Anti-Autodesk Strategies

[Pooby]

It sounds like your point is that autodesk really tried. Can you confirm that is your view?

From my point of view as a lowly AE, and the geo I work in, I would say yes. Of course the measure of success will be different for some.
Personally, I'll admit that some things could of been better, but then hindsight is a wonderful thing and alot is/was beyond my control.

So look at that pie chart. I agree. Things could have been better.

[luchifer]

from my personal experience (my country is Peru), the company I work for purchased a suit based upon my recomendation (I wanted Softimage, but the reseller wouldnt sell it outside of a suite), so my company -god knows why- ended purchasing one Maya and one Max suit. The reseller said that they would train me in Maya/Max, but I asked for XSI training but they said they only had Max/Maya training available. Sadly, I wasnt in charge of the purchase neither I could contact the reseller.

The good ending of my story is that the company only used one of the two XSI suits (Maya with XSI), and they gave me the second suit for my house. This was in 2011/2012 i believe.

[ace63]

now explain all the effort being put in Bifrost!

Considering Autodesk's track record Bifrost might just be a plugin bolted on top of Maya/Max for a single purpose (fluids in this case probably) and the left to rot forever, just like most of Maya's features which were added ever since Autodesk owned it. I wouldn't hold my breath.

[Bellsey]

It sounds like your point is that autodesk really tried. Can you confirm that is your view?

From my point of view as a lowly AE, and the geo I work in, I would say yes. Of course the measure of success will be different for some.
Personally, I'll admit that some things could of been better, but then hindsight is a wonderful thing and alot is/was beyond my control.

So look at that pie chart. I agree. Things could have been better.

I've debated that chart before, so I won't repeat myself. As Luc-Eric mentioned earlier, you have to look at the context of the marketing and the intended target audience.

[Pooby]

If only that chart was a slip up in an otherwise stellar campaign.

But there is no point going over all this. You feel they gave it their best shot. I find that unfathomable. Not much more to say.

[Hirazi Blue]

@Bellsey - This was never about the "context of the marketing and the intended target audience", this was about the message it sent to existing users. We were affected, while the "intended target audience" apparently couldn't care less...

[Bellsey]

If only that chart was a slip up in an otherwise stellar campaign.

But there is no point going over all this. You feel they gave it their best shot. I find that unfathomable. Not much more to say.

Indeed, there is no point, because you clearly believe that we didn't hard enough not matter what myself and others will say. Fair enough.
Well, I can't speak for others, only myself and my own actions and perhaps I'm lacking the required writing skills to articulate my thoughts in order to make things more understandable. I guess I'm more of a talker than a writer, as Paul@Fabric could testify:-)

[McNistor]

Would've been nice to be more doers at Adsk instead of writers and talkers.

[Pooby]

If only that chart was a slip up in an otherwise stellar campaign.

But there is no point going over all this. You feel they gave it their best shot. I find that unfathomable. Not much more to say.

Indeed, there is no point, because you clearly believe that we didn't hard enough not matter what myself and others will say. Fair enough.

Just for the record, I'm willing to believe that you believe what you're saying. I'm not calling you a liar.

[Rez007]

Bellsey, I have no doubt that you probably tried as hard as you could personally, but you have to look at it from our point-of-view too. The public perception of how Autodesk handled the marketing tactics/strategy of Softimage was not aggressive enough. If it wasn't working, they could have tried a different route. To all of us, it seems like Autodesk was very limited on the allowance that was given to make the Softimage marketing actually work.

[luceric]

I think bellsey is arguing that people in the field gave it their best shot. That's all fine and noble of them, but the focus of the marketing was on the Suite. This is not you misunderstanding or misappreciating the marketing.

[McNistor]

OK, so who is then the moron or the morons at Adsk that doesn't know apparently what piece of tech Softimage is? Don't you people talk to each other in there? What the hell do devs and upper management talk in meetings?
Uh... why am I bothering?!

[xsi_fanatic]

My view is that anything that is not financial in nature will not change AD's mind about SI. Therefore I suggest the following:

Contact Autodesk AND your retailer DIRECTLY. Chances are the people who matter never look here and don't care unless they hear from a lot of people.

Let them know how much you hate their decision. Tell them that you will NEVER buy Autodesk again and that you will go WAY out of your way to dissuade anyone else from purchasing AD (in a legal fashion of course).

Let them know that by doing this they've created a slew of enemies that are determined to really damage their bottom line and ruin future sales at every chance on ANY of their products. For example, where I work now, I'll be in the position to change over 100 seats of Inventor to a competitor during our next evaluation. Say goodbye to that AD! Let them know this decision IS going to cost them (in the only area they care about). Let them know that if they think you're going to buy Max or Maya, think again.

In short, do your part to reduce their sales and let them know that you will continue indefinitely.

Just my point of view on what might work. If not it will still be fun and slightly satisfying. Other ideas most welcome

Go for SolidWorks or Catia. The company has built a strong reputation for being genuinely innovative by giving a rich end user experience through their products, that works better for the interest of your clients. It's the Softimage of the CAD / engineering prototype solutions.

[jamination]

I can help but think there are bean counters at autodesk that know just about how many people will be forced into choosing another autodesk product and how many will move on to other DDC companies, and before they made the decision to can XSI, there were perfectly ok with those numbers. We are a small group of users in the large autodesk cog, and truth be told we just don't matter, if we did this never would have happened. They'll get new users, we can be replaced.

[Hirazi Blue]

The general mood from our resident AD employees would seem to be: we did what we could & we did nothing wrong. And that may be true from their own perspective. Still Softimage is no more, so something must have gone terribly wrong. It’s not just disinterest by the potential client, failed marketing and such. There’s always two sides to every story and I am still only hearing one.

[Pooby]

Its important to understand that they aren't free to say whatever they like. Of course they will toe the AD line to a large degree.
I think there is little to be gained from questioning them, as they will find answers that are technically correct from their perspective, but dont answer anything that we really want to know.