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Welcome to Gemcom North AmericaThe Gemcom North America Web page is your destination for all the latest news, training schedules, webinars, and events happening in our region. Be sure to check back regularly! Latest News
A Message from the Vice President, North American Region to Gemcom Clients
This region has a diverse group of clients with broad product usage and we have an excellent team of professionals who enjoy their roles as problem solvers and advisors. Gemcom is evolving and growing and the North America Business Unit intends to play a key part in that. Based on our project implementation experience, we have developed know-how in process improvement and best practices methodologies that we want to share with clients. Working with a number of customers to help document and improve processes in Geology, Engineering, and Operations, we hope to build on this capability in the months ahead. Gemcom can make a difference to our customers and we look forward to discussing this with you directly. In the days ahead, we have an exciting schedule of Webinars, Lunchtime Workshops and Technical Series Days which cover all of our products and provide valuable insights on maximizing productivity. For 2010-2011, we decided to get out to the regions and hold events closer to you. Next year, we are considering a larger User Conference covering Innovation and Best Practices so that customers can learn and benefit from each other. We look to you to help us by providing your case studies. It’s clear that the industry is facing some great challenges in the next decade as it looks to attract and retain talent. Gemcom has a vital role to play by capturing knowledge and processes and by providing an excellent source of productivity options to help clients. I hope you’ll continue to view both the tools we develop and the services we offer as part of your solution for the future. Iain McLean, VP North America Meet MartinaThis issue introduces Martina Barnett, Technical Support Analyst for Gemcom GEMS for the North American Business Unit of Gemcom Software International.
What is your background? I am a geochemist by training; I completed my Bachelors and Masters degrees at universities in South Africa. For almost ten years, I’ve been working in the mining industry and supporting industries (such as analytical laboratories and mining software). I’m registered as a Professional Natural Scientist with the South African Council for Natural Scientific Professions. I am also a member of the Geological Society of South Africa. How long have you been working with Gemcom? From 2003 to 2006, I worked at the Johannesburg office in Gemcom’s Indo-Africa business unit. In 2008, my family and I relocated to Canada. After a brief stint working for a software company that manufactured drillhole logging software, I rejoined Gemcom. What are the challenges you face in your job? I don’t see challenges as much as I see opportunities. I get to speak to a wide variety of customers involved in all stages of the mining process with all manner of concerns and levels of expertise with the software. Each customer has a unique situation and my job affords me the chance to try to understand the data, project, network infrastructure, hardware, workflow and support requirements quickly and accurately in the space of a phone call or an email exchange. What rewards does your job offer? The biggest reward is getting it right when I help customers make their issue go away as quickly and painlessly as possible. Building long-term relationships is a bonus. How many inquiries do you handle each week? I can log as many as 50 to 70 inquiries a week. On average, I end up resolving almost all the GEMS inquiries within 30 minutes. How do you recommend customers get the most out of their software? In my experience and opinion, training should be the natural next step to purchasing the software. In some cases, customers have attended training prior to the licenses being delivered to site so that they can actually do the installation and setup of the project(s) themselves when they get back. Sitting down with a new and unused software tool won’t produce the ‘as advertised’ result and it’s not the most effective way to maximize the time and expense already invested in testing, evaluating, deciding, and finally purchasing a specific solution. What are the most common challenges you see customers face? Without training, any software appears very complicated at first glance to a new user. It’s not obvious what the steps to follow for a project or how to get the data in a format that can be interrogated effectively. Sometimes, new untrained customers can find it difficult to get going. With training, it becomes easier because there are tools and documentation to refer to. It’s very common for a newly trained customer to rely on the Help files or the Technical Support help line until they become more fluent in procedures. In general, as with any new software, there is a learning curve to go through. With Gemcom software, the learning curve allows even new users to do fairly advanced things within a relatively short period of time. Tell us about the training you provide Our training courses have evolved over several years to achieving learning outcomes specified for each course. Each course is structured in a flow that teaches the optimal use of our solutions. Our approach ensures trainers have the time and opportunity to explain the details of a specific workflow and every consequence of entering parameters during steps in the workflow. Trainees have an unrivaled opportunity for one-on-one assistance and the full attention of the trainer during the course. What is the value that technical support provides? Technical Support can provide the greatest value to the new user in the post-training period to fill in the gaps or to help with the more advanced workflow setup or troubleshooting. Apart from helping new users, Technical Support is generally a short-duration trouble shooting and/or quick fix lasting no more than 10 minutes or one email exchange. The longest continuous support call is no more than an hour in duration, but cases logged over email can include exchanges continuing for several days. The longer duration cases usually cover more advanced workflow or reporting issues for a specific project or set of processes. During support calls that involve workflow issues, customers often share their screens through the Internet so that the support analyst can see what project settings are being used. Together, the support analyst and customer examine the issue through tests and trials. During that time, the support analyst can guide the user in changing the workflow to reach expected results. In your support experience, what technical support case or situation stands out in your mind? One of my most memorable experiences was a client who called me on a satellite phone from high on a remote mountaintop in Peru. Ironically, due to the oddities of satellite phones and atmospheric conditions, our connection was better than my next support call from a Vancouver customer working in the same building only two floors down from me! Insight into Drillhole Data Logging: Best Practices for Data ManagementAs a Business Analyst with Gemcom’s North America Business Unit, Zorica Markovic could be called one of our resident Database Administrator gurus of drillhole and assay data. Exploration and mining companies come to Zorica and her colleagues with unique data problems when it comes to standardizing, securely housing, and validating drillhole and lab data for use in geological modelling and other processes. “Our clients need to be able to enter the data collected in the field or analyzed in the lab and easily transfer it to applications such as Surpac, Minex, and GEMS,” Zorica explains. This is no trivial task. The challenge: geological data collected by surveyors and geologists can live on laptops, desktops, and corporate databases in various conditions and formats. Invariably, the data isn’t ready to port over to solutions for geological modelling or mine planning. As Zorica comments, although there are commercial off-the-shelf software tools available to address these issues, they don’t always meet the needs of an exploration project, enable customisation or integration with mine planning solutions. The North America Business Unit provides a full range of database and systems analysis services that span requirements analysis through to data delivery. Gemcom’s Custom Logger, a configurable tool for data entry, validation, and management, is a key component of the offering.
