The IntelliCAD Network
The Value of Partners
Ralph Grabowski has written a "transitional ebook" called "Bricscad for AutoCAD Users". In his words, the ebook "describes the similarities and differences between the two CAD programs, and would be of interest to CAD users interested in transitioning to Bricscad." The ebook is priced at $21.60. But existing customers can get it at a 30% discount.
Yesterday I had lunch with Rakesh Rao, founder of Four Dimension Technologies, a company based in Bangalore (India) which offers an AutoCAD productivity toolkit called GeoTools and which has been ported to work on Bricscad. Rakesh is down in Goa on vacation. We met up and discussed a variety of issues surrounding Autodesk and Bricsys, their software, their marketing and their partner programs. Rakesh recently founded Coordinate Systems, as a separate company to deal with the Bricscad part of his business including reselling.
I asked Rakesh a rather stupid question, "Why did you decide to port GeoTools to Bricscad?". Stupid because at SYCODE, we ported almost all our AutoCAD plug-ins to Bricscad a long time ago. Rakesh replied, "We started getting inquiries from our existing GeoTools AutoCAD users who were making the switch to a clone, and realized that porting GeoTools was not that bad an idea." My next question was not that stupid. "But why did you choose Bricscad over the other clones?" Rakesh went on to explain how he did evaluate other options but Bricsys was the only company that addressed the issues that he raised to his satisfaction.
In my opinion, Bricsys appears to have the correct strategy. I believe that a sure shot way for a CAD vendor to gain market share is by cultivating a bunch of partners all around the world and giving them all the help they need to develop solutions that work with its CAD system. Autodesk has mastered the art of doing this, thanks to the leadership of Jim Quanci, the person who has been in charge of Autodesk's Partner Program for several years, and his excellent team. These partners act like an extended marketing department that essentially promote the CAD vendor's product software for free, directly or indirectly. And by partners I do not only mean plug-in developers. I also mean authors like Ralph Grabowski and just about anyone else that can help send the message out, this blog including.
In fact, this is basically what viral marketing is all about. Identify a common goal with a partner and work towards achieving it using the resoures that are available, while investing in building resources that are required. This approach takes time and dedication and also requires quite a bit of investment. But contrary to popular belief, the investment is rarely financial. Its more of spending time with people, having in depth email conversations, solving their immediate and long term problems and even socializing at places like Twitter and Facebook, etc. Basically building relationships, something which cannot be achieved by throwing money at people.
I think other companies that develop AutoCAD clones can learn something from this. I get the feeling that for most of them "partner" is just another word for "reseller". Resellers are useful in getting the message out to people in areas where you cannot reach. Partners are useful in adding value to a CAD system thereby increasing the number of people that will find the CAD system useful, which in turn increases the target market globally. There is a big difference there.
Most of these AutoCAD clone developers are focussing all their attention on aping AutoCAD in every possible way. I think it would help them if they aped Autodesk's partner program as well, which I believe is what Bricsys has done.
Yesterday I had lunch with Rakesh Rao, founder of Four Dimension Technologies, a company based in Bangalore (India) which offers an AutoCAD productivity toolkit called GeoTools and which has been ported to work on Bricscad. Rakesh is down in Goa on vacation. We met up and discussed a variety of issues surrounding Autodesk and Bricsys, their software, their marketing and their partner programs. Rakesh recently founded Coordinate Systems, as a separate company to deal with the Bricscad part of his business including reselling.
I asked Rakesh a rather stupid question, "Why did you decide to port GeoTools to Bricscad?". Stupid because at SYCODE, we ported almost all our AutoCAD plug-ins to Bricscad a long time ago. Rakesh replied, "We started getting inquiries from our existing GeoTools AutoCAD users who were making the switch to a clone, and realized that porting GeoTools was not that bad an idea." My next question was not that stupid. "But why did you choose Bricscad over the other clones?" Rakesh went on to explain how he did evaluate other options but Bricsys was the only company that addressed the issues that he raised to his satisfaction.
In my opinion, Bricsys appears to have the correct strategy. I believe that a sure shot way for a CAD vendor to gain market share is by cultivating a bunch of partners all around the world and giving them all the help they need to develop solutions that work with its CAD system. Autodesk has mastered the art of doing this, thanks to the leadership of Jim Quanci, the person who has been in charge of Autodesk's Partner Program for several years, and his excellent team. These partners act like an extended marketing department that essentially promote the CAD vendor's product software for free, directly or indirectly. And by partners I do not only mean plug-in developers. I also mean authors like Ralph Grabowski and just about anyone else that can help send the message out, this blog including.
In fact, this is basically what viral marketing is all about. Identify a common goal with a partner and work towards achieving it using the resoures that are available, while investing in building resources that are required. This approach takes time and dedication and also requires quite a bit of investment. But contrary to popular belief, the investment is rarely financial. Its more of spending time with people, having in depth email conversations, solving their immediate and long term problems and even socializing at places like Twitter and Facebook, etc. Basically building relationships, something which cannot be achieved by throwing money at people.
