We have a clear strategy and model in place for M&A activity

Jeff Ray brings more than 30 years of experience in global technology
sales, management and operations to SolidWorks. As CEO, Ray will steer the
company toward continued market leadership and profitability, ensuring it
delivers software that helps customers around the world design better products.
Previously, Ray served as SolidWorks chief operating officer, responsible for
expanding the companys sales, distribution and marketing infrastructure.

Ray joined the company in 2003 from business software vendor Progress
Software Corp, where he was responsible for all customer-facing field operations
in many countries as VP, Worldwide field operations. Previously he served as VP
of global solutions at Compuware Corp where he launched the companys integrated
software/services practices and grew annual sales from zero to $100 mn. Ray
began his career at IBM, where he held numerous management positions over a
17-year period. He earned a bachelors degree in economics from Texas A&M
university.

Every year you have a new release. Which are the releases which have been
path-breaking in your opinion?

2008 is a very disruptive release. For the first time ever we changed the
user interface and that is a massive change. I really respect our R&D team to
stand up and say we want to change the user interface, that which defines us.
This takes a very high degree of courage. Very few technology companies can do
that. Most of the technology companies obsess on their technology and they stay
with it. We drew our inspiration for 2008 from the gaming community, from video
games because video games are immersive. So couple of years ago we bought a
whole lot of video games and plasma televisions and gave it to our R&D facility
telling them this is your model.

Jeff Ray CEO, SolidWorks

Performance improvement seems to be a focus this year?

Our customers are depending on us everyday to give them an extraordinary
product and experience. Their expectations have gone up. So we have to listen,
understand and commit to satisfying those needs and we have to deliver on our
commitment. So delivery is a natural step in the process of commitment. This
year we are going to focus on performance, reliability and scalability. We have
been quietly working on this for sometime and are committed to performance
improvement. In the past we had committed to improving features and continuing
to round off the product. Customers are the key drivers of enhancement. We will
keep adding features to our products and we will continue to enhance our
products. We do not pick enhancements, our customers do that. But we are also
going to aggressively attack performance.

There could be a large list of enhancements that the customer wants. How
do you get to pick from them?

It is fascinating. Its just the way the company is built. Its just the
nature and culture of the company to respect the customers. We are a different
kind of company that respects and trusts people and puts people ahead of
everything else, even way ahead of technology. The actual SolidWorks product
was secondary to the goals of the founders to be a part of the company where
people actually liked one another and respected one another. Because that was
the way the company started, that was the nature of people who were hired into
the company. Now, 12 years later, we are rich in that kind of culture. So if
your culture is one of respecting people, you are going to respect your
customer. You will listen to what they say and what our resellers say.

It may take another four years to reach the billion-dollar mark. Are you
satisfied with the rate of growth?

Rather than being specific about numerical targets my core philosophy is to
outgrow the industry. If we do that then we are positioned to be a sustainable
leader in the industry, and if you are a leader in the industry you are going to
attract good customers and you are going to attract the best people. There are
two things you have to do to outgrow the industry. You have to have a great
growth in your core products; and as good as they are they could be better. It
also means we need to grow by adding more products. We have a very clear
strategy and model in place for the merger and acquisition activity. Our model
is unique to us but it is consistent in its logic with that of Dassault Sytemes.
The filters and priorities that we place on acquisitions are in agreement with
them. As a result it becomes easier for us to put a list of candidate
acquisition companies together and we know who wants to acquire and why.

Would you ever think of moving beyond the CAD area to feed the growth
engine?

Well, of course. There is only so much CAD to do. So it would be nave for
me to think that we could achieve the growth goals if we see potential in just
CAD. But it also means that we have to respect our channel and their skills. So
at least for the foreseeable future we are looking at products that are close to
our sphere of influence. We are looking at dancing around the edge of the
sphere. The good news is that around the sphere of influence, there are lots of
products. It is a case of us picking the best things. In doing that the sphere
of influence grows. That is a much healthier way to grow your business.

Are you not late with the PDM solution?

We are late in having a product but we are not late for the need that this
product serves. This is a very unique product category. There is no clear market
place leader. To enter the PDM area, we acquired Conisio from GCS Scandinavia.
One of our customers described Conisio as the SolidWorks of data management. It
is as intuitive and respective of the user for data management as SolidWorks is
for the engineer. Yes, we are late but we are also early because there are no
clear market leaders. We exceeded the growth targets that we had set for
PDMWorks Enterprise last year which tells me that we did the right thing.

What is the vision for the company for the next five years?

Certainly to establish a greater leadership position and do it in ways
people dont expect: To be CAD-centric but to go beyond CAD. To make it easier
for engineers to communicate great designs to a broader audience and to help
remove barriers for them. And to make every product in the first phase of
design, a perfect product for our customers.

How was your first year being the CEO of the company?

I never had more fun in my life. This is the greatest job in the world. Its
really a gift that I have been given. I am amazed at the ability, creativity and
passion of the people that I get to work with everyday. It is an awesome job.

E Abraham Mathew

abrahamm@cybermedia.co.in