The morning meeting was with NTP TRUBOPROVOD. Think of them as Russia's Intergraph. They have software for designing and analyzing pipelines, vessels, and so on. A separate division performs the design work.
Being Russia, the standards are unique, and so they help American vendors implement Russian standards. They watched with interest today's launch of Plant3D by Autodesk. Naturally they would like to enter the American market, but recognize (1) it is crowded; (2) their software needs translation (partially complete); and (3) they need to set up databases with American piping standards. Some of this work is already completed for the European market.
"What about Africa?" I wondered. "Which standard would be used there, Russian or one of an African country?" Whichever one is the cheapest standard, came the wry reply.
Front-loaded Maintenance
Not that NTP TRUBOPROVOD is expensive, deputy director Victor Magalif told me. The complete START piping package is $5000 -- about 4x cheaper than ones from the USA. What costs more, however, is the annual maintenance that includes all updates and fixes:
- 2nd year 60% of initial cost
- 3rd year 50%
- 4th and follows 40%
There is a reason for the high front-loaded annual fee: training.
www.TRUBOPROVOD.ru
About the Photo
Moscow's subway system, "the Metro," seems to always be crammed full. Some 10 million passenger trips are made each day. Extremely long escalator carry passengers deep underground, for the stations were designed to double as bomb shelters.
"wwww.TRUBOPROVOD.ru" - too much W
:-)
Posted by: Liss | Jul 06, 2011 at 01:32 AM