PolyWorks has universal approach with focus on India: Patrick Castera

By Niraj M Wanikar, Chief Editor, CNCTimes.com, 2016-06-23 11:48:00

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Quebec, Canada, InnovMetric Software Inc. is the leading provider of universal 3D metrology software solutions. The world’s largest industrial manufacturing organizations trust InnovMetric’s PolyWorks® software solutions and associated technical services to maximize the benefits of 3D measurement technologies for their engineering and manufacturing applications.
The company commenced its India operations seven years ago and has reaped rich dividends since then. The company’s success can be attributed to its policies of connecting people in their local language as well as the straight-to- customer style of branding.
“Our approach has always been to be close to customers. We want to provide technical support in local language as well as in local time zone, so we laid more thrust on this aspect. Keeping the feel of industrial market, mainly automotive and aerospace, intact, we started visiting our customers in India to explain them importance of 3D metrology. Through practical demonstrations, we discussed with them the ways to use 3D metrology data to improve their understanding of their manufacturing process,” explained Mr. Patrick Castera, Director (Marketing) of InnovMetric while speaking to Bhalchandra Chorghade, the Editor of CNCTimes.com.

Its Beneficial
“We have high end 3D metrology solutions, targeting more OEMs and their suppliers. Lot of manufacturing is happening in India and by using PolyWorks the manufacturers can be benefited in many ways. Our PolyWorks solutions require investment, but the returns are 10 times. This is evident from the fact that when we conducted our first PolyWorks Conference in India some five years ago, we had only 20 customers, but now the number of attendees is growing and in the conference held recently in Pune, we had close to 100 customers attending the same,” Mr. Castera said.
Mr. Castera is associated with InnovMetric since 11 years. He started as an application specialist, then became a product manager before holding the current responsibility. Prior to joining InnovMetric, he was working as design engineer in a firm that used PolyWorks and also worked with one of the distributors of PolyWorks.

India-- -The Land of Opportunities
“I love India. It is a land of possibilities, a land of power and technology. The people here are interesting mix, same as that in my native Haiti. People in India are approachable, always eager to ask questions and have discussions. I like that approach since at InnovMetric, we welcome those who question us and always seeking answers. The market in India is emerging and people here are investing heavily in the latest technology. Keeping this in mind we started a subsidiary here that can provide service and partner consumers in measuring equipment. Earlier, the manufacturing industry here was not used to latest technology and was conventional in approach. But now, the manufacturers here are opening up and embracing the new technology such as 3D metrology,” Mr. Castera opined.

Steady Growth
On the response PolyWorks is getting in India, the official said the company started in India seven years ago and the growth was steady. “Since the last one-and- half-year, we are witnessing a very strong growth of not only our product, but also the economy. We have some good technologically advanced products that are pushing the manufacturing sector to open up. The market seems to be enthusiastic towards technology in general and 3D metrology in particular.”

Ready to Compete
About the competition from global as well as Indian players, Mr. Castera said the focus of their competitors is not like that of InnovMetric. “Our philosophy is that of universal approach, and our vision is that one should be able to use any 3D measurement equipment with our PolyWorks software. We believe that PolyWorks should be is at the heart of a 3D metrology department. It’s not only about functionality, our customers are with us as they believe in us and our vision. We want to grow and they want to grow so it is a mutually beneficial relationship,” he added.

Price Sensitivity
Commenting on the price sensitiveness of Indians, Mr. Castera said it’s about what you promise and what you offer. Our product is not only a software but much more than that. Indian customers feel that price is compatible with anyone and our target is high end application. They compare value of our product as they are not only purchasing software but support system available in local language 24x7. What we offer is a complete solution and they trust us as their 3D metrology software partners. So, they adopt it and maximize its use.

USP
Innovmetric’s USP, according to Mr. Castera is that their product has universal platform and it is the single best thing because one can measure anything and everything with PolyWorks. “It is truly universal for everything,” Mr. Castera emphasized.

Growth Oriented
The official concluded by sharing InnovMetric’s vision which is growth-centric. “Our local (Indian) team will grow lot more and we will be recruiting more engineers as well as other staff. The Indian main office at Pune will also witness more recruitments as we are contemplating to have specialist in almost every region where they should be closer to the customers. We believe that instead of building relationship for today, we should have that for tomorrow and years to come,” Mr. Castera signed off.

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