I promised an update of the Leica HDS Worldwide User Conference in today’s blog, but I have to admit that yesterday was a whirlwind of information and ideas. It’s going to take me more time than I’ve had available between presentations and events to summarize the key thoughts.
However, one thing that stood out to me in all the discussions is that there is a tendency to make scanning too complex. Many surveyors still don’t understand how to market and sell scanning services precisely because they’re trying to market and sell those services—rather than simply meeting their clients’ needs. They’re so busy trying to persuade clients to buy in to the technology and its capabilities that they forget to think about projects from their clients’ perspective. From that angle, the technology is a distraction. What the clients should be focused on is that your firm can provide the deliverables they need faster, more efficiently and with higher accuracies than any other firm, and that the deliverables will continue to provide value far into the future as they are able to eliminate rework and continue to mine data for additional projects.
Perhaps Carlos Velasquez from Epic Scan in Oregon summarized it best in his presentation: “Keep it simple.”
The firms that have followed this principle appear to be ahead of the game.
I’ll provide a more extensive recap on the conference soon.
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What do you think? Please share your comments below.View the Conference Recap for additional information on the 2009 Leica Geosystems HDS Worldwide User Conference.
By: Deral at Home
Posted: November 2, 2009 10:50 AM
As one who has seen the rapid progression of tools that are turning up in our trucks and offices then I think you make one good point.
The clients do not necessarily care about our tools but they do care about the deliverables. I further put deliverables into several categories.
Timelyness-Does a new tool shorten the time to get the deliverables to the client. Often nowdays, they wait until the last moment to expend funds for a project. So a tool that can meet a frantic deadline will allow you to meet what in the past would have been an unrealistic deadline.
Accuracy-Does the tool provide some advantage over other tools in accuracy? Could you TS and notebook a complex overhead piping system as accurate or as fast as a scanner inside some petroleum plant?
We should not be marketing tools but our professional results. Using the proper tool is one of OUR decisions based on the projet requirements.
I see a bright future for scanning projects as they are certainly the best choice for many detailed 3D studies.
I think one could certainly take the world by storm with marketing a solid program for bridge inspections. Too often these are spot checking inspections that do no tell the entire story.
Scanning should allow the 3d aspects to be compared year to year and spot areas to be further inspected. Of course, the normal inspection should also occur but scanning might just see a pattern or spot a combined failure of and entire system instead of just looking at selected spots.
For some, a static finished plat, is all that is required of a project but for many types of engineering related projects then the data will be used in many ways. How this data is going to be used is the question someone should ask themselves before determining the tool to use.
As one who has been successful in writing RFP's then this is a prime thing to consider. It shows that you know the clients needs and that you are also giving them much more than anyone else when it comes to reusable data.
I do agree that the technology can become a distraction but these are just tools.
GPS has changed the way many work and I'm sure scanning is doing the same for those that work in certain niche's.
I'll not say to "Keep it simple", but would say "Meet your clients needs".
Deral