MANAGEMENT INTERVIEW
“We are transforming towards becoming a cloud company”
…says Mathew Thomas, Country Manager and Managing Director of Siemens Digital Industries Software India, in an interview with Neha Basudkar Ghate, discussing their evolution and how they aim on penetrating the digital landscape.
How do you overview the digital transformation in business recently and how well do you think has Siemens been able to embrace this digital journey?
I think businesses, fundamentally, are looking to become more competitive. If I look at competing countries, which we aspire to compete with, then 25%–30% of your GDP should be from manufacturing. If I look at what’s happened over the last two years, we are transforming towards becoming a cloud company. We are probably the earliest ones among the industrial software companies to do that. The reason that we’ve been able to move well is that we are very uniquely positioned because we can combine the real and the digital worlds because of our presencein the IT and OT segments. If we aim towards becoming the third-largest economy by 2030, our manufacturing industry should be competitive. Siemens is the best partner for this, as we combine the real and the digital worlds with a combination of IT/OT integration using the Siemens Xcelerator platform.
With its presence in varied industries like marine, aerospace, defence, automotive,transportation and many more, how does Siemens Digital Industries Software cater to customised market state segments and consumer demands with its portfolio?
We are not a company for one industry, because obviously, we cater to a variety of industries. Traditionally, we may have been in manufacturing purely. If I talk in context, there was an ~37% increase in the capital allocation in the last budget announced by the Indian government. This 130 billion is being allocated to railways, defence, infrastructure, economies, etc. Because we have a specific focus on automotive (industrial machinery, heavy engineering, aero and aerospace, marine, defence and transportation), we have solutions specifically catering to them. It is all based on the Siemens Xcelerator platform. It is not only fora large enterprise but also for small and medium enterprises as well. We have specific industry threads that could cater to various segments. Furthermore, we’re also expanding as we go along.
Can you tell us more about next-generation solutions based on Siemens’ focus on optimising solutions and working towards them?
If you look at the heritage of our company, we were probably focused mainly on the mechanical side of things. However, we realised that if we have to develop the next generation solutions and meet the requirements of our customers, that ‘s when we looked at expanding our footprint. Our transition over the past few yars has been across segments and I think these are very smart and well-thought out acquisitions, which help us address the requirements of the customers. To begin with we acquired mentor graphics – the Siemens EDA solutions, which is really aimed at addressing the whole electrical/electronics segment, Further, we expanded from being purely mechanical to electronic/electrical and software and moved onto Mendix, an open enterprise platform that we used to develop applications. So, from pure design, which is an NX solution simulation, which is a Simcenter portfolio, planning which is Tecnomatix digital logistics. Simply put, we moved from just a mechanical, to electrical, to electronics, to supply chain, to quality and of course, service with IoT. If I look at the evolution we were able to address the whole operation of a custsomer. Now, these solutions are real time, because for example, it’s all put together by our underlying digital thread, which is our Teamcenter – which is our heritage product. and that’s where it all ties together. Because if you make a change in something, how do I track it? How do I manage the chain? And that’s exactly how this all comes together. So that’s the evolution of what we’ve been able to do.
Can you throw some light on the advanced manufacturing visualisation that Siemens would like to comment on and how it affects your business strategy? What is your vision for business operations in the next coming years?
If we look at it the advanced manufacturing that you asked me about visualisation, it enables us to see the future of a factory and the advanced manufacturing systems through the industrial metaverse before the production readiness. We do have products which can actually simulate a plant and see it visually. Now, using the Nvidia solution and digital twin technologies, I can feel my way there, walk through it and see how it is laid out or experienced. According to our global estimates today, the market comprises approximately 10 billion or so globally, expected to go almost probably focused mainly on the mechanical side 10 times in the next five years. Just imagine of things. However, we realised that if we have to transforming from a pure mechanical software develop the next generation solutions and meet company to a whole piece where we are talking the requirements of our customers, that’s when we about partnerships with Microsoft, AWS, IBM and looked at expanding our footprint. Our transition Nvidia is where all this comes together because it’s over the past few years has been across segments, an evolving thing.
How do you see the future of digital transformation and innovation? How would you like to give your perspective on being part of Siemens and your pure outlook?
I’ve been working in the IT industry for the past 32 years; if I look at it, I’ve seen the whole journey from client-server computing to internet computing. I have been very fortunate to have witnessed this transformation. I think, sometimes, it is hard for me to believe the progress made; if I had to travel 30 years back, I still had to wait for that physical ticket jacket before I went to the airport. Today, you don’t even print the boarding card, but rather just have it scanned. Moreover, if you’re on a Digi Yatra, you scan your boarding pass from your phone and can go through it. That’s the transformation that is taking place, and there is no way out for companies they must remain competitive. The