A total of 20 independent specialists from different states of India attended ZWCAD’s first Reseller Conference in Bangalore, Karnataka. HOPE Technologies Private Limited, the exclusive distributor of ZWCAD organized the conference in Bangalore on Jan 7th to 9th at the Howard Johnson hotel. The conference gave an opportunity to new and old VARs all over the India to come together and share their vast knowledge and experience, see the latest product developments, discuss future direction and get an insight into the business plans of the ZWSOFT.
The agenda for the event included detailed product demonstrations covering ZWCAD, Global market trends, DGS&D approval for ZWCAD in India, ZWCAD 2017, CAD Pockets, new opportunities for VARs, 3D Printing and Partner presentations.
Mr. Saroop Chand, Promoter Director, Adroitec Group/HOPE Technologies
On Jan 8th the conference was kicked-off with opening remarksfrom Mr. Saroop Chand, Promoter Director, Adroitec Group. He briefed attendees about the millstones achieved by Hope Technologies and its partners since they started their journey as a distributor in 2009. Today, a Hope technology has expanded its partner’s network in all major states in India. For Indian users, this enabled them access to affordable, quality CAD software. For the Hope technologies and ZWSOFT, this marked the beginning of a successful partnership. Started with one license sell to the architectural firm, today reach 2000 upgrade every year and 10000+ new licenses installed in India.
“Today, because of relations, trust and service provided by our partners to their customers, the ZWCAD has successfully penetrated in AEC, Mechanical and Electrical engineering sectors. We are no more an alternative but the natural choice for thousands of customers in India. We have created a new market for those who wanted to have legal and easy to use software in reasonable cost. “Said Mr. Saroop Chand
It was great to have ZWSOFT China team – Mr. Kingdom Lin Overseas General Manager, Daniel Huang Product Manager and Vincent Wu Regional Manager for the conference. It was great opportunity to interact with the ZWSOFT management team.
ZWSOFT China team and Hope technologies have worked with a Pune based local application developerto integrate ZWCAD with the application for Government bodies for building plan scrutiny process. The integrated product resulted in getting the 500+ licenses order from a single state in the south India. ZWSOFT and application developer work together to integrate every new version with the application so that customers do not face any challenges working on the latest tools.
Among other things Mr. Saroop Chand said “As per my 30 years experience working for 2D and 3D CAD vendors, even today, every 3D tool requires 3-5 licenses of 2D CAD to further process – manufacturing or construction drawings.” So demand for 2D is always higher than 3D!
Looking at the figures, over the years the ZWCAD has emerged as the best alternative to other 2D software. 30% business is the repeated orders from the existing customers. The clients believe in the ZWCAD and are continuously adding or upgrading the licenses and have done magnificent development.
With the change in the licensing policy by Autodesk – end of perpetual licenses, may emerge a bigger opportunity for the ZWCAD re-sellers in India where the CAD users are the power users and work for more than 10 to 12 hours daily. The subscription based on the hourly basis may not be affordable for the SMEs and small architects. Subscription basis has its own advantages but it may not be financially viable for all to go for it when it comes to 2D CAD. With the limited or one-time funds the Government organizations may find it difficult to pay for the subscription and may opt for one-time buy.
Secondly, when customers want to evaluate the software and when the channel is not involved it would be the difficult task. Also, the channel would have uncertainty in business they have to manage business in 2-3% margin and would be difficult to survive with heavy taxes laid by Government.
“With more than 15 upgrades so far, the ZACAD has proven itself to be the stable, reliable and innovative product and has gained the trust of its users. With new versions about to be launched soon, we see greater opportunity and larger market ahead.” Adds Mr. Saroop Chand
One of the biggest announcements for the resellers was the approval and signing of ‘Rate Contract’ by DGS&D (Directorate General of Supplies & Disposals) Government of India. Hope technologies was working on this for last three years and finally on Nov 6, 2015 got the final approval from the DGS&D. This opens the gates for the ZWCAD to enter Government sector (Public undertakings, State & central agencies and defense). The Government organizations would now have to justify their purchase of the
CAD tools considering the price of the product, features and capabilities required for a particular project.
DGS&D approved ZWCAD based on the company’s presence in India, financial ability to sustain, satisfactory execution of large projects, customer track record, customer acceptance for the product in the past, NASSCOM acceptance and worldwide market share. The other alternative CAD tools competing at DGS&D were not able to fulfill the selection criteria.
Later, I had an opportunity to talk on “Alternative CAD in India and Global Market” I had a short presentation on alternative tools and latest technologies in CAD space.
Sachin Nalawade – Editor-in-chief DailyCADCAM
Mr. Kingdom presented the next, he gave an overview on ZWSOFT and its products. He appreciated Hope technologies for organizing the resellers conference in India. ZWSOFT has similar conferences in China and other countries. Company has done significant growth in areas likeSouth-east Asia, Middle East, Europe and South Americas.
