PLM SPECIAL-MARCH 2015 BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE …€¦ · PUBLISHED FROM BANGALOREPUBLISHED FROM BANGALORE india BUSINESS OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE U.S. & INDIA SILICONINDIA.COM

siliconindia | | March 20151

siliconindiaPUBLISHED FROM BANGALOREPUBLISHED FROM BANGALORE

SILIcONINDIA.cOMBUSINESS OF TEcHNOLOGy IN THE U.S. & INDIA

siliconindia

Shreekanth (Shree) Moorthy,

Vice President & Global PLM Head

In My Opinon CXO View Point

Ramesh Loganathan, VP (Products)

& MD, Progress India

Guo Tao, NX Product Marketing Manager

of Asia Pacific, Siemens PLM Software

Annie Mathew, CIO,

Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd.

CIO Insights `50

PLM SPEcIAL-MARcH 2015

PLM Companies

1 0 Mo s t P r om i s i n g

Tata Technologies: Building Competitive

Advantage with Effective

Implementation

& Use of PLM

Tata Technologies: Building Competitive

Advantage with Effective

Implementation

& Use of PLM

siliconindia | | March 20152 siliconindia | | March 20153


Whether it is aerospace & defense or automotive,

consumer goods, education, energy, inance, food & beverage, government or any other sector,

PLM software has proven its mettle around the

world to meet complex and evolving challenges associated with

the industry. Various studies support the fact that the growth of

the global PLM market is set to witness a tremendous growth

to reach above $46.2 billion by 2018. The key factors driving

this rise will include the increase in adoption of PLM across all

industries and the growing need to reduce time-to-market of a

product.

While the industry has garnered huge fan-following in various

countries, India still is at its infancy when it comes to PLM

adoption. Challenges like high cost of implementation, the need

to replace existing PLM solutions and the availability of open-

source and pirated PLM software solutions top the concern list of

several companies. Companies are still ignorant about the usage,

need and beneits of having the best it PLM. On the other hand, PLM providers take this situation to their advantage and offer the

‘not needed’ solutions to their customers. And the failure drives

the users on a back foot. The misaligned expectations between

the service providers and the customers also play a crucial role in

further fueling the set back.

Understanding the need of the hour and the quandary faced

by these companies, we have brought this special edition of

siliconindia dedicated to PLM. A list of ’10 Most Promising PLM

Companies’ and our cover story on ‘Tata Technologies: Building

Competitive Advantage with Effective Implementation & Use of

Product Lifecycle Management’ will help you take a leap forward

in the PLM space, challenge and even eliminate your concerns.

Please do let us know what you think.

Anamika Sahu

Managing Editor

[email protected]

Editorial

siliconindia Vol 4 • PLM Special Edition

Publisher Alok Chaturvedi

Editor-in-Chief Pradeep Shankar Managing Editor Anamika Sahu

Editorial Team Brinda Das Chanchal Soni Kanak Prabha Kavitha G Rashmisree Deb Susila Govindaraj

VP - Sales & Marketing Virupakshi Pattar GM Sales & Marketing Ratan Nayak

Advertising Managers

Editorial queries

[email protected]

To subscribe Visit www.siliconindia.com/magazine-in or send email to [email protected].

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Copyright © 2015 SiliconMedia Technologies Pvt Ltd, All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part of any text, photography or illustrations without written permission from the publisher is prohibited. The publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations. Views and opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the magazine and accordingly, no liability is assumed by the publisher.

Ekanth Naidu Ravindra Pawer Kiran Kumar Saban kumar

[email protected]

Visualisers Maitreyee Sultana

Art Director Ashok Kumar

Delhi NCRRatnam

Branch Manager

Circulation Manager Magendran Perumal

A Leap towards BetterPLM Solutions


Cover Story

contents

30

In my OpInIOn

Ramesh Loganathan, VP (Products) &

MD, Progress India

08

Cio insights

CXo View Point

16



20

Abha

y Ch

atur

vedi,

Partn

er

26

Vika

s Kha

nvelk

ar,

Man

aging

Dire

ctor

Man

ish G

arg,

Owne

r

31

Umes

h De

shpa

nde,

Dire

ctor

32

Srini

vas K

umar

,

Foun

der &

CEO

38

Prab

hu P

atil,

Pres

ident

& C

EO

39

Pras

ham

Kamd

ar,

Man

aging

Par

tner

42

Giris

h M

odi,

Dire

ctor

Annie Mathew, CIO,

Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd.

Guo Tao, NX Product Marketing Manager

of Asia Pacific, Siemens PLM Software

Pradeep Vajram, CEO,

SmartPlay Technologies

Mani Nachimuthu, CTO,

VESTI Intelligence Corp.

Ashok Balasubramanian, Head, Services

Transformation Group, Syntel, Inc.

PLM Companies


10

22

24

28

34

36

40

Anshuman Singh, Director, Product

Management of Application Security,

Barracuda Networks

Subramanian Gopalaratnam,

Global Head of Innovation, Xchanging


India Poised to Take the Lead in Emerging Trends & TechnologiesBy Ramesh Loganathan, Vice President (Products) & Managing Director, Progress India

Progress Software (NASDAQ: PRGS) is a 1981 founded global software company offering

enterprise integration, data interoperability and application development. The Massachusetts

headquartered company has a current market capitalization of $1.30 billion.

Over the years, India has rapidly converged and aligned with global tech trends. Both as technology provider, building and managing technology solutions for enterprises across the globe, and as a consumer of technology within the

country. 2015 promises to enhance this convergence even

more strongly with solutions for domestic consumers,

businesses and governments leveraging the same trending

technologies emerging across the world.

With Internet penetration in India now being the

second largest in the world with the majority coming

from mobile devices,

an opportunity arises

for a new class

of solutions.

Starting with

location-

based mobile

apps for the

enterprise

embraced by

supply chains

and small

businesses,

continuing with

devices and IoT

actively being embraced by manufacturing and

distribution which results in low cost IoT solution

providers expanding in all cities, to 3D printing solutions

and software deined applications & infrastructure becoming mainstream even in the developing world.

Taking advantage of the latest technology trends,

startups are actively embracing wearables, developing

leading edge solutions targeting the developing world.

The healthcare sector, for example, is beneiting widely from low cost medical sensors, remote diagnostics

for eye care, diabetic care and pre-natal

care. These are just some areas where these

products are beginning to

make an impact. Other interesting examples of

how wearables

are changing the

world we live in

are inger-ring devices and ear-

plug devices that

control gesture-

based interfaces

with software

systems and shoes that

vibrate based on location to help

opinionin my

the visually impaired navigate. India-speciic health and wellness solutions using custom

made low-cost wearable sensors are coming up

with interesting analytics tied in.

While wearables, still in the early stages of

adoption, are now beginning to penetrate the

market in India, IoT is a much more mainstream

concept. According to Gartner, “India is

experiencing increased activity surrounding the

digitalization of businesses at home and across

markets worldwide, resulting in the spawning

of startup irms focusing on digital business and the IoT”. Large software companies, on

the other hand, are actively working on IoT

platforms and solutions that enable smart

solutions in buildings, businesses and shop

loors. According to Gartner, “By 2020, at least two-thirds of large Indian enterprises will

have established an IoT center of

excellence to drive

adoption of eficiency-centric technologies and applications”.

Ibeacon-based location aware consumer

solutions for retail businesses have also come

of age, with these solutions now seamlessly

integrated into back-ofice systems. They deliver a pleasant user experience in drawing

them into the store, delivering value at the store

and after. Technology companies are developing

cloud based IoT platforms and gateways for

IoT sensors and devices and using them to build

point solutions around leet tracking, employee

Ramesh Loganathan

2015 promises to enhance the convergence of global tech trends even more strongly with solutions for domestic consumers, businesses and governments leveraging the same trending technologies emerging across the world

safety, small scale industry

automation and more.

