ISN Annual Users Group Conference 2008

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The ISNetworld Team would like to thank all of our valued clients for attending the ISNetworld Annual Users Group Conference in Dallas, TX on February 28^th and 29^th. Approximately 1,000 attendees from nearly 600 companies were in attendance. Owner Clients and Contracting Companies alike shared best practices and useful information on their experiences in utilizing ISNetworld. We look forward to the new faces that will be joining ISNetworld this year and hope to see everyone back next year.

ISNetworld President Joe Eastin kicked off the meeting by welcoming the conference attendees and CEO and Chairman Bill Addy spoke about seatbelts and the importance of safety.

Edwin Foulke, Jr., Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA, recapped many of the successes OSHA has experienced since its inception 36 years ago. He also discussed upcoming challenges in employee safety, as well as what tools OSHA is currently providing to overcome those challenges.

Richard Cerenzio, Vice-President of Health and Safety for TIMEC, spoke about the company-wide safety initiative at TIMEC and their educational programs for their employees. He also discussed how ISNetworld allows his company to manage their employees’ training information.

Bill Donato, EH&S Manager for Bristol Myers Squibb, discussed BMS’ plan to utilize ISNetworld on a Global scale and the benefits for Training Manager. He also spoke about how BMS is eliminating the paper process and converting to an online process to collect their contractor’s information such as work hours.

From the Chemical Safety Board, William Wark, covered several of the incidents that are currently being investigated by the Chemical Safety Board. He spoke about the Board’s goal of prevention of these accidents and the steps that they are currently taking to prevent future incidents. He stressed the importance of caution in the workplace.

In the breakout sessions for both the Owner Clients and Contracting Companies, ISNetworld presented information on recent functionality enhancements. Primary enhancements can be found on the ISNetworld Owner Client Welcome Page, search features, Contractor Dashboards and email notifications. New tools available for ISNetworld Owner Clients include the various dashboard grade features and the Incident and Action Item Tracking Tool.

The first breakout session included presentations from three Owner Clients and their current use of ISNetworld. Mark Savoy, of Husky Energy, presented on his company's implementation strategy. Next, Andy Euthon of Valero Energy McKee Refinery discussed best practices of using Training Manager to maintain and evaluate contractor’s individual level training. Lastly, Buddy Powell of Atmos Energy Corporation presented on the benefits of the Job Bid Functionality within ISNetworld. The second and third Owner Client breakout sessions included information about RAVS and OQ (Operator Qualification) functionality. Within these sessions, Galen Drake of Kinder Morgan, John Pepper of PHMSA and Christine Mazzara-Eddolls of Sunoco Logistics Partners, presented best practices of monitoring and evaluating contractor performance as well as managing training documentation on an individual level.

Six contractor breakout sessions were held featuring presentations from ISNetworld Contracting Companies and the ISNetworld Team. First, the ISNetworld Team led a discussion on the Standardized Contractor Questionnaire (SCQ-V). Next, Contractors were able to attend either the first time RAVS session or the experienced RAVS session. In both sessions, contractors were able to listen to presentations (Paula Lowther of American Marine Corp presented in the first time session and Bob Coy of Watkins Construction presented in the experienced session) as well as discuss their own best practices in utilizing the RAVS functionality within ISNetworld. As with RAVS, the Training Manager session was also broken out into first time and experienced sessions. In both sessions, the ISNetworld Team presented on the benefits of Training Manager as well as led a discussion on the use of Training Manger. Jackie Cornez of Acadian Contractors presented in the experienced session. The last Contractor breakout session featured a presentation by Tim Milton of Buffalo Electric on his company’s use of the OQ functionality in ISNetworld.

Following the breakout sessions, Political Impressionist & Satirist, Jim Morris, held a “Press Conference” as George W. Bush and fielded questions from the crowd.

Day two of the conference provided attendees more opportunities to hear Owner Clients and Contractors share best practices. Vance Webb, of ConocoPhillips Pipe Line Co, discussed his company’s best practices and the vital role ISNetworld plays in ConocoPhillips’ overall commitment to safety. Dennis McLoughlin, of Haztek, spoke about the hidden benefits of ISNetworld from a Contractor’s point of view. Following Haztek, a presentation prepared by BP Pipelines’ OQ Coordinator, Bill Bannister, was presented to the audience. This presentation focused on a Purdue University safety study. In addition, Marcus Alexander, President of Quality Integrated Services, discussed the importance of Communication with ISNetworld’s Customer Service Team.

One-on-one Q&A and helpdesk sessions were also made available to users throughout the conference to address their specific ISNetworld related questions.

Again, we thank you for the continued support of ISNetworld. We look forward to seeing you all again in Dallas for our next Annual Users Group Conference and also at several of our Regional Users Group Meetings throughout the year. Please be sure to check your email and ISNetworld welcome page for future meetings.