Altair India plans to add channel partners to increase indirect business

Altair India is planning to increase its indirect business by adding more channel partners to reach out to various markets. Currently, the company is deriving 30 percent of its revenue through channels, which it further plans to increase to 50 percent, says Rajneesh Shinde, Director of Marketing, Altair Engineering, India.

What is the company’s road-map for the year 2011-12?
India is one of the fastest growing markets for Altair and we enjoy a leadership position in the CAE/CFD segment of the PLM space. The growth rate is likely to continue for the next 2-3 years as the market acceptance of CAE/CFD is indispensible tool for design is growing. The need to reduce cost while developing world-class quality products is definitely enabling faster adoption of the CAE/CFD technology.

What is amount of investment the company plans to pump into the Indian market this year?
The company plans to invest 2-3 million $ covering expansion of offices, product and partner related marketing and development.

Altair is a channel driven company, so how many channel partners does the company work with?
We have different levels of partnerships.
1. ISV partners – We have partnered with around 14 global ISVs and this number is growing fast. They offer complementary solutions to existing CAE/CFD suite of solutions.
2. Product Channel Partners – Currently in India, we have one distributor and over 25 reseller partners for sales/support of our CAE/CFD (HyperWorks) line of business. For our business intelligence (HiQube) and Cloud Computing (PBS Works) product lines we work with leading Hardware OEM’s and System Integrators.
3. ISV Integration / Implementation Partners – for our enterprise solutions on Cloud, BI and CAE/CFD
4. Training Partners – ATC and private training institutes.

How do following partners differ from each other — HyperWorks alliance partners, channel partners, ISV integration partners, technology partners and implementation partners?
Altair continues to be a catalyst in the industry, providing the most flexible and innovative partner program. Our partner ecosystem is the foundation of our open-systems philosophy to maximize the performance, interoperability and reliability of our products in any environment.

HyperWorks alliance partners: It is a platform to third party applications for their enterprise software which is made available to customers under one license using the on-demand software licensing system.

Channel partners: A wide global network of service and technology companies resell Altair’s suite of software solutions to a wide variety of verticals.

ISV integration partners: Independent software vendors have integrated their applications with Altair’s technology.

Technology partners: They are hardware and peripheral technology providers who work with us to ensure our products are compatible with the latest technology.

What kind of channel engagement and empowerment activities do you conduct?
We have a 2 tiered model for CAE/CFD (Hyper Works) that comprises of a single national distributor and resellers covering individual geographies (main cities). We have segregated industry verticals where they can work on. From the company’s behalf we have regional sales and support engineers who interface with the partners for day-to-day operations.

What is the amount of investment in to the channels from the company? 
Altair India is looking to increase its indirect business by adding more channel partners to reach out to various markets. Currently, the company is deriving 30 percent of its revenue through channels, which we plan to grow to 50 percent. A large portion of our marketing funds this year is directed towards channel development.

What is the company’s go-to-market strategy in India?
We are largely present in Auto/Aero, Heavy engineering, Defence and CPG verticals. We plan to expand into newer verticals like Energy, Marine, RAIL, Infrastructure as well. A key to our success is availability of trained manpower for which we are implementing ATC’s and certifications.

What are your plans for your existing channel partners?
The plan is to train them and grow them in terms of revenue. Idea is also to help them penetrate verticals where CAE/CFD is currently under-penetrated. A strong pre and post-support backend since this is a highly technical sales process needs to be maintained and continuously upgraded.

Which are the verticals and sectors that are the adopters of the solutions offered by Altair?
Altair has been offering solutions to a large majority of Fortune 500 companies and serves more than 3,000 clients in sectors such as automobile, aerospace, government /defense, heavy equipment, oil and gas, manufacturing, consulting, electronics and consumer products.

Which vertical or sectors have you identified for this year? Why?
Altair will continue to make investments in its core offerings and also add new technologies and verticals to its portfolio. We are also aiming a growth target of around 30 percent in conventional segments like automotive, aerospace, Def/Govt, Heavy Engg, and CPG which are currently showing good growth rates in India. Energy, Marine, RAIL, Infrastructure are some of the emerging sectors for our growth.

Could you cite few examples of the companies which have deployed your solution in India?
We have more than 50 users across ASEAN region signed up for HWPA and some of them are very active users of the third party applications. Here’s the list of companies associated with HyperWorks Partner Alliance.
We have a lading CPG organization that uses fatigue (nCode) and CFD (Acusolve) code for their global product designs along with HyperWorks through this HWPA program. Another global Auto Supplier uses Plastics simulation (Moldex) along with HyperWorks for automotive safety systems design.