Dear Members

You may have seen some recent press releases from Autodesk advising of significant changes to the way it provides software licenses .  The changes purport to allow you more flexibility and certainty of expenditure and for many practices, the changes may be advantageous or make little impact.  However, members may wish to consider the long term cost implications of Autodesk’s decision to change to rental only licenses.

We understand that:   After 31 July 2016, new software licenses of “suites” like Building Design Suite Premium will only be available to rent on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis.  Other stand alone products like Revit, Navisworks and AutoCAD change over on 31 January 2016.    While the rental licenses do not incur a large initial capital outlay, they may cost significantly more overall.

What does this mean to you?

1. You will now be able to access new rental licenses for less initial outlay on an as needs basis that suits you.
2. If you currently have a number of perpetual licenses on subscription, you can continue to pay annual subscription; no change.
3. If you want to add more licenses for the long term to grow your practice, or are starting out as a new practice after 31 January or 31 July 2016, the ongoing cost to maintain your software will be significantly greater.

Point 3 should raise serious concerns to the profession. “Flexibility”, as purported by Autodesk, should allow the user to make an informed choice to either purchase or rent licenses, not restrict them to one rental model at significantly increased costs.   It may assist you to carry out the following calculations and considerations over a 4, 5 or 6 year period:

1. Taxation considerations; capital expenditure on a depreciation schedule versus subscription
2. Current cost of purchasing outright plus annual subscription over 4, 5 & 6 years.
3. Cost of annual rental of the same software over 4, 5 & 6 years; and every year ongoing.

Autodesk are holding an information session on 20 October in association with A2K Technologies.  If you have been invited, we strongly urge you to attend and establish what these changes mean for your firm in the short and long term. If you have not been invited, or are unable to attend, you may wish to contact your reseller or Autodesk directly and ensure you are fully aware of the impact of these changes.