While enterprises are

thriving to be on the verge of

technology trends, academic

research is not far behind.

Modern manufacturing

techniques leveraging 3D

printing are actively being

explored and prototyped.

3D printing has clearly

gone farther beyond simple

prototyping of use cases. A

research lab in Hyderabad

has developed an ‘open

source’ solution which is a “word and object learning game”

for visually impaired people that can be 3D printed by anyone,

anywhere in the world. Software deined systems and infrastructure are being evolved, taking the cloud to the next level. Cloud security

systems are being developed that secure enterprise data when it is

saved on the cloud and accessed off the cloud.

Local government-sponsored initiatives are among the key

drivers that increase and accelerate IoT penetration. According

to Gartner, “The government of India recently announced a

budget allocation of $12 billion to build 100 smart cities across the

country. As part of a long-term strategy, the government plans to

establish two smart cities in each Indian state. This wide-ranging

project aims to inject smart technology into the homes of between

500,000 and one million people”.

2015 promises to be a year of achievement as we stride towards

the leading edge of technology evolution. The large software houses

are building and using technology for corporations and governments

across the globe. And startups are rapidly innovating to develop new

technology and products for both Indian markets and the world.


COVER

STORY

An Overview of the Current PLM IndustryArguably, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)

in India is at its infancy. Most organizations are

unaware of the fact that PLM is absolutely crucial to

building competitive advantage and needs to become

an organizational imperative. Instead of having

conversations with manufacturing companies on process

re-engineering and NPI (New Product Introduction),

PLM vendors end up spending inordinate amount of

time trying to convince customers that PLM is crucial for

them. Because IT solutions like MES (Manufacturing

Execution System) and ERP have proliferated the

market place, very often IT professionals make the

mistaken assumption that these tools and technologies

can provide PLM functionality. This could not be

further from the truth. There are signiicant synergies between PLM and these transactional technologies. In

many ways, what these tools are to production, PLM

is to planning. Optimistically though most automotive, defence, aerospace, heavy engineering and medical

devices companies in India today have a good handle

on PLM with most basic things on the checklist ticked.

According to CIMdata, a PLM consulting and

research irm, the global PLM market is forecasted to grow by 5.5 percent in 2014 and has an expected

annual growth rate of 5.8 percent to $46.3 billion by

2018. Despite this growth, most manufacturers are

not getting anticipated returns from their existing

PLM implementations. In India, the biggest hurdle

the manufacturing industry faces is the lack of digital

maturity amongst organizations. Most companies are

still not aware of the positive impact PLM can have on

the quality of their products and bottom-line, as their

focus invariably is more on daily operations. In fact,

a poll conducted by CIMdata, shows a staggering 75

percent of organizations with PLM investments are not

meeting their PLM objectives.

This is where PLM veterans like Shreekanth (Shree)

Moorthy, VP & Global PLM Head, Tata Technologies

step in. He points out, “This statistic is both alarming

and true”. He further highlights that there are several

reasons why PLM implementations fail and why people

don’t see ROI:1. Misaligned expectations between the implementation

vendor and different stakeholders within the customer’s

organization

2. Lack of management commitment (organizational

and budget-wise)

tata technologies: Building Competitive

Advantage with Effective Implementation &

Use of Product Lifecycle ManagementBy Susila Govindaraj



Tata Technologies has mastered the art of formulating strategies to address the challenges and implementing course-correction, instead of haphazardly proposing a complete overhaul of PLM at the client site


Key Management:

Shreekanth (Shree) Moorthy, Vice President & Global

PLM Head

Owing to 20+ years of rich experience, Moorthy is

recognized as a thought leader and an authority in

PLM industry. He has been orchestraing the P&L of the PLM Line of Business worldwide since 2009.

This sotware strategist specializes in emerging technologies, deining enterprise sotware product direcion, coordinaing sotware development in muliple countries and managing PLM projects implementaion to customers globally. With sheer passion in digital manufacturing, Shree has authored numerous protocols and technical & research papers in PLM and Digital manufacturing including the Simulaion Data Exchange (SDX) protocol to integrate layout design with discrete event simulaion. He has helped countless organizaions to transform engineering IT beyond just plain PDM.

3. Lack of dedicated PLM leadership and organization

(e.g.: PLM being someone’s part time/add-on job)

4. Not inclusive (focused mainly on Engineering Dept. i.e.

PDM only)

5. Low level of maturity and experience of the PLM

implementation vendor

6. Lack of after-service support (eg: minimum two years

required to make PLM part of the organizational DNA)

7. Lack of regimented PLM adoption mandate within the

organization and a zero tolerance policy for circumventing

the system

8. Lack of global training and constant training of users

9. Inadequate internal marketing and branding

With almost three decades of PLM experience, Tata

Technologies, a global engineering outsourcing & product

development IT services company is helping customers

overcome these roadblocks. Tata Technologies has

mastered the art of formulating strategies to address these

challenges and implementing course-correction, instead

of haphazardly proposing a complete overhaul of PLM at

the client site. Additionally, their PLM Scan offering helps

identify OFIs (Opportunities for Further Improvement), while conducting audits. These OFIs result in strategic and tactical action plans which help address these challenges.

Obsessed with incessantly bettering its solutions, this Singapore headquartered company – with regional

headquarters in Pune (India), Novi, MI (U.S.) and

Coventry (UK) – excels at implementing, customizing

and extending highly sophisticated and focused PLM

solutions to manufacturing customers. Aside from years

of expertise, the credit for its astounding rise goes to its

consultants, most of whom have earned their stripes

by working on multi-year PLM programs for digitally

mature customers in America and Europe. “We’re not an

IT company implementing PLM. We are manufacturing

professionals who are also splendid PLM consultants and

implementers. This unique blend of skill sets ensures that

the PLM systems implemented are an ideal it into the manufacturing enterprise,” says Moorthy, talking about the

company’s USP in PLM domain. He adds, “Our employees are our core strength. For our strategic customers, our engagement is focused around enabling product innovation

through leveraging PLM across the broader enterprise. We

ensure our offerings help companies to realize true ROI. Because at the end of the day, it’s all about ROI”. Having profound domain expertise enables Tata Technologies

to deliver projects with exceptional quality, on time and

within budget.

The All-Inclusive Solutions PyramidTata Technologies has value propositions for all

manufacturing companies. At Tata Technologies, they

implement, customize and extend PLM systems

for their customers. Consider a three tier pyramidal

structure:

• At the bottom of the pyramid (Enable segment), they have solutions like Application Maintenance Services, Support

– L1, L2, L3 type of support and Education services. They

also have WorldHelpdesk – a single stop shop for all the

customer’s engineering systems, supporting the customers

24/7 when and if needed

• The middle of the pyramid (Realize segment) represents the heavy duty lifting – implementation of

PLM systems, customizations of these PLM systems

to support the ever-changing business landscape

at the customers’, and also integration of PLM

systems with legacy systems, mainframe systems,

ERP systems, and others. Lastly, one of the biggest

problems customers face worldwide is

migrating data from legacy systems/

legacy PLM applications into what they

like to call as NextGen PLM systems.

This problem is exempliied when you see companies having a growth-

by-acquisition strategy and quite

obviously, they struggle to leverage

the newly acquired company’s data

and IP. Their proprietary tools and

processes combined with signiicant data migration experience helps

such customers migrate their data

to the NextGen PLM systems

• At the top of the pyramid (Transform segment) are key

offerings around high end

consulting to enable Business

Transformation with solutions

like PLM Scan, PLM

Benchmarking and PLM

Blueprinting

Unearthing Opportunities for Further ImprovementThe PLM Scan from PLM

Analytics solution set is a

high value digital maturity

assessment model that

aids to perform a top

to bottom audit in

terms of processes,

tools & technologies

and organization.

