25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow

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25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners

Can Grow “This is a great collection of best practices all Autodesk partners can and should use to grow their businesses. They are sure to find at least a few new effective high ROI approaches. Not enough Autodesk partners get help to take their business to the next level through professional market research and consulting. Autodesk has a lot of experience working with Business Advantage with over 200 research projects already delivered. I recommend Business Advantage for any partner looking for new growth opportunities.” Jim Quanci, Director, Autodesk Developer Network

White Paper How to Gain Business Advantage and

Grow?

Executive Summary:

This White Paper outlines 25 ways for Autodesk Software

Partners to grow their businesses; to find, build or create

business advantages in each and to successfully prioritize

and make investments to minimize business risk.

A Business Advantage White Paper

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Key Tip: Another

reason to grow is to

increase the

valuation of your

business. The

bigger and more

profitable it is and

the more potential

it has for future

growth, the greater

the value.

25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow H O W T O G A I N

B U S I N E S S

A D VA N T A G E A N D

G R O W ?

WHY KEEP GROWING? “Our successful product adds functionality to specific Autodesk software

platforms. We and our products are components of the most successful

design and engineering software franchise to ever exist and a proud

member of the Autodesk Developer Network. Our business is profitable

and successful but we’re running flat out to keep up with it and maintain

it up-to-date…”

If that quote sounds familiar, have you ever wondered WHY KEEP

GROWING?

Successful young businesses inevitably face the business growth

dilemma – do we keep growing or not? Some wonder if they can just

establish a steady state and manage the business at a level that

sustains their lifestyle. The problem is that a ‘steady state’ isn’t possible

today. Business is a complex system of many competing forces -

technologies, companies and economics - all underpinned by

fundamentals such as productivity and competition increasing over

time. The result is that markets and businesses are changing

continuously – to remain successful businesses must understand the

forces acting on them and constantly adapt, refine and change – in a

word they ‘grow’ and keep ‘growing’ or they get into trouble soon

enough. As Clayton Christensen, author of the revolutionary business

book, ‘The Innovator’s Dilemma’ put it, “One of the most consistent

patterns in business is the failure of leading companies to stay at the top

of their industries when technologies or markets change.”

Key Tip: Another reason to grow is to increase the valuation of your

business for the time when you might like to sell it. The bigger and

more profitable it is and the more potential it has for future growth,

the greater the value.

In conclusion, growth is essential for your business to survive, prosper

and increase in value.

The obvious next question is HOW BEST TO GROW? The remainder of

this White Paper will focus on answering that question.

Key Tip: Wherever you see your next growth opportunity there are

ways to both maximize your chances of success and minimize the risks.

25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow

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The Ansoff Matrix

HOW BEST TO GROW? Successful businesses devote a lot of effort to increasing their

profitability, regularly exploring dozens of ideas including reducing

costs, creating new products, addressing new markets, adding new

channels, launching new marketing campaigns and many more. The

problem isn’t usually a lack of ideas, rather it’s how to prioritize and

execute the most beneficial ideas.

Fortunately, Igor Ansoff, a Russian/American mathematician applied

his work to the world of business and famously created a very useful

tool to help us. The ‘Ansoff Matrix’ was first published in the Harvard

Business Review in 1957 and has been widely used ever since to

simplify thinking and organize growth ideas into ‘existing’ or ‘new

products’, each in ‘existing’ or ‘new markets’. In its simplest form the

matrix illustrates four ways a business may grow, and the risks

associated with each option.

This white paper will apply Ansoff’s matrix to the question of HOW

TO GROW AN AUTODESK SOFTWARE PARTNER’S BUSINESS? But

first here’s a description of how the matrix works.

You start in the lower left quadrant with your existing products

(and or services) serving your existing markets. From a risk

point of view the safest thing to do is to stay in that quadrant

and continue to penetrate that market – you know it, you

already have success in it.

