Jump from Maintenance to Subscription

[f700es]

Well the time has come, our maintenance subscription renewal is coming up and AutoDesk has marked up the maintenance cost and dropped the subscription cost to where it is a no-brainier to switch. I will only save $300 this year to switch but next year my maintenance will jump 40% and no increase for subscription for next year and no more than 5% going forward per year. So next year I save $1,238. Alas I see no logical reason NOT to switch.
The plus side is the increase of software available to me and my users.

[ReMark]

We did something similar early this year.  I find the use of extortion by AutoDesk rather insulting to long time users of the program.  Additionally, we switched our multi-user network license for our building process engineering group to BricsCAD Pro.  This move will be re-examined at the end of one year and a determination made as to whether the company stays with AutoCAD or goes all in for BricsCAD.

[f700es]

I could switch my 5 LT users to DraftSight or other with little issues but myself and 1 other have to have full AutoCAD due to intragration into Archibus WIMS. It only works with full AutoCAD.

[tzframpton]

First of all it's not extortion - Autodesk is not in any way forcing you or threatening with force to buy their products. 

 

The subscription model works great for my business. I'm a small business with six total employees on W2 payroll, one being an administrative assistant therefore five users of Autodesk products. I was able to scale up easily as I grew my office. I have heard R. K. McSwain's posts regarding "owning" software and I do agree with having that option, but for me I can scale up or down annually as I need. Maybe it's because I'm a small business that makes me see things in a different perspective. 

 

This allows my company to utilize the "zero-based budget" process on an annual basis. I like this, personally, especially from an economic perspective. I mean, from a purely economic perspective, if I ever had to liquidate from going out of business, I can sell all of my physical assets (computers, desks, office furniture, cubicles, server, etc) but I'd be hard pressed to find a buyer of my Industry Collection Suite x5, and that's only if Autodesk's EULA says I can do so. 

 

I don't know about others but I've never shunned the subscription model. So f700es I think you'll be fine. Either way you can try it for a year and crunch the numbers in 12 months and see how much it was worth it for your company's money to go subscription. My $0.02 worth. 

 

-TZ

[f700es]

Well with the cap of 5% increase per year it will take some time to get to what new users are paying. It's pretty much a no-brainer and yeah I think we'll be fine   

[oddssatisfy]

On 9/8/2018 at 6:15 PM, tzframpton said:

First of all it's not extortion - Autodesk is not in any way forcing you or threatening with force to buy their products. 

 

The subscription model works great for my business. I'm a small business with six total employees on W2 payroll, one being an administrative assistant therefore five users of Autodesk products. I was able to scale up easily as I grew my office. I have heard R. K. McSwain's posts regarding "owning" software and I do agree with having that option, but for me I can scale up or down annually as I need. Maybe it's because I'm a small business that makes me see things in a different perspective. 

 

This allows my company to utilize the "zero-based budget" process on an annual basis. I like this, personally, especially from an economic perspective. I mean, from a purely economic perspective, if I ever had to liquidate from going out of business, I can sell all of my physical assets (computers, desks, office furniture, cubicles, server, etc) but I'd be hard pressed to find a buyer of my Industry Collection Suite x5, and that's only if Autodesk's EULA says I can do so. 

 

I don't know about others but I've never shunned the subscription model Biography. So f700es I think you'll be fine. Either way you can try it for a year and crunch the numbers in 12 months and see how much it was worth it for your company's money to go subscription. My $0.02 worth. 

 

-TZ

Given the pricing changes and long-term savings, switching from maintenance to subscription with AutoDesk seems like the smart move. Even though the immediate savings are modest, the projected cost jump next year makes staying on maintenance financially impractical. Plus, gaining access to more software for your team adds clear value. It’s a logical and future-proof decision.

Edited May 2 by oddssatisfy

[BIGAL]

If you have LT 2005 as your profile suggests I would look at Bricscad, you can buy it outright including 12 months maintenance, the license can be perpetual I upgraded a 3 year old version and I think I am way ahead of LT less than 2024 version, even 2024+ has limited lisp, Bricscad has full plus VBA, .NET, Python and so on. The Lite version even includes lisp.