High growth fuels Autodesk's Middle East expansion plans

Autodesk plans to invest further in the Middle East as the region offers faster growth than the international market, said a senior official.

"This is an expansion visit. There is a slowdown here too, but by comparison, there is still faster growth in this region when compared to the rest of the world, said Ken Bado, Executive Vice-President, Autodesk (Worldwide Sales).

"I am here because we plan to invest further in this region." Apart from Dubai, markets that he is looking at include Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt.

Autodesk is internationally-renowned in 2D and 3D design software for manufacturing, building, construction, engineering, media and entertainment.

"We will set up one or maybe two offices in Saudi Arabia. Our primary office is here in Dubai and we have been in this market for 14 years. It has served us well but with the current international scenario, we need to expand in this region.

"Even if it means that we have to take resources from other parts of the world."

The company conducts only 28 per cent of its business in the United States.

"This year, our turnover will be $2.5 billion (Dh9.1bn), of which Dh50 million is from the Middle East and obviously growing," said Bado in an interview with Emirates Business.

The architectural world is headed towards building information model (BIM) and according to him, their company products Autocad and Revit address that sector.

"Look at the speed and size of the superstructures being built here," said Bado.

"Not only are they big but also complicated. Traditional 2D draughting methodology makes it impossible to do that," he said.

Bado sees a sea-change taking place in how buildings are designed.

"Historically, you had the owner who would have two contracts – one, with the architect and one with the construction company. There was no legal connection between the architect and the contractor. The only real communication that they would have is – who will sue whom," he said.

"Especially, in the UAE and the region. The architect would almost dare the contractor to build the building. But BIM allows a higher degree of collaboration between them and it makes these buildings easier to build and most importantly, for the owner to get it done faster," he said.

Customers around the world have adopted BIM, he added. "The customers are here, though they may be headquartered somewhere else. The implementation is probably the most aggressive here," said Bado.

So what is the strategy for tough times? "Our market position is very strong. Our products are also used heavily in media entertainment in Mumbai. But some of it can be used in projects for visualisation simulations," he said.

Another way is to closely examine the needs of the market. "We have nine million legal users in our 25 years in the business and probably three times more of illegal users. It is more than our competitors combined," said Bado. "Architecture, MEP, structural and even digital fabrication and the sustainability – these are the areas that we are closely addressing and examining in the market. Our customers expect a lot from us."

So another plan is to open up the architecture. "Tekla is very good as a competitor. So what we are trying to do is open up our architecture because we cannot do everything. So we can be open because of design flows, which our customers use," he said. So Autodesk buys up a lot of niche players. "They have boutique products but not scalability," he adds.

The customer is king and Bado said 'cool' is good but the customer must be able to use it.

"We are very strong technology-wise. But it is the applications that matter and what the customers want. Most of our customers are very small firms and they need things to work.

"Our biggest challenge is to match business needs of our customers. AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) is one of our three markets but it is combining with our other two – media and manufacturing in today's world. Our R&D aims to bring a commonality to those products in terms of interfaces," said Bado.

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