On the 6th July the COINS client focused team headed out to St. Petersburg to gain a first hand understanding of the development capability there. The group were introduced to the 63 staff in St. Petersburg Development facility, 20 working directly on COINS. Presentations were two way, the opportunity seized for all to learn more about COINS development and COINS customers from a project management, account management and sales perspective.

The expertise that had been built up over the past 7 years was evident to the UK group and there was an expectation within the next 18 months for there to be well over 100 people of similar calibre. Amongst the team qualifications a plethora of PHD’s and Masters degrees was found: in Astro Physics, Hypersonic Flight, Cybernetics, Robotics, Complex machines, Mathematics, Actuarial, Computer Science and so on. Whilst impressive, a key question for the group was how is this relevant to the construction market?

Exploring this, Larry Sullivan expressed the following views, ‘All good software creates value by compressing time. All markets operate to a set of rules (market and legislative) and workflows - all have the challenge of constantly improving service to their clients. To build systems to meet the challenges of the market and to keep abreast of and apply appropriately emerging technologies we are very sure that we need the very best intellectual capability.’

Larry continued by quoting from The World is flat by Friedman* - ‘There are very few issues of time, space and geography that can’t be resolved through the intelligent use of information and communications technology.’

Whilst requirement capture and client engagement remains a key focus for the UK operation, taking full advantage of communication technologies - VOIP and video conferencing - the UK and Russian teams are able to communicate effectively. COINS can therefore take full advantage of the intellectual, academic and problem solving skills of the Russian development team to effectively deliver new functionality for the COINS software.

There is also no doubt that industry knowledge and expertise cannot be overlooked and it was clear that this has been achieved as well - with the support of UK staff and clients there are now in Russia some 200 man-years of Construction “domain” expertise.

Chris Westbury, UK Projects Manager for COINS commented: ‘It was excellent to meet the development team in St. Petersburg, put faces to names and understand their roles in COINS’ development. It clearly demonstrated how the Russian team really do work directly with the UK team as if in the next room. They are committed to producing the best quality and functionality possible and are immensely proud of the work that they do. The enthusiasm and commitment of the team there is hugely encouraging. Matched by their staggering academic backgrounds, it makes for a promising future for the development of COINS.’

Alex Leonenko, COINS lead developer commented: ‘We always welcome meetings with the COINS UK team; in this case it was especially interesting to hear from the sales and management team how the product we develop is practically used by various clients.’