However if that quadrant can’t provide the growth you need

you can add another quadrant. For example the upper left

quadrant, by applying your existing products to a new

market. There is increased risk because you have new markets

and customers to understand, with different needs,

expectations and dynamics.

Alternatively you could add the lower right quadrant by

developing a new product for your existing market but that

carries the increased risk of the new product not proving

commercially successful. Both these quadrants are ‘adjacent’ to

where you are now and hence are seen as relatively low risk

because they partially repeat while changing just one variable

of your already proven approach.

Finally you have the riskiest option, the upper right quadrant,

where you diversify to target a new market with a new

product. It’s risky because it changes both variables at once

but that, at times, can be highly successful too.

‘Healthy growth is not

engineered. It is the

outcome of growing the

demand … the

outcome of having

superior products and

skills…the reward for

innovation, cleverness,

efficiency, and

creativity’

Richard Rumelt

A Business Advantage White Paper

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"A man grows most

tired standing still."

Chinese Proverb

"You miss 100% of the

shots you don't take."

Wayne Gretzky

APPLYING THE MATRIX TO GROWING AN

AUTODESK SOFTWARE PARTNER’S BUSINESS

Quadrant Application Examples for Autodesk Software Partners

The matrix above notes a few examples of growth ideas in each

quadrant. In the remainder of this White Paper we’ll go into these and

many more ideas with suggestions for implementation in ways that

minimize business risk.

Always seek to improve your competitive position, and be tenacious

and patient in staying long enough to collect your winnings. Look

beyond this year's budget and try to predict where the world is

heading. Prepare for what the competitive landscape will look like in

three or more years. Grow only when you know that you have forged

a winning competitive/business advantage. Whether that planned

growth is built around a product, a service, or both, if your business

model has not yet proven worthy of scaling up don’t bet on a growth

strategy - don't scale prematurely as it will be costly!

25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow

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Market Penetration Quadrant

The goal in this quadrant is to use your existing market and product

expertise and resources to increase your market share with your

existing products in your existing market. Here are some ideas to do

that.

1. Grow your sales team

More ‘feet on the street’ should mean more sales but consider these

questions:

Do you have a proven and predictable direct sales process

(including sales management) that you can scale up by

expanding your team? If not create one before hiring or

expanding your direct sales team and subdividing territories.

Do you have a proven and predictable lead generation and

nurturing process that you can scale up to support an

expanded sales team? If not consider obtaining some short

term sales specialist consultancy advice and help with lead

generation.

2. Add new direct sales channels

Similarly are there new sales channel you can profitably tap? For

example expand your direct sales by adding a Major Accounts

program (for help with profiling major accounts see the Business

Advantage White Paper, ‘Open Up New Business Streams with Key

Prospects’. Another alternative could be the addition of online sales.

3. Add new indirect sales channels

Another way to gain more ‘feet on the street’ is to add channel

partners as additional sales resources. By choosing channel partners

who already have trusted sales relationships with your target

customers you can ramp up sales faster than building those

relationships directly. There’s no guarantee of success when embarking

on a channel partner recruitment drive, particularly if this is your first

indirect selling venture. Your reputation is potentially at risk and the

planning, research and selection phases are as crucial to your

program as the correct partner support and management procedures

further down the line. To mitigate risk review the Business Advantage

White Paper, ‘Growing your Business the Indirect Way’ for tips on how

to best prepare for and plan a channel recruitment. For example, one

way to mitigate risk is to use a specialist company experienced in

channel recruitment projects to ensure your channel partner recruitment

campaign is focused, accurate and cost effective.

"Even if you're on the

right track, you'll get

run over if you just sit

there."

Will Rogers

A Business Advantage White Paper

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"The highly comprehensive

nature of the information

available in the CAD/CAM

User Database has

enabled us to select

companies for our

marketing campaign which

precisely match our target

market."

