Another Great SSI User Conference

Here at SSI, we plan to spend this week processing all the information we consumed from last week’s User Conference in Mobile, Alabama. It was a great event with some great speakers from SSI, technology partners and many SSI clients. There was a bunch of information presented but if you missed it, all presentations are accessible on SSI Nexus here for all SSI customers. The agenda is located here.

There are four things that I took away from this user conference:

1. SSI Nexus Wishlist
2. ShipConstructor New & Rediscovered features + Tips & Tricks
3. Connected (Synchronized) Shipyard
4. SSI Certified Training is a Hit

SSI Nexus Wishlist

Most of us are already signed up to SSI Nexus and are either observers or contributors to the over 80 active discussions. At the user conference, we (SSI) revealed the SSI Nexus Community Wishlist that will allow every user to vote on what is important to them and their company. The SSI team will use this immediately in order to prioritize what items the SSI Community wants. I have blogged about this before “SSI Community Wishlist: Voice Your Opinion” if you want to refresh your memory.

ShipConstructor New & Rediscovered features + Tips & Tricks

Several presentations talked about how to leverage new features but many more were about how to leverage features and workflows with functionality over 3 years old. Every single person I asked regarding whether they learned something the first day said absolutely yes, and many of these people were ShipConstructor veterans with over 7+ years’ experience.

Also, this year we were again blessed with Lynn Allen’s famous “50 AutoCAD tips in 50 Minutes”. She is by far one of the most entertaining presenters and generously gave everyone her Tips & Tricks for AutoCAD booklet. If you want one you can get it here.

Connected (Synchronized) Shipyard

The second and third day were jam packed with over 15 presentations by SSI clients and technology partners. I really enjoyed the presentations from the SSI users since it showed some real world implementations and the overall benefit it had to their organizations. There were presentations on connecting systems (ERP, MRP, PLM, PDM, etc.), people, machines (profile cutting, pipe CNC, robotic welding) and information throughout the organization.

There were definitely themes that each of these presentations highlighted:

1. Flexible tools: When connecting your shipyard’s systems, people, machines and information, you require flexible tools that enable connecting things together. Obviously, ShipConstructor and the EnterprisePlatform are at the heart of many of these presentations but the SSI products are just one set of software in your organization. For optimal and seamless connections, you will require the majority of your IT environment to be open to make information accessible and available to be used by others.
2. A plan: Many shipyards and companies attempt to “transform” without a well-defined plan. All the examples presented that had a successful implementation started with a well-defined plan that incorporated internal & external stakeholders and their software technology partners such as SSI.
3. People: By far the hardest part of any major implementation is the people. It is one of the most obvious considerations but also one of the ones that is usually overlooked. Bringing in the right people at the beginning of the project is crucial. The people to include are those who will be interacting with the end result as well as members of the management team who understand the organization’s overall vision. It was very apparent that all the successful implementations put a high emphasis on people throughout the entire process.

If any of you are going through a “transformation” no matter at what level, you should refer to some of the great presentations we had.

SSI Certified Training is a Hit

The last two days were focused on training SSI users on our new Certified Training Curriculum. The amount of interest we had for these sessions exceeded my expectations with SSI giving out over 180 Certificates in just two days. These are not “You attended training” certificates. To attain a SSI Certificate and become an official SSI Certified User, you need to complete the training curriculum and pass all the exercises.

We had SSI veterans as well as junior users taking the course at the same time. Almost all feedback from the training sessions said the training material was very clear and easy to use. If you are interested in learning more, you can go to the SSI Authorized Training site or a recent blog “My thoughts on SSI’s new Training Program” by Darren Larkins.

I should also mention that included in all ShipConstructor installations is the ShipConstructor Essentials training class that anyone can complete for free. There is really no excuse not to complete it.

Closing Remarks

Overall, the SSI User Conference was a great success with 18 sponsors, 25 speakers and over 180 Attendees. I really enjoyed the presentations but most of all the networking with all of you and your peers.

It is sometimes hard to realize the amount of effort it takes to put on these events because the people who organize it do it so well. I really want to thank our entire team for putting on this event.

For any of you who did not attend but want to review the presentations, you can go to SSI Nexus here.

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