A Discussion With David Street (Asia Director of Marketing and Business Development for ANSYS)

David Street (Asia Director of Marketing and Business Development for ANSYS)

 ANSYS needs no introduction among the CAD, FEA, CAE and CFD professionals. Today, 96 out of top 100 industrial companies on the FORTUNE Global 500 list are using ANSYS products to drive innovation. The Company offers a common platform of fully integrated multiphysics software tools designed to optimize product development processes for a wide range of industries, including aerospace, automotive, civil engineering, consumer products, chemical process, electronics, environmental, healthcare, marine, power, sports and others.

The company now known as ANSYS was founded in 1970. The Company has grown both organically and through acquisition throughout its drive toward offering an integrated, full-spectrum portfolio of engineering simulation solutions. Today, the suite of engineering simulation tools from ANSYS is a solution set of unparalleled breadth that goes well beyond FEA and CFD to include interoperative structural, fluid flow, thermal, electromagnetics and related technologies.

ANSYS has more than 60 strategic sales locations throughout the world in addition to a substantial network of channel partners. Combined with its subsidiaries, ANSYS employs over 2,600 people, making it a truly global company.

 During, 2013 ANSYS Regional Conferences in Pune I had an opportunity to meet David Street, here is the interview.

David, can you tell us about yourself?

Sure, I have been with the ANSYS and the former Fluent organization for over 14 years, before that I worked as a process engineer in a Japanese chemical industry where I was responsible for utilizing computational simulation software to improve process plant performance. I am chemical engineering and PhD holder in CFD from University of Leeds, UK and MBA in Technology and Information Management from Theseus IMI in France. Presently, I work from Japan and look after the Marketing and Business Development for ANSYS in Asia.   

How is your experience with India?

Very positive, In India we are formally registered as 'ANSYS Software Private Limited' and operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of ANSYS, Inc., USA. We are headquartered in Bengaluru and have offices in Pune, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Noida.

ANSYS Convergence 2013, Pune

We had two regional conferences ‘ANSYS Convergence 2013’ here in India this year. It is very hearting to see the overwhelming response from design community in India. We had around 1200 attendees in Bangalore and 400 for Pune event. Both venues had very good user presentations showcasing the unique ways in which customers are using solutions from ANSYS to solve challenging problems.

We have 396 employees working in India and good number of employees working on product development and supporting global teams in developing world class product.  

How is ANSYS Market in India?

India is rapidly growing economy; we have good growth in last financial year ended and see increasing demand for our applications in this region. 1/3 of the total revenue comes from ASIA and we see good opportunity as 2013 continues to unfold.

It’s not only the MNCs but the Indian companies like L&T, ISRO, Tata Motors and many medium and small size enterprises are using our solutions. Large number of Government sector, Automotive, Oil and Gas, Consumer Products and Power Sector companies are utilizing our tools for engineering simulation.

I read your recent press releases on acquisitions; can you elaborate the technologies that were added to ANSYS?

 Well yes. We have number of acquisitions recently. Last month we acquired Switzerland based company EVEN – Evolutionary Engineering AG, a leading provider of composite analysis and optimization technology relying on cloud computing. We are now offering the EVEN’s composite technologies through a product called ANSYS Composite PrepPost.

In 2012, ANSYS acquired Esterel Technologies, we now provide a solution to accurately model and simulate the behavior of the embedded software code. Our solution is now used in aerospace, rail transport, automotive, energy, medical devices and other industrial products to design, simulate and produce embedded software.

And, in 2011 we acquired Apache Design Solutions; it helped us to increase our simulation software portfolio in electronics industry.  

Now, we are working on developing complementary combination of cutting edge, customer-driven solutions with the companies we have acquired to accelerate development and delivery of new and innovative products to the market place. 

I see lot of developments in ANSYS. Would you like to highlight any technology/feature added recently?

Well, we always keep on adding new features with the new release. We work hard on providing solution to the customer enhancement requests. The functionality that I would like to share is HPC Parametric Pack license; it offers to run multiple simultaneous parametric analyses. A single ANSYS HPC Parametric Pack license enables execution of four simultaneous design points.  With this functionality more simulations are done in less time, it’s very cost effective. The companies now do not have to go for hiring more engineers to complete bigger tasks instead can go for the HPC Parametric Pack License.

Another thing that I would like to highlight is the Application Customization Toolkit (ACT). It  is easy to use tool to customize ANSYS simulation environment. Even the non-experts can utilize this tool kit to automate various procedures as per company requirement. We call these ACT users as ACTors (smiles).

Sachin Nalawade Editor DailyCADCAM with David Street ANSYS

Does ANSYS products support cloud computing?