Managing Director,

Academy

4. Increase advocates and referrals

How many of your customers are advocates for you? How many are

giving you referrals? Customer Satisfaction Research ensures you

understand your customers’ perceptions, key drivers of loyalty, what

else they need and how to build the relationship from customer to

partner to advocate. For guidance on Customer Satisfaction Research

see the Business Advantage White Paper ‘A Guide to Market

Analysis’.

5. Increase your marketing

More marketing to generate more leads but also to increase exposure

– you probably have a great reputation with your customers but how

widely is that known and appreciated in your market?

Do you have up-to-date knowledge of which attributes of your

products and services drive buying decisions and control

customers’ willingness to purchase?

Do you know your current market share and how it is trending?

Do you know how your product compares to its competitors in

functionality, in ranking by the respective users for usability,

functionality, performance, price, ease of use and more?

If your answer to questions like these is ‘no’, then find out before

allocating increased marketing spend – read the guidance in the

Business Advantage White Paper ‘A Guide to Market Analysis’ then

commission some market research and find out.

Before scaling up your current marketing activities analyze

their effectiveness then invest in improving them before scaling

up the most efficient ones.

After that consider new types of marketing that may be

relevant to your existing market, for example Social Media or

an Annual User Conference (and by the way before

organizing new events see the Business Advantage White

Paper, ‘Event Attendance – How do you increase the number

of quality attendees?’).

6. Find more people like your current customers

Who better to sell to than people and companies similar to your

current customers? That seems obvious but most businesses don’t

systematically analyze their customers and then target by SIC code,

company size, locations, buying cycle, market changes, job title, etc.

Do you have an up-to-date analysis of your customer profiles?

For help with profiling see the Business Advantage White

Paper, ‘Open Up New Business Streams with Key Prospects’.

25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow

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Have you used it to systematically find and contact new

prospects? A methodology called Target Name Research

(TNR) is applied to gather ’hard to get’ information which

cannot be sourced from traditional marketing lists. For

guidance on this topic see the Business Advantage White

Paper, ‘Getting to the RIGHT People’.

7. Understand why people buy from your competitors

Many businesses fail to achieve their full potential because they

don’t appreciate and respond sufficiently to the threat posed

by their competitors to their customers. Knowing what makes

your customers buy from your competitors enables you to move

a step or more ahead of them. Don’t settle for just competing –

take the lead and neutralize competitors ’ strengths while better

meeting your customer’s needs to achieve these benefits:

More focused and effective sales vs. competitors

Increased market share, sales and profit

Higher customer retention

See Business Advantage’s article, ‘Ethical Approach to Competitor

Analysis’.

8. Understand your competitors’ strategy

To compete successfully you have to know ‘who’ and ‘what’ you

are up against! The ‘who’ are your competitors. With an in

depth analysis on your major competitors, or new players

entering your target markets – such as their structure,

products/services, strategy, strengths and weaknesses,

opportunities and threats – you’ll be able to focus your

resources where they will have the most impact.

Understand competitors’ objectives and strategy and

develop your own accordingly, for example their Cloud

or Mobile strategies or distribution strategies or their

pricing discounts and payment terms then optimize your

own

Develop achievable sales targets by understanding the

scale of competitors’ operations and turnover

Identify relative market positions, each competitors’

market share, the split of competitors by product

Develop a marketing communications strategy with

messages that resonate effectively against your

competitors‘ messages

“If you don’t help your

customers reach greater

heights, who will? Your

competitors ? “

Don Schultz

A Business Advantage White Paper

Page 8 of 17

"Business Advantage

delivered exactly what we

wanted. The project met

all our objectives - we

gained important insights

into the needs of our

customers, and to the

marketing practice and

plans of manufacturers.

The research really

crystallized the business

opportunity for us and

confirmed the direction we

should be taking…”

Senior Product Manager,

Autodesk

Strengthen your products/services Sand marketing

strategy according to how your competitors and their

products are perceived by customers

The ‘what’ is your competitor’s product. A gap analysis on

product features enables you to:

Implement product or service improvements to counter

strengths/weaknesses and innovations in their product

portfolio

Position your products/services more appropriately and

successfully

9. Change your pricing

When did you last increase your pricing?

