Bosch, a Germany-based multinational engineering and automotive technology company, chose India to set up its largest technology hub outside of Germany a quarter of a century ago. Since then, India has brought growth in multiple dimensions and is now poised to continue leading Bosch’s digitization and innovation activities globally, he said Dattatri Salagame, CEO, President and MD, Bosch Global Software Technologies Pvt. ltd (BGSW) in exclusive interaction with Peppystores. Edited excerpts:
What is the reason behind the recent Bosch Global Name Change (RBEI)?
We recently changed our name globally from Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI) to Bosch Global Software Technologies (BGSW). The new name reflects our technological and business advances and our ability to develop technology products and services “fit for the future”. As a software company, we apply cutting-edge techniques to solve some of the toughest problems in areas like mobility, manufacturing, sustainability, and consumer products. We want to communicate with the ecosystems and innovation hubs for talented talent and invite them to join us. This name change aptly represents the company’s identity, skills and competencies, its global reach and the central role it plays in product development at Bosch.
Will this new branding sharpen Bosch’s focus on digital technology and innovation?
Bosch constantly strives to provide the best technology-based innovations for companies. The increasing maturity and acceptance of data-driven technologies, distributed, cloud and edge computing open opportunities for more innovation. Last year we created an exclusive entity, Software & Digital Solutions, to focus on a portfolio of connected businesses and connected products. We believe the future of mobility will be software defined. In addition, we want to strengthen our focus on innovation at BGSW through targeted investments. We recently opened Hacker’s Garage, also an innovation fund to foster an environment where promising ideas can be nurtured, incubated and scaled.
How will AIShield provide additional security in a highly cyber-threatened environment?
It is an industry-first and patented AI security SaaS offering that provides hacker-level vulnerability assessment and security hardening through custom endpoint mitigation for the company’s AI-powered devices and cloud solutions. We recognized the need to create a last layer of defense for AI models to integrate the newer attack surfaces and security threats. The idea of Bosch AIShield was born in 2020 and the solution presented at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2022 in Las Vegas. We all know that organizations strive to protect their valuable digital assets such as data and information. The use of AI can also result in financial losses, reputational damage, loss of competitive advantage and loss of intellectual property for companies. With AIShield’s end-to-end security offering, even small security teams and AI/ML developers can ensure AI systems are monitored and protected.
How important is India for Bosch globally in terms of software/product development and R&D?
India is the largest software and technology center for Bosch outside of Germany. Although BGSW is headquartered in Bengaluru, it serves customers and partners from all regions and industries on their digital journey. Targeted investments are reflected in our infrastructure ramp-ups, innovation labs, national expansion plans and also in talent development. Our start-up incubation program – DNA (Discover, Nurture, Align) – and the innovation labs such as Hacker’s Garage, IoT Garage etc. further promote innovation. Our work involves the application of electronics and computation to solve domain problems. For example, in mobility – autonomous driving, vehicle computing, gateways, V2X (vehicle-to-anything) – connectivity, electrification and safety are some of the most challenging issues our engineers are working on. In healthcare, BGSW focuses on products and solutions for detecting abnormalities in blood anatomy, hemoglobin-based detection in a digital, non-invasive way using computer vision and related data technologies. There are similar opportunities that we are working on in energy, enterprise digitization and other areas.
What about your hiring plans?
We will hire approximately 5,500 professionals in 2022 to expand our existing workforce of 25,000. We are looking for talent that has a deep understanding of technology and the ability to solve real-time problems. As such, we consider skills in data science, AI, cybersecurity, mechatronics, robotics, edge computing, hyperscale cloud development/deployment, and full-stack IoT, to name a few. We would also hire experts with in-depth technical and system knowledge, particularly in the area of mobility. The BGSW would play an important role in the digital transformation of Bosch worldwide and therefore we would be very interested in hiring talents with proven competencies for the digital transformation of companies.
When do you expect your Hyderabad and Pune centers to be operational?
In India, we are expanding beyond Coimbatore and Bengaluru to Hyderabad and Pune, which will start operations in mid-2022. Initially, we will hire around 1,000 professionals for these two new centers this year, increasing to 5,000 professionals by 2025. We plan to expand our presence to North and East India as well. We are also opening a new center in North Vietnam in Hanoi and aim to hire 400 people this year. We are establishing a center in Poland. We will also continue to expand our customer facing functions in the US and Japan.
