SSOE has appeared in the news quite a bit lately. Here are a few of the places you can find us. Visit www.ssoe.com/news for links to these articles.

ENR

In her article, “Modeling Pathfinders Impatient to Have a Much Fuller Digital Toolbox” Nadine Post discusses some of the challenges of BIM and highlights how SSOE’s size has helped it overcome some of these challenges.

Food Engineering Magazine

This article highlights Pearl City Food Port, an SSOE-designed project in India that enables food manufacturers to gain faster, easier access to the Asian consumer market.

Food Manufacturing Magazine

In this recent article, “Conducting Excellent Energy Audits,” SSOE Senior Project Manager Dan Messinger discusses strategies for saving costs and conserving water and energy that apply across multiple industries.

PE Magazine

In this piece, SSOE Senior Vice-President, Vince DiPofi, PE, explores the politically charged issues surrounding biofuels and how these issues impact the professional engineer’s call to adhere to the principles of sustainable development.

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SSOE has had substantial revenue growth, posting upwards of 25 percent each of the last three years. Despite the struggles of the nation’s industrial base and unemployment rates on the rise, we have continued to excel.

Here is the low down:

• 25% revenue increase for 2007
• Nearly 20% projected increase for 200
• Over 200 new employees hired since January 2007, a 20% increase in staff
• 93% employee retention rate, which is 18% higher than the national average
• 85% client retention rate
• Opened 8 new offices around the world in the past 3 years, including offices on the east coast, mid-west, west coast and one in the Far East!
• Our Shanghai, China office has grown to be our 3rd largest office
• Yearly technology upgrades, including $4.5M in 2007

Thank you to our clients and staff that helped make this possible!

Go to the SSOE press release page to view the announcement in its entirety.

Most of us prefer to believe that a natural disaster will always target some other building. Statistically that’s true, leading many businesses to be nonchalant about being adequately prepared. SSOE has found in helping clients recover from disasters that taking precautions to avoid damage is neither hugely expensive nor time consuming. It’s more a matter of doing it. When measured against the brutal cost of repair, lost productivity, and rebuilding, it’s wise to have a plan.

This article shares some specific suggestions that can protect your people and your assets in case of a flood.

Develop a disaster plan that covers both what to do at the time a disaster strikes and recovery procedures. Update it regularly and after any alterations to the structure. Finally, conduct periodic training and tests.

The plan should include who will respond to the disaster and how; a protocol for notifying employees whether to report for work; and options that will allow employees to work remotely until repairs are complete. If your staff has a team of critical personnel, develop a plan for getting them to the facility even if the roads impassable.

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This is the continuation of our series on the characteristics of “A-Team” suppliers—a series intended to help you evaluate your own suppliers. In this issue we talk about their ability to build the right team.

A good supplier must be driven by the client’s interest and a desire to deliver optimum project performance by building the right team for the job. For any supplier, a prerequisite to building the right team is acknowledging that sometimes there are experts outside of their firm who are the best people for the job.

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• SSOE recently opened a new office in Chicago, Illinois. This office will serve local clients as well as act as a resource pool for the recruitment of national talent.
• SSOE is also expanding three existing locations – Cincinnati, Ohio; Midland, Michigan; and Toledo, Ohio. The Cincinnati office will be adding staff and square footage to accommodate additional professional horsepower. Midland will also be expanding their office and doubling the current number of workstations in the coming months to make way for additional staff. Last but not least, the Toledo office has added over 120 jobs this past year, and relocated corporate staff to make room for additional operations.

Next time you see us it might be in your local grocery store instead of the job site. We’ve decided it’s not enough to hop on a plane to come visit. We want to be a member of the community.

As part of our growth strategy, you will now find SSOE offices in St. Paul, Minnesota; Midland, Michigan; Washington DC; and Shanghai, China (see story on page 2). Our St. Paul office, led by David Smith, P.E., is a prime example of how our growth promotes your growth. One of the clients this office serves is Freedom Fuels in nearby Mason City, Iowa. Due to growing energy costs and environmental concerns, this emerging business in the biodiesel market stands at the brink of tremendous growth. Our creative project approach, including partners who help with financing and experts who help with process development, are making this investor’s dream a reality (read more on page 3). In addition, St. Paul serves local clients like Northshore Mining, a client and industry experiencing tremendous growth due to China’s increasing demand for iron (see page 2 for how we’re helping mining companies grow their operations safely).

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SSOE is adding another new office location to its roster – number 16. This time it’s in the prestigious Research Triangle Park area of Durham, North Carolina. With 50 completed projects in the North Carolina area in the last five years and more underway, SSOE already has impacted the area’s economy. Under the leadership of Meredith Mayes, PE, SSOE will formalize its presence to better contribute to the growth of the Carolina region particularly in the pharmaceutical, education, biofuels, and science and technology sectors.

“The wealth of intellectual and creative talent in the Triangle area and surrounding regions will be a tremendous asset to SSOE,” said Mayes. “Our focus on innovation and access to some of the most advanced design technology in the world will give SSOE’s new professionals uninhibited freedom to reach their goals and achieve success.” Mayes herself has more than 18 years of design/engineering experience, and an extensive pharmaceutical background, which includes work with multi-national companies such as Eli Lilly, Merck, Novartis and Schering-Plough.

SSOE recently signed a contract with the EPA to perform master planning services for various EPA facilities around the country, including the Durham area. Providing the EPA with space planning for future and existing laboratories, SSOE is helping the organization increase energy efficiency, improve security and make its facilities more environmentally friendly. Other local SSOE projects include biofuels and fuel cell technology work with Clemson University and the University of South Carolina.

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