Doug Lopez spent more than 20 years installing windows and building houses, but since 2000 the Signal Hill general contractor has devoted much of his attention to promoting software that he wants to become the Priceline of the windows industry.
1st Pricing allows builders or homeowners to compare prices on custom windows, skylights and doors from as many as five different manufacturers. Without opening up a set of blueprints, customers can size windows and doors, place an order online, and have them delivered directly to the jobsite.
Lopez doesn’t charge for 1st Pricing. In fact he allows users to download it for free. He hopes that if he saves contractors much of the time they typically spend sizing and pricing windows for a bid, they’ll reward him by buying windows from his distribution business, CDC Inc., whose prices are listed on the results the Web site spits out.
Lopez says that when doing it the old-fashioned way, it can take builders hours to go through an architect’s written plans. This involves counting each window and doorjamb, making sure the sizes and specifications are consistent, and then checking prices with distributors to come up with a comprehensive bill of materials.
His downloadable software saves much of that time by reading the plans straight from the designer’s computer. It works with the two leading architecture and design programs, AutoCAD and TurboCAD.
Starting out
A Laguna Beach native, Lopez grew up working alongside his dad, Louis Lopez, also a general contractor. After graduating from the University of Colorado, he started his own business, Doug Lopez Construction, designing and building single and multi-family homes in Southern California.
Through dealing with window and door manufacturers in his building business, he soon began distributing their products to other builders.
“I realized that people were willing to send me $5,000 and $10,000 window orders without ever meeting me, just through faxes,” he said. “That’s when I realized this could be done online.”
He founded CDC as a window distributor in 1996, and then, in 2000, Lopez founded 1st Pricing with software that allowed architects and builders to come up with a list of windows and doors. The software worked with architecture and design programs of AutoCAD and TurboCAD, reading the plans straight from the design program.
But it didn’t have an online feature or the ability for builders to make their purchases. The new site, 1stPricing.com, adding that feature, was launched last October.
By giving away the downloadable software plug-in, Lopez believes he has an edge over the hundreds of other window distributors serving Southern California. The 1st Pricing Web site quotes window prices from up to five brands sold through CDC; Lopez hopes it will spur sales, which totaled between $3 million and $4 million in 2003. “The easiest way to get more users is to give it away,” Lopez said.
He acknowledges that users can simply print out the list and the pricing comparisons and take them to a different distributor. But he’s banking that the convenience of immediate quotes and direct shipping will draw users.
“It’s absolutely going to revolutionize the industry,” said Robert Berry, a 20-year construction veteran who teaches training courses on architectural software through his company, www.CADcourse.com.
“Anyone can do it, dragging and dropping in doors and windows it won’t let a customer specify a window size that doesn’t exist, and won’t let someone choose a window that doesn’t meet code requirements for its location,” Berry said.
When Lopez hired programmers to create the software, he sent them to job sites and had them help install windows and skylights beforehand. He said he wanted them to “smell the sawdust” and experience what builders experience so they could design a software program that would cater to users, but also be simple to use.
“I tested it on friends of mine,” Lopez said. “When you have a stockbroker who doesn’t even know the right end of a hammer, and he feels comfortable ordering windows, that’s when you know you’ve succeeded.”
Nevertheless, the software faces some marketing hurdles, Berry said. “Architects just aren’t familiar with it,” he explained. “They haven’t really given it the time of day yet. But it’s a matter of time.”
Another nit is that the program only offers brands available through 1st Pricing’s distributors, which include CDC and partners around the country. (With the exception of a few national names, window brands are usually regional.)
1st Pricing offers five major window brands, including CDC’s own brand, called Sorrento Windows. But the short list necessarily leaves out brands that have not yet signed agreements with the company.
1st Pricing’s next project? Cabinets.
Lopez said he wanted to start with the most complicated element windows and work from there, eventually covering plumbing fixtures, structural hardware, air conditioning and ventilation products, lumber and perhaps roofing. “Cabinets are the second-hardest to build,” he said. “Everything else is simple.”
