25 Ways Autodesk Software Partners Can Grow - … Ways Autodesk Softare...book, ‘The Innovator’s...
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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
Page 2 of 17
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
Page 15 of 17
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.