One-on-one with DS SolidWorks director of product management

International Metalworking News for Asia (IMNA) recently spoke to Rich Allen, Director of Product Management, Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp. (DS SolidWorks), during the SolidWorks Asia-Pacific Value-Added Reseller (VAR) Conference in Hong Kong, to learn more about SolidWorks and how it can help the metalworking industry, including a quick look of the upcoming SolidWorks 2013.

IMNA: How strong is SolidWorks?

Allen: SolidWorks globally is very strong. At any given time,regional markets certainly vary. The nice thing about being a global company is when one region is a little slow other regions oftentimes can pick up the slack. Even in the slow time, SolidWorks is pretty strong and we typically are able to grow a little bit from the previous year. We may not reach our full objectives in every region, but like I say we’ll typically be able to make it up by a little extra growth in the other areas.

IMNA: How is SolidWorks in the metalworking industry?

Allen: I looked at the growth trend over the last three years in preparation for this. And our biggest industry segment, which we call machine design or industrial equipment, contains most of the metalworking, a lot of sheet metal and welding. And that business is pretty stable over the last three years. I guess you can mention, the medical has typically been doing pretty well and some other fields. But as a percentage of our overall sales, the industrial equipment is still by far the largest and I would say the trend is very slight, it’s not enough to be worried. We’re not experiencing exponential growth in those markets but because our whole business is increasing, we’re even in that industry.

IMNA: So do you have any figures or idea about your growth in Asia?

Allen: Well in general, we are starting to look at our traditional markets and the high-growth markets, and we expect the highgrowth markets to grow at double, triple the rate of some of the traditional. So North America and Western Europe, which I consider well-established and mature, they’re not going to grow at the same rate that they have grown in the company over the last 17 years, which I think is probably between 20 and 25 percent or so per year, depending on the year. We can expect on a good year in Asia Pacific with 20, 25, 30 percent of growth, and maybe around 10, 15 percent in the traditional markets. So that’s our expectation, our hope if we’re looking at a five-year period. Last year, I think it’s been a little lower than that though. It’s not, that we’re not meeting the exact high growth figures that we expect. I think because business is falling a little bit in China and India. We don’t have the crystal ball, so I don’t know what will happen for the second half or next year. But we’re crossing our fingers that we won’t get too mCrazy BYW PW Boost