In his 5th year with IDS Douwe has been instrumental in migrating traditional desktop and Excel based functions to the web and allowing universal access to operational data. Before joining IDS he spent 18 years with a Halliburton company focusing on Real Time data acquisition and transmission. Combined with the time spent with BosKalis a world leading Dutch dredging company he has spent time in almost every continent, while living in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UK, Malaysia, USA and Canada. The IT side of the industry has always fascinated him as a lot of the elements, including connectivity, are never following the accepted norm, which challenges those that implement solutions for clients to have to think outside the box. In addition mentoring junior employees in their careers and encourage and advise where needed.

His hobbies include Judo (in his 39th year of practicing this martial art), Horses, Lego, Computers. As a proper Dutch person he loves Liquorice and realises it is an acquired taste that many do not share and the mention of dedicated shops in Holland makes most people laugh!

What are you looking forward to explaining to the audience?

I look forward to explaining the thought process that led to IDS making the decision to develop PlanNet, based on experience of Senior company personnel and the problems we have all faced in planning our operations. As well as the further realization that a lot of the generic Planning tools, both conventional and web based, are lacking in domain features in addition a lot of the web based tools provide reduce functionality over desktop based cousins

Why did you decide to do a webinar with Business Review Webinars?

I believe that the package delivered by Business Review allows us greater control of our audience whilst taking advantage of their large contact base. It provides the audience with insight into our industry, whilst allowing audience members to ask questions and receive instant feedback.

What are the biggest challenges the industry is facing?

The adoption of modern and rapidly expanding IT technologies in an industry that is very traditional and not always makes best use (value add) of the technologies on offer as there are few economical drivers. Some of the innovations are now driven by younger generation engineers that expect the industry to move with the times not because there is an economical driver.

What has been your best holiday and where would you recommend visiting?

A place that is now close to home. 20yrs ago I had the privilege of diving Sipadan Island and staying on it (this is not possible anymore). An amazing underwater world!

What might someone be surprised to know about you?

I am and AFOL – and Adult Fan Of Lego and while I do not have enough time (yet) to develop some of the models others do, I admire the quality of work done of these very technical models, including my father.

You can register for Douwe Franssens webinar sponsored by IDS here