Using IntelBid alongside PlanHub and BuildingConnected
This is not a replacement pitch. PlanHub and BuildingConnected are distribution networks — their job is to put invitations in front of you, and they do it well. What they are not built to be is the system of record for what your company did with those invitations.
They see their own network
By design. Neither can show you an invitation that arrived through the other one, or one a GC emailed you directly.
You bid across all of them
Most commercial subs receive invitations through three or more channels simultaneously. Your pipeline has to span them.
History belongs to you
Pricing, outcomes, per-GC win rate, and scope language are your competitive assets — not something to leave in a network you might stop using.
The handoff is the whole point
Keep receiving invitations where they arrive; consolidate what you did with them in one place.
Different jobs, not competing ones
| Bid boards (PlanHub, BuildingConnected) | IntelBid | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Distribute invitations to bid | Run the subcontractor's bid desk |
| Scope of visibility | Invitations sent through that platform | Every invitation, every source, including direct email |
| Who the customer is | GCs soliciting and subs seeking work | The subcontractor's estimating team |
| Holds your pricing history | Not as a cross-GC record | Yes |
| Proposal generation | Not the purpose | Branded PDFs from your scopes library |
| Follow-up on quiet bids | Not the purpose | Aging queue grouped by GC with drafts |
| Per-GC win rate across sources | Limited to that network | Yes |
| Project management after award | Not the purpose | SOV, lookaheads, change orders, materials, QuickBooks |
Read that table as a division of labor rather than a scorecard. A bid board that also tried to be your internal system of record would have to see invitations sent through its competitors — which it structurally cannot.
The relay-address problem
There is one specific mechanical detail worth understanding, because it breaks most home-grown tracking. Invitations relayed through these platforms do not come from the general contractor's email domain. They come from the platform's relay — frequently a per-thread alias such as `728832@message.planhub.com`. The GC's identity is in the display name and the message body.
So any Outlook rule, Gmail filter, or spreadsheet column keyed on the sending address files a dozen unrelated general contractors under one platform name. IntelBid resolves the contractor from the invitation content and stores the relay address separately, so replies still route correctly while your history stays organized by the client you actually bid to.
What the combined workflow looks like
- Keep receiving invitations exactly as you do nowPlanHub, BuildingConnected, Procore, GC portals, direct email. Nothing changes about how work reaches you, and no general contractor has to do anything differently.
- Everything lands in one reviewed queueIntelBid reads the notification emails, extracts project, location, due date and size, resolves the real GC, de-duplicates against open work, and queues it for approval.
- Bid, propose, follow up, and record the outcome in one placeAcross every source, so the pipeline is complete rather than platform-shaped.
- Your history accumulates where you control itIf you change bid boards next year, the pricing, outcomes, contractor relationships, and scope language stay with you.
Is IntelBid a replacement for PlanHub or BuildingConnected?
No. Those platforms distribute invitations to bid and are how many general contractors solicit subcontractors. IntelBid is the subcontractor's internal pipeline — it consolidates invitations from every platform plus direct email, and tracks proposals, follow-up, and outcomes. Most customers use both.
Do I have to change how GCs send me invitations?
No. Invitations keep arriving exactly as they do now. IntelBid reads them from the connected Gmail or Outlook mailbox, so general contractors do not have to do anything differently.
Why can't a bid board track my win rate?
It can only report on invitations that passed through its own network, and it does not see the bids you submitted through other platforms or by direct email. A win rate computed from a partial denominator is not comparable across periods.
What happens if we stop using a bid board?
Your pipeline, pricing history, contractor relationships, and scope library remain in IntelBid, and can be exported to Excel at any time. That portability is the main argument for keeping your system of record separate from any single distribution network.
Keep the bid boards. Own the pipeline.
Connect Gmail or Outlook and every invitation — whichever platform it came through — lands in one reviewed queue.
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