With a strategic aim to enhance the presence in India and the Middle East by expanding its network of channel partners, Cimatron, an End-to-end Integrated CAD-CAM software solution provider for Mold and Die industry, as a part of Sandvik Intelligent Manufacturing, had recently organised a meet with Ms. Taline Forsberg, President, Cimatron and Ms. Sophie Delgado, Director – HR, Cimatron & GibbsCAM along with other channel partners, to enhance sales, technical support, and implementation of their software solutions.
– By Neha Basudkar Ghate
As the global die and mold industry evolves in response to technological advancements and shifting market demands, software providers are under increasing pressure to balance innovation, scalability, and regional adaptability. In this exclusive interview with Ms. Taline Forsberg, President, Cimatron, she shared the strategic insights on Cimatron’s evolving product roadmap, the role of India and Southeast Asia in its global operations, and how the company is integrating AI, customer feedback, and platform-level enhancements to stay ahead.
1- In your view, Which global and regional trends do you see shaping the die and mold industry, and how should software providers adapt their solutions to meet diverse customer needs across geographies?
I think from a global trends perspective, there are several that are semi-global or regional in nature. But what is truly global is the adoption of new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in the manufacturing business. Our customers essentially want to do more with the same resources, which means the software needs to become more intelligent and capable of integrating with different systems, so that the same data does not have to be entered multiple times across various platforms.
Basically, the integration should go seamlessly through the workflows. Those are, I think, the global trends. In addition to that, we also observe regional trends, where specific customer segments in different regions have unique requests, particularly around the automation of certain parts of our software.
I think we heard a bit earlier about plastic injection molding flow simulation, it is something we have seen requested in certain areas, but it is not a global demand. It is more region-specific, with higher adoption in some markets than others. In contrast, emerging trends like AI and ML are what I would consider truly global. These technologies are gaining consistent interest across all regions and industries we work with.
2- As a leader, how do you evaluate and balance the need for deep, domain-specific functionality with the importance of platform-level scalability in CAD/CAM solutions for the die and mold industry?
What we are focusing on right now is shaping our current platform to be fit for the future, because this platform is going to be around for quite some time. It needs to be scalable, stable, and capable of supporting future development. At the same time, we need to balance this with the addition of new features. CAD AI has already been launched, DieQuote is live, and we have several other features currently in development behind the scenes.
That is one part of the process. We also recently brought on board a new Product Director, who is now working with us to shape the overall product vision, not just for the current platform, but also for what the future Cimatron product will look like. Together, we are identifying the key milestones and the roadmap needed to get there. We are taking it step by step, but I believe we have a solid foundation to build on.
3-As a global leader in tooling softwareHow do you tailor your go-to-market and growth strategies across regions with varying market maturity and vertical opportunities?
The strategic challenge in serving an emerging market like India has been taken care by Amol Mane, Director- Sales and Marketing – Cimatron (Southeast Asia, India, Middle East, ANZ, and South Africa). He is building his team to make sure that we build up this region from a commercial perspective.
In other regions where we are more mature in markets including Europe and the US, we are now exploring which additional market segments we can grow into. Injection molding, for example, is a broad market. While we have traditionally focused on specific segments, we have recently started expanding into areas like plastic injection molding for the medical industry, and even the chocolate production industry which is an established sector in Europe that we had not previously tapped into due to limited bandwidth. So, we are approaching each region differently, with tailored strategies based on the specific opportunities we see in each market.
4-How is Cimatron positioning itself to support high-precision industries like semiconductors across Southeast Asia?
We currently have six resellers in Taiwan, where there is a strong focus on precision mold and die, especially for the electronics sector. Our product is fully equipped to serve this market, and we continue to reinforce our position as an end-to-end solution provider not just a CAM offering. From concept to reality, we support the entire workflow: importing the part, designing the mold/die, and taking it through to manufacturing.
This makes us particularly well-suited for the semiconductor industry, and we already have a solid customer base in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Thailand (essentially across Southeast Asia).
