The first release of the eagerly-awaited COINS House Builders Bill of Quantities (HBBOQ) module has been delivered to Kier Residential. Kier, who were a key development partner, will assist COINS with beta testing through February and March 2007 before the product becomes generally available in April.

HBBOQ can be viewed as the final, major development project in making COINS a truly comprehensive business solution for Specialist House Builders and developers. The module links with the COINS VAP, Procurement and Land Appraisal modules allowing users to maintain comprehensive House Type Bills of Quantities which can then be used to generate budgets, procurement packages, schedules and standard costs.

In the future technological innovations such as web services and the COINSetc trading hub will allow much of the maintenance of the BOQs to be automated by linking the COINS database directly to component and pricing information in material suppliers’ systems.

Our thanks to all our development partners for their significant contributions: Kier Residential, Persimmon, Fairview and Octagon. We are delighted that Mactaggert & Mickel, Shepherd, Fairview and Dandara have also become early adopters of this new module.