Please give us a bird's eye view of Tekla's operation in India.
Tekla India is the Indian arm of Tekla Corporation, a leading Finland based developer and marketer of software products and related services for Building Information Modelling (BIM). Tekla Structures BIM software provides an accurate, detailed and data-rich 3D environment that can be shared by contractors, structural engineers, steel retailers and fabricators as well as concrete retailers and manufacturers.
In India, we operate through corporate office in Navi Mumbai and one branch office each in Delhi and Bangalore. We sell software licenses and provide technical support and training services to our customers in the construction and infrastructure industries.
Tekla has recently launched 'Tekla Centre of Excellence.' Please elaborate.
Tekla Centre of Excellence (TCE) was launched in 2010 which is a Tekla authorized training academy to impart professional knowledge on building information modelling processes through use of Tekla software. We sign an agreement with our franchisees to allow them to exclusively run TCE in their particular city. We provide them attractive financial terms and back them up with curriculum, software licenses and our marketing services. All the successful candidates passing from the institute are awarded industry-recognised certificates directly from Tekla. In fact, we won our first TCE franchisee in Pune in November last year and have received a number of business proposals from interested parties from different cities.
Tekla India is traditionally into the business of selling software and providing support to its customers. Why TCE then?
TCE marks Tekla India's forays in the educational services business. Today, in India acute shortage of skilled professionals is hampering the effective implementation of BIM technology in the construction industry. We see that there is a high demand for professionals who are well-qualified in using BIM. Our vision is to bridge this yawning gap between demand and supply of certified BIM professionals in India's rapidly growing construction and infrastructure sector. Tekla BIM professionals passing out of TCEs will be well-equipped to contribute to the requirements of the industry.
Who can benefit from courses run at TCE?
How will you guarantee quality of education at TCE?
Tekla provides and directly supervises all the course content at TCE. We train the faculty to ensure nothing but the highest quality of training to candidates. Based on the release of newer upgrades of our software, we periodically update the curriculum.
How is TCE different from other CAD training academies?
Tekla was BIM even before BIM was invented. We offer the best BIM technology in the market. By enrolling at TCE, students and professionals not only get an opportunity to learn our software but also understand BIM as an integrated construction process. Learning in a TCE is based on hands-on project-oriented curriculum. We also refer candidates passing out of TCE to our vast client base all over India.
What is your future plan for TCE?
We plan to open up TCEs in all the major metro cities in India in next 2 years. Our goal is to produce 500 certified Tekla BIM professionals by end of 2012. We will collaborate with various prestigious engineering and construction management colleges in the country to have Tekla technology included in their courses. We are also connected with publication houses. Just recently, Tekla was referred in one of the chapters of the book 'Building Design and Drawing' by Shah, Kale & Patki. This is a well respected reference book for civil engineering students. We want to dedicate our efforts to the evolution of BIM technology not just within the construction industry but also throughout the engineering fraternity.
