Autodesk 2012 Annual Report Download - page 77

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Our ability to effectively distribute our products depends in part upon the financial and business condition of our
distributor and reseller networks. The loss of, or a significant reduction in, business with any one of our major distributors or
large resellers could harm our business; see Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” for further discussion.
CUSTOMER AND RESELLER SUPPORT
We provide technical support and training to customers through a leveraged support model, augmented by direct
programs designed to address certain specific needs. Our customers rely primarily on the resellers and distributors from which
they purchased licenses to our products for technical support; however, we do provide certain direct support for some of our
customers. We support our resellers and distributors through technical product training, sales training classes, the Internet and
telephone. We also provide online support directly to our customers through our maintenance program. There are also a number
of user group forums in which customers are able to share information.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS
We offer education programs and specially priced software licensing options tailored for educational institutions,
students, and faculty to train the next generation of users. We also offer classroom support, including standardized curricula
developed by educators, instructor development, and a rich assortment of online learning resources. Users are trained on our
products at educational institutions, reducing the cost of training for our customers.
DEVELOPER PROGRAMS
One of our key strategies is to maintain an open-architecture 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 solutions for a wide variety of highly specific uses. We offer several programs that provide marketing,
sales, technical support and programming tools to developers who develop add-on applications for our products. Over 3,600
developers in the Autodesk Developer Network create interoperable products that further enhance the range of integrated
solutions available to our customers.
COMPETITION
The markets for our products are highly competitive and subject to rapid change. We strive to increase our competitive
separation by investing in research and development, allowing us to bring new products to market and create exciting new
versions of existing products that offer compelling efficiencies for our customers. We also compete through investments in
marketing and sales to more effectively reach new customers and better serve existing customers.
Our competitors range from large, global, publicly traded companies to small, geographically focused firms to solutions
produced in-house by their users. Our primary global competitors in these segments include Adobe Systems Incorporated,
ANSYS, Inc., Bentley Systems, Incorporated, Dassault Systèmes S.A. and its subsidiary Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp.,
Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc. (ESRI), Google Inc., Intergraph Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Hexagon AB, Nemetschek AG, Parametric Technology Corporation, Siemens Product Lifecycle Software, Inc., and Trimble
Navigation Limited.
Our M&E segment also competes with a wide range of different companies from large, global, publicly-traded companies
to small private entities. Large organizations that produce products that compete in some or all of our markets include Adobe
Systems Incorporated, Apple Inc., Avid Technology, Inc., SONY Corporation and Thomson, among others. The media and
entertainment market is highly fragmented with complex interdependencies between many of the larger businesses. As a result,
some of our competitors also own subsidiaries that are our customers or our partners in developing or bringing to market some
of our solutions. In addition to traditional competitors in developed economies, we encounter new competitors in emerging
economies.
The software industry has limited barriers to entry, and the availability of computing power with continually expanding
performance at progressively lower prices contributes to the ease of market entry. The design software market is characterized
by vigorous competition in each of the vertical markets in which we compete, both from existing competitors and by entry of
competitors with innovative technologies. Competition is increasingly enhanced by consolidation of companies with
complementary products and technologies and the possibility that competitors in one vertical segment may enter other vertical
segments that we serve. In addition, some of our competitors in certain markets have greater financial, technical, sales and
marketing and other resources than we do. Because of these and other factors, competitive conditions in these industries are
likely to continue to intensify in the future. Increased competition could result in price reductions, reduced net revenue and
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2012 Annual Report