Yes, cloud computing is ideally suited for analyst and engineers because it provides immediate access to flexible, HPC resources. We have already announced the cloud solutions in support with our partners, so that the small and medium enterprises would be benefited. At present the service is limited to our customers who already have the local licenses installed. We look forward to have it on mobile devices soon. So today's ANSYS cloud story is really a continuation of a long term focus.

How is your company’s collaboration with academic institutions in India?

We have academic partnerships in place with IITs, reputed Universities and engineering colleges throughout the country. Also, we are working towards better collaboration with the leading Universities, PhD aspirants and professors. To overcome the shortage of CAE manpower in India, we have developed a number of creative approaches to train the next generation of engineers, such as project sponsorships, student competitions and hands-on programs. 

Any message for DailyCADCAM.com users and Indian design professionals? 

   

If your company is looking forward to develop a world class product, the value of creating better product have never been greater then cost you pay for the development of wrong product. Our tools would not just allow you to meet the customer requirements, but exceed their product promises and remain successful in a competitive marketplace. If you have any query, come to ANSYS!

Thank you,

PTC’s Certified User Program through ATC Partners, India

Last Week, I had an opportunity to attain PTC’s Annual Authorized Training Center (ATC) meet,
L E A P 2013 at Hotel Hayatt Regency in Pune. It was great to meet Mr. John D Stuart. SVP Global Education and Country Manager PTC Romania, Eduarda Camacho, VP Partner Services, Mr. Sajith Mohan M.P Director – Education Program and Mr. Rafiq Somani AVP and Country Sales Manager, India

Over 100+ ATC partners participated for this year’s annual summit, shows success of the program started 6 years back. L E A P is great platform to network with other ATC partners and learn about best practices of successful ATCs.  It also provided a unique opportunity for partners to interact with senior management from PTC to gain further insights.

PTC announced the PTC Certified Professional Program, a comprehensive testing program that validates the skills of PTC Creo users based on the latest release –Creo 2. The ATCs would provide the high quality training services on PTC Creo software through In-centre training classes. On successful completion of the program, student would go for the certification test designed and developed by PTC.

While discussing, John D Stuart said “We want to set a new standard of excellence for using PTC Creo for product design and development in India. With our ATC partners we would provide world class training, material, methodology and certification” 

With John D Stuart. SVP Global Education and Country Manager PTC Romania

I think this is very good initiative by PTC, thousands of engineering students undergo training on various CAD products throughout India. Having a quality course content, trained instructor and the latest tools would help students to equip him with the right skills.

“Our motive behind starting the ATCs in India is to bridge the gap between opportunities and skills by bringing engineering students and industry closer to prepare every engineering student for a competitive, global industry” Said John D Stuart “We have target of training around 8000+ engineering students on Creo 2 this year” adds Eduarda Camacho

The industry always complains about the lack of required skills in the fresh engineering graduates. Such, well designed programs would definitely play a vital role to benefit both Industry as well as students. Using tool to its optimum would simulate the innovations in new product development and save time and cost on the product development.  Higher proficiency in using Creo would help students to land into good jobs in India and abroad as well.

“With very high competition among engineering students, they are often looking for ways to set themselves apart from their peers and gain a leg up on the competition,” said John D Stuart “Our Certified User program provides validation of their skills and helps them continue their pursuit of careers in design.”

PTC Certification Program Site

To support this activity, PTC have launched a special website http://www.ptcgsindia.com with simple UI, where the students will find the

-          List of ATCs in India

-          List of courses offered

-          List of trained Instructors

-          List of Students

This list includes the database of students; those who have registered for the ATC program and those who have passed the certification exams. The employers looking for the resources can directly access this list to hire a certified user. 

PTC provides course kit, which includes training manuals, scribbling pad, and pen. Also, monitor and make sure that the instructors follow the PTC training methodology. 

 I had chance to interact with the ATC partner GNA – IMT, Phagwara Punjab. Chitta Ranjan Tripathy of GNA – IMT said that “PTC ATC program is very unique; they provide and support us with the latest tools, world class training material developed by PTC University. So, students trained following the PTC methodology have edge over the other students at the time of interview, we easily get 100% placement for the PTC certified students”

 With Mr. Chitta Ranjan Tripathy of GNA – IMT

It was great to know that more then 500 students are trained on PTC tools by GNA – IMT every year and placed in local companies and MNCs in India and abroad. 

Another ATC partner said that “Creo is one of the best parametric tools, once students are trained on it. They can easily learn and understand any other parametric tool if requires”

  

“I am very delighted with the growth and quality of the Authorized Training Center (ATC) program in India. We are looking forward to implement similar certification program through ATC partners in US and Europe in future”   concludes John D Stuart

Check it.

 http://www.ptcgsindia.com/index.aspx