Autodesk 2007 Annual Report Download - page 65

5
2007 Annual Report
PART I
ITEM . BUSINESS
GENERAL
Autodesk is one of the world’s leading design software and services companies. We offer solutions
to customers in the architectural, engineering, construction, manufacturing, infrastructure and digital
media markets. Our state of the art 2D and 3D software products enable our customers to experience
their ideas before they are real by allowing them to create and document their designs and to visualize,
simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process by creating digital prototypes.
These capabilities give our customers the flexibility to optimize and improve their designs before they
actually begin to build anything, helping save time and money, improve quality and foster innovation. Our
horizontal design solutions, AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, are two of the most widely used general design
software tools in the world. In addition, we offer a range of discipline-specific design and documentation
tools including our AutoCAD-based solutions and our 3D design solutions.
We believe that our ability to make technology available to mainstream markets is one of our
competitive advantages. By innovating in existing technology categories, we bring powerful design
products to volume markets. Our products are designed to be easy to learn and use, and to provide
customers low cost of deployment, low total cost of ownership and a rapid return on investment. Our
product and software architectures allow for extensibility and integration and most of our solutions are
PC-based.
We have created a large global community of resellers, third-party developers and customers, which
provides us with a broad reach into volume markets. Our reseller network is extensive and provides our
customers with global resources for the purchase and support of our products as well as resources for
effective and cost-efficient training services. We have a significant number of registered third-party
developers who create products that run on top of our products, and thereby further extend our reach into
volume markets. Our installed base of millions of users has made Autodesk’s products a worldwide design
software standard. Users trained on Autodesk products are broadly available both from universities and
the existing workforce, reducing the cost of training for our customers.
Our strategy is to deliver advanced solutions to create and leverage digital design data, in order
to improve our customers’ productivity throughout the design, build, manufacture and management of
the customers’ projects. To execute against this strategy we are focused on delivering strong products
annually, migrating our customers to more advanced technologies, expanding our desktop offerings in
adjacent markets and to adjacent users, as well as growing our business in emerging economies such as
China, India, Eastern Europe and Latin America. We attempt to release new product versions on a regular
basis and synchronize our major product retirements with those releases. Our most recent major product
releases occurred in March 2007.
We are organized into two reportable operating segments: the Design Solutions Segment, which
accounted for 87% of net revenue in fiscal 2007, and the Media and Entertainment Segment, which
accounted for 13% of net revenue in fiscal 2007. A summary of our condensed net revenues and results
of operations for our business segments is found in Note 13, “Segments,” in the Notes to Consolidated
Financial Statements.
The Design Solutions Segment derives revenues from the sale of software products and services
for professionals and consumers who design, build, manage and own building projects; who design,
manufacture and manage manufactured goods; and who design, build, manage and own infrastructure
projects for both public and private users. The principal products sold by the Design Solutions Segment
include AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT (2D design products), which accounted for 40% of our net revenues
in fiscal 2007, and our discipline-specific AutoCAD-based products and 3D model-based design and