NEPEAN’s software renewal simpler and less costly, thanks to Cadpro
Cadpro’s transformation of NEPEAN’s global Autodesk subscriptions management yields cost savings and simpler processes.
NEPEAN is an industry leader in mining equipment and industrial manufacturing. Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, the privately owned company has enjoyed steady growth in recent years and now fields more than 30 sites across more than a dozen countries, with more than 1400 employees.
Project Location:
Sydney
Software Used:
Challenge
When the time came to renew their three-year Autodesk subscriptions, NEPEAN chose to undertake a wholesale review of global subscriptions, taking the time to understand their Autodesk usage worldwide.
Rationalisation of NEPEAN’s many subscriptions across multiple sites and territories posed a high degree of complexity and risk. As NEPEAN’s IT Manager Boris Kotevski explains, ‘The repercussions of licences not being transferred properly can be huge – including being closed off from software.’ The potential disruption to business continuity – and client relationships – was obvious.
Acknowledging the need for expert guidance, NEPEAN chose Autodesk software experts Cadpro to help navigate the change process and negotiate the best terms and conditions for their renewal of global subscriptions.
Project goals
Cadpro’s primary objectives were firstly to rationalise and consolidate all of NEPEAN’s Autodesk licensing and subscriptions. Simplification would allow for greater visibility across global team subscriptions and enable centralised management from NEPEAN’s head office in Sydney.
From this, Cadpro would build a business case to negotiate the upcoming renewal, to better align with NEPEAN’s needs both now and in the future.
'Cadpro looked after NEPEAN, and it was good to have the right team owning the project throughout.'
- Boris Kotevski, IT Manager
Solution
For six months prior to the renewal, Cadpro consultants worked closely with the NEPEAN team to identify gaps, assess risk, and offer solutions. Their main tasks and achievements include:
- renaming NEPEAN entities in the Autodesk system, updating addresses and cleaning up hierarchies;
- merging contracts to one per business entity and aligning all to one renewal date;
- liaising with Autodesk on NEPEAN’s behalf to initiate subscription renewal activities;
- trading in Autodesk multi-user network licences for named user subscriptions and assisting the NEPEAN team with new licence activations;
- setting up the correct teams within Autodesk; and
- reassigning licences according to business team need – from multi-user licences to approximately 100–120 new single user licences.
As part of its ongoing support, Cadpro now acts as a secondary administrator for NEPEAN’s Autodesk account. This means Cadpro has visibility across NEPEAN’s subscriptions and can provide support when issues arise, as well as help with assigning licences.
Business outcomes
Cadpro’s consolidation and rationalisation of NEPEAN’s global subscriptions has resulted in a single tidy model that is easy to manage from one central location. Subscription management is now much simpler, less fraught and time-consuming, and, importantly, less prone to mistakes.
NEPEAN Autodesk assets are now aligned and visible to the central IT team in Australia and can be moved around to suit the needs of individual businesses. Says Boris, ‘We are able to make more informed decisions now on how to structure our licensing.’
Significant cost savings have already been made. Cadpro negotiated with Autodesk on behalf of NEPEAN to secure savings of nearly 10% across the three-year subscription renewal plan, as well as discounts on three-year renewals for subsidiaries, which were then transferred to Australia.
Alignment of subscription end dates has allowed NEPEAN to synchronise contracts so that they all fall due at the same time. ‘This means we can tap into the buying power of hundreds of licences renewing at the same time,’ explains Boris, ‘giving us more negotiating power at a renewal – a value-add in itself.’
Having expert guidance and support was key to transforming NEPEAN’s global subscription management processes. As Boris points out, ‘Internal IT teams look after licensing only when they renew. The benefit of Cadpro is that they do it daily. They can quickly organise and know all the different options available to us.’
Cadpro’s professionalism and experience meant the project was managed efficiently. Its team foresaw the long-term benefits of the transformation and were able to drill down to the detail and make necessary fixes along the way. For Cadpro, ‘we see this as forming trust. While it was our job to represent NEPEAN’s interests to Autodesk, this was one of the trickiest renewals we had ever done. But we made it as smooth and clean a renewal as we could.’
Boris concurs. ‘Cadpro were proactive; we didn’t have to chase them. They followed up when they said they would and took full ownership of the project. Software licensing management and administration is a niche area, and this was a highly complex renewal. It involved a lot of people from Autodesk. We all learnt a lot.’
In terms of business continuity, ease of licensing, visibility of costs and users, and no wasted spend, Cadpro delivered on all counts, and were consistent too. Boris sums up: ‘Cadpro looked after NEPEAN, and it was good to have the right team owning the project throughout.'