Guest Blog: Doing Business in Costa Rica

A warm welcome back to guest blogger Rebeca Elizondo Andrade, founder and simulation consultant at RBC Simulation Solutions S.A. In her third blog for Lanner, Rebeca updates us on some of her insights gained from her use of WITNESS while operating in the Central American country of Costa Rica.

Since I incorporated WITNESS into my business back in 2011, I have worked on a wide range of projects looking at everything from productivity, investments in new machinery, the capacity and installation of conveyor belts and assessing customer satisfaction in banking.

I enjoy sharing the tools that really empower users, and lately I have been showcasing to clients WITNESS’s VR capability using Quick3D. The tool enables users to rapidly have a 3D animation of those parts of a model they wish to see animated. It’s both quick and simple. 2D shapes used whilst developing the model are, with a click, mapped to complex 3D shapes for visualisation. This allows the presentation of proposals in an impressive format – potentially a valuable tool for managers wishing to 'sell' their models both inside and outside their organisations.

I've also learnt in the course of building my client list that for some consulting projects, problem definition will be straightforward from the outset, however that is not always the case. Often the first step during the consulting phase is to order the process, before setting up the simulation. In these situations, the methodology that I've absorbed from working with Lanner has paid big dividends. WITNESS is designed to discard what is not going to add value to the project, allowing me to focus a client's project on what really matters, increasing ROI.

Another benefit of working with Lanner is its unique selling point in the Costa-Rican market. Compared to other predictive analytics packages on offer to clients operating here, Lanner’s highly innovative software coupled with RBC Simulation Solutions’ custom solutions gives me a clear competitive advantage.

Finally it's my belief, honed through my own experiences as a consultant engineer, that the real power of simulation lies in the generation of scenarios, and the ability of the software to handle multiple variables simultaneously with its own variability. Both the Scenario Manager, and now the sophisticated Experimenter tool (introduced in WITNESS 13), allows me to demonstrate the extraordinary statistical power of the package. And it's this that every customer wants: a reliable, quick tool that supports their decision making, providing clear solutions to their business challenges.

I hope this blog has given you a sense of what my firm has achieved for its customers working with Lanner. If you have your own insights as to what makes WITNESS special for users please share these in the comments box below!

To contact Rebeca or to find out more about RBC Simulation Solutions based in Costa Rica, follow @RBCSimulations on Twitter or visit www.rbcsimulations.com/ (Spanish language.)