You've been the vice president of the GIS group at Autodesk now for 5 months. What do you see as some of your biggest challenges? Opportunities?

It's quite ironic, but I consider one of our biggest challenges to be one of our biggest strengths as well. By that I mean we have a lot of proven GIS products that perform a wide variety of functions across the design chain, extending all the way from the office to the field. The flip side is, we have a lot of products. This can make it a bit confusing for customers to figure out which products best suit their particular needs, be those data creation, analysis, management, or distribution. My challenge to the GIS team at Autodesk is to continue building on previous successes by delivering solutions that not only meet customers technology needs, but also simplifies the purchase and upgrade process, the way they work, and how they manage their technology investments. Doing these things will in turn, be our greatest opportunity as well as for our customers.

What are some of the biggest challenges facing your customers?

I have spent a great deal of time on the road over the last 5 months meeting with customers and getting quite an education about their biggest challenges. Almost universally, I heard three consistent themes. First, they all had vast amounts of legacy drawings and data lying idle they want to put to use in the digital design process; second, they want to be able to keep this data in digital form throughout this design process; and third, they are concerned about maintaining data integrity as it travels throughout the design process. These are all areas that Autodesk has already been working hard on the last few years and consequently, we've developed great solutions for helping customers solve these needs. From the front office, to the back office, and into the field, and from data creation to analysis to distribution, Autodesk has powerful and innovative solutions for all parts of the design process for mapping and civil engineering professionals.

Autodesk today announced the Autodesk Civil Series and Autodesk Raster Design. Can you give more information on these?

These really underscore my point about listening to customers and delivering solutions that meet their needs. Two significant challenges facing our customers are being able to convert and edit legacy and scanned drawings and keep it in a digital format throughout the design process. This is really what Autodesk Raster Design - previously known as CAD Overlay - is all about. With powerful new editing tools in Raster Design, designers can easily clean, edit, and convert drawings, allowing them to focus their efforts on the design project at hand. The new Autodesk Civil Series also provides a good example of how we are focused on our customer's needs. Our civil engineering customers have told us that what they need most is a single, tightly integrated solution that enables them to handle the wide variety of tasks they encounter in subdivision, site, road, and sewer and drainage design projects. As a result we developed the Civil Series, which gives them the functionality they require and with subscription, the software management capabilities they need to maximize their investments.

Autodesk is putting a lot of emphasis on getting its customers on the subscription model? Why?

This really underscores our commitment to deliver solutions that meet our customers evolving technology needs and the way they work. Our customers have told us they want to continue to evolve their systems, but that large upgrades can disrupt projects, result in downtime, and have long learning curves. Bottom line, they want smaller, more digestible pieces of technology and they want it as it is created to avoid having to wait a year or so to get it in a major upgrade. With extensions that are updated on a quarterly or six-month basis, customers also know upfront what it is going to cost them and they can update their software when they want, giving them more control over their how they manage their technology investments. For these customers, subscription is the way to go.

Where do you see the Autodesk GIS Solutions Division one year from now?

I think the bottom line is that we will have solutions that better fit the way our customers work, ultimately giving them better ROI on their design data and technology investments. To me, this means two things. One is on a productivity level, where we will continue to place a heavy emphasis on workflow, collaboration, and leveraging design data, including legacy data, across the entire design process. Our goal is to relieve users of the more mundane tasks, such as data conversion and distribution. Instead, we want to enable them to focus their energies on what they do best: design and create value for their organizations. The second centers more on the ownership, or business side of software, if you will. We want to give them options to help them manage their technology investments in a way that makes sense for them. From knowing costs up front to managing the upgrade cycle, customers have said this is an important part of software investment. That's why Autodesk developed its subscription program last year; to better help them manage their investments.

Where do you see the most growth for the GIS market?

I think the biggest driver is going to be the ability to provide people with the correct data when and where they need it so they can use it with confidence and integrate it back into the digital design process, and then reuse it again. A key part of this is wireless connectivity, which is just now picking up a head of steam. As wireless devices grow lighter, thinner, faster and cheaper-and they are already-you'll see their benefits driving a lot of new investment in infrastructures which will ultimately give customers benefits and value from their spatial data that only now is becoming apparent. One interesting side note: I think that in the near future, we will not be talking about Internet, intranet, and wireless connectivity separately. This all will be transparent to the user and we will simply be talking about connectivity.

What role do you foresee your channel partners playing in terms of sales and service?

The channel has been and will continue to be a key part of our success going forward. We are always looking to form partnerships that make sense for our customers. More specifically, we are looking look for partners that have specific domain expertise that can compliment our solutions in vertical markets such as utility, communications, or government. We also look for partners with expertise in specific technologies such as the Oracle Locator feature in Oracle 9i, CRM, wireless, and others.

For More Information Contact:
Eric Sutphin, 415-507-6658
Email: eric.sutphin@autodesk.com

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