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posted 04/16/07 by Anthony Governanti What time is it?

Well, it's been a week since my illustrious world tour ended, and I think I finally know what time of day it is, as the jet lag has worn off. I want to again thank my gracious hosts in Shanghai and Paris for making two very long trip so enjoyable and relatively stress free.

So last week was my first full time effort for the new role as "sales guy", and I must say, its going to be a very interesting, if not exciting year. I've got a lot to learn, and hopefully a lot of knowledge to share in return.

My first order of business was just that, to plan out my business. After referring to Webster’s dictionary to figure out what business means - I'm kidding of course - I worked through a plan of action for this coming year. We use a system here at Autodesk called Goal P.O.S.T . Without getting into too much of the detail, we essentially state a goal for the year, and then the process takes us through creating a Profile of the business, Objectives for the plan, Strategy for how I will achieve the goal, and then Tactics for reaching the objectives.

It is a pretty cool process and forces you to look at a plan from all directions, and make sure you have your basis coverd. With the help of my new teammates, we came up with a pretty good plan, with a lot of tactics that will hopefully translate into a successful year. I only hope that I can stick to my plan, and achieve the goals I set for myself. Because after all, its not just having a good plan, but good execution of that plan that make it happen, right?

So why am I rambling on about this? Well, essentially I just wanted to share my thoughts and observations as to how this can be applied to your world, perhaps with an implementation of Civil 3D (I know, not that subtle, but then again, I am Italian). See I believe, and I think a lot of people would back me up on this, that having a good plan before you try to implement a technology like Civil 3D is paramount to its success or failure. You have to sit down, look at what you want from project, or the goal of the implementation, and then you need to asses the current conditions in your firm, or build a profile of your existing setup. Once you have this, you move into the objectives to achieve during the implementation like starting a pilot project, training certain team members, etc. This will then need a strategy for implementing the objectives so they are achievable, as well as tactics or actionable items for rolling out the plan.

I mention this only because I feel the important part is to realize that you aren’t on your own to do this. We at Autodesk have done a lot of work, and investment, in materials and training to provide the resources you need to successfully implement Civil 3D.

The first level is the CAD Manager’s Guide, which is a pretty in-depth paper that will guide you through the details and direction needed to begin an implementation of Civil 3D. The next level is our ICE program, or Implementation Certified Expert. This is where an individual who works for a reseller or consultant is trained and then certified on an implementation process specific to Civil 3D. To find a reseller who is certified search your area and look for their ICE certification credentials. The next level of support is very similar to ICE, as a lot of or resellers, consultants, and partners have taken the program and customized it to their services adding more value in a packaged offering.

Anyway, I hope you can see the value in at least having a plan when implementing Civil 3D, and with the technology getting better and better each year, if you haven’t taken a look at the possibilities, maybe now is the time.

Till next time,
Cheers,
AG

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