|
SAPREF uses WiseImage
| Company name |
SAPREF (South African Petroleum Refineries) |
| Company data |
Petroleum Refinery for Shell and BP located in Isipingo Beach, South Africa. |
| People employed |
Approximately 600 |
| Problem description |
Updating an area in the Petroleum Plant that did not have CAD records, only very old paper drawings. Drawings needed to be scanned, cleaned up and then areas in the drawings were converted to vectors so that the company could make use of AutoPlant |
| The hook! |
We offered an attractive price by using the competitive crossgrade option from RxAutoimage and provided local support. The crossgrade also meant an easy migration from RxAI to WI for the users |
| Competitors VS allies |
Rasterex
GTX |
| How and why you get the order? |
Competitive Price for more functionality, and Local Support as and when needed. |
| Product name and Number of licenses |
Wiseimage PRO x3 |
| What program tools they use? |
Image cleanup and semi-automatic recognition |
| How they differentiated CS products from competitors? |
Faster, more tools, accuracy, easier migration from Rx |
Their benefits:
- Money
- Time
- Working hours |
The crossgrade was approximately the same price as the upgrade from RxAI. So they did not save in this area, but the amount of time they have saved using this raster technology as opposed to having to redraw these areas, has certainly saved them staff hours. Money has been saved in shorter contract periods and also by finishing projects in time without penalities. |
| Did they ask for upgrades, customization, etc.? |
They request SSAs each year which entitles them to upgrades each year. |
| Other |
This installation has meant that other companies related to SAPREF have begun to follow with their crossgrades. We have recently upgraded Petronet, the company responsible for piping petrol around the country. We hope more will follow soon. |
I had dealt with Sapref previously when distributing Rasterex so they were not a new customer to me. When forming a new company for Consistent Software distribution, I contacted Sapref and explained the product changes. They explained that considering the economic downfall in South Africa at that time, they had to lay off many of their Drawing Office staff. They had no projects running and business was slow.
Six months later they began a new project call the FOX Project. This project was responsible for upgrading areas inside the plant. New CAD Contractors were hired to get the piping data into a digital form so that they could make use of 3-D technology. They explained that the software was to allow users to work on AutoCAD in conjunction with Autoplant. Many of the drawings from this particular area of the plant were very old and were only in paper format. This meant it was perfect to incorporate Raster Technology.
They had RxAutoimage version 4 and realized that they needed to upgrade this to a newer version to work with their required software applications. A product was required to cleanup the scans in a batch mode, so that information could be read from the drawings. From this the scans were taken into AutoCAD and areas were recognized and converted to Vectors using semi-automatic trace functions. In some cases, AutoPlant was then used to convert these vector areas to 3-D.They contacted me for a comparative price for a crossgrade from Autoimage and found the price was very similar. They were very happy to see that they could use the 3 products in one environment, AutoCAD, AutoPlant and Wiseimage PRO.
To Sapref crossgrading to Wiseimage PRO made sense since we had a local presence just 20 minutes away and could offer far more functionality with a far more progressive Raster Company: CSOFT!
We did a demonstration for the client showing the interactive mode and cleanup filters and they were very impressed. They immediately ordered 3 crossgrades and 3 SSAs which they have purchased every year now.
Although 3 years later, this project is coming to an end and I have heard that they will have an even bigger project starting next year which means that they will probably need to crossgrade the last 3 versions of RxAI that are still sitting in the cupboard. This also means that each year we will have an order for 6 SSAs. Also more CAD contractors will get to work on Wiseimage PRO meaning that they will market our products to other companies that they will work for.
Another advantage of working with a company such as this is that they have alliances with other companies such as Petronet. These smaller company follow what SAPREF do, and when Sapref crossgraded to Wiseimage we got enquiries from other companies too. It is a pity that these are mainly crossgrades, but none-the-less we get a seat of Wiseimage into the market and remove Rx from the market, so we jump two steps ahead of the competition in one movement!
This success story was submitted by: KINETIC DISTRIBUTION
|
