Dassault sets up India-only arm

In a bid to to tap the growing engineering and aerospace design and consulting market in India, the world’s largest 3D and product lifecycle management (PLM) software company, Dassault Systemes (DS), has set up a dedicated consulting arm for the
country.

This is perhaps the first time a multinational software products company has set up such a dedicated consultancy arm to address a particular market. The exclusive manufacturing solutions group has already started functioning. India is currently the third- largest market in Asia for Dassault Systemes after Japan and China, but according to Andy Kalambi, president, DS India, there is much more engineering design activity happening in India than anywhere else. The country is set to emerge the second-largest market for Dassault within Asia, he added.

PLM refers to information systems and software to manage the manufacturing process of a product right from the design and development stage to service and its final disposal.

According to independent engineering design consultancy firm CIMdata, the global PLM market is estimated to be in the region of $26 billion and projected to clock a compounded annual growth rate of 6.3% to nearly $36 billion by 2013. Much of this growth is expected to be driven by services.

Engineering and aerospace design and consulting market in India, the world’s largest 3D and product lifecycle management (PLM) software company, Dassault Systemes (DS), has set up a dedicated consulting arm for the country.

This is perhaps the first time a multinational software products company has set up such a dedicated consultancy arm to address a particular market.

The exclusive manufacturing solutions group has already started functioning. India is currently the third- largest market in Asia for Dassault Systemes after Japan and China, but according to Andy Kalambi, president, DS India, there is much more engineering design activity happening in India than anywhere else. The country is set to emerge the second-largest market for Dassault within Asia, he added.

PLM refers to information systems and software to manage the manufacturing process of a product right from the design and development stage to service and its final disposal.

According to independent engineering design consultancy firm CIMdata, the global PLM market is estimated to be in the region of $26 billion and projected to clock a compounded annual growth rate of 6.3% to nearly $36 billion by 2013. Much of this growth is expected to be driven by services.

India, set to place some of the biggest military and commercial aerospace orders in the world later this year, is expected to be one of the fastest growing markets, said Kalambi. “While the global market is growing at 10%, India is growing at a rate upwards of 20%”, he said.

While much of this growth is because the country is gaining currency as an innovation base, the market in India is set to explode on the back of the government’s offset programme, where foreign suppliers have to outsource a percentage of the value of the order back to Indian companies.

The $2 billion Dassault Systemes is a sister concern of the $5.7 billion Dassault Aviation. It has expanded aggressively in India over the past 15 months, opening five marketing offices apart from its development centres in Pune and Bangalore. These centres deliver over 40% of the company’s global R&D with 1,200 of its 3,400 R&D personnel located here.

It sells virtual design software CATIA, apart from SolidWorks for 3D mechanical design, and SIMULIA for realistic industrial and other simulation apart from three other flagship products. It counts TCS, Wipro and Infosys among its engineering support partners.

“We are not just looking at selling our software products in India but at also providing consulting and services for improving manufacturing design process of companies,” the senior executive added.

The company, which was servicing the Indian market entirely through IBM till sometime back is now also carrying out direct sales particularly to small and medium businesses, which account for almost 50% of its revenues in the country. IBM has chosen to focus on large accounts, Kalambi added.