Do you know your optimal pricing?

Do you know the price elasticity and demand curve of

your products?

In today's economy and competitive environment, the importance of

getting your company's pricing strategy right has never been greater.

Through Pricing Research you will know your price elasticity, optimal

pricing, demand curve and the attributes that drive buying decisions.

For an introduction to the methodology of pricing research see the

Business Advantage PowerPoint, ‘How to Research Pricing Decisions’.

Get the facts then make better pricing decisions that ensure you:-

remain competitively priced to optimize revenues and

maximize profits

establish the value of add-on benefits

ensure prices match your brand position

encourage customer loyalty by offering appropriate discounts

10. Purchase a competitor

The fastest way to gain market share is often to buy a competitor. For

example is there a competitor ahead of you in Cloud (and Mobile)

Web services adoption and market share? The problem with this

approach is that when you buy a company, especially a public

company, you usually pay too much. Commonly a premium is paid

(~25%) plus fees. Unless you get the chance to buy a company for

less than it’s worth or you are especially positioned to add more value

to that target company than others, don’t try to grow in this way –

typically no net value is created. On the other hand if and when

opportunities arise to buy competitors for less than they are worth to

you be ready to consider it and move fast. If you don’t have M&A

(merger and acquisition) experience ensure you have professional

advice on the process and execution especially if the target company

is in another country.

25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow

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Market Development Quadrant

The goal in this quadrant is to use your existing product resources

(existing product team and expertise) to scale cost effectively and

target a new market or new market niche with your existing product.

This is a less risky way to grow because it makes use of existing

product expertise but risky because it targets a new market in which

you may have little or no expertise. It is also risky because there are

fewer possible economies of scale from a marketing and sales

resource point of view. Here are some ideas for growth in the Market

Development Quadrant.

11. New geographical markets locally or internationally

A successful business will have extensive knowledge about their

customers and competitors - that is a fact. If you are looking at a new

geographic region (whether another office location in a country or in

another country) in which to launch a new product or service,

conducting a Market Analysis is essential to determine if there is a

need, and to determine the best approach to fulfilling this need. For

details of a recommended approach see the Business Advantage

White Paper, ‘A Guide to Market Analysis’ but ensure you identify,

understand and appreciate:

Who you are targeting and why they will buy your product –

including new customer personas around which to plan

The market size and segmentation

Competitor analysis and benchmarking

12. Communicate to the RIGHT prospects

Your marketing team will be under pressure to demonstrate a return

on investment within a specified timescale. Part of the budget must be

allocated to quality lead generation. Once you have decided which

companies within which sectors within which countries you wish to

target, we move on to the next key stage.

Target Name Research starts by considering specific roles

within those organizations that are the right decision makers in

the purchasing process for your products, solutions or services

but the process of obtaining the contact details for those roles

can be extremely difficult, time consuming and, ultimately,

costly. See the Business Advantage White paper, ‘Getting to

the RIGHT People’.

“You are not here

merely to make a living.

You are here to enable

the world to live more

amply, with greater

vision, and with a finer

spirit of hope and

achievement. You are

here to enrich the world.

You impoverish yourself

if you forget this errand”

Woodrow Wilson

A Business Advantage White Paper

Page 10 of 17

"Business Advantage's

research into potential

customers around the world

has provided invaluable

market intelligence to

support our marketing

strategy. Their research

experience, market

understanding and

dedication to satisfying our

needs has produced

actionable data of excellent

quality."

Marketing Communicatons

Director, Scientific Games

Buying existing prospect data – see the Business Advantage

White Paper, ‘7 Key Things to Think about When Selecting

Prospect Data in the CAD/CAM Market’.

