MWJ:You joined ANSYS one year ago as the VP of Worldwide Sales and Support. What attracted you to work at ANSYS?
BK: ANSYS Technology and leadership were key factors. I am very happy to be part of a great company with great leadership, people and technology. In addition to that, we are helping companies bring new products to market that are improving the world.
I spent 16 years in the Product Development Technology area, and I have a great passion for it. ANSYS is #1 in simulation, and is committed and focused on that market. I wanted to be a part of that team with continued focus on helping companies develop world class products.
MWJ:You were a 16 year veteran of PTC, Inc. (formerly Parametric Technology Corporation), a software company ($1.4B revenue in 2014) that specializes in 2D & 3D design software, product lifecycle management (PLM), and service management solutions. How different do you find simulation software compared to the PTC products and has it been a steep learning curve?
BK: The learning curve was short because I spent my entire career in Product Development. The same challenges exist everywhere, and simulation is still in the adoption phase. At my previous company, most of the time we were selling replacement technology. At ANSYS, our primary competitor is physical test and prototype. We are helping companies streamline their operations by reducing the amount of physical testing they need, and reducing the amount of physical prototypes they need to build.
MWJ:What are some of the main goals that you set for yourself and your team as you assumed your role as head of the worldwide sales organization at ANSYS?
BK: We are focused on helping customers succeed with adopting simulation technology. We see great benefit in customers adopting the entire ANSYS Simulation platform - improving time to market, decreasing product development costs, improving quality and enhancing the ability for engineers to innovate.
My team remains focused on that, if we help execute our CEOs vision of every engineer using simulation and enabling the complete 3D virtual prototype, we will grow our revenues in an appropriate fashion.
MWJ: PTC offers PLM software among its product portfolio. Do you see some of the capabilities that are addressed with PLM software being adopted into simulation software?
BK: I want to start by saying that I have tremendous respect for PTC, and I am proud that I was a part of that company. As the use of simulation continues to become more wide-spread, the need to manage simulations in a global engineering organization becomes critical. ANSYS offers a technology called EKM that is complimentary to PLM, and allows an engineering organization to manage this complex problem. ANSYS EKM provides an open collaboration platform for simulation IP management - including tools to efficiently leverage CAE data.
MWJ:ANSYS has grown in large part through strategic acquisitions; most notable for Microwave Journal readers was the move into electronics simulation with the purchase of Ansoft (developer of HFSS). Why did this move make sense for ANSYS and what has ANSYS been able to introduce to the electronics simulation world that was previously missing?
BK: Our executive team correctly predicted that communication technologies – particularly mobile & wireless - would transform every aspect of our modern lives. The incredible richness of smartphones enables many forms of communications – texting, reading, video conferencing, and of course just talking! These are made possible by robust RF systems, reliable display technologies, and high-performance ICs, many of which are built using ANSYS solutions.
Our latest offering, R16, for example, introduces the electronic desktop, which brings together ANSYS field solvers, circuit/system simulators, ECAD links, and EMI/EMC compliance reporting in a single platform. This new platform delivers a single desktop for HFSS, HFSS 3D Layout, HFSS-IE (integral equation solver), Q3D Extractor (quasi-static), Planar EM, Circuit and System simulations. Engineers can insert HF/SI analysis into coexisting projects with drag-and-drop dynamic links between the EM and circuit simulations. This yields simple problem set-up and reliable performance.
While the Microwave Journal readership is aware of our industry-leading electromagnetics offerings, I want to also highlight that we provide semiconductor (IC design) capability and safety critical embedded system design through our acquisitions of Apache and Esterel Technologies, respectively. As a result, we are providing added value to the industry through chip-package-system (CPS) simulation workflow. CPS leverages of our semiconductor and electromagnetics technologies to enable engineers to perform chip-aware PCB design and package/PCB-aware chip design.
MWJ:With recent mergers & acquisitions in the RF/microwave semiconductor industry including TriQuint/RFMD, Peregrine/Murata, Avago/Broadcom and Freescale/NXP, how do you see the support needs of these new organizations - and the industry in general - changing?
