Spotlight

Managing product development

A specialist in engineering services, CSM Software provides a full spectrum of solutions during product development. By Neeraj Gandhi

In the backdrop of ever-increasing demands of customers, enterprises today are continuously innovating to provide tailor-made products. To attain this objective, a lot of research, trial and experimentation are done with special attention to the overall design and packaging. A lot goes on the digital front to conceptualize, design and then reproduce the digital creation into a real and tangible entity.

CSM Software is one such company that has been a provider of engineering services solutions catering to multiple verticals and a cross-section of functionalities. It has a full spectrum of services catering to engineering needs during product development, from Computer Aided Design (CAD) to Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) services.

Laying the foundation

Headquartered in Bangalore, CSM Software was founded in the year 1992 by Dr. R Swami Narayanaswami, one of the first researchers of NASTRAN (NASA structural analysis code), with an aim to work with the Indian industry to contribute to its general technical upliftment. The vision was to provide the best products, services and training to Indian and global industry.

The company boasts of a base of 400 customers across the automotive, aerospace and defense verticals in India and abroad. The list includes L&T, Tata, TVS, BHEL, HAL, NAL, General Motors, Bharat Forge, Patni, and many more.

“Today we are the leading offshore provider of engineering services possessing seamless engineering expertise. From basic design to high-end analysis for aerospace, automotive & heavy engineering industries, CSM has consistently delivered projects to demanding customers over the past 15 years,” says Satya Srikanth, CEO, CSM Software.

With an employee base of a bit over 250, CSM has branch offices in Pune, New Delhi, Jamshedpur, Chennai and Hyderabad. Internationally, it has a presence in Frankfurt in Germany, and California and Michigan in the United States. It also has an associate company in US, the CSM Software USA, LLC.

“At CSM we lay high emphasis on excellence at work in whatever we do. A derivative of this culture of this emphasis on excellence is the ‘Fun @ work’ concept where people derive maximum satisfaction and pleasure from being the best at what they do. Added to the above is CSM’s strong focus on our values and integrity—the two non-compromising factors at CSM,” he adds.

The Journey

It has been an eventful 15 years since the company first commenced its operations in Bangalore in the 1990s. At that point of time, engineering services and the CAD/CAE market were in their infancy. CSM had to resort to clever strategizing to make the most of what the market had to offer.

“When we started operations, the market potential was minimal. The biggest challenge was to get the domestic industry to see the utility and adapt to these global technologies,” says Srikanth.

A relatively new market was not the only challenge that CSM had to face. There was a huge manpower shortage that also had to be addressed. “It was a phase when not many people were interested in building careers in this line of business. Therefore we took to training programs and worked closely with universities and finishing schools to bring quality freshers into the market,” adds Srikanth.

Gradually as the market expanded and as the level of acceptance of engineering services including CAD, CAE and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) technologies increased, CSM was quick to capitalize on the situation and consolidated its market position through strategic tie-ups. It even started the overseas operations of its services division in 2003.

There has been no looking back since then. Today the company has five business divisions–services, training, products, process consulting and onsite design support. It also has the distinction of being the sole offshore company based in India that has technology partnerships with MSC Software, USA; IBM/Dassault, France; CD-adapco, USA; Moldflow Corporation, USA; and DELMIA, France.

“The current phase is turning out to be one of high growth. CSM has been growing consistently between 35 and 40 percent year-on-year from 2003 onwards and it is poised to reach even higher growth rates over the next couple of years. We expect that, in the medium term, these kind of growth rates will not only be sustained, but will also reach levels of maturity that will allow us to stand out as a strategic partner to all our customers,” says Srikanth.

Today CSM works in close contact with its customers in all aspects of the PLM spectrum including CAD, CAM, Finite Element Meshing (FEM), Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Product Data Management (PDM) across the globe. Apart from the product development spectrum, it also supports its customers in digital manufacturing.

Besides this, the company also runs basic and advanced training programs through its training division to re-skill engineers in skills that are much in demand. It also undertakes executive training programs for the corporate world. These training programs are designed to equip individuals with knowledge of engineering simulation technologies. “Our value-added training programs combined with our unique cross-domain expertise have resulted in effectively increasing the productivity of various companies working in the automotive, aerospace and various other engineering domains.”

“We provide training to career aspirants on tools such as CATIA, NASTRAN and STAR-CD and customized packages for companies to work on advanced areas. Some of the companies that have benefited from CSM’s training are L&T, Tata, TVS, Tata ELXSI, Hero Honda, BHEL, HAL, NAL, ISRO, ADE, Patni, Bharat Forge, GM India and GTRE,” says Srikanth.

Corporate responsibility

CSM will soon announce the launch of “Dr. Swami Scholarships”, for deserving engineering students. With this venture the company hopes to subsidize expensive and high end ‘continuing education’ for as many students as it can. Over the years it has also provided assistance during different relief operations.

Besides these, CSM is at present focusing aggressively on increasing its employee headcount. In addition it also plans to start operations in other European countries apart from Germany and Belgium. “We will also be starting our Australian operations soon. The CSM Services Division expects to be a 1,500 man company in a three year period,” says Srikanth.