ANSS
#Well, okay, in general, I would say that you might get into some of the commodity based, the mining stocks, in addition to that, that are a little bit relatively suppressed.
The one thing I would say, I wasn't trying to infer that I felt that the semiconductor market was turning the corner and was coming around.
I am just saying that our relative positioning in it, as a result of both chip package system, and the SeaScape kind of platform type of thing has put us in a much better competitive situation which, in turn, has led to accelerating growth.
While it is all time-based and you have a long pipeline of things, the pipeline is building nicely and as we mentioned, the growth is accelerating which kind of turned ---+ reversed the trends that we might have been seeing last year.
So, I still think, I don't know, <UNK>, if you have different comments on this.
I still think the headwinds are still kind of there, but our relative stead in there is actually improved.
Okay.
Yes.
Absolutely.
The first part is long term, no, it is nothing but a plus.
Short term, I mean, anything that causes people to spend more cycles comparing and deciding, yes, it is going to slow things down along that standpoint.
You talked about an effective pricing model.
I think you brought up that term.
I would say to that, luckily we have been able to look at this in two different steps.
First of all, people can host existing licenses on a cloud and therefore pay on a basis of that versus actually acquiring hardware on premise and all that type of thing.
So that actually zeros out, if you will, it makes it a one-to-one on the software pricing.
That being said, they are still right now comparing what does it means to turn loose that amount of computing, you know, pay for it through a service versus not having to maintain an IT staff and all the different things that are associated with that.
And that really is what has been the major things that people have been doing.
It's almost the comparative of the cost of the infrastructure, control of the infrastructure, things like that.
That being said, there will be an additional layer there.
What is the advantages of actually doing flexible licensing versus actually hosting owned licenses, be they time based or perpetual.
And that is one that people will only be starting to dig into now, but it is really kind of the age old question on anything.
Do you buy something.
Do you lease something.
Or do you just rent it for the weekend that you need it if you are getting access to yard equipment, things like that.
So that is part given the elastic pricing hasn't been out that long, and given the fact that people are still trying to single out, if you will, the infrastructural costs, we are still at the early stages of that, but we have time to adjust.
I agree with you there is interest.
There's maybe a little bit of a gap between interest and ultimate adoption, but that ultimate adoption will come.
Thank you.
First of all, I think the first way I view that is a lot of other companies are now validating the path that we took years ago when people were saying, why are they doing that.
They are, if they will, they are validating that, you know, in the form of imitation.
More importantly is, it's not just adding a bigger grab bag of products.
You have to have a comprehensive set that actually allows those to do a complete virtual prototype.
And of the various situations that are out there right now, really nobody runs the gamut like we do.
There are barriers to being able to do that.
That being said, I would say, if you will, our independence has actually made us attractive in mixed vendor environments and mix supply chains to being able to do that.
So, it really ---+ we really haven't seen a lot of change.
I mean, other than the fact that ---+ I'd say the one change we have seen which usually happens when a CAD/CAM company buys a simulation product, is people that were on a different platform now are strongly looking at moving into that environment with us.
So, really it is ---+ I guess we really don't see any directional change or we are not really surprised by too many things.
Now, to answer the first part of your question, or at least one of the parts of the question is, oh yes, we would still like some of the larger ones, but you said which parts of the ---+ we have the basic families of physics all covered.
Have had that for a while and the only ones who do.
However, every one of those continue to need to be continued to be developed.
So, even though our home PC was around for many years, the processors need to get faster, the graphics need to get better, the connectivity needs to get better.
Likewise, even though we have industry-leading capabilities and have had, we need to continue to progress those further in addition to meeting the evolving and emerging new trends that are pretty much in the news today, like the Internet of Things, like autonomously driven cars, as getting into additive manufacturing, all those things that put new twists, if you will, on building virtual prototypes.
Well, let's put it this way.
We do have an assumption on productivity of the newer hires which tend to be more in the territory alignment one.
We do have ---+ but we also have fairly ---+ we haven't made, based on our historical observation of the last few quarters as we have been ramping up on here, we do see a progression.
Of course, it maps very well into data as we have shown at previous meetings where it shows that, if you will, the salesforce productivity is a function of maturity of the sales person, year one, year two, year three, year four.
So we expect that kind of ramp up to come forward, but it is not ---+ we are not relying on any kind of herculean effort.
We are relying on continued progression along that path.
So, that is definitely is part of it.
Thank you.
I would like to thank all of you for your participation in our call today and for the ongoing support of ANSYS.
We are really encouraged by what we accomplished in the first half of 2016, but, again, as we discussed on this call and thanks to your questions, we have a lot of work ahead to deliver on our goals for the full year and the years beyond.
Nevertheless, I would still like to thank our entire ANSYS team as we've mentioned some of our key partners for their commitment to driving results.
All I will say is, I think in general, the general tenor here, is it is a really exciting time to be in the simulation market.
We have seen a lot of trends that are driving that.
We see other companies that are now interested in entering it.
It is really exciting in terms of the product advancements, things that we didn't even envision a few years ago, like additive manufacturing, like the autonomously driven cars, like this whole concept of a digital twin for industrial use for prescriptive analytics, just to name some of the opportunities.
So it just continues to grow from this point and it tends to be pretty exciting and we're happy to be in the position we are to be able to embark upon that.
So basically, as the simulation markets propose to enter what we feel is a new era, we are proactively evolving our ANSYS teams.
I know some of your questions brought that.
But this is in terms of technology, infrastructure, the actual ANSYS and sales teams and even the partner ecosystems to take advantage of what we see as really a tremendous opportunity over the next few years.
Basically, unimpeachably, we have a proven product strategy, one that other people are trying to emulate.
We have a progressing go-to-market plan, and on top of all, we have a solid financial foundation that enables us to continue to invest in our business.
Over the decades we have built, I think, unparalleled product offerings.
We have longevity with our customers, at very high reoccurring revenues, and the opportunity to augment growth through new features and exciting technology.
So the bottom line is, we are continuing to expand our direct salesforce.
We have a renewed focus on the indirect channel and we are basically committed to driving those solid financial results we have been talking about and generating long term value for our shareholders and everyone else involved.
With that, I will thank you very much and we will catch you on the next call, if not sooner.