BK: We’re excited about the healthy semiconductor landscape. Our view is that these industry leaders are seeing opportunities, particularly in IoT, to provide an end-to-end solution to their customers. Providing complete IoT solution will require engineers to consider all the physics - electrical, thermal, and structural – and we expect we’ll be there to support them in that journey. The winners in the IoT economy will be companies who can deliver reliable products faster and connect an eco-system of value-added services. For example, our latest product offerings enable component makers to secure their component-level models, for IP protection. They can share these models, securely, with OEMs to speed product development and time-to-market. The component maker may be able to charge a premium for providing the component simulation library or they may use it as a competitive differentiator. So, there is an example of how the business models may be evolving in the coming years.
MWJ:How is ANSYS prepared to address the changing support needs of companies developing the latest technologies across diverse geographies and time zones?
BK: Great question. At ANSYS we have over 650 Support professionals globally called our ACE “ANSYS Customer Excellence” Team. They are focused 100% on ensuring customer success. That team has deep knowledge of all our key areas such as Mechanical, Fluids, Low Frequency EM, High Frequency and Systems. They are the gateway to ensure that our customers can adopt the entire ANSYS simulation platform. In addition to that team, we have a global channel partner network that has over 1000 engineers that are helping customers around the globe.
MWJ: Over the years the wireless industry has been driven by massive projects and breakthrough technologies from early RADAR to smart weapons in the mil/aerospace sector as well as each new generation of digital communication system. Today, the industry is buzzing over the opportunities presented in making the Internet of Things (IoT) a reality. How do you see ANSYS supporting the development of IoT devices and infrastructure? What are some of the IoT challenges that you’re hearing about from customers, which are ideally suited to an ANSYS solution?
BK: Yes, wireless technology is everywhere and now IoT is only making it more visible. If you segment IoT into the familiar three buckets: Things, Gateway/Network, and Cloud, you will see that the underlying infrastructure is being built ANSYS technologies. Sensors of all types, including MEMS are designed using ANSYS; so are the antennas for wireless communication. IoT will create a very complex wireless environment and the ability to not only design sophisticated antennas, but to also fully test them, virtually, in a real-world setting will be crucial for market success.
Leading communication IC companies use our solutions to reduce power consumption and improve product reliability. The migration to 3D-IC is being facilitated by our Apache solutions just as much as the 5G communication technologies are being designed using our Ansoft solutions.
I can give you some examples. Synapse Product Development, designers of the Nike Fuelband, used HFSS to improve the design the wireless system. Medtronic is building embedded medical devices and Starkey is improving the original wearable electronic device – the humble hearing aid, all using ANSYS. Alcatel-Lucent is building out faster networks using ANSYS. And, you may have read that leading semiconductor fabs like Intel, TSMC, Jazz Semiconductor have certified ANSYS semiconductor solutions on their latest processes. So, we’re deliver low-power solutions for IoT today!
When you think about IoT, you also think of self-driving cars. Esterel’s technologies are enabling engineers to design automotive displays as well as the embedded control software needed for autonomous function. Our low-frequency products are helping leading companies design the wireless charging technologies.
In talking with customers, we hear that their big challenges are in design space exploration. Our customers are focused on speeding innovation and they see simulation as a tool that can help them converge on the right designs quickly. They use simulation to speed up design iterations. ANSYS is unique in the industry because not only do we provide multiple physics to design a complete product, the accuracy and speed of our solutions is unmatched.
You can visit our IoT website to learn more: www.ansys.com/iot.
MWJ:After your first year, what are among the most impressive wireless technologies that you’ve seen from ANSYS customers?
BK: Wireless sensors are everywhere, and ANSYS is in the best position to help customers that are engineering products with wireless sensors do it with great confidence. One example of this is a customer that embedded a wireless sensor on their product, but when they did the product began to fail premature. Leveraging the ANSYS ACE team and our world class simulation technology we were able to not only optimize their wireless sensor, but also solve the mechanical failure.
This gets back to the complete virtual prototype and the power of one multi-physics simulation platform. Only ANSYS can provide this comprehensive solution in the market today.