13. New business models

New business models can dramatically drive new growth. For example

you’ve observed how Autodesk’s Subscription Program has contributed

most of their growth in the last 10 years such that it now contributes

~40% of total revenue. Equally important is the ‘booked but not yet

recognized’ revenue. How would you like to start each fiscal year with

a lot of ‘to be recognized’ revenue already in the bank? Could you

too create a term based recurring revenue stream to deliver growth,

security and predictability like that to your business? Pay-as-you-go

models like subscription or rental or SaaS are attractive to customers

and often easier to sell. More recently Autodesk’s Suites have started

to drive their next phase of growth too – can you emulate that too?

Whether those particular new business models make sense for you or

not, the point is that new business models can contribute dramatically

to accelerating a company’s growth trajectory. Research whether any

new business models could achieve that for your business. Again look

at competitors, similar companies to your own in other markets or

successful models from other industries.

14. Which market segment/s will you compete in? Or will you

try to create a new segment?

Segmentation is a way of dividing up a market. Wikipedia defines

Market segmentation as ‘a marketing strategy that involves dividing a

broad target market into subsets of consumers [or businesses] who have

common needs.’ Market segmentation enables products to be

designed, positioned and marketed to specific customer segments,

addressing the needs or desires that are believed to be common to

that segment, and in ways acceptable to that market segment. As a

result businesses engaged in a market will develop different ways of

imagining market segments, and create product differentiation

strategies to exploit the segments as they see them.

Successful market segmentation guides you to which segments to

address and how best to address them or whether to try and define a

new segment. Corresponding product differentiation can provide a

business advantage through more effective matching of the target

customer and product. For more details see Segmentation in the

Business Advantage White Paper, ‘A Guide to Market Analysis’. In an

existing market the objective is often to take as much market share as

possible from the existing competitors. When re-segmenting or trying

to create a new segment of a market, by definition there are no

competitors at first but you have to educate the target customers

about the new issues that define the new segment.

25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow

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Market Development Case Study - SSI

SSI develops Autodesk based solutions for the shipbuilding and

offshore industry. SSI’s flagship software is ShipConstructor®, an

AutoCAD based CAD/CAM suite. These solutions take advantage of

the native DWG format and the global pools of experience provided

by the world’s most popular CAD platform. SSI combines this with

industry specific standards, terminology and best practices. IT

expertise is also applied to ensure the ability to share engineering

data with other business processes and applications.

Problem

To best grow SSI we needed to better understand our worldwide

market trends and growth, especially in emerging shipbuilding

countries (new markets). Because we sell primarily through resellers

much of our market knowledge is filtered through each local partner

which can make it difficult to get a broader, non-partisan view of the

market. Therefore we decided to commission some professional market

research and use the results to guide our strategy and priorities,

especially against our competition. We have deep knowledge of

‘Shipbuilding’ as a discipline but not of ‘Market Research’ as a

discipline. As we’ve grown as a company we’ve realized that having

the right people on the right jobs is a key factor in success or failure of

a project. Largely because of that realization this became our first

professional market research project. This is not to say that we did not

have some concerns as we were charting unknown waters. Our chief

concern was that any company from outside the shipbuilding industry

wouldn’t have the knowledge required to perform research in our

specific niche – happily this turned out to be of no concern.

Solution

We selected Business Advantage initially because of Autodesk’s

endorsement via the over 200 projects they have completed for

Autodesk. Additionally, Business Advantage recognized our concerns

regarding the required industry knowledge and not only reassured us

with other similar research projects they had executed, but

demonstrated clearly through action that they were professionals in

this type of work. The process reaffirmed our commitment to engage

professionals whenever possible – the Business Advantage team

consists of market research professionals who teamed up with us, to

use our shipbuilding knowledge in combination with their research

expertise to execute the research in the most effective way possible –

in multiple countries and languages concurrently. It also helped

considerably that they have significant experience in design and CAD

disciplines. As this was our first market research project we weren’t

sure what to expect – we simply didn’t know what we didn’t know. As

“To know how best to grow

SSI we needed up-to-date

market research. In deciding

how to do that research our

chief concern was that a

company from outside the

shipbuilding industry

wouldn’t be able to help us

ask the right questions in our

specific niche. Business

Advantage was able to

reassure us in advance and

then delight us in the

execution of our market

research.