For instance, a $30 billion European

Engineering & Design, Product Lifecycle Management, Product development-IT, Enterprise IT and Manufacturing Execuion Systems

Case Study:

When a North American Auto major moved their complete engineering system (both CAD & PLM from one major PLM vendor’s toolset to another), Tata Technologies completed CAD data migraion from one CAD system to another and also migrated the PLM data, documents & other Meta data from old PLM system to new one in an ecosystem of 5000 plus engineers, while the OEM was adding new vehicle programs. This muli-year project reairmed the belief that Tata Technologies is indeed the absolute master at PLM migraion and data migraion.

Ceriicaions:ISO 9001:2008, AS 9100C and ISO 27001: 2005

organization with several business units was moving from

an electro-mechanical product company to a solutions-

oriented energy management company. Tata Technologies

was invited to this transformation journey to perform a PLM

Scan, which then extended to PLM Toolset selection and

inally, PLM Blueprinting. Tata Technologies advised them on how to precisely ilter out the noise and derive more value from their PLM implementation. Aside from valuable ive-fold ROI, the client also attained priceless knowledge about taking industry’s best practices and implementing them

internally. “No company is too large or too small for us,”

added Moorthy. Though it can be risky to deliver a project at

a certain cost without counting the time & material factors in,

most of Tata Technologies’ projects are ixed bids, since that is what customer prefers.

Shattering Barriers to Build TrustIn the niche PLM arena, inding the perfect candidate with a lair for software development, software technologies and in-depth understanding of engineering and manufacturing is a

daunting task. Such stringently iltered raw talents with right basic ingredients can be shaped into exceptional consultants.

Tata Technologies empowers its highly energetic and

Shreekanth (Shree) Moorthy

Oferings:


enthusiastic workforce to take decisions and interact directly

with customers; thus enabling them to learn from mistakes.

“We make sure we break down all organizational barriers. We

have an open door policy. This has helped in building trust and

a feeling of wellbeing,” adds Moorthy.

Focusing on Learning & Development, the company has several multi-skilled consultants who are masters of multiple

PLM tools like Teamcenter, ENOVIA V6, SmarTeam and Windchill. Tata Technologies actively rotates people in and out

of multiple projects so that everyone is part of the

organization success and rewards those

going above and beyond. “We are

already developing a reputation as the

place to work in for PLM. We hope to

exemplify the one-family philosophy

and treat everyone as we would like to

be treated,” says Moorthy.

Investing for a Better FutureThe company prides

itself for being

m a n u f a c t u r i n g

professionals with

splendid PLM

consultation and

i m p l e m e n t a t i o n

prowess, rather than

merely being an IT

company implementing

PLM. “Manufacturing

is in our DNA. This

unique blend of skill sets, ensures the PLM systems

implemented are an ideal it into the manufacturing enterprise,” says Moorthy. When asked about the

future ahead, he enthusiastically added, “With rapid

adoption of IoT, we see a convergence of sorts –

virtual factories with smart connected factories

using advanced software technologies delivering a

complete and more real digital production, to see,

touch and feel the product long before it’s made.

To meet this demand, Tata Technologies has started

investing in R&D with focus on Systems Engineering,

Mechatronics and Innovation management”.

Ambitious to be the world’s number one partner

to manufacturing industry, the company strives to

develop a pedigree in this domain enough to become

synonymous with PLM. “We believe in doing the right

thing and success will follow,” concluded Moorthy.

Shreekanth (Shree) Moorthy

Ambitious to be the world’s number one partner to manufacturing industry, Tata Technologies strives to develop a pedigree in this domain enough to become synonymous with PLM

1989

1994

2004

2005

2009

2013

Established from exising

European & North American

companies as INCAT

Tata Technologies

was insigated in

Singapore

INCAT was launched on London

Stock exchange following North

America, Europe and Japan

Tata Technologies –

having established itself

in India, UK and U.S.,

acquires INCAT

Globally re-branded

as Tata Technologies

Acquires

CambricTata Technologies

Timeline:


CIO Insights

Learn, Unlearn & Relearn By Annie Mathew, CIO, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd.

Setup in 1974, Mother Dairy is a wholly owned subsidiary of National Dairy

Development Board of India.

As a CFO once told me, the CFO and the CPO are the two arms of the CEO/MD who help her steer the organization towards glory and prosperity. By the same analogy, I would say the CIO serves as the eyes of the chief executive to bring visibility and

clarity. The CIO helps the CEO make sense of the plethora of information under which the CEO can get submerged. To sieve information out of the structured and unstructured data and make it interpretable and actionable is

one of the primary tasks of the CIO.

Annie Mathew

The CIO has to predict the

longevity and adoption

of a new technology as it

de-risks the organization

by providing access to

a large pool of skilled

resources and regular

upgrades

What are the concerns that keep the CIO awake at night? What factors drive technology decisions today when a 5-year roadmap appears too long

term? The IT roadmap is built to meet the stated objectives of the business roadmap. An IT roadmap is deined for a 3 year rolling cycle, augmented by an annual review with the business to prioritize projects based on revised

needs of the business. In my experience, most companies have a backlog

of projects to achieve minimal objectives of risk and control management,

employee productivity and cost optimization.

The biggest concern of the CIO is that she is not moving fast enough to embrace the new developments, that the IT skillsets available are not

keeping pace with the change in

technology and that enough thought is

not being invested in how to redesign

the business to take advantage of new

opportunities. Mobility and Internet of

Things are going to radically change

the way information is generated or

handled. The CIO and business have to identify areas of maximum impact.

While organizational itment and readiness are key factors in deploying

any new technology, being risk averse

is detrimental in today’s fast paced

world. However, are we deploying a

technology because of a herd mentality

or does the organization really need it? Does it address a pain point, will it fulill a strategic need or is it the latest fad? To cut through the sales pitch and empower

the business optimally is a crucial role

of the CIO. The need for security and for building awareness about security is

also a prime concern.

More often than not, the project need

is articulated by the business and is rarely

originated by IT (at the most, IT guides

the business by building awareness of

trends), but the onus

of ensuring

successful

implementation somehow migrates to IT. IT has to play a strong role

in identifying and managing project risks. A major risk is that it only

achieves automation. I believe it is the role of the CIO to facilitate the change from automation to empowerment. For instance, deploying a retail POS application might only end up as an automation effort if a responsive mechanism is not setup to monitor and react to market

conditions. To look for enhanced usage and to facilitate innovative

ways of using currently deployed technology is another expectation

from an effective CIO. One of our projects involved daily auto-debit from our customers’ (booth concessionaires and distributors)

bank accounts based on actual billing in SAP. This simpliied the entire collection process for the company and for the customers who

depended on daily cheque collections; and also reduced the working

capital requirement.

The industry as it stands would have been pretty hard to predict

5 years ago. The CIO needs to have a crystal ball to identify technologies that will survive. When an organization like Mother

Dairy deploys a distributor management system or a milk collection

application, it is essential to sustain the application for a longer

duration due to a comparatively change resistant and challenging

environment. Whereas, any social media analytics tool or mobile

application is more amenable to being revamped periodically. The

CIO has to predict the longevity and adoption of a new technology as it de-risks the organization by providing access to a large pool of

skilled resources and regular upgrades.