I think other companies that develop AutoCAD clones can learn something from this. I get the feeling that for most of them "partner" is just another word for "reseller". Resellers are useful in getting the message out to people in areas where you cannot reach. Partners are useful in adding value to a CAD system thereby increasing the number of people that will find the CAD system useful, which in turn increases the target market globally. There is a big difference there.
Most of these AutoCAD clone developers are focussing all their attention on aping AutoCAD in every possible way. I think it would help them if they aped Autodesk's partner program as well, which I believe is what Bricsys has done.
Comment
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Comment by Deelip Menezes on September 24, 2009 at 7:19am -
Scott,
Please read my post again. This time slowly so that you understand every word I said and it direct and indirect meaning. When doing so, keep in mind that I say that partners are useful in "increasing market share" by using them to do "viral marketing". I said absolutely nothing about doing something ethically right or morally wrong. You have gone off on a tangent on a ethical debate, which this post has nothing to do with. This post is about business, nothing more, nothing less.
I know what AutoCAD did and what Bricscad may end up aping, if they turn out to be successful. That is reason why I do not develop plug-ins for just one CAD application. That is the reason why I did not choose developing my Bricscad plug-in using their BRX SDK. Instead I used DRX so that I could port them to IntelliCAD 7, when it arrived. In my humble opinion, developers who stick to just one vendor are not very good businessmen. We live and do business in a capitalist world. What do you expect?
As regards your paranoia about a bunch of other stuff you mentioned like my motive of starting IntelliCAD.net, your views on my views about resellers, etc. I will save arguing about that for another day, which I am sure we will have yet again.
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Comment by Scott Hucke on September 24, 2009 at 4:36am - I should have ended that by saying this post is my own opinion and is not necessarily the opinion of the ITC, the ODA, any IntelliCAD vendor, any customer of any IntelliCAD vendor, etc. etc. It is me spouting off, and me alone.
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Comment by Scott Hucke on September 24, 2009 at 4:32am
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So where was all this so called love between Autodesk and their "partners" when Autodesk phucked the third party marketplace in the late 90s by acquiring technology or simply taking product ideas and direct developing them for inclusion in AutoCAD, or going vertical, placing themselves right square in their beloved "partners" markets, driving thousands to hope they were the lucky one who could sell to Autodesk otherwise it was wallmart or starve?
So easy to forget the history of this benevolent giant? Perhaps you should get off their leg and see that corporation for what it is, a money driven predator who will eat it's young if it means making the stock price goals for the analysts quarterly teleconference calls..
Case in point, their continued arrogant harassment of the ODA claiming that millions of drawings they didn't draw, created with a file format they didn't even invent, are subject to their approval if you wish to open and work with them....
Once again a lesson in history.... the ODA and the "AutoCAD Clone Developers" were formed because of Autodesk's "incredible benevolence" towards its partners. Softdesk wasn't paranoid when they started the Phoenix project. They ended up the lucky ones, lucky enough to have their technology purchased by the great ape. But there were literally thousands of others that were dismissed as if the success of AutoCAD had nothing to do with them. It had everything to do with them and once again the Arrogance of Autodesk arrives. The ITC and the ODA exist to keep the tiger in its pen. Those developers of AutoCAD Clones which you so often disdain with flippant remarks, lumping them all together as some kind of leper to be avoided, they are the ones making sure your products have a file format to convert from and to that is free and open rather than controlled by the Satan of Sausalito.
Sometimes I think the only reason you started IntelliCAD.net was so you could promote yourself and dis on folks associated with IntelliCAD, use it as your regular pulpit to preach about things that you don't really know anything about, trying to find everything you can to run down IntelliCAD and gush over others. Despite what you think hundreds of thousands over the years have used IntelliCAD based products successfully and continue to do so to this day. IntelliCAD doesn't Suck.
Sure, BricsCAD is doing something right, and it's good to see that happening, but they were not the first, nor are they the only game in town. If you want to be a credible journalist, which it seems like you have set yourself up to be, open your damn eyes and look around. Look at Cadian and 4MSA with their broad line of applications, look at greatstar and their visual lisp and ARX, look at CMS and their document management, look at progeSOFT North America and their lineup of products, and look at progeSOFT s.a.s. who, for several years has given the software away to fund donations to charity. For me, thats what not hanging on Autodesk's leg is all about.
All these vendors who can boast of third party add-ons to their products didn't necessarily write all these applications themselves. They have PARTNERS.
You and I have disagreed before about the nature of "resellers" and their importance to the viability of a company. You have dismissed them as not really needed. That they brought nothing of value to the distribution of your products. I once again challenge that the reseller, if successful moving your products, is more important than you are to the viability of your company and your disdain in acting like they don't des
Scenario of the future: Autodesk releases a line of translators included with AutoCAD for "free". What would that do to your charmed life Deelip? hows it feel to be one of their "partners" now deelip? Time to quit gushing over these vendors and start really examining why they are doing what they do.
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