Aspen Technology headquartered in Bedford offers AspenONE Engineering to refineries as a software design aid, emphasizing process optimization and cost control.
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Surfer
Score 9.0 out of 10
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Surfer is a data visualization suite from Golden Software in Colorado for oil and gas companies, or other entities in other industries requiring geological or environmental data.
In enterprises where another project is tailored to the needs of the client rather than using basic tools. And where the estimate requires comprehensive cost buckets for production operations. When there is a large amount of purchasing history to enter into AspenONE Engineering in order for it to provide reliable projections. Standard equipment manufacturing enterprises are not well suited. Also, because this instrument requires time, when there are time limitation and resource or human limitations.
Surfer has been excellent for us, a small company, to process the electrical resistivity, refraction microtremor, and MASW data collected in the field. There are an increasing number of programs capable of assisting in this geophysical analysis but Surfer is the most advanced. The ability to create both 2D and 3D figures in the program while managing data is a huge help. It also greatly improved report quality and helped clients better understand what the results were for a study.
The user interface can be tricky at first. It's a little rough around the edges and takes a little time to get the hang of.
Not an ideal application for older employees. There are too many things with the interface that make it not worthwhile to train employees with less computer experience.
Manipulating data within Surfer is difficult because you have to do things in a certain order. Not terrible if you get the hang of it but certainly frustrating at first.
We began assessing several tools when we began estimating for a full process plant or various styles of equipment. We also investigated implementing an ERP system used by the sales and item engineering departments.
Again answering from the ACCE perspective (Estimating tool) - Previously when we did estimates for simple equipment we had used excel estimates and lotus reporting. However, as we started estimating for an entire process plant or various style of equipment, we had started evaluating various tools. We had also considered using an ERP system that is utilized by Purchasing and Product Engineering teams, however, ACCE seemed a better fit for the amount of detailed estimating needed. And the robustness and various options available made us select this tool.
Surfer is very unique with respect to its capabilities. I am not aware of any other mapping software that is at the same time flexible, has a friendly interface, and creates such nice-looking maps.
The worst thing about Surfer is the cost. My company can only afford one license at the moment which means only one employee gets to use it regularly. Not so great when someone is sick or you have a huge wave of projects.
The user interface is a little rough but younger employees have been great at catching on quickly and producing great images.
There's nothing else quite like Surfer. It's versatile and not to difficult to use so, though the licenses are expensive, it is an excellent program that has done wonders for our company!
