Joanna Mulgrew, Managing Director of HBXL Building Software, and daughter of Adrian Wild, the founder, looks back over a quarter of a century.
We’re celebrating 25 years of HBXL Building Software, and the thousands of users across the UK. So how do you consistently earn the trust of busy builders through the decades? Produce innovative products that contribute to their success. Sounds simple? If only! Here’s our story.
Where did it all begin?
Chairman and founder of HBXL, Adrian Wild was a builder/developer, for 25 years and in that time built well over 80 houses and 300 extensions. He knew that a profitable job was founded on accurate costs and detailed paperwork at the outset. So, fed up with grappling with Price Books, and lamenting the lack of suitable software, he took matters into his own hands.
A qualified Civil Engineer, with a head for numbers, Adrian decided to develop his own estimating package. Soon the self-built programme was speeding up his estimating process – so much so, Adrian decided to share his solution with other builders. And that’s how HBXL Building Software was born in 2000. And the name? It stands for House Builders Excel!
After EstimatorXpress came PlansXpress, Health & Safety Xpert, ContractsXpert and ProjectXpert. And by this point, Adrian had recruited a brilliant team, made up of talented family members and experts in their field.
Software firsts
Key to HBXL’s success has been the considerable financial investment in research and development. A stand-out success has been our unique ‘talk-to each-other’ data-sharing technology, X Connex. PlansXpress cleverly captures the specification of what it is drawing, with all the labour, plant and material etc. This is then read by EstimatorXpress for an almost instant cost estimate. The Estimate file can then be shared with Health & Safety Xpert, ContractsXpert and BuildProjex (see below), to avoid further reworking. A proper end-to-end solution.
Newest milestone
In 2024 we introduced our cloud-based tool, BuildProjex. The job and task management app makes it possible to plan, manage, track and share information from anywhere. The builder can collaborate with the customer too. We’ve added timesheet functionality – complete with staff geo-tracking. Watch this space for more software firsts – think more cloud tools and automated drawing templates to fast-track home extension and new home design.
Our competition
HBXL set the benchmark for cost effective construction software back in the day. Competitors have come and gone, but today, there’s really nothing that comes close. HBXL software isn’t for everyone. We don’t offer ‘lite’ software tools, ours are best-in-class, developed here in the UK, cyber secure, integrated, with lots of content, backed by 5-star customer support. As we say, ‘Only the best, for the best.’
What does the future hold?
Our enduring success is rooted in our core values of Expertise, Excellence and
Experience. We champion general builders here in the UK – the unsung heroes of the construction industry. In 2023, in support of the thousands of small businesses operating in a tough economic environment, we introduced our own government-funded Skills Bootcamps to help builders make every project a success – whether Estimating, CAD or simply running your building company and projects better. Their success prompted the launch of the HBXL Skills Academy and CITB-funded courses too, with more to follow.
Who knows what the next 25 years hold for us. There is one certainty: HBXL will maintain an unwavering commitment to pushing the limits of construction software, so that there’s no limit to where you can take your building business. Join us!
For further information on HBXL Building Software visit