What is the deal with Autodesk and cloud/mobile/social?

by Jon Pittman and Scott Sheppard

According to business journals, a company's strategy should include the following elements:

• Something that customers find valuable -- something they will pay for.
• Something that is unique -- something that sets the company apart from the rest.
• Something that leverages the company's crown jewels -- something that plays to a company's core competencies.
• Something that is defendable -- something that competitors cannot easily copy.

Autodesk approaches strategy in a two-part process: Strategic Intent ("where we want to go") and Strategic Realization ("how we will execute against the intent"). We are focused on The Autodesk Experience -- How do all of our products and services work together in the cloud? As part of this, we spent A Year of Learning Dangerously where we learned a great deal about broad disruptive changes impacting the industries we serve:

1. Generations - Although a generation gap used to reflect a 20-year biological span, in terms of technology, it only takes a 7-year age difference to see a marked delta in how one generation uses technology versus another.
2. A Shift To The East - Emerging markets in Asia and Africa are where manufacturing, construction, and media activities are moving.
3. The Age of Access - Society is moving from only requiring access to products instead of owning them.
4. Business Unusual - Venture capital is available via social mechanisms which means it is much easier to get into business. In addition, the technology barriers are also lowering.
5. Systems Design - Instead of designing single-purpose, stand-alone products, solutions are parts of integrated systems.
6. Digital Fabrication - The separation of designing things and making things is evaporating. Both processes are now digital.
7. Infinite Computing - The economics of computing are such that latency in the design process can be dramatically reduced by using banks of computers in the cloud.

With these disruptions in mind, we recognize that:

• The cloud is the new platform.
• Mobile is the new desktop.
• Real modeling happens in the cloud.
• Design includes more than just modeling -- go beyond form and include function, performance, fabrication, and process.
• It's all about an integrated experience for our customers.

In terms of business model, we want to move from offering a perpetual license with maintenance to a termed subscription model. This approach will allow customers to more closely match what they pay with what they use. As mentioned in Jon's post on Good Design Requires Conceptual Integrity, this approach for Autodesk means our success is more closely tied to our customers' success.

Cloud/mobile/social is alive in the lab.