On Wisconsin!

Exciting news from the State of Wisconsin.

They are staying true to the state motto, Forward by looking at the future of their civil design software. For the last year or so the state has had a technical committee comprised of engineers, drafts-people and GIS gurus re-evaluating their software.

Last week at our Madison Civil 3D 2008 product launch, one of the committee members announced to us and the other clients present that the WISDOT Technology Committee had made the recommendation to move to Civil 3D!

Keep in mind this is by no means a done deal. What it does mean is that a non-biased committee worked very hard to find the right solution for their users, and when going head-to-head with In-roads, Civil 3D was found to be the most complete solution. (You should have seen the RFP man, whew!) Now we still wait and see what happens now that that the committee has made their recommendation.

This is a huge step for the State. They are facing a platform change from the Bentley products which in itself will cause some unhappy users. It could be years before people reach the level of proficiency they had with Microstation and Caice. Other states are waiting to see what is happening here in Wisconsin, so a smooth implementation is critical but without precedent.

With any luck, we are looking at the beginning of the end of the decades long disconnect between the software private industry prefers and the software the States have been stuck with.