CAD, CAE Webinars – an affordable and highly effective way of delivering training!

Web is growing. Companies are getting social, use social media and other online tools to promote services, share knowledge, launch new products.

Compared to blog post or a YouTube video I think Webinars are a best way to demonstrate your expertise and give your company’s value to customer who really want to know everything before making their purchase or learn more about product after purchase. Conducting webinars is an incredible way to get your service information out with very less overhead cost. 

The companies conducting webinars must keep in mind that the agenda should not merely to advertise their company and products.  The agenda of the webinar must be clear with the title. 90% of the attendees decide on registration of the webinar just by looking at the title. There are good webinar hosting services available with very less fees charged to conduct it.

Few reasons the CAD, CAM, CAE, CFD webinars becoming popular are,

Education, Knowledge sharing and Training:

The CAD, CAE vendors and their VARs conduct webinars regularly, keeping in the mind the target audience. They conduct webinars from basic to advance topics. Like PTC conducts webinars on basic topics like “Introduction to Creo Parametric” to more advance topics on Mathcad, Windchill and on specific modules like “Manufacturing in Creo Parametric”.

The companies like MSC Software covers advance topics on composite materials, aerospace targeting CAE Analysts or engineering managers. Similarly, ANSYS conducts the advance topic webinars, the topics and the presenters that webinars have are unmatchable. No institute can afford to have such knowledgeable speakers to train users, the training content in webinars is far better than that is taught in training institutes.

The main advantage over watching a video on same topic is that the attendees can join in for a LIVE Q&A and get answers from experts.

Almost, all CAD, CAE, CFD vendors are offering webinars every day. One should check the time before registering for the webinar.  You also have option to convert time to your local time. Few webinars are offered at IST (Indian Standard Time).

Companies offer systematic calendar for the webinars, like PTC, Autodesk, DS SolidWorks and ANSYS. So, it’s easy to find required topics on single page. 

http://www.ptc.com/events/education/calendar.htm

http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=17823354&siteID=452932

http://www.ansys.com/About%20ANSYS/Worldwide%20Events

http://www.solidworks.in/sw/upcoming-webinars.htm

Convenience:

Conducting webinars and attaining it is more convenient then attaining the seminars or conferences. One just need an internet connection, anyone can attain it, let it be office, hotel or house thru PC, Laptop, Tab and Smartphone. 

Brand Awareness and Promotion:

It is possible that you may not get the hefty response at start. Good way to start with your existing customers, promote it on social networks and other advertising media. It helps in creating brand awareness among the attendees while being able to deliver critical information regarding the product or service being presented. Companies directly get connected to customers through this, potential customers are able to ask questions about the product and service while gaining knowledge about it.

Networking:

Webinars help in networking with the potential customers.  The attendees also get chance to connect with the host, speakers. The sign up page of webinar must have an email contact, mobile number and demographics. This allows companies to generate a potential client and invite them for future webinars on similar topics.

On demand Webinars/Recorded Webinars:

These webinars are generally recorded version of the webinars held previously. It is good way to access them anytime you want. Many times if attendee missed webinar he/she can play the recorded version. The training departments of companies and design institutes must consider such pre-recorded webinars to train their manpower or students.

Check this on-demand webinars by Autodesk and SolidWorks 

http://www.autodesk.co.uk/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=17823354&siteID=452932

http://www.solidworks.in/sw/resources/recorded-webinars.htm

Few webinars are conducted on IST, most are conducted from US/Europe on their time. It may be late night here in India. It’s great to see some SolidWorks re-sellers, BricsCAD, ANSYS, Autodesk India conducting webinars for Indian design professionals and engineering students. Hope other follows them.


Webinars benefits both - host and the attendees!!  

 DailyCADCAM is planning to have one bulk mailer on latest webinars every 15 days for the subscribed users (newsletter). If interested in getting updates on webinars please do join us by subscribing your mail ID on http://www.dailycadcam.com/site/newsletter

A Conversation with Mr. Rob Gremley VP Product Development and Corporate Marketing PTC and Mr. Subash Nambiar India Country manager PTC

Last week, I had an opportunity to meet Mr. Robert Gremley (Rob) Executive Vice President Product Development and Corporate Marketing PTC and recently appointed VP and India Country manager PTC Mr. Subash Nambiar.

I'm glad to have an opportunity to interview both for the DailyCADCAM. Here are my questions and Rob Gremley and Subash Nambiar’s insightful responses.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role in PTC?

Mr. Rob Gremley: I am mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute, started my career as a design engineer at Kollsman Manufacturing Company. Later, in 1989 joined PTC and have been working at various positions in the organization over a period of time. Since 2009, I am working as an executive vice president, Product Development and Corporate Marketing at PTC.

In this role, I am responsible for providing leadership and oversight of PTC’s R&D, QA, executing marketing strategy and worldwide marketing operations.

