Those of you who have been SSP customers, partners, or friends for a number of years know a bit about our long history with Schneider Electric and the ArcFM Solution. I, and many others at SSP, have worked with the ArcFM technology since the early days of ArcGIS/ArcFM 8, and SSP was among the first to become a certified partner in the Telvent implementation partner program introduced in 2010. Years later, in 2015, market factors changed leading Schneider Electric to dissolve the formal partnership with SSP. SSP and Schneider Electric have obviously operated independently since then though we’ve both continued to work with the same customers and often around the same ArcFM Solution technology stack. This approach has been sustainable but we both understand that it has created some undesirable conflict within the utility community.

Over the last 3+ years, the GIS market has continued to evolve toward the Esri utility network and I’m happy to bring you the news that SSP Innovations and Schneider Electric have reached a new understanding to provide customers a joint path forward with the ArcFM Solution and XI Series and SSP’s services & products. We have jointly committed to working more closely together to ensure customers have access to the Esri ecosystem of partnering choices they desire and will collaborate to ensure there is a mutual understanding of product strategies and vision to properly advise customers on the path forward. Our primary goal is to ensure the future success of our customers on the Esri platform as we enter the next generation of GIS technology.

While this may come as a surprise to some, I can tell you that I worked on this agreement directly with Jay Stinson and Danny Petrecca and we all believe this is the right direction for the market as a whole. We talked to various customers at the Esri UC about this news and received very positive feedback around the synergies that will come out of the renewed relationship.

SSP Innovations and Schneider Electric have purposefully decided to not enter into a formal Schneider Electric Partner Program agreement, since we now both offer some level of competing products within the utility market. However, SSP continues to see true value in the ArcFM Solution and has continued to grow our ArcFM services business over the past 3+ years without being a certified partner. Via the new agreement, Schneider Electric will support SSP performing these ongoing services around the ArcFM platform thus allowing us to bring the best of both worlds back together.

SSP has continued to grow into the role of a system integrator around GIS and work management implementations covering all aspects of consulting, implementation, customization, and integration projects. We are committed to formally teaming with Schneider Electric on projects where it makes sense for both companies to join forces to best support the customer. In fact, we’ve already teamed together on several successful proposals over the past few months.

With all that said, we know there will be questions about the path forward and how it affects each customer individually. Please read Schneider Electric’s own blog post on this topic and  feel free to reach out to me, Jay, or Danny (or your trusted account executives) with thoughts, concerns, or just to let us know what you think. In the end, our joint focus is on what’s best for the customer and we believe this agreement sets the stage for many years of positive work together.