Autodesk 2001 Annual Report Download - page 15

12 FY 01 Autodesk, Inc.
introduce new products and services that will achieve
acceptance among our current customers, adversely
affecting our competitive position.
Independent firms and contractors perform some of our
product development activities, while other technologies
are licensed from third parties.We generally either own or
license the software developed by third parties. Because
talented development personnel are in high demand,
independent developers, including those who currently
develop products for us, may not be able to provide devel-
opment support in the future. Similarly, we may not be
able to obtain and renew existing license agreements on
favorable terms, or at all, which could harm our business.
Our business strategy has historically depended in part on
our relationships with third-party developers,who provide
products that expand the functionality of our design soft-
ware. Some developers may elect to support other
products or may experience disruption in product devel-
opment and delivery cycles. In particular markets, this
disruption could negatively impact these third-party
developers and end users,which could harm our business.
Marketing and Sales
Our customer-related operations are divided into three
geographic regions,the Americas, Europe and Asia/Pacific,
and are supported by global marketing and sales organi-
zations. These organizations develop and manage overall
marketing and sales programs and work closely with a
network of domestic and foreign offices. We sell our soft-
ware products both directly to customers, which include
large corporations, and also through distributors and
value-added resellers, or VARs.
In addition, we work directly with reseller and distributor
sales organizations, computer manufacturers, other soft-
ware developers and peripheral manufacturers in
cooperative advertising, promotions and trade-show pre-
sentations. We employ mass-marketing techniques such
as webcasts, seminars, telemarketing, direct mailings and
advertising in business and trade journals. We have a
worldwide user group organization dedicated to the
exchange of information related to the use of our
products.
Our ability to effectively distribute our products depends
in part upon the financial and business condition of our
VAR network. Although we are not currently experiencing
any material problems with the financial viability of our
VAR network, computer software dealers and distributors
are typically not highly capitalized, have previously
experienced difficulties during times of economic contrac-
tion and may do so in the future. In addition, the changing
distribution models resulting from the Internet, from
increased focus on direct sales to major accounts or from
two-tiered distribution may impact our VAR network in the
future.While no single customer accounted for more than
10 percent of our consolidated revenues in any of the past
three fiscal years, the loss of, or a significant reduction in,
business with any one of our major international distribu-
tors or large U.S. resellers could harm our business.
We intend to continue to make our products available in
foreign languages and expect that foreign sales will con-
tinue to contribute a significant portion of our consoli-
dated revenues.
Customer and Reseller Support
We provide technical support and training to customers
through a leveraged model, augmented by programs
designed to address specific direct needs. We expect that
end users rely primarily on their resellers and distributors
for technical support.We support the resellers and distrib-
utors through technical product training, sales training
classes, the Internet and direct telephone support.
Support content is also available on the Product Support
portion of our Internet site.There are also a number of user
group forums in which customers are able to share
information.
While we expect the resellers and distributors to provide
the majority of technical support to our customers, we
have developed programs to deliver direct support to
some customers.
Developer Programs
One of our key strategies is to maintain an open-architec-
ture design of our software products to facilitate
third-party development of complementary products and
industry-specific software solutions. This approach enables
customers and third parties to customize our products for
a wide variety of highly specific uses. We offer several pro-
grams that provide marketing, sales, technical support and
programming tools to developers who develop add-on
applications for our products.
Backlog
We typically ship products shortly after receipt of an order,
which is common in the computer software industry.
Accordingly, we do not maintain a significant backlog.
Also, the backlog as of any particular date gives no indica-
tion of actual sales for any succeeding period.