extra bid every week and a half, effectively doubling our output compared to what we were achieving with offshore estimators."

Carlos Castillo, Director of Estimating, Ennis Steel Industries

The Moment of Transformation

In the world of steel fabrication, speed and precision are everything. Ennis Steel Industries, a powerhouse in Ennis, TX, was at a crossroads. With the construction market tightening due to economic shifts, their challenge wasn’t a lack of opportunities but an overwhelming number of them. More projects than ever were up for grabs, but time, resources, and cost bottlenecked their ability to bid on these projects. It was a classic case of being trapped by success.

Enter LIFT by SketchDeck.ai —a game-changing solution that promised incremental improvements and a transformative shift. The kind of shift that turns the impossible into the everyday.

The Challenge: The Brutal Reality of Scaling

Ennis Steel wasn’t struggling to survive; they were struggling to keep up. High interest rates had slowed construction, but the demand for estimates had surged. Their eight-member team was stretched thin, and traditional solutions—like outsourcing to cheaper offshore estimators—were proving to be inefficient and riddled with inaccuracies. Each misstep costs time, trust, and, ultimately, money.

The pressure to scale was mounting. With dreams of expanding into new markets like Southern California and the Midwest, they needed more from their existing team without burning them out or breaking the bank. Every new hire was a gamble; every failed bid was a lost opportunity. Ennis Steel needed a solution that would amplify their capacity without adding to their costs.

The Breakthrough: Alchemy of Innovation and Intelligence

Then came LIFT. Not just another tool, but a revolution in how bids were managed, produced, and won. In a matter of weeks, LIFT had taken Ennis Steel’s estimators from the trenches of spreadsheets and manual counting to an elevated vantage point where they could see the whole field—and play to win. With LIFT’s AI-driven material takeoff capabilities, they could bid on larger, more complex projects that had previously been out of reach.

They traded significant offshore costs for a strategic investment in LIFT — effectively doubling their output with higher accuracy and smoother operations. This isn’t just an improvement in efficiency — it’s a powerful transformation that unlocks new opportunities within their business.

The Results: From Bottleneck to Breakthrough

• Bid Capacity Skyrocketed: Ennis Steel’s estimators nearly doubled their bid output, transforming their workflow from reactive to proactive. They went from chasing deadlines to setting them.

• Expansion Without Limit: The team didn’t just enter the Southern California market; they dominated it—with just one estimator instead of the usual three. They turned the limits of geography and manpower into mere suggestions, not hard stops.

• Shift in Focus: High-Value Projects: By cutting out the noise, LIFT empowered them to chase bigger, more lucrative projects, fueling growth not just in volume but in value. Ennis Steel now bids on $100 million worth of projects a month with confidence.

• Winning Mindset: The impact went beyond numbers. The morale shifted. The skepticism faded. The team didn’t just accept the change; they embraced it. They became evangelists of innovation.

The Future: Doubling Down on Growth

With LIFT, Ennis Steel isn’t just bidding on more projects—they are reimagining what’s possible. They are doubling, if not tripling, their revenue projections over the next four to six years, and doing it with the same lean, elite team. They’ve gone from passing on projects to having the luxury of choosing the most profitable ones, setting the stage for exponential growth in a market where others are still figuring out how to stay afloat.

LIFT has done more than streamline a process; it has given Ennis Steel a renewed sense of purpose, a clearer path to growth, and an undeniable edge in a fiercely competitive market.

A New Narrative: The Story of Ennis Steel

LIFT is the technology of choice that the entire estimating team, the now shining stars and Heroes at Ennis Steel, used to rewrite their story. The estimating team has been able to turn their challenges into opportunities and their ambitions into real, tangible achievements.