Goals. Every company has them, but how many actually strive to make their goals a reality? While we would like to think that everyone does, the reality is that it is probably fewer then we would like to admit to.
Why? Complacency perhaps. The familiar is far better to deal with then the unknown. When a company gets going and finds its first bit of success, or even better a steady stream of success, it can become very easy to ignore goals and visions in an effort to keep that success going at all costs. Maintaining the status quo to maintain a familiar level of success, though it can seem good in the present, has the ability to stifle companies from ever reaching their full potential.
Here at SeisWare, we put our goals and vision at the forefront of all we do. We don’t just want to make software, we want to make the industry better. We don’t just want to give our employees a pay cheque, we want to give our employees a great place to work.
Today we’re revisiting some of the things we are most proud of from 2021, some of the things we have always been most proud of about this company.
We want our staff consider SeisWare an awesome company to set the bar for future jobs while learning new approaches and being empowered to initiate change.
What they say about companies is true, working with other great people and having an atmosphere that enables change through good communication. It is something we strive for and work to improve on a daily basis.
Being critical of our processes is fine if done in a respectful way. Learning how to respectful and communicating what you wish to achieve while at the same time trying to manage how one truly feels can be a challenge. We like to develop people with soft skills such as managing conflict and having open honest conversations. These are skill that will help you at home and at work. It will help everyone today, and for their future.
That being said, we don’t only focus on soft skills. A technical job also requires technical skills. Sometimes we can provide the training internally, and other times, we will bring someone in, or sign up for an external course.
Regardless of the options, we know that a strong culture with great work/life balance, and awesome communication are the foundations of what makes a great environment. A great environment sets the tone for great software development.
Some companies talk the talk. We’re very proud that we walk the walk while talking the talk when it comes to developing people.
At SeisWare, we believe that users are the experts. We know that each and every user has a different set of priorities and workflows that are used depending on the basin they work in. And we also know that our job is to help users execute their job efficiently.
We do know a thing or two about exploration and exploitation, because we work closely with user, the expert. It certainly is a difficult job because of the potentially conflicting priorities. We can’t please everyone, no matter how hard we try. Often we find that we have more ideas than resources. Certain things have to take priority over others, and that makes work hard some days.
The best results always come out of a direct conversation or session between a user and a developer. Needless to say, a “translator” needs to be present to help get the technical jargon across the skill boundary.
Taking this direct approach, and iteratively working on the functionality typically ends in the best results. Results that we are proud to provide users access to. We happen to think our products are worth bragging about!
Here at SeisWare, we are proud that we want an open ecosystem. Do we develop proprietary software? Most certainly. However, we do believe in open standards. We don’t want users locked into our ecosystem. We prefer that users WANT to use the software because it’ll help to bring joy and ease to their day.
In the long run, using standards and being open to the fact that users may need more than just our software means that vendors can focus on their area of expertise. Users benefit from getting better software for each workflow.
Are we there yet? Not quite. Unfortunately, the industry as a whole still believes in walled gardens. That is, vendors would make it easy for users to get up and running in their software, and make it difficult to get out of the software. Sure, there can be good reasons for this. Heck, you have a complex data sets and a challenging job. Getting all that data in and out isn’t easy. And then, we all want performance too. Performance means that we need to optimize how data is managed. This makes it difficult to simply move between products. Difficult. Not impossible.
We’re proud to say that if you have a need to move between products, we’re there with you to help do it. It could be service work, enhancements to our product, or custom development. SeisWare Connect also provides an opportunity for you do this yourselves. We want to see you succeed.
As we head into 2022, we are proud of the accomplishments we’ve reached as a company and we are thankful for everyone who has been involved with the journey. Here’s to bigger and better things in the year ahead, and the next ten plus!
Ed VanWieren
Founder and Project Manager
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