From Cathy’s Desk - K-TEK Consultants Present at AU - Kim Davis joins K-TEK solutions - Project Highlights

From Cathy’s Desk

It’s been more than two months since Autodesk University, and we’re still busy following up with the many leads and contacts from the conference.  At our kiosk, we spent many productive hours greeting old friends and clients, and getting to know many new folks as well.  And part of the activity at AU was getting a chance to meet with prospective partners and begin the process of bringing three more of them into the K-TEK Virtual Bench partner program.

While 2009 was a challenging year in some respects, we’re already seeing signs that this is going to be a great year, with more projects in virtually every category.  To help meet this demand, we’ve already put three new consultants on retainer, so we can continue to bring you the talent you’ve come to expect from K-TEK.

The many conversations we had at AU has helped us realize how unique our services including content creation are within the industry.  For the past three years, K-TEK has been building content around Autodesk’s entire AEC product suite.  And when customers and partners are challenged with how to best use these products, we’ve been putting together world-class consulting teams to solve their problems.  For example, we just finished delivering a Topobase Accelerator project for a major client in the LA basin, and we’ve started working with our Virtual Bench partners to spec and deliver solutions based on AutoCAD Utility Design.

Both Kim Davis and I will be at OTC, meeting with partners and friends.  If you’re coming to OTC, please send us a note at info@k-teksolutions.com. Or come find us at the networking receptions on Monday or Tuesday.

K-TEK Consultants Present at AU

Dan Leighton and Andrea Bell co-presented both a lab session and a virtual session at Autodesk University.  The lab session was titled “Hands on Design using Autodesk Utility Design”, and it showed how AUD could be used to quickly design and analyze electric distribution facilities, and generate an automatic bill of materials based on that design.  This course featured both new material, and material from an earlier K-TEK project where we created custom AUD training materials for end users.

The virtual session, titled “Incorporating Software Simulation into Web-Based Training”, leveraged work K-TEK had done in creating an innovative web-based training system.  This training showed how K-TEK had extended the eLearning experience by incorporating exercises that simulated AutoCAD allowing learners to have an interactive experience and get a better sense of what it was like to actually use the product.  Both presentations were well rated by attendees.  If you attended AU or have a pass to access the AU materials on-line, please check these sessions out!

Expanding Role for Kim Davis Many of you likely know Kim Davis, who’s been involved with Autodesk for nearly two decades.  Kim has worked with K-TEK for years in strategic business planning, sales, and marketing.  We are excited to announce she has extended her contract with us, and expanded her services role to include business continuity planning, client communications, success metrics, and other business-related needs.

Project Highlights

K-TEK Delivers Topobase Accelerator Project

K-TEK has just completed a Topobase project, implementing Topobase for a major California water and power company.  Following our Accelerator methodology, this project went beyond technical work to provide an overall assessment of the customer’s direction, and a plan for ongoing investment.  One key element of this project was to take full advantage of the client’s internal expert, both to leverage his skills and to increase his knowledge and ability to move the implementation ahead in the future.

 K-TEK Provides H&H Expertise to Autodesk

K-TEK just completed a unique and challenging project to develop a comprehensive eLearning for Autodesk to help explain H&H (hydrology and hydraulics) concepts and project elements to Autodesk’s channel partners.  In addition to providing subject matter expertise, K-TEK created an eLearning deliverable that incorporated advanced animated graphics, interactive slides, and an illustrated interactive glossary of H&H terms. 

 K-TEK Helps Meet Staffing Needs

With the economic downturn, many organizations are experiencing layoffs.  Several organizations we’ve worked closely with in the past have now turned to K-TEK for short-term consulting help, to ensure that key projects stay on track and that important knowledge is retained.  For example, we are working with a large electric utility company to extend and customize their Map 3D implementation supporting Gas and Electric infrastructure asset management.  And with another customer experiencing layoffs and work furloughs, we’re just starting a project to augment their IT staff and implement CAD standards and other efficiency measures to help them get more work done with their remaining staff.