The Hindu Business Line : SolidWorks sees India as key growth market

WITH the usage of 3D technology getting mainstream for engineering design and analysis, the product lifecycle management (PLM) market in India offers immense potential to global PLM providers such as SolidWorks.

The Indian PLM/CAD/CAM market is estimated at $25 million with the design-centric CAD market alone valued at $10 million. Given such a large opportunity, SolidWorks expects to garner 40 per cent of the market share following the launch of its new product lines.

"There is rapid acceleration in the adoption of 3D CAD software among Indian manufacturers and this is in line with the global trend. We have witnessed a 26-per cent compounded annual growth rate. This is above the industry average of 17-18 per cent which goes to show the potential that both the global and Indian PLM market have. In India, we anticipate three-digit growth over the coming year," Mr C.K. Goh, Regional Sales Manager (South Asia and Middle-East), SolidWorks Corporation, told Business Line.

While SolidWorks registered revenues of $116 last year, during the first half of this year it has already recorded revenues of $95 million, he said. SolidWorks Corporation, develops and markets 3D CAD software for mechanical design, analysis and product data management.

Even though the Indian PLM market has established brands such as Autodesk, ProEngineer and SolidEdge, Mr Goh is optimistic about capturing a substantial share of the Indian PLM market. Currently SolidWorks has over 250 companies on its client list. Interestingly, SolidWorks has an ongoing partnership with Mumbai-based Geometric Software Solutions. Geometric has 45 engineers working on development of 3D CAD software for SolidWorks.

In line with the company's projections on the Indian PLM market, SolidWorks plans to expand its network of channel partners from the existing 20. Other plans include the launch of new solutions in the Cosmos and SolidWorks product portfolio targeting the Indian SMB and manufacturing segment.