The result is that we

learned and confirmed much

about our market,

knowledge that is now

having an impact on our

strategy and priorities going

forward.”

Darren Larkins, CEO, SSI

A Business Advantage White Paper

Page 12 of 17

well as being top rate market researchers the Business Advantage

team are business people – they understood the bigger picture of our

business and what it needed. They recognized that the market

research is just a tool then guided us to use it within the business

context, created a multi-stage project that helped set and clarify our

expectations and staggered the costs. Initially they took a wide,

shallow look at many countries then a deeper dive into the most

promising new country markets for our existing products (in the Ansoff

Matrix the best opportunity for us was the Existing Product, New

Market cell). Business Advantage even attended our annual user

conference in Holland to talk to our existing customers – we really

appreciated their initiative. They always started from the end result of

what data we really needed and in what order, then worked

backwards to what we needed to ask to whom. The deep dive

research covered both anticipated and emerging markets including,

India, China, Turkey, South Korea, Germany, Malaysia, Vietnam

and Croatia. It was really notable that opportunities for us appear

both in ‘expected’ BRIC countries but also in 2nd tier developing

markets like Malaysia and Vietnam.

Results

Business Advantage exceeded our expectations; their level of

professionalism was a delight and the sheer depth of information

amazed us as it enabled insights and color. The result is that we

learned and confirmed much about our market, knowledge that’s

now heavily influencing our strategy and priorities going forward.

Our intuition on market direction was corroborated and we gained

both confidence and hard facts on which to base our team discussions

and decisions. The value of obtaining a new level of confidence on

what you ‘think’ you know is a significant but often overlooked benefit

of professional market research. Business Advantage shared all the

data with us, including the raw data from surveys and research – we

appreciated the analysis and recommendations provided by Business

Advantage, however as engineers we also wanted to analyze the

data ourselves and really appreciated the depth of information

provided. Some key insights resulted, for example insights into the

rise of a new key competitor, and have caused us to reprioritize our

own strategy. We had seen warning signs in the market however

having the hard data has galvanized our team with a new

urgency.

Working with Chris and his team at Business Advantage was a great

experience – we are confident in their hands and looking forward to

future collaboration.

“They are clearly market

research professionals who

teamed up with us to both

use our shipbuilding

knowledge and their

research expertise to ask

the right questions to the

right people in multiple

languages and countries. It

also helped that they have

significant experience in

design and CAD disciplines.”

Darren Larkins, CEO, SSI

25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow

Page 13 of 17

Product Development Quadrant

The goal in this quadrant is to use your existing marketing and sales

resources (existing marketing and sales team and expertise) to scale

cost effectively and target a new product (or service) at your existing

market. This is a less risky way to grow because it makes use of

existing market and customer expertise but risky because it includes

the development and support of new product expertise. It is also risky

because there are fewer possible economies of scale from a product

development and support resource point of view. Here are some ideas

for growth in the Product Development Quadrant.

15. Add new services around existing products

You may know your total available market (TAM) (if not, look at

Market Sizing in the Business Advantage White Paper, ‘A Guide to

Market Analysis’) but is your existing product actually limited to a

serviceable available market (SAM)? A SAM is a subset of TAM and

your actual target market. SAM is calculated by subtracting all

customers unreachable by the existing product. They may be

unreachable because they already have a competitive product,

because their product needs are broader than your current version or

because they need a ‘whole product’ - your product, plus other

services – the result of offering the new ‘whole product’ is to make

more of the TAM reachable. What new services could you add?

16. Solve an adjacent problem for existing customers

What other problems can you solve for your existing customers?

Not sure? Survey your customers and ask them or commission

some sales opportunity profiling research. Once you know,

extend your product line with a new product to solve that

adjacent problem. For example could you add a Cloud or

Mobile solution?