Talent retention and development is of utmost importance and

aligning HR to understand the IT talent pool is critical. There is

an acknowledged shortage of employable IT

resources. As a result, it makes practical sense

to outsource any task which does not create a

competitive differentiator, such as managed

services for infrastructure or by outsourcing

client device management. IT team should

be best utilized for working with the business

to uncover projects that offer competitive

advantage. To ensure IT gets the right attention

from the business and HR, it is important that

the CIO markets IT achievements adequately.Innovative solutioning rather than picking

up expensive products is the dream of any

CIO. In reality, urgency of requirement leads to inadequate time to experiment and throttles the

urge to innovate. The risk of the business user

bypassing IT and moving to a cloud scenario has

become very real. Integration and data security

concerns mandate that IT has to certify any

cloud based technology adoption. To achieve

this, business has to trust the CIO to make the best decision and within the timelines expected.

The CIO has the most enviable role in an organization. IT is the only function which

has the freedom to reinvent itself every few

years, the opportunity to start afresh. To be

successful, the CIO needs to have the “ability to learn, unlearn and relearn” not once but

multiple times in her career.


From the pages of its history to the present date, PLM has been witnessing a significant growth, despite the few downfalls that fell in the way. PLM is no longer confined to the

verticals of automotive, aerospace & defense and industrial machinery, but has moved beyond to embrace the non-traditional empires of retail, pharmaceuticals, process industries

and construction too. Studies also echo in the similar veins by supporting the growth of the global PLM market which is set to witness a growth that would reach $46.2 billion by 2018. Those studies attribute the growth to the increase in adoption of PLM across all industries and the growing need

to reduce the time-to-market of a product. However, in the dire need to enable a faster transformation of an innovation from mind to market

that would set a storm, companies often overlook the quality which becomes equally important for them to sustain the success stature in the long run. Thus, it has become inevitable for those companies to partner with such PLM enablers who excel at managing the life cycle of the product from its concept to delivery, while keeping the quality at its best. To help people conveniently choose the perfect professionals, siliconindia identifies “10 Most Promising PLM Companies”. A distinguished panel of the industry’s topmost CIOs, CEOs, VCs and industry experts including siliconindia’s editorial board scrutinized the list of companies in different business touch points. The thorough analysis delved into business practices, services, compared them against industry standards to ensure that the work is of best in class quality and finally led siliconindia to come up with best companies. The archive does not only endeavor to facilitate such companies, but also fillips businesses, big or small, to partner with the finest alter-egos who help in enabling quality and faster time-to-market and quality, while protecting their innovation from the rising cost and complexity.

company Management Founded Description

ANTZ

Bangalore

antzmcs.com

Cimani Solutions

Bangalore

cimani.com

DesignTech Systems

Pune

designtechsys.com

Digital Design Solutions

Gurgaon

ddsplm.com

FaithPLM Solutions

Pune

faithplm.com

G4 Solutions & Applications

Hyderabad

G4solutions.net

PROLIM

Bangalore

prolim.com

Ptex Solutions

Mumbai

ptexsolutions.com

SteepGraph Systems

Pune

steepgraph.com

Three M Software Solutions

Pune

3msoftware.co.in

Abhay Chaturvedi &

Sudarshan Srinath,

Partners

Prem Shankar,

Principal Consultant

Vikas Khanvelkar,

Managing Director

Manish Garg,

Owner

Umesh Deshpande,

Director

Srinivas Kumar T.,

Founder & CEO

Prabhu Patil,

President & CEO

Prasham Kamdar,

Co-Founder & Managing

Partner

Himanshu Zalavadiya,

Founder & CEO

Girish Modi,

Director

2008

2008

1998

1996

2010

2009

2005

2004

2008

2010

A provider of PLM services including consulting, implementation, training

and support ranging from quality management process to project &

document management, BOM management, CAD integration and others

A provider of complete range of PLM Implementation services, backed by

Siemens Teamcente platform

A provider of high-end products, services and training that handholds

customers through each stage of product design lifecycle to help the

customers design products faster, better and economical

A provider of finest PLM solutions, support, trainings and services to

design and manufacturing organizations across the industrial spectrum to

help them achieve their business goals

A provider of specialized SIEMENS Teamcenter PLM and CAD/CAM/CAE

solutions to the organizations world over

A provider of finest services to assorted stages of PLM cycle with an

exclusive focus on customization to help customers reap the maximum

benefits from their PLM investments

A provider of wide range of PLM services including implementation,

software development, administration, data migration, ERP integration

and others

A provider of best-in-class technology backed PLM solutions along with

business consulting, implementation, business intelligence, integration,

technical sketches and support services

A provider of expert consulting & technology services in product life cycle

management (PLM) and Outsourced Product Development market

A provider of PDM & PLM implementation services in Siemens &

Autodesk products

PLM Companies


PLM Companies



ANTZ: The ELIXIR in the Realm of PLM By Anamika Sahu

It’s an excruciating but a veracious

fact that SMEs across the globe

are being overlooked by biggies

of the technology realm. This

leads to a serious discrepancy among

the big and the small players in the

industry. The case is no different

when it comes to PLM where several

Tier II and Tier III suppliers who are

fervent to implement PLM are left

without adequate support by large

PLM providers. But ANTZ, an Agra

and Bengaluru based PLM solutions

provider who doesn’t look at PLM

solutions as just an implementation

but as a process that can transform

the client’s business, chisels PLM

solutions not just for the bigwigs but

for the SMEs too.

Breaking the traditional route,

PLM is making inroads into the

non-traditional areas including

Retail, Pharmaceuticals, Process

industries, Engineering Procurement

and Construction. SMEs too are

witnessing the RoI in implementing

PLM solutions to manage their quality

processes as CXOs are realizing that PLM is an absolute must if they need to

scale up and move up the value chain.

ANTZ is well positioned to cater to the

requirements for the next

growth spurt in the PLM

market. The company

has lately put

its feet in the

SME segment to help them manage

their Quality Management Process

like APQP, Project and Document

management for NPD, BOM management, CAD integration and

automation, sourcing and Quality and

Environment compliance.

While there are companies who

struggle to implement and use PLM

effectively due to poor implementation

and not having a clear roadmap for their

PLM implementation, ANTZ being

a product agnostic service provider

leverages the existing organizational

landscape in providing the most cost

effective and optimal solution to its

clients to address their short term and

long term business requirements. For instance, a large automotive supplier

in India took a long time preparing for

their TS16949 certiication and quality documentation. They had a tough time

managing their change management

and document management process

which resulted in high cost of

ownership. The highly experienced

group of PLM experts from ANTZ

successfully implemented PLM and

enabled PLM processes within three

weeks from start of implementation

while successfully consolidating

all their project data into the PLM

application. This signiicantly reduced the preparation time for an audit from

a month to a few days and enabled

the client to meet all the compliance

requirements for their quality audit,

hence reducing the cost of ownership

and program management time

drastically.

“Our USP is that we deliver using a consultative approach to implement

PLM, providing a holistic solution

in all our PLM engagements starting

from understanding the customer’s

business process, mapping them to

PLM applications, architecting the

solution, implementation, training and

post implementation support,” says

Abhay Chaturvedi, Partner, ANTZ.

This is just one case of instance

where the company helped its clients

to signiicantly improve their quality scores. There are several such

cases to testify the glory of ANTZ

which includes some of the large

companies in the ield of automotive, aerospace and defense, power industry

and engineering, procurement &

construction. The company has the

legacy of taking complete ownership of

all its projects. “Integrity in whatever

we set out to do is one of our core

values. We always believe in working

as a partner with our clients ensuring

that every project is successful,”

explains Sudarshan, Partner, ANTZ.

In the near future, ANTZ sees itself

as an important player in evangelizing

PLM in the SME segment for the

next few years. The company is in the

process of developing PLM solutions

for industry verticals in non-traditional

areas to expand its footprint in these

un-touched areas.

