With a portfolio of synergistic hardware, software and service offerings, Trimble is proving again and again that it is a good match between the Indian needs and its capabilities

Steven Berglund, President and CEO, Trimble Navigation

 Trimble is one of the leading providers of advanced location-based solutions that maximise productivity and enhance profitability. The company integrates its positioning expertise in GPS, laser, optical and inertial technologies with application software, wireless communications and services to provide complete commercial solutions.

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring positioning or location, including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping.

Trimble serves a variety of industries, including agriculture, engineering and construction, transportation and wireless communications infrastructure. Its portfolio of over 1,000 patents is the basis for the broadest positioning solutions portfolio in the industry.

While talking about Trimble, Steven Berglund, President and CEO, Trimble Navigation, says, “In general what Trimble attempts to do as a company is to appoint technology to the work process of generally fairly traditional industries like construction, agriculture and transportation and transform the efficiency, productivity and quality of the work process with technology.”

Renovation to innovation
Bringing together a portfolio of synergistic hardware, software and service offerings, Trimble Buildings team provides highly specialised tools optimised to work together.

It starts with Trimble Connect, its cloud-based collaboration platform, which streamlines processes throughout the Design-Build-Operate (DBO) life cycle, enabling teams to achieve transformative results. Trimble Connect provides coordinated building information for everyone on the OSO team — enabling every stakeholder to share, review, co-ordinate and comment on data-rich building models.

Design
In the design phase, software such as SketchUp Pro, Tekla Structures and Vico Office help architects, engineers, general contractors and building owners work together to bridge the design-build gap, by unifying project knowledge with flexible, considerable models, enabling designers to adapt design choices in a dynamic project landscape.
 

Build
During the build phase, it’s a struggle for contractors and construction managers to keep everyone involved in the process on the same page. Trimble helps clients with solutions that ensure timely and transparent workflow across all parts of the project.

Solutions such as Prolog, WinEst, Vico Office and Trimble Accubid empower users with effective project and cost-management capabilities that maximise productivity and efficiency, while reducing risk and budget uncertainty. Trimble also has a host of hardware products, such as laser scanners and construction layout systems, which ensure efficiency and accuracy in the field. Finally, Proliance provides an enterprise management system for the project owner.

Operate
Building owners and occupiers must continue to maximise efficiencies during the operate phase, which is where solutions like Proliance and Modelogix come in action. These technologies enable owners and managers to track the performance of their infrastructure, facilities and construction portfolios in order to effectively plan future projects and rapidly respond to current needs.
Following construction, facilities and real estate management represent a major portion of operational costs for building owners and occupiers. Trimble’s Manhattan Software solutions include on-premise and Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings to help owners and occupiers plan, manage and analyse their buildings, workspaces and assets more efficiently and cost effectively.

Trimble in India
India is a market for all of Trimble’s core business. These are basically five core business divisions for Trimble. Then there are some emerging as well as new developments. Though they are on a smaller scale but represent things like electrical utilities, rail roads and water management, where Trimble brings technology into these and change the process.

Mr Berglund believes that India represent the most dynamic among the traditional BRIC nations. He confidently says, “India in the next 3-5 years will represent the largest geographic opportunity available for Trimble. We hope that about 10 per cent of our revenue will be coming from India in the coming years, i.e. around $250 million. India represents significant geographic opportunities simply because the momentum in India is stronger than corporate traditional BRIC.”

There is a very good map between Trimble and Indian ambitions where Trimble can provide a significant contribution. Trimble from the sense of cultural stand points to look at the Indian market and other markets from inside out. “Our product base today matches the needs of the market very closely,” explains Mr Berglund. “If any agriculture product is not appropriate for India, we reinvent ourselves to some extent with the context of the market. It is a very good match between the Indian needs and Trimble’s capabilities.”

Best of the Trimble products
3D Modelling
Building professionals around the wild turn to SketchUp Pro for conception, visualisation, communication and planning. SketchUp Pro is powerful because its intuitive and simple, allowing architects to quickly evolve design ideas and document modelling work in both 30 and 20 formats.

BIM
Tekla solutions for BIM help the construction industry improve quality, increase profits and reduce risk.

Tekla Structures is building information modelling (BIM) software that enables the action and management of accurately detailed, highly constructible 30 structural models regardless of material r structural complexity. The models can cover the entire building process from conceptual design to fabrication, erection and construction management.

Tekla BIMsight is a professional tool for construction project collaboration. With Tekla BIMsight, the entire construction workflow can combine models.

Talking on Tekla’s business initiatives in India, Mr Berglund said, “Tekla in India doing great job with consistent growth and I was told that they will have their new Tekla Structures Ver 21 launch through multi city customers interaction. This is our core strength; we don’t ship box rather we work with our customer.” He adds, “I am very optimistic that our Trimble Buildings offering with end-to-end solution for construction industry in India will get good appreciation and acceptance.”

Virtual construction
Vico Office delivers a different way of working with BIM models.  Used for much more than visualisation, Vico Office extends the basic 3D model with constructability analysis and coordination, quantity takeoff, 4D location-based scheduling and production control, and 5D estimating.

Estimating
Trimble Accubid Enterprise Estimating is a robust estimating solution for electrical contractors that uses logical business rules to centralise data across the lifecycle of a project. By using a project workflow approach, contractors can work on core aspects of a project whether in the estimating or change management phase.

Trimble AutoBid Mechanical and Trimble AutoBid SheetMetal are one of the market leading labour and material estimating software solutions, ideal for commercial mechanical, piping, plumbing, and sheet metal contractors. These products’ customised graphical takeoff tools, automatic fitting generation and multiple industry standard labour books enable contractors to quickly and accurately create bids.

Gehry Technologies
Gehry Technologies provides Web-based 3D project collaboration, BIM technology and advanced project delivery services to owners, architects, engineers, builders, fabricators and industry professionals worldwide, allowing customers of all sizes to communicate more effectively, improve design and construction quality, and accelerate project cycle times.

Trimble and smart city mission
Now, the Indian government plans to develop 100 smart cities and a hopping ` 7,600 crore has been earmarked for the said purpose. Trimble aims to play significant role relevant to smart cities concept. “Trimble group is fairly selective in targeting the roles we play,” says Mr Berglund. “We are a large provider of telematics. In terms of building the smart city and building the smart city intelligently, intelligent construction is our primary territory.”

There are a number of discrete areas where Trimble can provide significant capabilities in smart cities with intelligent transportation systems. In order to have an intelligent transportation system, there is a need to have knowledge at micro level. There is a need to understand how things are in intelligent transportation. “In terms of capability, Trimble is a participant in the smart city initiative,” claims Mr Berglund. “We will demonstrate the appropriate flexibility in bringing solutions.”