17. Create a new product that integrates with other

products in your current market

What other products, that you don’t currently augment or

extend, do your customers use? Make a list of potential

opportunities then research them. Once you know, extend your

product line with a new product that extends an adjacent

product (from Autodesk or another vendor).

You also know how successful various ‘flavors’ of AutoCAD have been

– could other ‘flavors’ of your product be produced?

“The most expensive

market research you

can do is to launch a

new product”

Mike Bull

A Business Advantage White Paper

Page 14 of 17

"Business Advantage's

research met our

objectives completely -

absolutely nail on the

head. Business Advantage

has the resources and

expertise to apply the

research techniques that

get the best results,

anywhere in the world.

Business Advantage's input

was crucial during the

planning phase. They have

great expertise in

understanding which

research technique to

apply to get the best

results."

Senior Industry Manager,

AEC, Autodesk

18. Create ‘whole solution’ bundles or suites

As an Autodesk developer your product (and perhaps others) in

combination with one or more Autodesk products creates a ‘whole

solution’.

More recently Autodesk’s Suites have started to drive a new phase of

growth for Autodesk – can you emulate that? The point is that new

‘whole solution’ bundles or suites can contribute dramatically to

accelerating a company’s growth trajectory. Research whether any

new bundles or suites (perhaps including Cloud or Mobile components)

could achieve that for your business.

19. Partner with a complementary ADN member

Can you and another ADN member by combining or integrating

your complementary products create a joint solution that will

grow both of your SAMs (Serviceable Addressable Markets –

see #14)?

20. Partner with other complementary software solutions

Can you and another software developer from outside the ADN

community combine or integrate your complementary products

to create a joint solution that will grow both of your SAMs

(Serviceable Addressable Markets – see #14)? For example

can you partner with a Cloud (and/or Mobile) Web services

developer?

21. Prepare your organization for growth

The importance of organizational factors is often overlooked when

planning for growth. You can gain advantage and mitigate risk by

addressing your organizational weaknesses as or before you

implement a new growth strategy. For example when growth plans

(such as a new product in this quadrant) call for doing things in entirely

new ways examine your existing organizational structure, business

processes and employee skills. Is your structure flexible enough to

support the new strategy? Are your business processes, particularly

any affected by the anticipated growth, up to the job? Are your

people prepared for the expected implications of the new strategy

(which will often arrive at a fast pace)? What about the unexpected

implications? Which employees will face the greatest new complexity

and will they be prepared and empowered to take initiative beyond

the confines of their current jobs?

25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow

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Diversification Quadrant

The goal in this quadrant is to target a new product at a new market.

However be careful as this is the most risky way to grow because it

makes little to no use of existing market, customer and product

expertise so there are fewer possible economies of scale than in any

other quadrant. Furthermore it involves the simultaneous development

of both new product and new market expertise – so the opportunities

for incorrect decisions, mistakes and errors are higher. On the other

hand diversification of a business, like diversification of investments

can lessen overall risk, for example, one line of business can hit

adverse conditions, while another can be unaffected.

22. Create a new product that integrates with other

products to address a new market

Repeat your previous success with Autodesk but this time target a

different addressed market with a new product you develop.

23. Create a new product that integrates with non-

Autodesk software platforms

Broaden your business away from Autodesk, for example with

SolidWorks in CAD, or a Cloud or Mobile solution in your vertical. Be

careful not to upset your relationship with Autodesk but you can

substantially grow your total addressable market (TAM) by supporting

multiple platforms and all of their user bases. Additionally a proven

exit for developers is acquisition by Autodesk or another platform

developer, so broadening in this way may also offer other exit routes.

24. Create products that are independent of proprietary

design software platforms

For example include a public domain platform or OEM an existing

proprietary design platform to create a free standing ‘whole solution’.

Be careful regarding competing with your existing platform

provider(s). This is similar to the previous idea above but may broaden

possible exit routes much wider than just the proprietary platform

providers, for example 3D Printing companies.

