Changes…

Technology moves so fast these days it is almost impossible to keep up with it all, but it is important that we do all we can to at least be aware of the changes.  You don’t necessarily need to rush out and buy the newest “thing” today, but you should know it is out there and how it will or can impact you, especially as a business owner.

In the CDS newsletter “Tools of the Trade” this month I did a technical segment on Building Information Modeling (B.I.M.) and the role of the Surveyor in B.I.M..  A year or even two years ago it was important to know what B.I.M. was about and that it was coming, today it is important to be looking at ways to take advantage of B.I.M. and position your company to be a B.I.M. Expert.

The role of the Surveyor seems to be changing in many ways today.  While some may look at the changes as negative, others see opportunities.  In the Construction world we have seen more and more companies move to 3D machine control and fewer and fewer stakes going in the ground.  Many would look at that and say the machines are taking the job of the Surveyor, but we should be looking at this as an opportunity.  As a Surveyor we should be building models, tying in control, providing checks, and performing other services that Surveyors are already able to do, but maybe not used to doing.  There is an article written by Houston Neal titled “Automation of Surveying Creates Disruption and Opportunities” that I think covers this topic very well.

Just getting back from the SPAR 2011 Conference I too am well aware of the changes that have happened in the last year as well as the changes coming.  Who would have thought that the scanner I use on my game console could be used to gather data for making working 3D models?!

B.I.M., HDS, Machine control, GPS, data collection, Field to Finish, or any other topic that affects, influences, or otherwise impacts your business is probably something we know about or deal with on a regular basis.  I want to be your partner in these changes and do everything I can to keep you as informed as possible and make sure we find ways to leverage your abilities and capabilities to keep you moving forward as things continue to change.

To sign or not to sign….

Should you get your clients to sign a simple single page proposal showing how much something will cost them?  Absolutely.  No car or house is sold without a mountain of paperwork ensuring everyone involved knows everything involved and has signed away their life savings, children, and futures.  While not everything needs to be a hundred pages long, it is a smart idea to have your client’s sign or initial the documents to acknowledge they have received and read the document.  When was the last time you checked into a hotel and did not have to initial 3 places and sign the bottom?

Don’t just take my word for it, check with your business insurance rep and see what they say about signatures.  If you do not have a liability expert, check with my friend and agent Chris with Inspire Insurance Solutions .

Now that we agree you SHOULD get that signature, how do you do it?  We all want to go paperless, and we never want to deal with faxing things back and forth.  If you are like our company we are pretty much paperless and send everything via email or electronic fax.  So how do we get the signatures AND stay paperless?

The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) was passed to facilitate the use of electronic records and signatures in interstate and foreign commerce by ensuring the validity and legal effect of contracts entered into electronically.

What does this mean to you?  Documents signed electronically are legally binding just as documents signed with pen and ink.

So how do I get an electronic signature?  While there are many methods to get the signatures, there are programs that make the process easy.  A service like DocuSign not only allows you to send the documents and obtain the signatures it handles the legal side of the e-signature.  I have  put together a short video to show you how to use DocuSign and I hope it gets you on the right track to using electronic signatures.