owen wrote:
........
Anyway .. not the end of the world but i'm sure it has caught Graphisofts attention.
os
Not like they therefore plan to do anything about it.
GS have seen this coming or happening right underneath their noses and in what used to be some of their most formidable market strongholds, and yet have always insisted on holding steady with this head-in-the-sand approach to marketing, PR, and recently, the software development, of their product.
Why you would think that would change because their biggest client in Australia is (presumably) on the cusp of switching, is beyond me.
When some of their biggest clients in North America and the UK began switching, years ago, it hardly spurred a change in how they approach the client-base - both existing and prospective - and the excuse then was that since Autodesk was American-based with a strong presence in Western Europe as well, this encroachment of AD into former GS market-bases was not only not unexpected but also probably somewhat inevitable given AD's deep pockets. The consolation was always that ArchiCAD is the dominant and widely used BIM product elsewhere in the world, specifically in Eastern Europe, Asia and the South Pacific.
So what should be their expected response now that the tide seems to be turning in Australia and in the rest of Asia (Autodesk/Revit is huge and not to be unexpected, growing fast in China - with its still booming Construction and real estate industry and economy) as well?
When your market strategy depends in large part on relying on your own customers to popularize, sell and market your product rather than a pro-active effort of any degree on your own part, then it's best to make sure that those customers actually know what's going on (with regards to its development, and your future plans for it), and have enough confidence in it/you to actually want to sell it to their colleagues, friends, peers, and rivals - and much less want to stick with it in a tight economic climate and uncertain future.
The really scary part in all this is that if Woods Bagot, whom I would presume would have a decent enough line of communication to GSHQ given their size and the number of seats they hold, are doing this or going this route because they have recently got the same kind of cold-shoulder treatment that we small fish here on the forum are used to getting, and if GS's recent marketing efforts have been unabashedly geared towards big or corporate clients, and yet this is the result - then what does that portend for the rest of us small fish who don't even have a clue, much less an 'in' to GSHQ and GS R&D deptst.?
