André Corniere, Director, Steel, Tekla Corporation graduated as a Civil Engineer in 1972.Acting in a Steel Manufacturing company as a Design Engineer at first, he rapidly moved into Steel Detailing software development for internal application. Acting till 2006 as a country manager for Tekla, he became the Steel Director for Tekla Globally, making sure the best tools and functionalities have matured in Tekla Structures for all projects’ players in the BIM field.
Tekla Corporation is a premium Finland based developer and marketer of software products and related services for Building Information Modelling (BIM). ‘Tekla Structures’ is a BIM software that provides an accurate, detailed and data-rich 3D environment that can be shared by contractors, structural engineers, steel detailers and fabricators and concrete detailers and manufacturers. Highly detailed as-built structural models created by Tekla BIM software allow more collaborative and integrated project management & delivery. This translates into increased productivity and elimination of waste, thus making construction and buildings more sustainable.
Replying to Yash Ved of IIFL, André Corniere says “While our global turnover is 60 million Euros, 25% of the revenue is re-invested in R&D.”
What are the future business plans of Tekla?
Since the last several years, Tekla has a good reputation in the market as a steel fabricator. Till now, we have concentrated largely on the steel and structure businesses but now we are expanding into concrete, which is a huge market globally. Therefore, we are investing a lot and developing cast-in-situ, pre-cast materials.
We are planning to expand our team, which will focus especially on the Indian markets. At present, we have offices in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. For further expansion, we are planning to concentrate a bit more on Eastern India.
Brief us about your international operations?
The company was established in 1966, and today it has customers across 100 countries, offices in 15 countries, and a global network of partners. Tekla became part of the Trimble Group in 2011. Our total Tekla employee strength is 550. While our global turnover is 60 million Euros, 25% of the revenue is re-invested in R&D.
What will be your focus area going forward?
We will continue to maintain our position as premium BIM provider for the construction industry. We will primarily be focusing on the concrete market as this is almost 10 times bigger than the steel market. So, our focus will be to expand our business to concrete as quickly as possible, which will help our business grow 10 folds.
Are you planning to expand training centers?
Tekla India has already opened a Center of Excellence - a unique training center concept in a few cities like Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Chennai. We are planning to add more training centers soon in the next two years. Our goal is to have 500 certified Tekla BIM professionals by the end of 2012.
What are your hiring plans?
Tekla is a customer oriented organization. Hence, just increasing sales is not our aim. We are planning our India expansion and intend to increase our staff strength. Our focus has always been to deliver the best services. So, a lot of our investments will be on the servicing side.