The $2-billion Dassault Systemes is betting big on the growing economy in India. The firm, which provides product lifecycle management (PLM) software solutions globally, wants to take its software to the next level of a 3D life-like experience that will put the product in its usage before it is actually manufactured. Bernard Charl?s, president & CEO of Dassault Syst?mes, in an interaction with FE?s Rachana Khanzode, gives an elaborative view of the company?s strategic moves. He talks about how Dassault is all set to grow double to a $ 4-billion company in the next five years and how important is India for the company.
What is the next level of growth that Dassault is eyeing and what is your strategy to achieve it?
In the last ten years, the focus for Dassault was on the PLM digital work up. In the next 10 years, i.e., by around 2021, we want to take PLM to a 3D life-like experience that will put a product in its usage before it is manufactured. This will be the growth factor and we see a lot of attraction coming from energy, hydroelectric, solar and wind energy, sea wave, auto and manufacturing sectors. It wouldn?t be difficult for Dassault to reach the $4-billion mark in five years because we have already started seeing attraction from major players in the industry and across verticals.
Can you elaborate on the 3D life-like experience and how it’s going to help customers?
The 3D life-like experience wouldn?t limit itself to just the product manufacturing, it will be beyond that. In a sense, for a FMCG company like Procter & Gamble, it would become an important aspect to study consumers. For example, when an individual would look at a product online, the software will capture the preferences of the consumer. Thus, in a way it will enable keeping track of customers and their reactions. This would be applicable to all the areas – automobiles, motorcycles, consumer packaging, FMCG amongst others. We are investing about $600-700 million every year in research & development (R&D) to reach that level of the 3D life-like experience. Here we are talking about managing extreme cycle time, volume and customer studies. Also, material utilisation, plant optimisation, material compliancy, sourcing of material and packaging would be put high in the priority list. P&G says it would save $150 million a year just on material acquisition through this technology.
How important is India for Dassault in this process?
At the moment, Asia contributes about 30%, Europe about 48% and the US the rest (about 20%). Though Japan contributes a major part of the Asia revenues, clearly India and China are the fastest growing markets for us. In the next five years, we see Asia contributing more than Europe and the US. We see a lot of terrain modeling, geo holding, project layout, risk planning, hydro installation and plant design to take place in this market. In India, we will focus on manufacturing (automobiles), shipbuilding, energy and infrastructure.