Working with a suite of Custom Logger templates, the services team performs data analysis, validation, clean-up, and storage after getting an understanding of the client’s processes, business rules, and systems. Ultimately, data is collected in a Microsoft SQL database and is stored for easy querying and centralized access, and finally, the data is prepared for use within Surpac, GEMS, or Minex. “Clients face many challenges in getting their drillhole and sample data into the shape it needs to be, whether due to shortage of in-house staff or a lack of expertise,” Zorica comments. “Each project and each customer has unique requirements.” Zorica explains each customer requires a tailored solution from a suite of base templates configured to meet needs ranging from primary exploration through to mine production which can span all commodities. “Every project starts with what could be called the requirements analysis phase. At this stage, the task is to review sample data, the database schema, workflows and data flows needed. Next, we develop a model of the target database structure, determine the security needs as well as data validation and migration. Gemcom assists customers in defining best practices for data entry through to data management. During implementation, the services team installs the Custom Logger, configures the security model and handles data transfer.” Custom Logger is available in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese. To learn how a Custom Logger solution can be configured for your business needs, contact sales-na@gemcomsoftware.com. NABU Winners Gemcom's World Fantasy Football Pool 2010
Saul (aka “String”) Cortes Hello, my name is Saul Cortes. I work in Mexico as a Topography Technician for the Consulting and Professional Services Grupo Azul at their Aguascalientes site. How did I win the World Fantasy Football Pool? As the old saying goes, he who perseveres wins at last. Perseverance is the approach we apply to how we use Surpac at our site to achieve and meet our targets. I applied the same perseverance in the World Cup Fantasy Pool. How did I predict winners time and time again? At times, I based my choices on a team’s history and style of playing. My predictions also took into account a coin toss between friends to settle differences of opinion. Throughout the discouraging moments, I never lost hope that I’d come out ahead. The World Fantasy Football Pool was an experience my entire family participated in; my children were especially intrigued. Initially, my wife was as skeptical as my colleagues. But when it came to choosing the winner between Netherlands and Spain, guess who won? All of this made the World Cup Fantasy Pool an incredible experience leaving me with great memories and many new friends. What did Saul win? As the Overall Tournament Winner, Saul has won a high performance 17” laptop computer. As the Award Phase One Top Score Winner, he won a backpack loaded with Gemcom gear, an official match ball of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, an official World Cup event scarf, and an official team jersey of his choice. Zachary Black
When I first received the invitation to the 2010 World Cup Pool, I was excited to pit my skills against a collection of Gemcom users from around the world. Sports talk in my office here in Nevada is generally dominated by baseball or American football. Forget about whether or not Arjen Robben or Didier Drogba will be fit in time to play in the group stages! There were no conversations about soccer to help with my World Cup Fantasy Pool selections. This is the part where I am supposed to convey my vast knowledge about selecting the winners. I am going to have to be honest here and say that with how the World Cup played out, I feel lucky to have finished with a positive point total, let alone in third place! I struggled to pick winners of games like Holland vs. Brazil and Germany vs. Spain. The difficulty of going with my gut versus the possibility of losing points to everyone was agonizing. Not to mention trying to predict what would happen in the ever-eventful third place game, followed by watching Muslera struggle with the German crosses after deciding that Uruguay would win. Watching Casillas and Stekelenburg rise to the occasion in the eventful 120 minute final was the icing on the cake. All that with so many people in the pool grouped together with the prizes on the line made the games all that much more exciting to watch. In the end, I could not have asked for a more enjoyable World Cup and a pool to accompany it. Thanks to Gemcom for sponsoring it and I hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. What did Zachary win? As the Overall Tournament Third Place Winner, Zachary won an Apple iPod touch 64GB, a backpack loaded with Gemcom gear, an official match ball of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, an official World Cup event scarf, and an official team jersey of his choice.Find out what webinars are coming upJoin us for these upcoming webinars and learn how Gemcom’s solutions are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in mining. Gemcom is happy to present you our Webinar program for 2010 and 2011. Keep an eye on the registration invitation and details coming to your inbox shortly before the webinar date. If you would like to be added to the webinar distribution list to make sure you are provided with the registration information, or to register in advance, please contact pceron@gemcomsoftware.com.
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I’m delighted to have joined Gemcom to build on the foundation that Cam Reed has created, and I hope to meet many of you during the year. 
Hello all. My name is Zachary Black and I was fortunate enough to place third in Gemcom Software’s 2010 World Cup Pool. I work as Database Manager/ Engineer for Minefinders in Reno, Nevada.
