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BUSINESS NEWS LINDE ENGINEERING NORTH AMERICA INC. STANDARDIZES ON ASPENTECH ESTIMATING AND EXPANDS USE OF ASPENTECH PROCESS SAFETY SOFTWARE Aspen Technology, Inc. , a leading provider of software and services to the process industries, announced that Linde Engineering North America Inc. has standardized on Aspen Capital Cost Estimator estimating technology. AspenTech’s Aspen Capital Cost Estimator empowers estimators with cutting-edge technology that enables them to rapidly and confidently evaluate capital investment projects early in the design process, understand all the economic implications of engineering decisions and manage projects more profitably. LENA selected ACCE and extended its use throughout the organization due to the ability of the software to keep projects on schedule and within budget, improve safety performance, and achieve the highest standards of operational excellence. The flexibility and adaptability offered by the aspenONE Engineering environment was a key factor in LENA’s decision, as was the ability of AspenTech’s economic evaluation solutions to consistently allow engineering companies to increase their incomes by up to 50 percent compared to traditional approaches. In addition, the company expanded its use of

AspenTech’s Process Safety software, which allows Engineering, Procurement & Construction Companies to efficiently conduct safety studies, including pressure safety valve sizing, flare system design and rating, and dynamic analysis for start-up, shutdown, emergencies and compressor surge, all while using simulation data from Aspen HYSYS and Aspen Plus. “Today’s generation of estimators and engineers are under pressure to do more with less and adapt quickly to change,” said Jason Stevens, head of cost estimating with Linde Engineering North America Inc. “With ACCE, and the long-term AspenTech partnership, LENA can successfully work with owner-operators hand- in-hand to manage risk more effectively and improve overall operational conditions for our clients.” “AspenTech is pleased to partner with LENA,” said Josh Fredberg, senior vice president of products and marketing with ApenTech. “We look forward to continuing to deliver the technology innovations that power the workflows, business process improvements and best practices to help companies drive efficiencies and maximize returns.”

MARK ZWEIG, from page 1

Here are some things to be thinking about: 1)Staffing. You think it’s hard to find people now? Plan on another trillion dollars worth of government infrastructure spending and it will be much, much worse. Better start thinking about what you will do to SELL people on working in your firm. It’s going to take a lot. If you don’t put in the time, you won’t be able to hire, and you’ll lose the good people you have. 2)Quality. Always an issue when you throw a bunch of new people into the mix – many of which probably won’t have the experience they need to know what they are doing. Lots of process will be needed. Building a culture that produces quality has to be a priority. Spending money on training WILL be necessary. Having a process to expeditiously deal with problems will be crucial. There’s a lot to do to head off quality problems. 3)Firm capitalization. Growth takes capital. You better be thinking about how you will raise the money you need to capitalize on what could be a coming boom. It probably will not all come from selling ownership to your current employees. You may need to consider new outside investors. Alternatively, you may need to look at new sources of debt capital. Debt is cheaper (always is when a firm is doing well), and there are non- traditional sources for lending that could be helpful to you. School yourself on where you can get money before you need it. 4)Benefits. Health care is going to be a bigger and bigger cost for you. Better figure out what you will be doing to contain your costs. Education is a big part of it. Smoking ces- sation. Diet. Exercise. Wellness programs. There are only so many things you can do to hold down healthcare costs but you will probably need to be doing every single one of them in the future based on what’s expected to happen. So if what we think could happen DOES happen, all of us in the AEC business will have lots of opportunities – as well as lots of problems – to contend with.

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MARK ZWEIG is Zweig Group’s founder and CEO. Contact him at mzweig@zweiggroup.com.

THE ZWEIG LETTER December 5, 2016, ISSUE 1178

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