Onward Tech aims to be leader

Onward Technologies (OTL), a software-based engineering design services company, is thinking big.

Unveiling its state-of-the-art computer-aided engineering (CAE) simulation and analysis centre, Harish Metha, managing director, has said the company has plans to become a leader in this space as it now offers entire solutions from concept to pre-production stage.

Claiming to be the first independent design company to have invested in a high-end 12 Central Processing Unit (CPU) Alti 350 SGI server, Mehta said, "The 12 CPU lab will allow us to test products digitally as against physical testing, thus reducing the time to market and costs. We have invested Rs 1 crore on this facility."

Hitendra Kale, chief financial officer, Onward, pointed out the lab's services could be deployed for the automobile, metal farming and sheet metal industries.

OTL, which already has a European car maker and three US industrial equipment manufacturers for heavy vehicles on its list, "is looking at increasing its head count to 500 people in a year's time from the current 400 year and aims 30 per cent growth," Kale said.

Spread across 25,000 square feet, the centre in Pune also houses sections dedicated to three clients spread across 6,000 sq ft. "In the short-term we plan to add at least four clients and 3,000 sq ft premises for setting up of dedicated offshore centers," Kale said.

Part of the Rs 66.25-crore Onward Group, which has centres in Pune for engineering services, and Mumbai for banking and financial services and IT services, OTL accounts for Rs 32 crore of the group's turnover, while the group's other firms, Onward e-services accounts for Rs 9 crore and Onward Tech Inc Rs 25 crore. It also has a German subsidiary, Onward Tech Gmbh.

"In the financial year 2005-06 we recorded revenues worth Rs 66.25 crore and our target for the coming months is to have 1,000 people and revenues worth Rs 100 crore," said Mehta.

Mehta also referred to a study by Booz Allen Hamilton and Nasscom that said engineering services will be a $1.1 trillion opportunity globally by 2020 and the Indian offshoring engineering services industry by then would be a $40 billion market.