Recently, ITNewsBuzz team got a chance to interact with Guido Porro, VP – Worldwide Value Solutions – Indirect Channel, Dassault Systemes
Dassault Systèmes operates in India across Aerospace and Defence (A&D), Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Consumer Goods and Retail (CG&R), Transportation and Mobility (T&M), Energy Processes and Utilities (EPU), Marine and Offshore (M&O),High Technology, Natural Resources, Life Sciences, Academia etc. The company works with some major brands in India such as Myntra, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Honda and Mahindra amongst others. Recently, ITNewsBuzz team got a chance to interact with Guido Porro, VP – Worldwide Value Solutions – Indirect Channel, Dassault Systemes, where he shed light on the pivotal role played by Dassault Systèmes’ partners in reaching out to MSMEs around the country and company’s plans for the partner ecosystem in India.
ITNewsBuzz: First of all we will start with Dassault Solutions and Services and your role.
Guido Porro: Yeah. My role is to lead the worldwide solution channel. It’s the distribution channel. We call it value-added resellers. This is one of the most important data from the digital point of view for Dassault Systèmes as we do recognise that in order to scale up our presence all over the countries, all over the industries, all over the disciplines that we want to target and they are enlarging every day thanks to new development in R&D, but also thanks to new acquisitions when in order to scale up on this we really need to have the fuel that is coming from – and the proximity that is coming from the partners. So that is my role.
ITNewsBuzz: Where do partners stand in Dassault Systèmes scheme of things?
Guido Porro: Well first of all it is a significant component of our revenues. At worldwide level we can articulate a little more with a bit more precision but I can assume it is in the range of 50% of our revenues. So everything that is related to partners, 50% of this revenue is coming from partners, which is a big significant portion.
Then it’s a matter of fact that it’s also one of the areas where we are growing the most. And this is driven by different areas. The first one was related to the fact that in terms of diversification we need agility to execute on the field. When we are talking about diversification we have two drivers. The first one is related to the industries because we want to manage to be the leader not only in the classic industry forums that are specific in the French transportation mobility industry, we don’t see new one. These are the new areas where we want to develop. And in order to penetrate very fast in such a kind of green field kind of engagement, going with partners is much easier
ITNewsBuzz: Are there any particular verticals that you are looking for?
Guido Porro: Yeah. So one of their where our partners are particularly keen to develop here in India. You mean specifically in India or generally speak on a worldwide level?
So one of the areas that we do see here is great potential is what is called the digital manufacturing. Everything that has to do with digital manufacturing. But actually when you are referring to digital manufacturing you are already including this word that is digital which for us is a bit misleading. So we do believe that the centre of our value proposition we have to put for us for our customer and also for the customer in the supply chain, we do believe that we have to put the experience.
So meaning everything that you have to develop in terms of processes, in terms of technology as to have like an obsession, has to have the customer in mind. Meaning what is really the need we want to answer – the customer need that we want to answer. So if you look at this manufacturing, digital manufacturing, it is only a portion of this big topic. So we may want to call it industrial renaissance instead of digital revolution or digital continuity and so on and so forth.
ITNewsBuzz: What are the factors that are making IOT and AI more popular?
Guido Porro: It’s true.We do believe that there are different factors related to this. First of all, it is the level of maturation or maturity that is becoming real between different technologies. This is another thing that you may want to add on top of the internet of things and artificial intelligence. So there was technology till a few years ago that was the so-called topological optimization. So this is a way to really design any product. It can be the anything; it can be a piece of this computer and so on and so forth. In order to reduce as much as possible, the weight of it, preserving the capabilities from engineering point of view.
Then you have the other technology that is the additive manufacturing. So that is completely different in terms of visual compared to the additive manufacturing. So they were going in the direction that was kind of parallel that at some point in time there was a chance to merge the two. So one technology, the one related to the optimisation of the parts that was purely theoretical was able then to be reused thanks to the new technology of the capability.
Keeping these technological trends IOT and AI in mind what is the biggest challenge for India market and for the global market?
Well we do believe that this technology is quite mature from a pure technological point of view. So we do believe that in India but also in worldwide level the word for talent is definitely something that needs to be taken seriously. And that’s the reason at Dassault Systèmes, we are investing so much in what we call the topic of the work force of the future.
ITNewsBuzz: Would you like to talk something about the challenges for the India market?
Guido Porro: Particularly in context of India, the availability of skilled manpower is one of the issues which is a kind of a road block in technology adoption. So there are business challenges, there are opportunities. But we need competent people who understand this technology and use it meaningfully in terms of drawing a business benefit for the organisation.