Sudarshan,

Partner

Abhay Chaturvedi,

Partner

PLM Companies


siliconindia | | April 201447


By Guo Tao, NX Product Marketing Manager of Asia Paciic, Siemens PLM Software

Specializing in 3D and 2D Product Lifecycle Management software, Siemens PLM Software is a California based

company.

We all agree –3D Printing is a transformative

technology that’s shaking up the

manufacturing world. Experts who deal

with the supply chain process on a daily

basis will concur - it has been a game changer and has

the potential to allow anyone with computer-aided

design (CAD) iles, a 3D printer and printing materials – typically plastic and metal powders, to make products and

components wherever they are based.

We’ve seen its potential to alter the nature of business

across a range of industries and having an impact on

competitiveness between businesses and countries alike

in the future. A great example is China. We’ve witnessed

China’s move to stimulate and support the growth of their

own 3D printing industries through the launch of an industrial

park in the southern city of Changsha which is poised to

play a key role in the growth of manufacturing and 3D

technology. The development is China’s irst hub for 3D printing technology, and was established

with immediate goal to produce 100 sets of 3D

printers and to triple the number of devices by

2016. Taking Changsha’s lead, the cities of

Wuhan and Zhuhai have announced plans to

develop similar industry hubs.

Other countries in the Asia Paciic region have also started to focus on this fast-growing

technology. Over the next ive years, Singapore plans to invest $500 million to boost skills

in advanced manufacturing, focusing

heavily on 3D printing. Similarly,

Japan announced that it had

allocated $38.6 million in

funding for various 3D

printing projects. Eighty

percent of this funding

is targeting the research

and development of 3D

printers capable of producing end-use products in metal for

industrial use, according to IHS, a global data information

company.

After decades of development, 3D printing has emerged

as a viable and affordable technology, paving the way to

revolutionize the manufacturing sector that many countries

in Asia depend upon for economic growth. But what does

this mean for all of us? Where does the real value of 3D printing lie?

Realizing Smart Innovation with 3D PrintingThe key to success in today’s manufacturing environment

is to embrace digitalization, a concept that extends beyond

creating digital pictures to adopting digital as a fundamental

approach to innovation. Companies can take advantage of

these transformational and often disruptive technologies

to improve their own ability to innovate in today’s

complex world of product and process.

The power of 3D printing in certain stages,

such as the ideation and design stage of new

products initiated in the traditional PLM

domains, is where change is most obvious.

Many manufacturers are turning to 3D printing

earlier in the innovation process to gather

insights into customer needs, in the effort of

developing ideas for new products. Compared

to traditional manufacturing and prototyping

methods, 3D printing offers the potential for a

high degree of customization, reduced costs

for complex designs, and lower

overhead costs for short-run parts

and products.

For traditional manufacturers, the more

complex a shape and model,

the higher the cost and the

longer the time it takes to

complete a task due to many molds, and complex machining

works. 3D printing brings about a different way to remove

these requirements; users can simply print the items as they

wish. While 3D printing usually focuses on the shape or

model, there is way of realizing smarter innovation to build

models and then intelligently connecting them into a system

of systems. It enables both engineers and customers to see

how the product and process will perform even before it’s

built. When they review performance data, they will be

able to predict opportunities to improve performance as

well as any hidden risks before the actual “3D printing”. If

a risk is identiied, users can easily input changes and avoid unnecessary risks. Users can then compare the predictions

from these secondary models and simulations to a better

version. This process will ensure better product quality

and reliability, as opposed to just making the model and

printing it out.

It’s Not a Walk in the Park - YetWhile 3D printing is a fascinating technology with many

beneits, there is one thorny issue which manufacturers, lawyers and governments are only just beginning to

grapple with: the intellectual property (IP) issues raised

by 3D printing. If the technology allows anyone to make

anything anywhere, how can companies, designers and

inventors protect their IP rights?Copyrights or patents protect creative work and these

vary from country to country in terms of protection given

and qualiications necessary. IP infringement is already an issue around the region, but seemingly more cases are

cropping up that are linked to the use of 3D printing. .The

new technology’s process is so straightforward that with

just one click anyone can make an unauthorized item or a

copy of a protected piece of IP from a computer ile or a 3D scan of a physical object. It is much easier than ever before

to copy, but much harder to identify the infringement.

Manufacturers are facing similar issues to that of the music

industry when MP3 iles and online downloads emerged.We are now in a position where we recognize that rights

do exist, but the challenge is in enforcing them and in

producing an attractive alternative to infringement through

new business models. In the meantime, recognizing the

potential issues can go a long way toward ensuring that 3D

printing becomes an organization’s next great thing rather

than its next great liability.

What Lies Ahead?The relationship between manufacturers and retailers are

changing – retailers have the possibility to transform to

manufacturers; service providers can also offer customized

products, on a much larger scale. Personalization

manufacturing willalso increasingly impact the standard

mass-manufacturing with more complex and unique goods

emerging in the near future which used to be dificult due to cost and time to market concern.

As important as 3D printing is becoming at the ideation

and development stages of the research and development

process, its promise reaches beyond product innovation.

Manufacturers will need to start anticipating potential new

business models as 3D printing transforms entire value

chains. Some are already looking to the technology as a

means of mass customization while others are beginning

to move away from maintaining warehouses full of spare

parts, and instead printing out parts as needed from their

collection of digital iles. The possibilities are nearly ininite — but regardless of which are actually realized. But to remain

competitive, manufacturers will need to ind the right way to leverage 3D printing as part of the capabilities that distinguish

them throughout their ideation, development, manufacturing,

sales and aftermarket operations.

The Asian Adoption of 3D Printing in Manufacturing

CXO View Point

Guo Tao

The key to success in today’s

manufacturing environment is to

embrace digitalization, a concept

that extends beyond creating

digital pictures to adopting digital

as a fundamental approach

to innovation


Justiiably, there is a lot of hype and excitement about the prospect of Cloud Computing, and the

ROI and eficiencies that it will offer IT depart-ments and business units. Together with this the

explosion of mobile devices are forcing dramatic

changes in the way the network infrastructure. Amid this

hype, however, it is critical to render consideration to

how the cloud will affect the way networks are designed,

conceived, and secured. Cloud era means a dramatic in-

crease in the sheer volume of data passing into and out of

networks at any given moment – a growing amount of

it critical to business operations. Content security

in particular faces novel challenges as mobil-

ity and Web 2.0 applications make web trafic volumes highly unpredictable, with massive

spikes and troughs from one moment to the

next.

The traditional approach to ad-

dress concerns like these

has been over-provi-

sioning compute re-

sources for content

iltering, resulting in higher costs and

lost eficiency, while still intro-

ducing unac-

ceptably high

latency and

eroding net-

work perfor-

mance. However, emerg-

ing solutions adopt a

different approach, by transferring content-iltering tasks to cloud-hosted services where massive resources can be

dynamically re-provisioned as needed to handle any vol-

ume of web trafic without bogging down the network.

Ensuring Security in High Data TraicTo maintain network security, content-iltering solutions must examine all the business-critical trafic that these activities create. This can lead to a kind of arms race, where

in order to maintain acceptable network performance;

organizations must purchase ever larger appliances and

provision ever greater resources to content iltering. In addition to this legitimate, business-critical

trafic, the volume of non-productive trafic is also growing exponentially.

Traditional Uniied Threat Management solu-tions (UTMs) are designed to bring a variety of

security functions – including web con-

tent iltering – into a single ap-pliance. To do their job with-

out compromising network

performance, they must

support massive throughput.

