January 15, 2023
I'm baaaack!
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"I'm back!" is how I titled my broadcast email fourteen years ago when I rejoined the InRoads Team at Bentley after a thirteen year absence. Now it's San Diego's turn! I'm back after a twenty-two (!) year absence. |
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Here's the video of me talking through this page: https://youtu.be/XzQmutYk-vI
In 1995 I moved from Orlando to lead the City of San Diego's implementation of Bentley's Civil Engineering software (well, then it was owned by Intergraph): InRoads, InFlow, InSewer. I supported the City from the production floor at 600 B St for five years. After we rolled out Storm&Sanitary in 2000, I left to train and consult Bentley Civil software nationally.
I'm back now in largely the same role: helping the City roll out and get happy with Bentley's latest version of their Civil software: the OpenRoads Designer platform. It's revolutionary, it's fun to design with, but it's signficantly more complicated. I am here to help.
In my absence, many of the City staff I worked with had the good fortune and good sense to retire, so in practical terms I'm "new" here. I am looking forward to meeting all of you. Yes, all of you. For about 19 of the past 22 years, I've been working remotely. Remote has advantages, but not that long. My son once said "Dad, you're like Crocodile Dundee when he gets to New York and says hello to everybody on the street." "I am not that bad."
But, yes, I look forward to meeting each of you. My first goal and I think the first metric for success for this ORD rollout is "Do you feel heard?" If you have any opinion on ORD, I want to hear it. If you have a complaint, I want to hear it. Any complaint. Some we can fix, some we cannot. But, please, a long-term onsite expert resource is a really powerful opportunity.
This is a key takeaway: I want to help you, but first I must hear you.
And don't be embarrassed if you're having trouble "getting it". It's more complex than any software platform I've seen in over thirty years in the industry. I've had sufficient struggles myself. I've felt your pain.
Extraordinary Complexity Requires Extraordinary Support.
(And the support for this product is nowhere near extraordinary.)
I've been busy in the interim. Here's a quick summary
- Five year's independent InRoads and Storm&Sanitary training and implementation services, highlighted by Foothill Transportation Corridor South design work and migrating Oklahoma DOT from MicroStation/J. CivilXLr8.com is a largely untouched time capsule of this period.
- Three years design work, including CalTrans staff-augmentation (I-15 Del Lago Direct Access Ramp design and interchange-widening roadway and drainage studies) as well as a couple megaprojects on ORD.
- Thirteen years at Bentley specializing in Civil Training development for road, site, and drainage.
For a more visual summary of the intervening years, click San Diego Intro.
While I've really enjoyed doing all that big global stuff, I'm really glad to be working again in my community, my home. Us becoming extremely successful in OpenRoads is extremely important to me.
Come talk to me (my half cubicle just out into the hall near the IT room on the 7th floor of 525 B St.).
See you soon,
-jeff martin, pe