Advantech, a global leader in Industrial IoT, is set to make substantial investments in the Indian market, thus expanding its presence in India. Specifically, the company intends to relocate its Operations and Service Center in Bangalore to a larger facility, enhancing operational efficiency and local service capabilities. In addition, Advantech plans to establish a software research and development (R&D) center in Pune and anticipates hiring hundreds of software engineers. Simultaneously, Advantech will strengthen its industry-academia collaboration, with the goal of recruiting top-tier Indian talent directly from local campuses.

Expanding Advantech’s Presence in India and Strengthening Local Service Capabilities

Mark Yang, Associate Vice President of Embedded-IoT Business Group and AInterCon at Advantech, highlighted Advantech’s extensive presence in the Indian market spanning over 20 years. In the past seven years, the company has achieved remarkable growth, with an impressive annual rate of 19.5%. Over the last three years, this growth has accelerated, maintaining a compound annual growth rate of more than 32.3% – setting consecutive yearly records. This exceptional growth has boosted confidence in Advantech’s local business operations and investment strategy. Consequently, it led to the initiation of an integration plan that includes the expansion of the Operations and Service Center in Bangalore and the establishment of a software R&D center in Pune.

Mark elaborated on Advantech’s proactive approach in developing AIoT solutions tailored for the Indian market. The company is employing a “Sector-Driven” strategy, with a particular focus on various high-growth-rate sectors, including smart cities, application-focused embedded platforms (AFE), Edge Intelligence, and Industrial AI. Advantech aims to leverage the Edge+ ecosystem to accelerate the localization of AIoT applications to gain a competitive advantage in India.

Furthermore, in addition to the ongoing collaboration with existing Indian partners, Advantech has plans to forge partnerships with local system integrators in specific vertical markets in the future. This strategic move is aimed at catalyzing a new wave of growth within the local industry ecosystem.

Expanding Current Operations and Service Center while Streamlining the Regional Supply Chain

Rakesh Sharma, Head of Operations at Advantech in India, highlighted the company’s response to the evolving market demands in India, including IoT edge computing and smart cities. In alignment with the government’s “Make in India” policy, and to address customer demands, Advantech has made substantial investments in expanding its local service capabilities in Bangalore. This expansion involves strengthening local operations, optimizing logistics services, improving production lines, and enhancing service centers. The goal is to enhance the flexibility and agility of Advantech’s supply chain.

Sharma also mentioned that Advantech is actively expanding its service center operations in India. This expansion includes enhancing the capabilities of existing configure-to-order service centers, system and board repair centers, and logistics centers. Additionally, the expansion will include Advantech Service Plus (AS+), an initiative expected to result in a five-fold increase in Advantech India’s performance.

Attracting Software Talent, Promoting Collaboration, and Establishing a Local IoT Talent Pool

Wesley Liu, Director of Advantech Human Resources Department, announced plans to address the growing demand for application software talent in AIoT+ edge computing by establishing a software R&D center in Pune, India. This center will focus on recruiting top-tier software professionals and integrating them into Advantech’s industrial IoT domain through a comprehensive strategic approach and planning. Furthermore, Advantech intends to use the Pune center as a base for its newly created IoTMart digital commerce platform business model. The goal is to enable expansion into markets such as Europe, the United States, and India. This expansion will enable Advantech to offer diverse software services and create abundant business opportunities, accelerating its position in the IoT ecosystem.

Wesley emphasized Advantech’s commitment to talent acquisition over the past five years, driven by the need for expanding service centers and establishing software R&D centers. The company has actively engaged in recruitment efforts and IoT education initiatives in India. Leveraging its industrial IoT resources and expertise, Advantech has collaborated with approximately 30 universities to share successful application cases of the WISE-IoT industrial IoT platform in India. These efforts have contributed to the continuous refinement of the local talent recruitment strategy.

Furthermore, Advantech’s future plans involve targeting vertical markets such as intelligent healthcare, intelligent manufacturing, and smart transportation while nurturing cross-field IoT talent through various channels. This initiative promotes the collaboration between industry and academia to create a co-creation value chain, aiming to establish a sustainable and positive IoT ecosystem. These multifaceted efforts are geared toward embracing the next phase of explosive growth.