Project
The Alliance Group Enterprise (TAGE) Inc. provides a wide spectrum of design and management services for large-scaled transportation projects. Clients include Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA or Metro), City of Los Angeles-Department of Public Works-Bureau of Engineering, California High Speed Rail Authority, Port of Long Beach, Alameda East Construction Authority (ACE), etc.
With just 25 people, largely engineers, TAGE depends on technology to help facilitate solutions. Not long ago, Adrian Troncoso, Vice President of TAGE, and his team found themselves in a crunch to get a project proposal with a significant stormwater design component submitted within 72 hours and needed help fast.
He recalled, “I knew we needed a specialized software to make this proposal standout, so initially I was simply looking for cost-effective software licensing options. But, that search opened the door to new resources as well as training and education opportunities that we had never considered.”
Solutions
Troncoso contacted Virtuosity, a Bentley company, that pairs competitively priced, industry-leading Bentley software with expert training.
Adrian stated, “I knew Andrew Yoo from Virtuosity from previous conversations about licensing and training, so I gave him a call. Remember this was on a Thursday—and I needed a software, training and a final product within three business days. He provided a trial version of OpenFlows CivilStorm right away and the next day I had a license and several customized product training ‘Keys’ that we could redeem for training and services.”
OpenFlows CivilStorm is a stormwater modeling and analysis software purpose built for designing and evaluating complex hydraulic models. In this case, TAGE needed to present a proposal to flood control that would affect three different departments within the City of Los Angeles.
Outcome
“CivilStorm was the right tool for this modeling challenge. Using the 'Keys', we trained on Friday and a little on Monday with a Virtuosity subject matter expert as needed,” recalls Troncoso.“ By Tuesday, we had learned a new software, engineered a solution to the problem and presented the proposal to the City of Los Angeles. The response by Virtuosity, in terms of both flexibility and support, to our needs was incredible.”
Troncoso points specifically to project-specific and one-on-one training.
“Too often, software training is built around a mock project,” he explains. “With Virtuosity, I can schedule training specific to a project challenge and Virtuosity pairs me with an individual who is not just knowledgeable about the software, but also has an engineering background. That’s a big plus for us.”
TAGE’s first foray into Virtuosity’s services was so successful that Troncoso has already reached out for more support. He most recently scheduled training on OpenRoads Designer, civil design for road networks, for road networks and OpenFlows FlowMaster, hydraulic calculations software, to support the company’s work in Southern California.
“Specifically, we’re going to use the custom training to dive deeper into grade profiling and drawings features that will benefit our analysis,” says Troncoso. “Our experiences thus far have been terrific and the partnership we have with Virtuosity has provided a boost to our desire to continuously improve our use of ever more sophisticated engineering solutions.”
Software
TAGE used OpenFlows CivilStorm stormwater modeling and analysis software to develop a proposal for the City of Los Angeles.