Our capability truly spans the entire production chain. While automotive remains our primary segment, we also serve industries like consumer electronics, medical equipment involving plastic or formed parts, and even some areas of aerospace where plastic components are used.
5- As markets like India and Southeast Asia rapidly adopt digital tooling practices, how is your R&D strategy evolving to meet diverse customer needs in terms of machines, skill levels, and production environments?
Our current R&D strategy has been centered on strengthening our platform by building core development and core modules in-house. However, as we look beyond our R&D centers, we are seeing a growing number of requests coming directly from customers across different regions.
To address this, we have developed a highly evolved API platform that enables us to collaborate with partners like Altair and others, allowing us to add modules based on specific regional demands. We also work with API partners who help us develop specific modules, further expanding our capabilities.
Looking ahead and this is precisely why we have brought in a Product Director, we plan to take a more structured and strategic approach to integrating customer-driven innovations into our roadmap.
Going forward, I would like to see our core platform R&D focused on making the platform as robust and scalable as possible. At the same time, innovation should continue on the module side, through both internal development and strategic partnerships. While collaboration remains important, I believe it is equally essential that we start bringing many of the features our customers are asking for in-house, so we can deliver faster and with tighter integration.
Conversation with Ms. Sophie Delgado, Director – HR at Cimatron & GibbsCAM
Continuing our in-depth conversation with the leadership team at Cimatron, we now turn to Ms. Sophie Delgado, Director – HR at Cimatron & GibbsCAM, to explore the people and culture side of the company’s global strategy. In this segment, Sophie shares her insights on the evolving role of India in shaping inclusive global talent strategies, the importance of cultural agility, and how Cimatron is fostering deep collaboration between customer-facing teams and internal R&D. Her perspective reinforces the company’s belief that innovation is not just about technology—it’s about people, learning, cross-collaboration and partnerships.
How do you view India’s contribution to your global diversity and inclusion goals, and how does it complement your broader strategy for building globally distributed teams?
I would say, in answering this question, I do not limit my perspective to just India. When we talk about diversity, it is important to approach it with a truly global mindset. If we focus on just one part of the world, we miss the bigger picture, even if we are not running out of talent in that specific region.
That said, with all the capabilities and talent available, it is clear why we want to continue investing, especially to bring in additional layers of diversity, something we have already begun working on. I strongly believe that India will play a key role in helping us enable and achieve this broader vision of diversity.
And of course, when we talk about diversity, we must also talk about inclusion. The two go hand in hand. And when we talk about inclusion, I think the situation today is quite different from what it was 10 years ago. From my experience working in large companies trying to expand into India back then, the environment was not as open. But now, the culture in India has evolved significantly and people are truly embracing diversity. They are agile and very comfortable working in diverse, multi-cultural environments. In fact, I would even say that, in some cases, they are now more pro-active in this space compared to regions like Europe or the US.
This is a strong point that India brings to the table in taking the next step toward true diversity and inclusion. While we may be a relatively small team in terms of numbers, we have a remarkably large global footprint and presence within the global economic ecosystem.
My goal is to make the most of this strength and not to reduce it, but to enhance it further and use it to strengthen collaboration across teams and regions.
How does your India presence support both customer engagement and internal capability-building across teams?
As we mentioned, we already have a strong market presence and a dedicated team in India. One of the key strengths of our technical service center there is customer training. I want to leverage that same capability to train our internal teams as well and that is the first step.
The second important aspect, which we have been actively discussing with both the local and development teams, is how they can also learn directly from customer experiences. Growing the business in India will naturally bring our development teams closer to the customer environment, helping them better understand real-world applications and needs.
When I talk about collaboration, I am not referring to it only in the context of internal teams or specific regions like Germany. I am talking about building true partnerships with customers like gathering feedback, co-creating solutions, and evolving together. Especially in the context of AI and new technologies, I see this as a ‘learning by doing’ journey.
The goal is to create a virtuous cycle, which means supporting our customers while also learning from them. This is exactly what we are striving to implement on our India campus as well. As our operations and customer base grow in India, this growth will go hand-in-hand with deeper learning, stronger collaboration, and faster innovation.
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