More important, they must

dedicate massive comput-

ing power to scanning

content and enforc-

ing policies mak-

ing them increas-

ingly costly and

less eficient given the dedi-

cated nature of

Emerging Approach Towards Content SecurityBy Anshuman Singh, Director, Product Management of Application Security, Barracuda Networks

Barracuda Networks (NYSE: CUDA) is a provider of cloud-connected security and storage solutions. The California

based company has a current market cap of $1.88 billion.

the processing power. Furthermore, it means that as new threat proiles emerge, organizations are often re-

quired to upgrade their UTM hard-

ware at signiicant cost. The UTM also tends to bog down network traf-

ic due to a heavy content iltering queue; it can interfere with connec-

tivity to business-critical resources

and applications hosted in the cloud

– which can result in a signiicant loss of productivity or interruption of

business.

Taking a Cohesive Approach - Cloud Based SecurityRather than regarding the ubiquity

of the Cloud merely as a challenge

to security efforts, the emerging ap-

proaches to security regards it as an

opportunity. Solutions that ofload content iltering tasks to the Cloud represent the most effective new ap-

proach to have emerged in response

to the changing security landscape.

By combining the integrated ca-

pabilities of a true next-generation

irewall with the elastic, and practi-cally unlimited, computing resources

of the Cloud, these solutions allow

comprehensive, always-up-to-date

content iltering of very large trafic volumes without introducing latency

to the system. In addi-

tion, they promise to

keep user costs low

and predictable, and

to improve overall busi-

ness continuity and produc-

tivity

With effectively unlimited re-

sources in the Cloud, and the abil-

ity to dynamically re-provision re-

sources as needed in real time, this

approach also eliminates the cost and

ineficiency of over-provisioning compute resources locally, as tradi-

tional UTMs require. Another sig-

niicant beneit of using Cloud-based resources for content iltering is that

as new threat categories are identi-

ied, there is no need to upgrade or replace on-premises equipment—

irmware upgrades are applied auto-matically and transparently, ensuring

the network is fully protected with

no interruptions.

Because there is no on-network

congestion due to content iltering, connectivity to business-critical ap-

plications hosted in the Cloud is not

affected. And with a next-generation

irewall core that includes capabili-ties to aggregate multiple uplinks

and prioritize trafic based on busi-ness policies, it can dramatically

increase the reliability of those con-

nections, improving business conti-

nuity and reducing downtime.

Up AheadAlthough Cloud is still in the forma-

tive years of all-pervasive approval,

it would be right to say that it has

made a signiicant headway in the industry already. The Cloud is mak-

ing network boundaries and on &

off network trafic seamless. Data is becoming more and more critical

to any business and managing and

network security solutions need

to evolve to manage and this

huge trafic without creating bottlenecks. Solutions that

ofload content iltering tasks to the cloud are

the new approach to

have emerged in re-

sponse to the chang-

ing security land-

scape. In addition,

they promise to keep

user costs low and predictable, and

to improve overall business continu-

ity and productivity. As we advance,

the coming years will witness further

evolution of agile and interoperable

cloud based approach that address

the security challenges of the mod-

ern days.

Anshuman Singh

Rather than regarding the ubiquity of the Cloud merely as a challenge to security eforts, the emerging approaches to security regards it as an opportunity

CXO View Point


DesignTech Systems: Glimmering as Ultimate Star of Indian SMEs by Introducing Integrated Design

Services to ThemBy Susila Govindaraj

During 1998 when DesignTech Systems Ltd.

was started, 3D modelling based design was

a luxury that could be afforded only by big

daddy’s, DesignTech Systems, a pioneering

PLM company, revolutionized the industry by moving

Indian SME organizations to 3D modelling. The company

convinced doubtful SMEs to address product development

issues at initial stage by adopting 3D design and simulation

tools to attain a perfect product design on very irst attempt. Unlike large PLM players that turn their backs on

customers upon contract completion, DesignTech Systems

handholds customers until they start deriving returns from

their investments in product with 100 percent commitment.

The company is also highly appreciated for its incredibly

fast delivery at much more economical rate for engineering

product design services.

The Pune-based company that initiated its operations

in 1998 as a product distribution company in West India

has been consistently expanding its offerings to include

designing services and PLM training that covers every

stage of product design lifecycle. DesignTech

Systems competitive product design & PLM

implementation services are available on all the

design and simulation platforms like Nx, CATIA,

Pro-E, SolidWorks, Nastran, Hyperworks &

Ansys. The company pretty soon launched its

ofices in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Jalandhar, Calcutta,

Vadodara and Chennai, while having

four training centers including Pune,

Nasik and Hyderabad. DesignTech has

subsidiaries in U.S. and Hong Kong

and associate ofices in Canada and Europe. Now DesignTech Systems

have 400+ active customers to whom it

renders services to and over 2000 customers

who have beneited from DesignTech’s products; with near to 100 percent repeat

order rate.

DesignTech’s prowess has

been rewarded by about 40 awards

including coveted Maharashtra Government IT Award,

NASSCOM’s top 50 Emerging Companies and IDG – Channel World Premiere 100 Award. The company has

also been honoured with numerous top reseller awards and

it is the only platinum partner of Siemens PLM in India.

This ISO 9001:2008 company is one of the six companies in the world who is approved by Nissan Techno to provide

data migration & support services to their vendors.

DesignTech Systems derives over 25 percent of service

business from North America, Europe and Hong Kong

and it also works with several huge enterprises including

Mahindra & Mahindra, L&T and Escort among others.

“Most SMEs grapple to attract, train and retain talents on

specialized services. We enable them to act judiciously

by identifying where these investments can make direct

impact. In case customers couldn’t acquire such talents,

we help them by providing our manpower to maintain

continuity,” says Vikas Khanvelkar, MD., DesignTech

Systems Ltd.

With extensive adoption of 3D modelling, DesignTech

is keen on enabling customers to realize the beneits of high-end solutions. The company wishes to empower

SMEs to develop innovative products to meet the

growing demands. Aspiring to be one of the most

preferred companies for product design services,

DesignTech aims to increase their footprint globally

and grow these services by twofold in three

years and triple them in next ive years. The company also envisions a vigorous

international expansion in product front

starting with other countries in APAC,

since DesignTech already has clients

in those regions. Currently, they are

creating content and processes to

maintain consistency across training,

post which, the company will launch

chain of training centers across India to

provide quality technical education to

mechanical engineers; thus creating more

employment-ready manpower apace with

the growth of technology and industry.

Vikas Khanvelkar,

Managing Director

PLM Companies


siliconindia | | August 201352


Leadership Tips that Help Entrepreneurs across the BoardBy Pradeep Vajram, CEO, SmartPlay Technologies

Founded in 2008, SmartPlay Technologies is a Bangalore based

design services company that holds expertise in digital, analog,

wireless software and system design.

Pradeep Vajram

In a career spanning over

20+ years and experience

with two corporate giants,

LSI Logic & Qualcomm,

and two start-ups, Spike

Technologies and SmartPlay

Technologies, I am fortunate

to have gotten an opportunity

to work with many successful

leaders in the industry. In my

opinion, leadership is an art that

has to be practiced and perfected.

Many a times in my career,

I have been asked what makes a

good leader. What is the secret

to build a successful company? What are the key attributes to

become an effective leader? I learnt the answers to many of

these questions while working

with and observing some of

the best leadership minds in

the industry that I continue to

leverage.

My journey as the co-founder

of my irst start-up – Spike Technologies – was among the

biggest learning experiences

of my career. The decade that

I spent building and growing

the company took me through

the best of situations and the

rockiest of territories that

hardened me as a leader. Several

of my experiences at Spike

Technologies, have helped me to

a great extent at my second start-

up, SmartPlay Technologies.

CXO View Point

Here are a few key qualities, I have learnt,

that makes a strong leader.

