Autodesk 2010 Annual Report Download - page 103

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 purchasing 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 trained on our products are broadly available both from educational institutions and the existing
workforce, 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 3,400 developers in the Autodesk Developer Network create
interoperable products that further enhance the range of integrated solutions available to our customers.
BACKLOG
We typically ship products shortly after receipt of an order, which is common in the software industry. Our
aggregate backlog is primarily comprised of deferred revenue. Deferred revenue consists primarily of deferred
maintenance revenue from our maintenance program. To a lesser extent, deferred revenue consists of deferred
license and other revenue derived from collaborative project management services, consulting services and
deferred license sales. Backlog also includes current software license product orders which have not yet shipped.
The category of current software license product orders which we have not yet shipped consists of orders from
customers with approved credit status for currently available license software products and may include both
orders with current ship dates and orders with ship dates beyond the current fiscal period.
Aggregate backlog was $542.5 million at January 31, 2010, of which $516.5 million was deferred revenue
and $26.0 million related to current software license product orders which had not yet shipped at the end of the
fiscal year. Aggregate backlog was $569.5 million at January 31, 2009, of which $552.1 million was deferred
revenue and $17.4 million related to current software license product orders which had not yet shipped at the end
of the fiscal year. Deferred revenue decreased over the prior year primarily due to a decrease in new and renewal
maintenance contracts during fiscal 2010.
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