Mr. Subash Nambiar:  I did master in commerce from University of Madras, later did MBA from Singapore Management University and PGDEM, Export Management from IIEM. I started my career or articleship in 1984 at Kuruvilla & Kuruvilla consultants. I have worked as a sr. Director Sales at Oracle India for last seven years and as a Deputy General Manager  at IBM India for three and half years. Joined PTC in Dec 2013 and I’m excited to work with such an innovative company and look forward for a long term with the company.

What are the growth rates and priorities for ASIA?

 As far as revenue is involved, 1/3 of  revenue is generated from US, equal from Europe and ASIA. We have witnessed the significant growth in India, China, Japan, Malaysia and other countries. 

What difference you find in China and India CAD market?  

(Laughs) both are growing economies, especially in manufacturing sector.  Looking at the growth rate in India, we are investing as much here as in China. India is the second fastest-growing market in the world after China. In China, the product development is much faster; more innovative products are developed compared to India keeping in the mind the global market. We also see a lot of opportunities in both the countries. We have quite high customer acquisition rate in Automotive, Aerospace, Defense and Industrial equipments as compared to competition.   

Why PTC offers only Creo CAD package and why not a specific tool for the particular industry, like other vendors are offering, like we have SolidWorks Plastics, Electrical or AutoCAD Electrical or Mechanical?

Very good marketing question, we offer the solutions as per role, industry and business needs. Some vendors have given specific names to their products assigned for particular industry, say Electrical or plastic and some offer single solution with various modules as per roles and industry requirement. We have wide range of modules for every industry vertical. We provide solution as per the requirement from the customer.

With Mr. Rob Gremley (Left) VP Product Development and Corporate Marketing PTC and Mr. Subash Nambiar  (Right) India Country manager PTC  

How is PTC’s PLM Market in India?

We see good demand for PLM in the emerging markets. Windchill is doing exceptionally well and have a large client base using state of the art PTC-PLM solutions in India.

Today, PTC works with more than 27,000 businesses around the world to help them design and service products in rapidly-evolving, globally distributed manufacturing industries, including industrial equipment, automotive, high tech and electronics, aerospace and defense, retail, consumer, and medical devices.

We have good number of Indian companies in each sector using our PLM solutions. We have wide range of product in this segment like Windchill FelxPLM, Windchill PPMLink, Windchill PDMLink etc. with various modules and options as per customer’s requirement. We have good presence in Automotive, consumer goods, electronics and mid-size companies in India.

What are your views on cloud computing in CAD space?

We are already offering the cloud based Wildchill PLM solutions since 2005. It is available as an online service. The manufacturing sector is slow in adapting the cloud technology due to security reasons and Internet bandwidth issue. Though few customers have gone for the private cloud solution we do not push our customers and believe in natural migration.

Mr. Subash Nambiar:  We have more than 50 customers using cloud solutions successfully since long time through netideas. Most customers are looking for private cloud, where data can be shared within organization or departments with complete security.

It’s long time that Pro/E was renamed as ‘Creo’ but design engineers still remember PTC for Pro/E. What are your views on this?

True, Pro/E has emerged as a big brand. It was one of the best parametric 3D tools available. In 2010 when we announced our new package ‘project lightning’ showed it to few customers and bloggers. New tool was having completely new environment and capabilities. After looking a demo one of the customers said ‘It’s amazing! It’s not at all a Pro/E it’s totally different’. He was right we wanted to redefine CAD market with our new product. It was earlier called as project lightning and later named as Creo.  The new tool delivers four breakthrough technologies that address the lingering challenges of usability, interoperability, technology lock-in and assembly management.

Thousands of Pro/ENGINEER customers have already made the move to PTC Creo. Soon, we are coming up with the PTC Creo 3 at PTC’s premier annual conference ‘PTC Live Tech Global’ that will be held on June 15-18, 2014 in Boston. Join us to see the latest developments in Creo 3!

Anything that you would like to say about design engineers in India and about the PTC’s development center in Pune?

Yes, of course! There is tremendous opportunity for innovation. Take advantage of our products for every industry. Also, check our other products like,

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) for managing all aspects of software & systems development. Supply Chain Management (SCM) for manufacturers to align product design and supply chain planning strategies and Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) to optimize the system of people, processes and technology to enable greater service performance and improvement.

We are celebrating PTC’s 20^th anniversary in India this year, having an annual gathering this week in Pune. From an R&D perspective, we have about 1000 people in India, out of a total of 2500 people in R&D globally. Our hardcore product development activity is done in India, and product development team here is a tremendous success for PTC. 

I would like to thank Mr. Rob Gremley and Mr. Subash Nambiar for their time. Best wishes to Mr. Subash Nambiar for being appointed as India Country manager PTC.