Software, services, and expertise for the business of shipbuilding.

        • Achieve a Quick ROI
        • Sliced implementations and our expertise means a benefit from day one, without a lengthy setup.

        • Integrate, Collaborate, Re-use
        • SSI’s Open Shipbuilding Platform gives you a future-proof source of truth for your shipbuilding projects.

        • Change Management
        • Get visibility into changes, understand the impacts, and have the right information at the right time to execute the change.

        • Adapt and Innovate
        • Create a local or virtualized shipbuilding environment for your global distributed workforce.

        • Changing from Another Solution
        • SSI makes it easy to switch from other platforms and keep your existing data.

        • Design
        • The most significant opportunities to impact the cost of building and operating a ship are found in the design and engineering phase.

          Initial Design  |  Basic Design  |  Detailed Design

        • Build
        • Even a smaller shipbuilding project is immense in scope and scale. Manage the challenges that are unique to ship construction.

          Prepare  |  Fabricate  |  Assemble

        • Maintain
        • With the majority of a ship’s life taking place after it’s been built, it’s crucial to ensure that the organization has a clear picture of the vessel at all times.

          Digital Twin  |  Repair / Refit  |  Operations

        • Nexus
        • SSI Nexus is a community for users, creators, & implementers of SSI software.

        • SSI Certified Training
        • SSI Certified Training allows SSI users to access detailed training exercises, materials, courses, and certifications.

        • SSI Blogs
        • The SSI blogs are your place to get insights from our CEO into the intersection of shipbuilding and technology, see how shipbuilding is moving forward, and keep up with SSI news.

          Lighthouse Waveform  |  Shipbuilding Solutions

        • ShipConstructor
        • A complete line of solutions for the design, engineering, and construction of ships and offshore projects.

        • EnterprisePlatform
        • Tools to connect and share data across every system in the shipyard and make information available.

        • ShipbuildingPLM
        • The only truly shipbuilding-specific product lifecycle management (PLM) platform.

        • Company
        • Learn more about SSI and our leadership.

        • Locations & Contact
        • You need a partner with a global presence.

        • News
        • The latest on SSI and shipbuilding.

        • Events
        • Join us at our next event, conference, or trade show.

July 7, 2014
Behind the Curtain

StdPrmUlt_smallblog

This is another “Behind the Curtain” post that is intended to provide some insight into the thinking behind the moves we make at SSI.

Our stated mission at SSI is to “deliver increased productivity to the world’s shipbuilding and offshore industries by bridging the gap between tradition and technology.” You’ll notice that there is absolutely no indication of any particular industry segment, or size and type of project in that mission. It is our goal to create technology and services that suit everyone. In a previous blog post I talked about why it is important to be present in all segments of a given market.

I won’t get into the technological reasons why we believe our products allow us to scale both up and down. If you’re interested I’m sure you know where to find out: here and here. However if you’ve been paying attention over the last 5 years you’ve seen the introduction of a number of products and services that extend the breadth and reach of the ShipConstructor solution. Products like P&ID DesignValidation, WorkShare Design and MarineDrafting extend the use of ShipConstructor even earlier in the design phase. Products like WeldManagement, Electrical, PipeSupports, and again MarineDrafting and WorkShare Design, extend our reach into ever larger organizations and projects. The upcoming (with ShipConstructor 2015 this year) SSI EnterprisePlatform is a major part of this effort as well.

In the past larger shipyards would question whether ShipConstructor had yet reached a point of maturity and sophistication that was suitable for them. With projects like the LHA-6 Amphibious Assault Ship successfully built and delivered with ShipConstructor, and the recent changes to the product, we are now hearing small shipyards and design agents say that they aren’t “big enough to use ShipConstructor”.

We’ve heard those rumblings, and have been responding and will continue to do so. We’ve ensured that every one of our new products is even easier to understand, use and implement than any of the products we’ve delivered in the past. This includes improving the overall user experience in the software with better user interfaces, better and more logically arranged icons, more logical presentation of data required for specific tasks, and more consistency throughout. With ShipConstructor 2015 we’re including a more comprehensive set of libraries and standards. Setup of these standards before work can begin was a potential bottleneck for smaller (and sometimes even larger) organizations in the past. Technically, the new software will be the best release ever for smaller organizations.     

However one of the things we’ve re-looked at over the last year is how we deliver our solutions to the market.

For those that aren’t aware SSI has always had a very flexible method for smaller clients with smaller projects to implement ShipConstructor. Every one of our products was available in 10 levels; each level represented a fixed number of parts that could exist in the 3D model for that discipline (the highest level was of course unlimited in project scope and size). With pricing for a level 1 product at 10% of the full price of the product (but with the same capabilities) we had a solution for small projects that was unbeatable. With ShipConstructor 2015, the 10 levels have been consolidated into 3 editions (Standard, Premium, and Ultimate) but the price/part ratio in these editions is even better than with the earlier system.

However, during this introspective look at what we offer we realized that there was a segment of the industry that was under-served by us and by all of the shipbuilding specific software vendors. There are many small and medium size companies (shipyards and design offices) that design and build medium to large projects. These companies are often left to implement neutral CAD products that really don’t meet their requirements, or more costly and complex shipbuilding solutions that really don’t fit their business.

Suites

Along with the other changes in ShipConstructor 2015 we are adding a new offering specifically targeted at, and in fact only available to, small-medium size design and engineering departments. The new offerings are called ShipConstructor Suites. They are available in 5 different flavors and sizes. I’m not going to go into details around pricing of the Suites. Needless to say they are our most attractive solution ever to small organizations doing big things. However this really isn’t supposed to be a commercial post.

What I’m trying to say is that our mission is to “deliver increased productivity to the world’s shipbuilding and offshore industries by bridging the gap between tradition and technology.” That doesn’t just mean large organizations with large projects. It doesn’t mean just Navy projects, or workboats, or OSV’s, or luxury yachts or offshore. It means everyone.

Don't Miss These Shipbuilding Strategies

Subscribe to the Shipbuilding Solutions blog and get actionable strategies and best practices from industry experts.

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.