The new Microsoft of CAD management

Autodesk has grand plans. The $1bn CAD company behind tens of thousands of manufacturers’ design departments, is to put its considerable resources behind the ‘collaborative engineering’ message. “In 2005 we’re planning to step up education, delivering programmes through our channel,” says Mark Paraskeva, vice president Northern Europe for Autodesk. “Until recently, the creation of data was the important thing. But now, for every CAD data creator, there are 10 downstream users – and you can look across the whole business,” he expalins. And referring to the company’s Vault and Productstream CAD data management software, and its Streamline hosted solution, he adds: “We’ve built the products for the masses: we intend to be the Microsoft of the CAD management world.” To date, the company has tried the softly, softly approach – bundling of Vault into the Inventor 3D CAD/CAM system to add collaborative workgroup management under the business radar. But now the head is coming above the parapet. “The vast majority of companies still don’t use anything [for data management] yet. The first step is to educate them.” And then its about spreading the word about the power of automation and integration. Paraskeva sees this as key to maintaining Autodesk’s “aggressive growth”. Indeed his appointment – a new role for Autodesk – points to a concerted effort to get away from its former country focus to strategic vertical marketing. “33% of our business is in manufacturing,” he says, “and Northern Europe now exceeds 10% of total revenue so it’s a significant region for growth…. We’ve come a very long way since AutoCAD drafting.”