The figures definitely show why ZWCAD is the top most alternative 2D CAD used worldwide – ZWSOFT has its presence in 80 countries with more than 300 partners and 550,000 customers. The software is presently available in 15 languages. “CAD has grown to encompass many disciplines, industries, and capabilities. 3D has got the significant market share but 2D would remain there for next 50 years as there are billions of DWG files that need to be addressed.” Noted Mr. Kingdom
Mr. Kingdom Lin Overseas General Manager- ZWSOFT
Mr. Kingdom presented the next, he gave an overview on ZWSOFT and its products. He appreciated Hope technologies for organizing the resellers conference in India. ZWSOFT has similar conferences in China and other countries. Company has done significant growth in areas likeSouth-east Asia, Middle East, Europe and South Americas.
Mr. Kingdom Lin Overseas General Manager- ZWSOFT
The figures definitely show why ZWCAD is the top most alternative 2D CAD used worldwide – ZWSOFT has its presence in 80 countries with more than 300 partners and 550,000 customers. The software is presently available in 15 languages. “CAD has grown to encompass many disciplines, industries, and capabilities. 3D has got the significant market share but 2D would remain there for next 50 years as there are billions of DWG files that need to be addressed.” Noted Mr. Kingdom
The other main issue that hampered the image of company globally is the Autodesk Lawsuit against ZWSOFT in 2014. There were lots of rumors about the company in the market. He cleared that the Autodesk lawsuit has been completely settled last month. “We have apologized Autodesk for the inconvenience caused, learned a lot about intellectual property. ZWSOFT has enhanced the internal management to prevent any intellectual property infringement in the future. We are now working on developing a better, competing product as the future development” Said Mr. Kingdom
Mr. Kingdom’s direct interaction with the partners on the issue gave confidence to the partners to convince their customers on the rumors in the market. ZWSOFT has set its goal to expand the market share with the better products, partners’ profits and customer satisfaction.
Next up was, Mr. Danial Huang, Product manager ZWSOFT. He did the technical presentation on the latest release ZWCAD 2017 to be launched in next few months. The ZWCAD 2017 would offer users the most uniquely immersive experience with Advanced Grips, selective preview, improved rendering effect, 64-bit and multi-platform compatibility and new innovative features. Would maintain the performance and quality of API and would be compatible to existing third party applications. ZWSOFT has also worked to fulfill the customers’ wishes and is working on adding the suggested features in v2017.
Danial showed a graphical representation comparing various AutoCAD alternatives on the basis of
-Multi-platform
- Capability
- Functionality
- Innovation
-API
- Mobile and Cloud
Clearly ZWCAD has an edge over all other alternative CAD tools. All other tools address just few requirements mentioned above. Few are good in API, Capability, Multi-platform but not having innovative features or functionality and Cloud support. ZWCAD has touched all the parameters and emerged as a best alternative, low cost 2D package.
Later he gave a demo on CAD Pockets – the mobile CAD app by ZWSOFT. The App is rated 4.4 stars on Google Play. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ZWSoft.ZWCAD&hl=en
It is widely used app by MCAD professionals and architects. It supports various file formats ranging from DWG, DXF, to DWF. You can instantly open files without any lag, regardless of size. Along with viewing, you can also revise, markup, and export files to PDF or DWF and share the file with your colleagues via email.
CAD Pockets also supports offline usage. Simply by saving files into your Android device and you are free to go. Moreover, you can view files that have been downloaded to your cloud drive without access to the Internet. ZWSOFT has recently launched latest CAD POCKETS V2.3.1 with many additional features and is available free for download.
Post lunch there was presentations on the “Other opportunities for Hope Partners” that included the 3D printing technology that Hope technologies is offering in India. The long-time partners of Hope Technologies Mr. Ashok Sanghavi – CEO of Mahavir Traders Ahmedabad Gujarat shared his experience being the ZWCAD reseller. He thanked ZWSOFT and Hope for all their support since 2009. Mahavir Traders has done exceptionally good business in 2D space in Gujarat till date and has hundreds of happy clients in all sectors.
Mr. Ashok Sanghavi – CEO of Mahavir Traders, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Next up was Mr. C S Vyas CEO of V Global Business Solutions Mumbai he shared his experience working with various clients in different sectors in Mumbai and Maharashtra. His firm has achieved exceptional business in AEC and MCAD sector in his territory.
Mr. Ashish Satav, CEO CAM Tech Solutions
Mr. Ashish Satav of CAM Tech Solutions presented an innovative add-on R CAD Express developed by his firm. It has more than 500 commands to automate the designing process using ZWCAD. It is widely used by structural engineers and architects in India. The ZWSOFT China team appreciated various add-ins developed in India to support the customers and assured to upload these add-ins on the vendor portal so that the worldwide users can get benefited.
Mr. Sreejith Nair, MD Shuban Technologies, Coimbatore
The event was concluded with the ‘Awards’ given to the best performing VARs and employees. Overall a great experience to attend this conference. It changed the perspective the way we look at the alternative CAD.
Thanks Hope Technologies and ZWSOFT for giving DailyCADCAM an opportunity being media partner for the event and do presentation in ZWCAD India resellers conference 2016.
—Sachin Nalawade