We didn’t know what to expect when Viewpoint announced that it would be part of the upcoming Trimble Dimensions conference at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas instead of a Viewpoint-exclusive event as we were accustomed to. The concern of our consultants and myself was that Viewpoint would be only a tiny dwarf planet of the Trimble universe and little useful content would be available. We were correct that the conference attendance was easily four times what we were used to, (~5500), but with booths in both the main expo hall and downstairs in the meeting room level, Viewpoint’s presence was substantial.
The highlight of the show for me was the keynote speaker, Steve Wozniak, Apple co-founder and famous technology genius who single- handedly designed the first personal computer. It was inspiring just to be in the same room with ‘Woz and listen to his mercurial brilliance traveling at warp-speed, answering Trimble CEO’s questions or more often exploding off on energetic and entertaining tangents bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the question asked. Business advice: every company needs a CDO (chief Disruption officer) to force creativity and avoid paralyzing routine. Personal advice: remember the formula H = s-f. (Happiness = smiles – frowns). Also: know thyself, maintain high ethical standards, and strive to help people. Multiple additional takeaways too numerous to mention, in a nutshell, the Woz’s keynote interview was worth the cost of the conference on the first morning.
Trimble’s main message can be summed up in one word: Integration . It holds the key to the ConTech universe going forward, and Trimble’s strategy to achieve the goal rests on its new Trimble Construction One platform, (aka TC1). Basically, a single logon will be the portal to all project tools from the design model to facility maintenance and every step in between. Trimble’s industry-leading hardware strength including autonomously operated heavy equipment was unfortunately limited by volatile local weather. but we did get to see very cool prancing robots in action that drew the biggest crowds in the expo hall.
From the Viewpoint perspective, I was most impressed by Michael Smith’s highly entertaining and fast-moving presentation on Field Service. Accessible only online (think TC1), it’s rich in new features resembling Vista’s Service Management but with an entirely modernized user experience that adds flexibility and field tech input using cell phone or tablet to the Service workflow. Other learning sessions that we attended were subject to luck of the draw, co-dependent on personal knowledge of the topic and session content. A recent Trimble acquisition, Project Sight, (formerly Prolog), is a powerful but as of this writing disconnected Project Management tool. In this consultant’s opinion it will be another year before the hooks to Viewpoint ERP are fully functional, but it also prompts questions concerning the future of Viewpoint TEAM…soon to be mothballed…?…Stay tuned.
As always meeting with peers in a social context provided some of the best time spent. The verdict on the conference is best stated by saying we’re looking forward to attending next year’s Trimble Dimensions 2023. We hope to see you there!