So from this point of view we do believe that interacting a lot with the academia ecosystem, the universities, the colleges, is one of our top priorities as I feel that we can comment on this one later on if you want to learn more it is about what we are doing here with the universities.
ITNewsBuzz: How many trained partners do you have in India and global market?
Guido Porro: India is definitely one of the areas where we are developing more in terms of partners and this is a trend we have seen in the last few years. So the number is in the range of 50 partnersand worldwide level we are in the range of 700.
ITNewsBuzz: What’s your criterion to choose the right mix of partners for Dassault Systèmes?
Guido Porro: Right. So as I said the partners – our business here in India was focusing on artificial mobility, aerospace and defence and industrial equipment. We are coming from our period where we invested a lot in engineering framework. So the best partners for us are the ones that are able to take the best award here in specific industries. In this specific domain from the engineering point of view, from the design point of view, from the designing thinking point of view and to enlarge the scope outside the boundary of the engineering department and outside the boundary of the industry that I mentioned before.
Even in the simulation framework we acquired a lot of companies. So the partners that we want are the ones that are leveraging the core that they have done in the last few years.
ITNewsBuzz: What are your investment plans in India with respect to the partner reach or maybe the training programs?
Guido Porro: Yeah. We do believe that as the company we are a scientific company. We are defining as more scientific company than IT Company. And this is something that has to be reflected or somehow mirrored also by our partners. That’s the reason why we are used to provide to our partners a set of training that range from the pure IT implementation. But those are the ones related to the comprehension of the business driver that are really driving the decision of our best customer from the business point of view.
So if you already want to have an impact in terms of space but also from the technological point of view, we do believe that our partner has to become more and more industry expert. These are the kind of trainings that we are developing. On top of it we are following our partners also in terms of business development meaning that we do believe that all the topics that you raised before like for example artificial intelligence, internet of things, that for us are well included in what we call the topic of the experience economy. If they really want to manage properly such a significant growth driver on top of more technological like for example the cloud and so on and so forth, they have also to change their business model.
ITNewsBuzz: Any numbers? I mean what numbers are you planning to increase the partners?
Guido Porro: The numbers will be in line with our double digit growth requirement. So we do see that there is an efficiency effect on the double digit
ITNewsBuzz: How was the last quarter for Dassault Systèmes and what are your expectations for the next quarter?
Guido Porro: The last quarter was really good. I would say that India was most probably one of the best geography at a worldwide level, in a contest at a worldwide level that was very good in itself.
ITNewsBuzz: What would be finally a message for the channel partners of India? Also, what would be your tips for them how they can join you or what’s the criterion that they should follow to be a partner of Dassault Systèmes?
Guido Porro: Right. We do believe that India is among at a worldwide level one of the geography, where we are going to invest the most. So if there are entrepreneurs who is generally speaking a part of the existent ecosystem partner that wants to grow more in terms of not only revenues but also capabilities this is the password. This is the idea of the future.
ITNewsBuzz: Also, I would like to know your plans for the MSME segments in India.
Guido Porro: So for MSME’s in India we do see that it is moving and we do see that this area is going to grow more than most probably the largest companies because we do see that India is really taking a lot of attention to everything that has to do with start-ups. And start-ups in the area that for us we live in engineering design, manufacturing, service. We know that in terms of pool of capabilities and willingness to do India is second to none. Actually it is the third hub of start-ups in the world as far as we understood from the numbers. These are especially the innovative ones. The one that is disrupting the business at this point of time in worldwide level is in areas like drones, like electrical vehicles and so on. These are the ones where we are extremely successful and we are grabbing market share and winning everywhere. And for us more than doing business we do believe that especially thanks to new technologies like for example cloud we are going to make a very good, the best of our technology. The best of our technology is typically only available for our top huge customers are going to be available right away and will be readily available right away to our best customer but is more a middle one.
ITNewsBuzz: Any initiative that you have taken recently that you would like to highlight?
Guido Porro: Yeah. There are at least two initiatives that I would like to highlight. The first one is the one on the specific package on the electrical vehicles start-ups for which we furnished specific packages that are really ready to be used for this kind of companies. Start-ups maybe not more than 10, 20, 50 people at once to start immediately designing such a kind of technology at the same level of the one that are more found in California. And the second one is everything that I mentioned before that has to do with the areas of innovation in aerospace and defence arena. Especially for tier 1, tier 2 of the OEM you have specific package that are really integrating the best of the technology of the huge customer
This is absolutely because we do see that tier 1 and tier 2 are evolving in terms of engineering capabilities and so they are requesting more and more not only in captive mode the technology that is used by OEM but also the one that are related to their independence in terms of business development and so on and so forth. This is something for which I would add it as a third initiative that we are developing.
