3D design software firm Autodesk’s recent launch of Dragonfly – an online app that allows users to design their own home through a web browser – could signal the start of a shift towards a Software as a Service (SaaS) approach to delivery.
Amar Hanspal, SVP platform solutions and emerging business at the firm, told CBR that the move is a reflection of the way the IT industry in general is moving. “This is how people want their software delivered,” he said during an exclusive interview with us.
Autodesk Dragonfly is a web-based design tool that enables users to design the interior of a room – including the furnishing and decoration. Because it is hosted online, it does not require the end-user to have a powerful computer and it also reduces the costs associated with traditional CAD software.
Hanspal said that the project is aimed at a different user group than Autodesk’s traditional audience.
“It’s aimed at a different customer base,” he said. “People who don’t design for work but instead for personal use, who design occasionally. These people don’t want heavy software on their PC. They turn on, use the software, then walk away. Dragonfly shares a lot of the same ideas as the professional tools, but it’s much lighter.”
Autodesk is currently in the testing and evaluation phase for Dragonfly and is receiving a lot of user feedback about the product. Success in this project could lead to the online approach being more widely-adopted at the company, Hanspal claims.
“User feedback is why we are doing this; this user group is not familiar to us, it’s not who we’ve been dealing with for the last 25 years,” he said. “This approach can be widened to other Autodesk apps such as the traditional desktop software. It’s possible that in four or five years time the Web 2.0 approach will be a much bigger part of the business.”
“I think it will be a hybrid between the two, partial cloud delivery and partial traditional desktop software,” Hanspal said. “The design element would be on the desktop with the heavy calculations being done in the cloud.”
The testing an evaluation phase means that Autodesk has not yet established its financial approach the SaaS but Hanspal believes the company will look to make money either from a pay-as-you-go model or, more likely, by making it free for end-users with revenue being generated by other means. “For example, we could charge furniture companies to offer their catalogue to designers using the platform,” he said.
