Altair Engineering, the high-end computer-aided engineering and virtual prototyping company, is gearing up to start its technical hotline centre in India.
This Michigan-based product development company is expanding offshore base in India with the commencement of the new technical hotline centre to be operational by the third quarter of this year. The service would be made available from its Bangalore office.
In doing so, Altair becomes the first computer aided design/channel access method company in India to offer problem solving over the telephone.
The company already provides this facility at its centres in the US, UK, Japan, Italy and Germany. Each of these centres get about 20,000 calls a year, which is purely a technical problem solving exercise for the engineers.
Initially, the back-end support centre would hire five proficient engineers who would be taking the calls and has the potential to grow to 20 people. The company would be investing nearly $1 million to begin the technical support centre.
According to James Hassberger, software quality assurance manager, Altair Engineering, the company is very particular about getting the first few steps right.
Even though they are starting of with five engineers, the company is trying to ensure that this team form the base for the centre in the coming years.
"We are not trying to shift jobs to India owing to the cost factor. We are merely expanding. Of the 90 who were interviewed in Bangalore, 20 have been shortlisted. The next set of interviews are in Pune. Once selected, these engineers will undergo six months of training before they can even be helpful," he said.
As virtual prototyping also means providing quick solutions, these engineers would receive the models from clients and through specific tools they would gain control over the client's workstation.
Darius Fadanelli, director, hyperworks technical support, added that the engineers who would be hired initially would only get an entry point into the company.
"As hiring begins, the organisational structure here would also change. This will provide them with more opportunities to grow within the company," Fadanelli said.
Altair's India has 45 employees and would growing to 85 people in the next 12-18 months. "In India, we are rapidly expanding our software testing capability and staff. Our plan is to grow further in the US but at the same time grow two times that much here. For every one person we hire in the US, we will hire 2-3 here," Hassberger said.
Not only does Altair service over 1,500 clients worldwide, but also has nearly all Indian automobile manufacturers as part of its clientele.
While Altair's worldwide operations fetched $75 million in revenues, the India operations, as a result of its domestic business, registered Rs 8 crore turnover.