Three Qualities that a Leader Should PossessEvery strong leader possesses these inherent

qualities - Vision, Passion and Hardwork.

All successful leaders possess a perfect

amalgamation of these three qualities.

Three Satisfactions that Measure a Leader’s SuccessLike most skills that are measured on

their results, leadership too is measured

on three important parameters; Customer

Satisfaction, Employee Satisfaction and

Stakeholder Satisfaction. Each of these three

parameters is equally vital for the success of

the organization. A good leader, no matter

what their leadership style, understands how

to balance each of these parameters.

The Essence of a Good LeaderThe Team is a very critical aspect of the

leadership. It is very important to know that

leadership is not about how many people

follow the leader, but how many leaders you

create. A good leader not only hires people

that are capable and better than him/her, but

also delegates responsibilities effectively

across the organization. Leadership is also about the

ability to build a great relationship with the team and

maintain it through the journey.

The Glue that Holds the Organization TogetherGreat leaders are those whom others feel they can trust,

good leaders make people safe. It is imperative that a

leader creates a secure environment for co-workers

and employees. When a leader shows respect and

gratitude to his employees, they will take pride

in being a part of the organization and exceed

expectations.

Transparency is that key to build trust.

Keeping an open channel of communication

with the employees, stakeholders and

customers, is the key to effective, long-term

success. It is vital to communicate, whether

good or bad, and it has been proven as a

great way to build trust.

Beware of Complacency A leader always respects

competition, whether

big or small. When you

proactively observe the competition, you will uncover

different opportunities and ways to be better.

The Path to Success We are a part of a dynamic industry which is continuously

evolving. True leadership is about remaining strong and

conident through all situations. You should be humble while riding success and stay conident while the

going gets tough. The key is to think out of

the box and choose innovative approaches

to face the challenges. A leader must be

willing to take risks and needs to ponder

about the implications of every action taken.

Ultimately, it is not about imposing control

but doing the right thing for the organization!

These are the leadership qualities that I

have imbibed over the years and stuck to in

order to accelerate the growth of my company. To

budding entrepreneurs, I would recommend being

agile, aggressive and keeping your team with

you through every step of your journey.

Go ahead! Embark on your journey

to be a great leader.

siliconindia | | November 201329

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A leader should stay confident while the going gets tough and the key is to think out of the box and choose innovative approaches to face the challenges


Digital Design Solutions: Leveraging Experience to

Provide Finest PLM Solutions

In recent times, Product Lifecycle

Management (PLM) was

considered to be an elephant

in the room, universally

acknowledged, yet mostly ignored.

However, over the last few years,

PLM has gained ground and is widely

recognized as a major growth engine

for many large manufacturers and

automotive OEMSs. With PLM integration still nascent in India,

the market opportunity in the SME

segment is still evolving. Therefore,

the SMEs are in a dire need for a

trusted partner who will understand

their pain points and help them achieve

their objectives. This is where Digital

Design Solutions (DDS) – a premier

PLM solution provider steps into the

picture. The company which started its

operations in 1996 as a CAD services

bureau, today, has grown profoundly

to a complete solution provider with a

vision to solve customer problems by

using high-end CAD CAM and PLM

solutions.

DDS has raised the bar to exceed

customers’ expectations by offering

internationally acclaimed Siemens

PLM Software’s Teamcenter®. The

company’s forte lies in offering

ground-breaking PLM solutions,

support, training and services to design

and manufacturing organizations

across the industrial spectrum to help

them achieve their business goals.

"Teamcenter® is the most popular

PLM software being used across the

world by the largest to the smallest

enterprises. Siemens leadership

position ensures that customers

will always have access to the latest

technology along with beneits of investment protection and a scalable

solution. We integrate very strongly

with many other technologies like

CAD and ERP, which the customer

may already be using or opt for in

future,” says Manish Garg, Owner, Digital Design Solutions. DDS has

proven its mettle in providing product

design, process engineering and

technical documentation solutions to

its customers. Digital Design Solutions

is a partner for Siemens Industry

Software India Ltd., providing the

offered solutions to the customers

in India and extending much needed

domain speciic support services.

Battles Won OverAs PLM is still a buzzword in

the manufacturing industry, large

manufacturers have easily coped

with the business dynamics to deliver

higher ROI, but, small manufacturing industries feel the heat of limited

inancial resources, lack of IT support and diverse set of requirements, which

constrain them to take the leap. Also,

uncertainty on ROI and fear of failure keep SMEs on the back foot. With its

affordable PLM offerings, DDS has

managed to make the difference. These

solutions allow user organizations to

securely vault soft and print data in

electronic form. The solutions also

ensure adherence to organization

processes along with completion of

required documentation. With its

holistic support and maintenance

services, DDS stands tall among

its competitors. “We have a deep

understanding of product development

processes. This allows us to assimilate

the challenges and requirements

and propose simple solutions which

customers can implement and move

forward. Our partnership with Siemens for the last many years also brings

immense experience, commitment

and value to the customer,” Manish

Garg adds.

Headquartered in Gurgaon, DDS

operates with a modest team of about

12 people with rich experience in

the design, manufacturing and IT

domain. To penetrate deeper into

PLM domain, DDS is extending PLM

usage in suppliers by offering rapid

implementation of PLM solutions that

will reduce both time as well as cost.

To serve its customers better, DDS

is now spreading its wings to other

major cities across the country.

By Rashmisree Deb

FaithPLM Solutions: Unleashing the True Potential of

PLM Realm through Cutting-Edge Solutions

PLM, which was considered as one of those deep

into the weeds business terms until few years

ago, today has become an important arena for

accelerating product deliveries, trimming costs

and spawning more revenues in major manufacturing

industries. Several companies have witnessed a ceaseless

upsurge in their number of product offerings, which often

consists of sophisticated features and services. However,

these companies are still in a dire need of comprehensive

PLM solutions which make product data centrally stored,

secure, available in right context to right people at right

time, visible & traceable throughout the lifecycle, available

for re-use & lexible to changing needs across the extended enterprise by integrating people, processes, business

systems and information on single uniied platform. Filling lesh as value added PLM implementation partner who can align business goal, technical

solutions and project plan eficiently and effectively, FaithPLM Solutions was founded in 2010. Born with an idea to

provide specialized SIEMENS Teamcenter

PLM and CAD/CAM/CAE solutions to the

organizations, the company offers high-value

technology consulting, training, solutions,

stafing and project outsourcing to help its customers improve their proitability and eficiency.

With vast industry knowledge and

unbeatable experience in application of PLM, the company

develops and delivers world-class solutions to address

customer business process along with data management

challenges. Driven by the power of insight, the company

offers best it pricing model which strike the right balance between the customer’s expectations of Quality,

Timeliness and Cost. Thus, the Pune based company is

able to create value through appreciation of the needs of

its customers, employees, shareholders as well as its own

growth. Today, FaithPLM is one of the fastest growing companies in the segment of Business Process Consulting,

Solution Consulting, Teamcenter PLM Implementation,

Integrations, Transition & Migrations, Performance Tuning

& Health Checkup, Administration & Supports, Software

Development, CAD/CAM/CAE Solutions, SharePoint

Solutions, Training and Stafing.

“Our ability and commitment is to provide innovative solutions with quality, reliability and expected service to

our customer at balanced price. Our innovative approaches and expertise is to implement Teamcenter PLM technology

to help companies embrace PLM solutions in true sense

to improve processes, productivity, proit, ROI, product complexity with lean methodology,” asserts Umesh

Deshpande, Director, FaithPLM Solutions. While the company is celebrated for its

plethora of PLM services served under one

umbrella, it is also the irst company to introduce Teamcenter Active Workspace

Training and Implementation in India. As

a crown to this growth, the company was

also recognized for innovating Teamcenter

Concept to Customization program for

transforming resources to successful PLM

professional and most critical Teamcenter

Upgrade Project by the customers.