25. Reinvent your company

This is for when really dramatic change is required usually because

technology has replaced the need for a business (think Kodak film) or

when a market is declining rather than growing. Companies that have

successfully reinvented themselves (think IBM) usually base their

reinvention on well-established competencies, technologies or strategic

assets in one of three ways—by redefining their value proposition,

refocusing their core business or moving into a new industry.

"You progress not

through improving

what has been done,

but reaching toward

what has yet to be

done."

Kahlil Gibran

A Business Advantage White Paper

Page 16 of 17

CONCLUSIONS

Most software companies work in different markets with very different

products so the growth strategy for each will be very different.

Nonetheless this Business Advantage White Paper has outlined a

methodology and ideas for growing any Autodesk Software Partner

Business along with suggested approaches and risk mitigations.

Whichever of Ansoff’s quadrants you plan to enter next - your goal

will be to maximize your penetration and profits in that existing or

new market.

Research and analyze your strategic thinking and decision

making carefully – possibly with Business Advantage or other

specialist help

Use good market research and analysis to reduce the risk of

making the wrong decision. In an ideal world and for best

results, full market research is recommended although however

shortcuts are possible without too much detriment to the overall

outcome

Build the capabilities needed to succeed in the new quadrant

Manage risk appropriately, for example, ensure you have

adequate resources to cover a possible lean period while

you're learning how to sell the new product, or learning how to

work in the new market

Think through what you will do if things don't work out, so that

a failure won't destroy your company

Final Tip:

Some businesses use a more sophisticated nine-box matrix for analysis.

This adds "modified" products between existing and new ones, and

"expanded" markets

between existing and

new ones (for

example, opening

another office location

in the same country,

rather than starting

online sales). These

highlight the

differences between

product extension and

true product

development, and

between market expansion and genuinely new markets.

(ref: www.timeanalyzer.com/lib/ansoff.htm)

"Business Advantage's

consultancy service has

proved highly effective

in assisting the

development of our

corporate and

marketing strategy for

our operations across

four continents. Their

services have always

been highly

professional, delivered

on time and with very

good outcomes."

Sales & Marketing

Director, TelliQ

25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow

Page 17 of 17

"Business Advantage's

excellent research skills

and comprehensive

understanding of our

market have produced

research results we know

we can trust to underpin

our marketing decisions.

Recent surveys of our

target markets discovered

a high level of interest in

our new product.”

European Channel

Manager, Rasterex

BUSINESS ADVANTAGE – ABOUT US

If you plan to grow in a new way, perhaps by using one of the ideas

above you should have an advantage, a business advantage. We’ve

helped many companies make their growth journey as our market

research and analyses always include actionable recommendations

and implementation strategies.

Who we are

Formed in 1992 by CEO, Chris Turner, Business Advantage now has a

professional staff of over 30 specialists in different markets,

technologies and methodologies.

What we do

Business Advantage is a B2B research, sales development and

marketing consulting practice operating in the global IT, Digital

Broadcasting and Telecommunications sectors. We specialize in:

Marketing and management consultancy

B2B market research

Data services

Sales development services

Our mission

To out-perform your competitors, you must get key activities right:

strategy and planning; acquiring accurate market intelligence; and

taking effective action to turn potential customers into real ones.

At Business Advantage, our commitment is to help you create

substantial and lasting improvements in your performance - a

sustainable business advantage - over your competitors.

Our Clients

Our clients include many leading international companies such as 3M,

Autodesk, Canon, Dell, HP, Infor, IBM, Intel, Lexmark, Microsoft,

Oracle, SAP, Sony, Sophos, Synopsys, Xerox Engineering Systems and

many small to medium sized organizations.

Additional Information

If you would like more information on this or other research, data or

business development topics, please email info@business-

advantage.com, call +44 1689 873636 or +1 650 558 8870 or

download other Business Advantage White Papers.

Lastly – if all these growth options are overwhelming please talk to

us about some Consultancy to help you figure out your best growth

option.