Silver & gold: Autodesk’s new channel program

Autodesk recently announced a number of changes to its channel partner program, designed to make Autodesk easier to do business with and to give Autodesk’s 1900 VARs a competitive edge in the marketplace. Since Autodesk gets around 85% of revenue from the reseller channel, helping these partners grow their businesses is of critical importance to Autodesk — although resellers will tell you that Autodesk has periodically forgotten this in the past.

Current Autodesk management, however, is fully cognizant of the need to work with its partners. Ken Bado, Autodesk’s executive vice president of sales and services, acknowledges that mistakes were made in the past but says "we are [now] committed to helping our partners provide sustained value to their end customers. We want to provide our [channel] partners more product access, along with better tools, resources and the support necessary for them to grow and maintain healthy businesses."

The Autodesk Partner Program was unveiled last month to the media and analysts, but in place since the start of the year, changes the reseller authorization system, expands professional development through more online learning, simplifies the tier structure and includes services offerings.

Most significant to the reseller executives I’ve contacted are the changes in authorization and training. Autodesk had required many, many authorization which have now been simplified to three broad authorizations: Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC); Manufacturing; and Media and Entertainment. The new Autodesk Learning Central online training and testing systems makes it easier to get authorizations on the reseller’s schedule and without requiring expensive and time-consuming travel to periodic training and certification sessions. VARs I’ve spoken with like this concept, since it will allow their people to be authorized as/when needed, and avoid travel cost and time. As a result, they’ll be able to spend more time on sales and technical activities with customers.

These changes come because Autodesk realizes that its customers’ businesses are changing — and that means its resellers have to change, too. Building designers may use Revit for structural design as well as Inventor or AutoCAD for windows and doors and a reseller should be able to represent all of these to meet his customer’s needs. While fine in principle, and undoubtedly useful to many resellers, some Autodesk VARs I checked in with are unlikely to make massive changes in their organizations in response to Autodesk’s shift, at least at first. Julia Grant of Adraft serving upstate New York told me that her company has many years of expertise in Inventor and manufacturing company-specific issues; she’s more likely to partner with another reseller to offer Revit expertise (and products) than to build out that offering in her shop.

But Ms. Grant was very happy with Autodesk’s new tiering format. Adraft is now an Autodesk Gold partner, which she believes is far easier to explain to customers than the prior “Premier Solutions Provider” designation. Resellers will now be tiered as either Gold, Silver or Bronze partners. A fourth tier, Platinum, will be added by the end of 2010 (and Ms. Grant plans to do what is necessary to reach that designation).

One element to reaching the Platinum designation is likely to be providing services. Autodesk is now rolling out a series of packaged offerings that provide standard, repeatable consulting implementations to help customers maximize the value of their Autodesk purchases. This type of offering will also increase the resellers’ strategic role within their customers’ businesses.

Autodesk also took a stab at simplifying the way resellers interact with it by streamlining its back-office systems. For example, the deal registration program. Deal registration programs typically reward resellers for actively developing, nurturing, and closing sales. The new program will incent partners with double margin rewards for successfully bringing in new customers and will encourage partners to sell more maintenance/subscription contracts — a huge opportunity since only about 20% of Autodesk’s customers are currently on maintenance. All of these incentives are tied to creating VAR behaviors that foster long-term relationships with existing accounts while aggressively targeting new accounts.

Perhaps the biggest benefits to the program aren’t in the details — although margins and annuities are critical to small businesses that must carefully manage cash. The real change is that Autodesk is asking its VARs to step up and truly become businesses that can talk to their customers at a CEO-to-CEO level. Simplifying all of the processes around this free up more time to interact with customers at a level that isn’t purely transactional. VARs who can do that, who can understand a manufacturing company exec’s business issues and how Autodesk products can help solve those needs, will succeed. If the VAR grows, Autodesk grows. Pretty simple, no?

Autodesk covered travel and lodging expenses for this meeting but did not compensate Schnitger Corp. for the contents of this blog.