Subscription Views

From the July 2002 issue of

The progress of Autodesk's subscription program in Europe this year will be a matter of keen interest to other vendors looking to create regular revenue streams. To gauge the attitudes to this option at CAD-using sites in the UK mechanical engineering sector, we interviewed managers of CAD/CAM related functions at 162 sites that are not currently signed up to a subscription program for their CAD/CAM software.

Benefit Considerations

Nineteen per cent of our sample (all of whom are purchasing CAD software and upgrades in the traditional way) said they have looked into the benefits of paying via a subscription program. This group is likely to include a high proportion of Autodesk customers who have had this option offered to them by their dealers/resellers.

Upgrade Decisions

When the basic concept of subscription was explained to them, nearly one in ten of the managers at sites that purchase/upgrade CAD in the traditional way said they would definitely be interested in switching to a subscription program (this group includes a mixture of Autodesk customers, and those of other vendors not yet offering this option). Just over a quarter said it's possible that they would, and the same proportion didn't know one way or the other. Just over a third are not interested.

Purchase Value

Less than one in five have considered the subscription option, so for the majority, attitudes towards it are not well informed. How then do the bulk of CAD managers who purchase software and upgrades feel about the overall cost-effectiveness of this option? Just under half (44%) feel that the 'traditional' means of purchasing software and upgrades is a cost-effective one; 22% feel it isn't, and a third are unsure one way or the other.

Conclusion

Over 80% of our sample have not considered the benefits of subscription - in many cases simply because this option is not available to them. Conclusions on their views must be drawn with caution, as a more complex survey would be required to probe fully into attitudes to the various features of a subscription program. However, we can simply say that one in ten CAD managers in the mechanical engineering sector are definitely interested in switching to a subscription program, and a further quarter are open to the idea.  

What we haven't done here is provided a breakdown of the attitudes of customers of specific vendors. This is vital information for any vendor planning to implement a subscription program, both to assess how to tackle barriers to change, and predict likely revenue flows from such a move.

CAD Spaghetti is a free monthly newsletter published by the Business Advantage Group Plc

Related Articles

All the week's articles
FREE!