Focus India for Autodesk

Subbalakshmi B. M

Bangalore:  Autodesk Media and Entertainment has recently launched a new
channel incentive program for its partners. Giving details of the program,
Sheraz Hasan, Head of Marketing for Autodesk Media & Entertainment said,
"As per the current program, both the sales representative and the reseller
organization stand to get incentivized based on the different criteria sets. The
focus of the scheme for the current quarter is on the Design Visualization
segment and the partner and their sales people get their achievements in the
design visualization segment multiplied by 2, for incentive calculation."

The program according to Hasan is an attempt to increase the company's mind
share in Autodesk's Value Added Reseller, VAR, community. Elaborating on the
other strategies that Autodesk has in place for its partners, Hasan said,
"Our focus is to build a world class channel team here in India. To do that
we would be going all out in terms of geographic expansion as also the
appointment of focused partners who could sell into specific market segments.
Currently we have major focus in most of the A and B class cities in the country
and by the end of the year we hope to tap into tier two and tier three cities as
well". Autodesk Media and Entertainment currently works with Aditya
Infotech as its value added distributor, VAD, and has about 26 value-added
resellers in the country. "Our partnership with Aditya Infotech is at a
very strategic level and they have contributed immensely to the growth of our
business in India. Together, our focus for the current year is on expanding the
channel breadth & channel depth, " added Hasan while indicating,
"We provide our VAR partners with ongoing training on our product and
technologies available on the market so that they are very well-equipped to take
them to the customer."

Talking about the India opportunity for his company, Hasan felt that the
design visualization segment would be the next big focus, since there is lots of
construction and manufacturing activity happening in the India market. Animation
and gaming segments will continue to be their important segments. "The
current mix of large animation and gaming setups, soho and small business
customers provides us ample opportunity to grow rapidly here in India and we
will maximize on this opportunity," said Hasan.

According to Hasan, one of the biggest cause of concern today for them is the
presence of piracy in the market. "The lack of awareness about software
asset management seems to be the reason for that. Therefore educating partners
is imperative because they as our extended team meet our end customers,"
indicated Hasan.