If you thought walking on water was impossible, Transpac Marinas is here to prove it isn’t. The company is a leader in designing and manufacturing custom floating docks and wave attenuation systems to withstand the world’s most severe marine environments.
As innovative thought-leaders, the Transpac team knew they needed to implement a system that could evolve to meet their customer’s demands. They realized they had to look outside of their team and beyond their current Autodesk reseller to stay at the forefront of their industry.
“KETIV had an appreciation and understanding for what we were trying to do and knew what we were up against as a small business.”
Upon a recommendation and sitting in on KETIV’s Autodesk Virtual Academy (AVA), a free online weekly training webinar, Transpac discovered KETIV. Prior to signing an agreement, Transpac found themselves on a remote session with the KETIV Lifeline Support Team. Ben Eddy, a Transpac Marinas designer explains, “KETIV had an appreciation and understanding for what we were trying to do and knew what we were up against as a small business.” This mutual understanding of Transpac’s needs, made the new partnership an obvious choice, Ben elaborates, “The switch was very easy, smoother than expected. I expected it to be more cumbersome and time consuming, but KETIV’s ability to support us was more than we could have asked for.” Initially, Transpac was concerned that a new design and manufacturing partner would require more resources than they could afford to extend, but KETIV’s guidance and support empowered Transpac to make a series of bold and innovative changes.
“The switch was very easy, smoother than expected. I expected it to be more cumbersome and time consuming, but KETIV’s ability to support us was more than we could have asked for.”
Transpac Marinas was immediately partnered with a KETIV Customer Success Manager, Nicole Morris, to understand the company’s desired outcomes. Nicole was able to set up a success plan for Transpac by aligning their long-term vision with their current technical challenges. Ben explains, “We firmly believe we would not have been able to make the switch without Nicole Morris, head of the Lifeline team, and the others at KETIV.”
Once KETIV understood Transpac’s vision and need to create more complex designs, they recommended that Transpac implement 3D designing. Transitioning from AutoCAD to Inventor or 2D to 3D, allows different members of Transpac’s CAD team to simultaneously work on the same document. Transpac’s President, Dan Jankelson believes that using 3D tools makes their tasks more efficient, their designs smarter, and helps them catch mistakes. Dan says, “It has made our design output much more professional, it has raised the bar in our industry; being able to produce design drawings at the level we are now able to. It has increased accuracy in detailing and production and has ultimately enhanced and will continue to enhance our efficiency.”
Soon, Transpac was working with KETIV to implement Autodesk Vault, which gives them the ability to save their designs to a server that everyone has access to. Their new set of design tools allows for a seamless flow of information between the sub-contractors and suppliers they work with. Since suppliers use a variety of different programs, Transpac’s new tools help them transfer designs and keeps data accurate, no matter what program it is being transferred to.
“We want to help other small businesses understand that the entry into new technologies may not be as daunting with the help of KETIV. We believe they have raised the bar for the design industry.”
“Our core user group here talks about KETIV on a weekly basis. We set aside a couple hours a week to watch Autodesk Virtual Academy,” says Dan. The team takes full advantage of the free weekly training that teaches them new techniques, refines their current skills and keeps the team ahead in their industry. “We want to help other small businesses understand that the entry into new technologies may not be as daunting with the help of KETIV. We believe they have raised the bar for the design industry,” says Dan. Today, the team prides themselves on their ability to design and build custom tailored solutions for each customer, with a greater level of detail than ever before. They’ve increased their efficiency through a reduction in errors and consistently achieving greater accuracy with each project. The team’s biggest challenge now is having more projects than they can bid on. The good news? They don’t plan on slowing down and will continue to create better solutions, not just for customers, but for suppliers, fabricators and of course, anyone looking to walk on water.
