'Dassault is Omnipresent in India': Prasanta Kr Das, Dassault Systèmes

Prasanta Kr Das, Vice President Value Solutions at Dassault Systèmes in an interaction with DQ Channels talks about company's channel ecosystem and roadmap ahead in upcoming months.

How would you categorize Dassault Systèmes business approach in India?

Dassault Systèmes operates in India under three channels of sales. The first would be Business transformation under which the named accounts would be functioning. Next we have the value solutions which primarily work through the channel partners ecosystem. The third would be the professional channels under which brands like Solidworks are being sold. In India, both business transformation and value solutions operate in the same industry segments with similar brands and products, the only difference being value solutions working through a channel ecosystem.

Where would the value solutions group be specifically operating and what are the opportunities in these industries?

The value solutions operates across 12 industries (verticals) out of which in India we specifically focus on about 7-8 across core industries. These would include Aerospace & Defence, Natural Resources (including mining), Transportation & mobility, Industrial equipments, Consumer goods and packaging amongst others. Some of these industries like natural resources have come to us through acquisitions, while in the rest we have developed our strength organically.

The market opportunity in India for Dassault Systèmes  is incredible, we have been raising the bar through our 3DEXPERIENCE Platform in various industry verticals such as automobile & transportation, Aerospace & Defence, Engineering Services. We have also identified new areas of growth in sectors such as Consumer goods and retail, natural resources and Healthcare for which both the industry’s expertise and the knowledge of the 3DEXPERIENCE Platform of our partners will contribute to our market expansion in India.

What sort of channel ecosystem addresses these industries and through what solutions?

We address these industries through brands like , 3DEXCITE,, BIOVIA, CATIA, DELMIA, DRAFTSIGHT, ENOVIA, EXALEAD, GEOVIA, NETVIBES, SIMULIA and 3DSWYM though here too some have come into our portfolio through acquisitions while for the rest we have developed our expertise in house. We address these industries through these products with the help of 15 value added resellers who have specific market expertise for these industries. These would include the likes of Tata Technologies, EDS Technologies, CSM Software, ALTEM Technologies,  Xitadel Technologies,  amongst others. Last year we added 2 partners into this ecosystem.

Can you elaborate on how Dassault makes this channel ecosystem work?

The value solutions channel ecosystem in India mainly works under four pillars. The first one would be partner acquisition and subsequently enablement whereby we identify the partners who are capable of selling to these industries. We have a comprehensive process for on boarding of channels. We invest a lot on co marketing activities for our partners including mapping the addressable and potential market size for our partners and its team for our focussed industries

In the second pillar, a partner success manager is assigned to each partner to help them in their go to market with each customer. The third pillar is partner development whereby Dassault Systèmes helps these partners to develop and their business ecosystem as well as enhance their servicing capabilities. The last pillar is partner excellence whereby the focus is on technology training, domain specific training, pre sales training, technology orientations and certifications for the partners.

What would you highlight as Dassault’s key focus area in the last few months?

In 2016 we have been focussing on – recruiting and developing partners with excellent domain expertise and market reputation and providing our partners with differentiable business offers to address the market. While realizing strong business growth; there is still great potential for partners to address large untapped markets in India and neighbouring countries with all our Industry solution experience offers across verticals. We at Dassault Systèmes have also invested heavily in building up strong team that works across academia with key focus in the development and enhancing employability across the industries