India - an Integral Part of PTC's R&D Ecosystem

On September 11, 2012 I got chance to visit PTC R&D center Pune, India for the press conference.  This was for first time I visited PTC development center, the building was quite impressive, looks like some 3D Assembly! It was nice to see many of the media folks that I only get to see at CAD events, automotive and manufacturing expos. The purpose of this conference was not just to give an overview on PTC’s product line but aim was to introduce R&D Pune center, its activities to world.

                                                          PTC Software (India) Pvt. Ltd. Marisoft

The day started off with Jeffery W. Wilmot, Country Manager for India and Senior Vice President of product lifecycle, delivering the keynote, “PTC’s Initiatives”.  The theme was:

‘Delivering product and service advantage’

As a CAD user and customer, it is always good to see the priorities and commitments of company towards customer.

Jeff was appointed as new SVP, Country Manager for India in May 2012. He works from Bangalore office. It was very good opportunity for us to interact with him to know his views on various fronts. His prior experience is with US market but looks very passionate to work in India. He sees tremendous growth potential here; and said “India has always been a major focus area for PTC”

With a focus on resolving customer problems, he gave an overview on the company’s approach in solving challenges using process expertise, technology and following customer centric engagement model.

Furthermore, he gave information on company’s global presence. Anybody reading this post would be exultant to see the global figures.

6100 employees in 30 countries around the world

1950 R&D employees

1375 service professionals

27, 000+ active customers

1,193, 000+ Windchill users

1,566,000+ total active seats

It was nice to know that 42% of R&D employees work from Pune, India and it is the biggest R&D center among the 18 global R&D locations worldwide. “Our success so far in India is indicative of the tremendous growth and opportunity that we see in the Indian design and engineering industry”, said Jeffery W. Wilmot

In last couple of years, Pune has emerged as the best choice for outsourcing R&D work for American and European corporations due to availability of English speaking educated, skilled manpower.  Also, there are many small innovative companies who have created an ecosystem for research excellence.

Pune is the focal point for India's CAD, CAM and CAE activity. PTC is not only the company hosting its development center here but there are many renowned CAD vendors like Geometric  Global, Autodesk, Bentley, Tata Technologies, 3dplm, Delcam, Altair, Ansys and Siemens PLM having their development centers here. Today, there are more than 5000 CAD, CAM and CAE software developers here.  

“We are doing excellent business in India this year, no matter what media talks about the down economy and manufacturing sector growth” said Mr. Jeff 

                        Mr. Venkateswaran Pazhambalacode, Jeffery W. Wilmot and Dr. Rajiv Agarwal

He concluded his presentation by giving overview on PTC’s academic initiatives and social activities.

Next to take over the stage was Mr. Venkateswaran Pazhambalacode, VP Software development.

His name was not new to me, I often heard about him from my friends working in R&D. He is very active person involved in software development activities of almost all PTC products for last 18 years. He looks after the product management, development, testing and release management teams. He joined Computer Vision in 1994 and got into PTC, when it acquired Computer Vision in Jan 1998.

It was really great feeling to know the growth story of the company in India from Mr. Venkateswaran who is with the company all these years.  “Company started with 180 employees in 1998, today we have reached to 750 employees in Pune” said Mr. Venkateswaran

He gave brief intro about the software lifecycle evolution at R&D. Company has developed its own standards to make world class innovative products.  “I feel very proud to tell that the products like Creo, Windchill and Arbotext are developed at our facility in Pune” said Mr.Venkateshwaran

The company has around 400 professionals for Windchill development in India. The leading automotive manufacturers and home appliances manufacturers worldwide manages their product development and business processes throughout life cycle with the Windchill certifies the quality product developed by R&D team. 

42% of PTC’s total R&D professionals are Indians. In 2004 company shifted to Marisoft facility and later added Weikfield IT CITI Info Park facility in 2006. Today, 348 employees work from Marisoft and 348 from Weikfield. There is also a small team of 33 professionals working from Hyderabad.

“Our employees are biggest asset for us; we have around 100 employees with more than 10 years of experience with PTC” said Mr. Venkateswaran 

Just outstanding!

Nice to know about so many employees working with a single organization for more than 10 years. Company has best talents working in R&D, it’s a gossip in CAD developers community that cracking an interview in PTC is much difficult than other CAD vendors working from India. PTC offers competitive packages along with the world class facilities and workspace.

Dr. Rajiv Agarwal, VP Software development was up next to introduce company’s social and academic activities. . He manages all the development and quality assurance activities for PTC’s Creo software product line.

It was nice to know the overwhelming response to FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Tech Challenge India Robotic Competition last year.

FIRST Tech challenge is really very good initiative by company. It gives students an opportunity to exhibit and sharpen their creative talent under the supervision of industry experts while providing an international platform for students who wish to contribute and excel in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. Basic training on Creo, Mathcad and Windchill is given to participants to develop a working model of robot with guidance from mentors. 

   

This year’s FIRST challenge is announced. More than 50 volunteers from PTC Pune have already registered to guide students for the forthcoming competition. Class VIII and IX School students throughout country participate in building and programming the robot.  The winners here are given chance to compete at world event.

FIRST website, visit for details http://www.ptc.com/company/community/first/index.htm

PTC also, offers around fifty internship for engineering students every year.   Internship period vary from 6 months to 1 year. Large percentage of interns turns to employees.

                                                                      With speakers

Overall, it was a remarkable event. Building great products depends on great people. Really good to know the more about PTC’s R&D facility and happy to know about India’s contribution to CAD world!