Intercad Systems has operations in India & Middle East, providing solutions in CAD and Enterprise segment. With keen focus on Technology Software Promotion, Software Asset Implementation and Training / Consultancy Services, our customers include businesses from various fields including Architecture, Construction, Automotive, Manufacturing, Civil engineering, GIS , Plant & Ship design, along with Enterprise – IT / ITES, animations & graphics, game development , pharmaceutical, project management sectors and educational institutions. Cinu P Thomas (Cinu), Founder and Managing Director, Intercad systems, explains his company’s action roadmap for this financial year to B Swaminathan (Swami). Edited excerpts.
Swami: Please explain the key highlights of your organization in the last financial year.
Cinu: As you know, InterCAD has been serving a niche market with niche products for the last 2 decades, and as we have expanded our presence to South India with eight offices in 5 states, our strategy 
has been changing every year to balance the change of trends developed in the product basket and vendor policy. We were very cautious during the last financial year, as Autodesk moved from the perpetual license regime to subscription mode, which might have affected our topline and bottom line if proper actions were not taken. But we were able to maintain the topline with higher gross profits during the last financial year. We were also able to minimize the operations cost of the company by taking suitable steps, and thus effecting higher growth in Net Profits also.
Internally, we had deployed a sales and business intelligence software named ‘Sales Logics’ which capture all sales and ROI data about product and manpower tends. This has improved the sales methodology a lot in our organisation and we were able to make many critical decisions and analysis because of this
Swami: What are the top 3 plans of your organization in the coming financial year.
Cinu: We are seeing many changes in the trends on the purchase methodology by the customers, along with varied offerings from the vendors too. Our focus for this year is to be in line with these trends, and we will continue to minimize our operations cost by increasing productivity of the existing team members. We found a major portion of the orders are getting closed online or over the telephone. We are expecting higher profits by increasing the focus on those product line which may need a higher marketing involvement. Also we plan to add few product lines and we have already made a contract with ISRO to promote one of their high end FEA software under “Make in India” brand especially among engineering colleges in the country. We are also planning to be behaving as a solutions provider to certain niche segments where we shall support the client as a system integrator.
Swami: How is the construction and entertainment segment is performing in Kerala of late? How, as a channel partner of CAD and entertainment software impacts you?
Cinu: As a channel partner for niche products in Kerala for more than 20 years, we have seen many ups and downs in the AEC industry, which was very sensible to the money inflow from the NRI investors, demonetization and local political strategies. AEC industry has direct impact when tourism industry was hit as constructions and cash flows depend much on this. Though most of the stake holders are aware about the CAD products and its importance, I feel they are yet to understand the change in construction management using BIM methodology. Building Information Modeling (BIM) is the future in the construction industry and to implement it successfully, we want all stakeholders in that industry to understand the importance of the same, and implement it as we go forward.
Entertainment segment has not grown to a different level in the past many years, however the investment by these companies and TV channels have increased. We cannot find very large companies coming to Kerala with large investment in that industry, but we hear very positive news as the IT infrastructure in Kochi is getting improved.
Swami: How is your operations in Middle East? What are the expansion plans specifically for that region?
Cinu: Though I started my Middle East assignment as a reseller 10 years back, in the past 2 years I have moved our operations fully from the reseller mode to services mode. Since we focus in the Architecture Engineering & Construction (AEC) industry there, we are seeing very positive outlook as far as service in CAD & BIM are concerned. Many GCC countries are mandating BIM during the submission of drawings in the municipality and as many developers have insisted on using BIM models while construction, I found the future in the BIM & its implementation in the AEC segment is growing and we are focusing to increase the marketing activities among those segments where we want to be leaders in that niche segment. We are planning suitable investment in that region but will be done very cautiously as we never want to over do it and affect our cash flows, since that market is also volatile to many international commodity and political trends.
Swami: How is the reception for learning designing software among the student fraternity?
Cinu: Now that CAD has been mandatory and part of the syllabus in most of the universities, most of the students learn the basics of designing software as their curriculum demands. But I feel this knowledge what they gain from these learnings are not good enough for them to kick start a career in that field. The syllabus never covers the latest technological changes especially in the AEC industry but I have seen many changes and I am very positive about the initiatives taken up by our new Kerala Technical University (KTU) which maps all engineering and polytechnics in the state. We have seen most of the college management in the state are very keen to provide best of the knowledge to the students and I feel it as a very positive trend.
Swami: What are your roadmap in terms of training segment of your organization?
Cinu: We have a dedicated division to impart training to students and corporates. We support it by having our facility at Trivandrum and offsite facility by having arrangements with smaller CAD training institutes in the state. We also enter into long term agreements with academic institutions to provide training to the students regularly, as and when the students are free to undergo training. Since we are authorized training centre of world class companies like Autodesk, Bentley, PTC etc, we found that students really appreciate the certifications extended to them after the training. We also help them to get placed in many corporate organizations too. Our focus in imparting training to the government organizations and corporate companies will continue and during last year we have seen it has a higher response to our proposals.
Swami: What are the software you have recently included into your portfolio and what are the new additions/inclusions you are planning in this financial year?
Cinu: Last year, we have added ‘SketchUp Pro’ from Trimble, and we market it all over South India. We also made a formal agreement with ISRO last year to promote their Finite Element Analysis product named FEAST. This product is used internally by ISRO and other defense organizations for more than 20 years, but it was never made available to the academic and professional group outside ISRO. Last year, they have decided to introduce this to the public and we are lucky to make an agreement with them to promote it all over India. We look for Channel Partners to promote this among colleges in those areas we don’t have presence. As it is listed as a ;Make in India’ product, and since the pricing is aggressively positioned, we hope it can reach larger markets this year. During the current year, we are planning to introduce 3D printers into our portfolio along with few new gen products to cover larger industry base.
Swami: Please let us know your expansion plans in terms of geography, product/solution and manpower.
Cinu: We will cautiously invest in manpower to cover South India, by increasing productivity and improving market reach through careful investment in marketing team and inside sales team. Customers have started accepting solutions through online support and this trend can reduce the investment of sales team which may need a physical presence at client’s site. Regarding geographical presence, we aim at all India coverage in next two years through virtual offices and suitable deployment of manpower in key locations. We will not be going after many products available in the market but those products which are innovative and can be an additive to the future needs in the Industry and the customers.