PTC to Target SMBs Through Channels

17.11.2008
Parametric Technology Corporation (PTC) is fast increasing its customer base through channel ecosystem worldwide and in India. The product development company providing product lifecycle management (PLM), content management, and dynamic publishing solutions was a complete 'Direct-to-Customer' company till 2005. "We have revamped our channel strategy in the past two years to expand outreach, increase mindshare and add customer base. We are not appointing partners for numbers sake. Limited but focused partners is our roadmap," said Rafiq Somani, Country Manager -- India, PTC. The customer base in India has swelled to 2000 plus from a 1000 customers in 2005, largely due to focused channel system, admitted Somani. We expect to increase the India revenues through channels from 25-- 40 percent in the next twelve months, he added. PTC Partners are mainly catering to SMB markets. "The SMB customers today are more concerned about business efficiency through IT solutions than cost factor. We are committed to make Indian SMBs globally competitive through our extensive offerings,"said Somani. The major verticals include automotive, aerospace/defence, industrial and heavy engineering for PTC and its partners. On horizontal basis, manufacturing industry is our key focus area, he said.

At present, PTC has Ingram Micro as distributor and 10 Tier I partners across India. These partners are regional or national VAR/SI who possess good knowledge of engineering/manufacturing market, possess technical expertise and share PTC vision, he added. The vendor aims to be popular Operating system for product development. Additionally, Ingram has their own partner network, to which it empowers and sells PTC offerings. The vendor is aggressively empowering student community and channel base through 'Authorized Training Partner' (ATP) program. Somani elaborated, "We are conducting 2 to 3 ATPs across cities through a third party training institute. Engineering students and even partners can attend this course based on PTC offerings complete with certification process." The trainings have been conducted at Trivandrum, Chennai, Jaipur and other cities .This service strategy helps technicians of partners to stay abreast with PLM technology and offer add-on services to their customers, he said.

With more than $1 billion in revenue this fiscal, Massachusetts headquartered PTC has R&D centre in Pune, which is company's largest R&D centre in the world. The vendor has sales offices at Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Chennai.PTC is investing significantly to hit customer goals by leveraging its channel eco-system. The strategic /large enterprise accounts and mid-market accounts are executed directly by PTC while channels cater to SMBs. "However, partners can cater to potential mid-market customer through team selling agreement. We are enhancing the channel strategy step-by-step to ensure profitability of appointed partners," he said. The vendor is also planning to appoint a national partner/distributor for mid-market space. "PTC is now investing more on the Enterprise Channel partners while the role of the direct sales remains at a lower scale," said Somani

PTC has a Channel Advantage Program which supports Value Added Resellers (VARs) who serve SMBs or customers in specific vertical industries. PTC has partners like Rolta, Softcell among others in India, who resell PTC products like Pro/ENGINEER for Computer Aided Design Manufacturing and Engineering, Mathcad for Engineering Calculations, Windchill for Product Lifecycle Management and Arbortext for Enterprise Content Management and Technical Publications. "Our flagship product Pro/ENGINEER gives almost 50% of India revenues. We have launched flexible priced and enhanced product range for channels to make faster, stronger and deeper inroads in the market. With a revamped channel plan and excellent product roadmap, we are confident to forge robust channel alliances to tap burgeoning Indian market," stated Somani.