To extract the best out from the

employees and make them stick to the organization,

FaithPLM follows an open and friendly work culture where every employee gets continuous support from senior

staff. “We offer promising careers both for beginners

and qualiied professional who wish to take on global challenges while enabling success and fuelling continued

growth. We encourage creativity, continuous learning

and required training that help our employees to achieve

full potential,” says Umesh. After adding several success

stories to its name, FaithPLM is planning to establish an advisory, consulting and implementation brand globally

in Teamcenter PLM domain by focusing on innovation,

improving excellence, expanding market presence

in emerging markets, improving ability to develop

capability for future market opportunities and many

more in the coming years.

Umesh Deshpande,

Director

By Rashmisree Deb

Manish Garg,

Owner

PLM Companies


PLM Companies


Digital Design Solutions today has grown profoundly to a complete solution provider with a vision to solve customer problems by using high-end CAD CAM and PLM solutions

Driven by the power of insight, FaithPLM Solutions ofers best it pricing model which strike the right balance between the customer’s expectations of Quality, Timeliness and Cost


G4 Solutions & Applications: Carving PLM Dreams

into RealityBy Rashmisree Deb

According to CIM Data, the global PLM

investment growth rates from the year 2011 to

2014 were 15 percent, 11.6 percent, 4.8 percent

and 5.6 percent, which opened the door of

opportunities for the bigwigs in the industry to install PLM

tools. However, to extract best out of these tools, each of

these companies needed to customize their PLM tools.

While the ambitious companies lacked the understanding

of the industry and dived into things without a cohesive

plan, G4 Solutions – a Hyderabad headquartered PLM

customization enabler – joined the breed of companies

who redeined the industry by embarking upon the opportunities for rapid growth in the ‘High Value – Low

Volume’ segment.

Incepted in the year 2009, G4 Solutions is a fast growing

engineering services organization with vast pool of best

practices and experience in offering cost-effective CAD/

CAM/CAE tools. The company also uses this knowledge

pool to provide consultancy and customized CAD/CAM

trainings to corporate clients in India and abroad. “We

can compete with the best of the lot in handling complex

projects and beat them hands down with our pricing in

the areas of Product Design/ Tool Design/FEA/Tool Path Generation/Design Automation/Visualization

areas,” afirms Srinivas Kumar T., Founder & CEO,G4 Solutions & Applications.

G4 Tool Kit – A Unique OferingSpotting the potential for customization of PLM

tools, G4 Solutions introduced ‘G4 Tool Kit’

to its clients. This tool kit offers a collective

experience of their best-in-breed

designers and a set of customizable

utilities, helping clients to igure out complicated design problems in a

timely manner that it nicely in the clients’ pocket. These world-class

services are expected to drive the

major chunk of revenue in the next

3-5 years. Looking ahead, G4 Tool

Kit intends to become customers’

favorite ‘Design for Manufacture

(DFM)’ tool, which will address

the needs of the customers across the globe.

Visualization, validation and optimization of complex

designs are some of the most common issues faced by the

clients. Unlike other companies who are always ready

to feed customers whatever they have, this ive-year old company addresses these challenges by spending

quality time to penetrate deep into the problems from the

customers’ perspective before offering any solution to

those challenges.

G4 Solutions – As a People Friendly EntityIn his famous book ‘One Minute Manager’, Ken Blanchard has perfectly explained the essence of happy people. He

says, ‘happy people are the most productive people’.

As a people-centric organization, G4 Solutions irmly believes in his ethos and make its people happy, thus

productive, by promoting the concept of fun learning. The

company also boosts the morale of its team members with

initiatives like ‘Employee of the Month’ and

‘Employee of the Year’ cash awards. “On the innovation front, we encourage all

our team members to look at various

design issues, come up with their own

approaches to solve them, compare

their approach with those of others

and embrace the best approach. With

this approach, we plan to create more

utilities to solve the design problems,”

says Srinivas. The management believes

in acting as a friend, philosopher &

guide to the design team. The

employees are more of a family

than just colleagues. The

company emphasizes on giving

primary importance to customer

expectations and encourages

people to excel in their chosen

areas. To keep the success ball

rolling, G4 Solutions, apart from

offering services, is looking

forward to develop products that

will address the pain points of

various clients across the globe.

Srinivas Kumar,

Founder & CEO

PLM Companies


siliconindia | | December 201457


Big Data: The term “Big

Data” seems to be

everywhere these days.

The entire world is talking

about it. As deined by Gartner, the world’s leading information

technology research and advisory

company, Big Data is “high-volume,

high-velocity and high-variety

information assets that demand

cost-effective, innovative forms of

information processing for enhanced

insight and decision-making”. These

extremely large data sets may be

analyzed computationally to reveal

patterns, trends, and associations.

While India is in the middle of

economic growth, it is in the right

position to capitalize on the growth

of the Big Data technologies. What

is most exciting about Big Data in

India is that many organizations are

not yet realizing the hidden beneits of utilizing their business data to its

fullest extent. As we move into 2015,

Big Data is going to increase number

of opportunities for creating business

competitive advantage, but irst it must address key challenges that

have been holding back its growth.

Big Data for Businesses There is a public notion that the

ownership of Big Data is sole

responsibility of the IT teams in

any organization. Yet, according to Gartner’s prediction, even by

the end of this decade the spending

on technology outside of the IT

department will become 90 percent

of total spending within organization.

Why? With the right infrastructure and tools, Big Data offers clear and

deinite value to all aspects of the business. Thus, to be competitive

on the market, the organizations

would have to take responsibility for

Big Data decisions, to adjust their

business strategies and to embrace

the inevitable takeover by the Big

Data revolution.

The expectations from Big Data

2015 in businesses are based on the

potential in utilization of diverse

customer data on: devices they use,

their preferences, activities, locations,

and interests. By applying innovative

complex data analysis, mathematical

modeling and sophisticated artiicial intelligence processing, the Big Data

enables businesses with optimized

decision-making processes of a new

and high value. Thus, by exploiting

existing 3HV characteristics of

Big Data (high-volume, high-

velocity, and high-variety), the

fourth characteristic comes to live:

high-value. The 4HV characteristics

of Big Data are important and

interdependent in the businesses of

the future. So much so, that it will

be impossible to run a proitable business without addressing

performance of the driving forces for

each of these HV characteristics.

New Competitive AdvantageIn the past, Big Data has been

used primarily in social media by

capitalizing on users’ interactions

for better targeting customers with

tailored content. In 2015, we can

expect to see Big Data generating

new growth opportunities in various

industries by creating competitive

advantages. In most industries,

established competitors and new

entrants alike will leverage data-

driven strategies to innovate,

compete, and capture value. For example, in the U.S. healthcare

business sector, Big Data pioneers

analyze drug treatment outcomes

within a long timeframe of the widely

prescribed medicine. As a result, they

uncover previously unknown beneits and risks of side effects that were not

evident during limited clinical trials.

Such knowledge then informs the

creation of new therapy protocols,

new drugs or service offerings and

ultimately – a better healthcare.

Big Security ChallengesAs the amount of data

being collected grows

disproportionally fast,

more and more companies

are building repositories

to store, aggregate and

extract meaning from

their valuable proprietary

data. Unfortunately, this trend in data

growth and resulted data aggregates,

brings to light numerous threats from

cyber attackers. Any type of cyber

attack can be devastating for the

affected organizations. Terabytes of

data in these repositories may include

trade secrets and intellectual capital

of the company, their customer and

employee data. By corrupting thi

Documents

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