We often find that one of the best shorthand ways to explain what SITEOPS does is to describe it as "BIM for sites." While BIM typically applies to vertical contruction, both technologies create models of spatial data where elements can be manipulated as discrete objects, rather than arrangements of vectors and lines.

Last week's online article in Cadalyst agrees. "Whereas BIM has yielded new efficiencies for architects, SITEOPS has created a software as a service (SaaS) that aims to do the same for civil engineers..." it begins.

This month also saw the publication of our "Smart Site Design" case study in CE News, and we have a story in the July Shopping Center Business as well. Right now, that one is only available in print. Check back in a few days for the link...

The big news at our company this week is receiving notice that U.S. Patent No. 7,395,191 will be issued on July 1, 2008, for the technology underlying SITEOPS. 

The news has created quite a bit of buzz already, including listing as a top story in the online editions Cadalyst and Site Prep. We are getting new sales calls as a result, and of course the patent represents an important strategic and competitive advantage for the long term.

So many people have worked long and hard to take SITEOPS from concept to reality. The patent announcement is just one more confirmation of what we hear increasingly from our users and clients--that this technology is unprecedented and industry-changing.

 

Today is the first full day of ICSC RECon 2008. It's hard to grasp how large this retail tradeshow is until you actually see it. Our booth is in the Trade Expo, South Hall booth 7045. We've got a corner position and the traffic has been impressive so far. The show opened Sunday, and instantly we had passersby attracted by the plasma screen showing SITEOPS in action. Heather Palmer-Palavido, our VP of Product Development, and Frank Harmuth, Director of Sales, have been giving demonstrations nonstop since the show opening. We're giving away SITEOPS pens and blue stress balls shaped like brains. They're a hit, but visitors are actually requesting literature and contact info more often than pens and brains!

It's always interesting to see reactions to SITEOPS. We get a full range, from amazement to strong curiosity to skepticism. You can see the wheels turning as each potential client considers how SITEOPS could benefit their particular business, and we're getting great feedback and ideas by the minute. We're a very client-focused software company, which helps us respond to market needs. Our software is constantly being improved and since it's Software-as-a-Service, clients get to use the new stuff right away instead of having to wait months (or years) for software updates.

Ran across this article last week in Cadalyst.

It argues that even during an economic downturn, the CAD software market will continue to grow--partly due to expanding global market opportunities, and partly because in lean times, clients are demanding more value for the same or less money. Technology offers a solution by increasing productivity.

We couldn't agree more.

Lachmi Khemlani, Ph.D., of AECbytes has published a very detailed and insightful article on SITEOPS for her regular "Building the Future" section. She grasps the full potential of optimization technology and even points out possible future applications in related fields. AECbytes is well known for its focus on innovation in the building industry, so we're excited about the coverage.

From the conclusion of her article:

"The implementation of SITEOPS seems like a no-brainer for any civil engineering or land development project, as it can not only reduce project time and risk, but also lead to substantial savings on grading, layout, and piping costs by exploring billions of possible solutions to find the most optimized ones. It allows extensive what-if analysis such as the implications of a bigger versus smaller building footprint, the position and orientation of the building on the site, roads through the site, delivery truck routes, parallel parking versus angular parking, and so on. I also found the application very easy to learn and use..."

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Just got back from this year's Land Development East conference in Atlanta. What a great event! It was really helpful to interact with our end-user community and hear their questions, as well as their frustrations with the existing technology and accompanying land design process.

The room was packed when Steve Thomas and Steve Narducci of MESH Consulting gave a presentation on their experiences with SITEOPS. You could hear the "oohs" and "aaahs" when the demo started redrawing the parking spaces. We had a lot of traffic at the booth, too.

The folks at Zweig-White put together a good program. I would definitely recommend their events to anyone in the land development/planning/civil engineering community.

Dan Fornes of Software Advice just did a post on SITEOPS.

In his words, "cool."

Just wanted to share a few recent SITEOPS optimization results:

• Eliminated a $1.25 million underground basin on a $3-4 million retail project 
• $800,000 grading savings on a 35-acre retail site
• $60,000 savings from moving driveway and building on an institutional site < 20 acres
• $120,000 sitework cost savings by moving food store location slightly
• Caught $600,000 paving error
• $ 2.9 million savings on a 210-acre site, from changing the Finished Floor Elevation from 892 to 890

People grasp right way how SITEOPS will save them time. What's interesting is how often the non-obvious changes save real money, too. Whether it's moving the layout a few hundred feet or determining the optimal Finished Floor Elevation for grading, optimization examines design possibilities that human beings may not ordinarily think of. The time required to explore those extra options would have been prohibitive--until now. 

I've been reading about some other software companies' planned product updates for the next two years. It's becoming increasingly clear that SITEOPS is taking a different approach to CAD than anyone else in the industry.

Them: Lots of UI updates and validation controls to help ensure that the designs you draw can actually be implemented.

Us: Computer Aided Design for real.

We're talking about CAD software that can actually generate preliminary site designs, based on user-supplied criteria. What's more, SITEOPS can produce numerous design alternatives and you retain the ability to tweak and adapt those designs and/or import them into another drawing program.

Our approach was not possible until 2-3 years ago, due to advances in the field of evolutionary computing and the availability of raw server processing power. The best part is, it works and it's available today.

It's a busy time of year for us as we get ready for Land Development East in March and after that, ICSC RECon in Vegas in May. The good folks at MESH will be giving a presentation on our optimization technology at LDE... it will be really interesting to find out the reaction of civil engineers seeing for the first time what SITEOPS can actually do.

But the biggest news of all is Multi Pad, due out this April. This is the killer app for CAD site design... it will support shopping centers and office parks as well as single building sites. Hope to share a sneak preview soon!