Ninety participants came from across Europe to the annual two-day DNV Software User Conference at Høvik early this month. They learned about new features in Sesam and Nauticus, attended workshops, gave feedback based on user experience and strengthened ties with colleagues in the industry.
“We received very good feedback from our users,” says Tore Selsø, Regional Manager, DNV Software. Users learned about the latest releases, heard external and internal presentations, and participated in workshops. DNV and DNV Software presented a unified approach at the conference, with class, advisory services and software offered to customers by one supplier. Customers from as far away as Italy and Spain made the trip to Høvik to attend the conference.
Selsø mentioned the upcoming Xtract Report Builder for automatic creation of analysis report as a new feature in Sesam that exemplifies the customer-focused approach to development. The module was presented to users by principal technical support engineer Aanund Berdal.
“We know that up to 30 per cent of the time in a project consists of creating reports and documentation, so we wanted to make this part of the job easier,” says Selsø.
The User Conference is one of the most important ways for DNV Software to communicate with its customers, both to inform of new features and developments, but also to initiate concrete suggestions from users as to what new features and improvements they would value the most. It also provides a meeting place for the industry, where new connections are made in an informal setting.
Several new developments were presented on the first day of the conference. Statoil’s Simen Moxnes gave the keynote speech, “Structural Reanalysis System in Statoil – philosophy and example cases.” In it he affirmed Statoil’s reliance on Sesam. “We use Sesam as the basis for all structural reanalysis models,” Moxnes said in the presentation.
Sesam business developer Fan Joe Zhang presented a sneak preview of ULS & fatigue analysis of offshore wind structures, which will be released in June.
DNV Software Managing Director Are Føllesdal Tjønn pointed out in his closing remarks on the first day that the increase in Sesam sales has accelerated at an impressive rate in the last few years. In 2009, the increase in year-on-year sales was 19 per cent, in 2010 it was 28 per cent, and so far this year the growth is 44 per cent.
“These numbers demonstrate that Sesam is gaining market shares globally, with new customers in all regions. We're continuing Sesam's 40 years of success in the industry. Sales are growing more than ever, and we are also investing heavily in its development,” he said. “We are investing in more efficient modelling and analysis, usability as well as technology upgrades. Customers on maintenance contracts receive these upgrades as part of the yearly maintenance, and we are glad to use these events to inform about the development achievements,” said Tjønn.
The first day was concluded with a dinner hosted in a party tent in the Veritas park.
On the second day, users attended software-specific workshops. Many of the new features gave users the means to increase efficiency and save time in the design process. Workshops included enhanced features for hull modelling and more efficient handling of existing structural reanalysis systems, and also included an introduction to motion and seakeeping analysis in HydroD.
Torgeir Vada, Head of Section, Analysis and Hydro Products, held a workshop on the soon-to-be-released Sesam Wind Extension for analysing fatigue damage on jacket structures with wind turbines.
Details and agendas for future conferences and seminars will be posted on our website under Events
Date: 2011-06-20