One Year of Partnership with VIS Hydraulics
At the end of 2024, VIS Hydraulics joined SmartFluidPower with an investment that marked a turning point in our growth.
One year later, we’re excited to share tangible results and the new directions taken by our projects, products, marketing, research, and—most importantly—our team.
VIS Hydraulics & Smartfluidpower
Strengthening and Expanding Customer Projects
Collaboration with long-standing customers has grown stronger: projects initiated in previous years have been consolidated through updates to virtual models and the ongoing delivery of specialized consulting services.
At the same time, we’ve acquired new customers who entrusted us with simulation activities ranging from the optimization of complex circuits to the virtual characterization of hydraulic components—achieving results that confirm the effectiveness of our integrated approach combining simulation and experimental validation.
Driving Product Growth in the Market
The adoption of our approach—open-source software integrated with the SmartFluidPower virtual library—has expanded: today, a growing number of companies use our libraries and methodologies as a standard part of their design and validation processes.
This increase in the number of customers using the product is more than just a figure—it translates into technical feedback that fuels the development cycle, making the library more complete and better aligned with real industrial use cases.
Driving Market Presence through Strategic Marketing
We have implemented a structured marketing strategy, acting on multiple fronts to increase the brand’s visibility and technical credibility.
The activity is coordinated by a dedicated internal resource who manages social channels, relationships with industry associations, and educational initiatives such as webinars and workshops.
These activities aim to highlight the benefits of advanced physical simulation without diluting the technical identity of our message.
This organized and consistent presence has already delivered results in terms of qualified leads and requests for technical insights.
Research, Development, and Internal Tools
Internal R&D projects have continued at a steady pace: in addition to expanding the functionality of the existing virtual library, we have started diversifying the libraries to cover a wider range of component types and use cases, and developing support tools that simplify the integration of models into industrial design workflows.
These activities are aimed both at improving the effectiveness of consulting projects and at creating product elements that can be commercially scaled.
Specialized Training
Training in companies remains a key element of our offering.
Technical courses and update programs on hydraulics and simulation continue to support development projects, because transferring knowledge within client companies improves the quality of tool adoption and strengthens long-term business relationships.
Course delivery has remained consistent and highly technical, with materials and workshops increasingly integrated with the virtual models developed in-house.
Our Most Valuable Resource: The Team
Probably the most visible aspect of VIS’s investment is the expansion and structuring of the team.
Strengthening operational capacity was the primary goal of the initiative: people make it possible to handle a growing volume of technical and consulting work and to shift a larger share of activities toward product development and commercialization.
Specifically, in addition to founder and CEO Giovanni Cillo (already full-time), we consolidated the full-time position of Managing Director Marco Rizzoli starting at the end of 2024.
In June 2025, Simone Serafini joined the team on a part-time basis: a graduate in Communication and Marketing from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, he serves as Product Marketing Specialist at VIS Hydraulics and coordinates SmartFluidPower’s Digital Marketing strategy.
Finally, in November 2025, Giuseppe Totaro will join the team: a Mechanical Engineering graduate from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, he is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the “Enzo Ferrari” Engineering Department and will work both on client simulation projects and on internal product R&D activities.
The increase in structured resources is primarily aimed at sustaining and expanding the volume of technical and consulting work that has become a hallmark of the company’s history.
The additional capacity will be leveraged to:
- Focus operational efforts on developing existing products and creating new tools;
- Dedicate an increasing share of activities to commercialization and customer support;
- Maintain and expand specialized training and consulting services, which enhance internal know-how and strengthen the commercial offering.
Looking Ahead: Goals for the Next 3 Months
In the coming months, we aim to consolidate the adoption of our libraries in new application sectors, release updates that facilitate integration into customers’ design processes, and complete the onboarding of new team members to maximize responsiveness to projects.
The balance between product development, commercial activity, and technical/training services remains our key strength: each activity feeds the other, creating a virtuous cycle that generates value for both customers and shareholders.
Conclusion - Vis Hydraulics & Smartfluidpower
One year after VIS’s entry, the path we have taken confirms that the investment is more about people and operational capabilities than a simple injection of capital.
Thanks to a stronger team, consolidated customer relationships, and the growing adoption of our approach, SmartFluidPower is now better equipped to turn its technical expertise into marketable products and highly specialized services.
Our commitment remains to keep technical quality and customer proximity as the guiding principles of our company’s evolution.
How SmartFluidPower Can Help You Digitalize Your Engineering Department
SmartFluidPower is an innovative SME founded in 2018 as a spin-off of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. Our team combines academic expertise and engineering know-how to bring innovation to hydraulic system design.
Companies in the fluid power sector often struggle with simulation software that is too complex, expensive, or poorly suited to their real needs.
We decided to change the game.
We work directly with industry leaders to develop tailored products and services designed to simplify modeling, reduce development time, and improve the performance of hydraulic systems.
Ready to bring simulation into your engineering workflow?
Let’s talk – 30 minutes on us.
We provide the software tools you need to optimize the design of hydraulic components and systems.
By applying the most advanced technologies, we deliver solutions to your toughest challenges in fluid power product design.
Our goal: help you innovate while avoiding wasted resources on trial-and-error processes.
