Prices were on the increase and discounts to enterprise clients were dwindling.ĭesign IT directors were having to look at their tech stacks and their user needs to rationalise the number of seats and to seek less expensive alternatives where possible. It turned out that many of the software products that architects use were now on subscription. We were discussing the pressures design IT directors were under, concerning budgets and the increasing cost of ownership of their Autodesk subscriptions. I first heard of Serif Affinity in a conversation with AEC consultant, Iain Godwin two years ago. One customer who is beta testing V2 told me it will also make the switch from Adobe ‘even easier’, acknowledging some ‘growing pains’ in the initial transition In our corner of the world, Autodesk was especially taken with Adobe’s business remodelling and a lot of Autodesk’s subsequent bundling up of tools to form ‘Suites’ then ‘Collections’ came under Adobe’s influence.

Adobe was the daddy of the move to subscription, and it lit the path for other software giants. This has certainly been my experience of Adobe Creative Cloud. Subscribers may get some additional features but are now more likely to get online services or access to additional products which, at best, are of peripheral interest. Software firms still develop but, from what I have seen, they tend to diversify and invest in new products and markets, to get new customers, new subscribers. Subscription in mature markets with mature products is mainly based on the daily need to have access to those tools, as opposed to the excitement of product development velocity.

In the past, software firms had to work to deliver features to tempt their user bases to pay to upgrade, based on the value of the new features. The software industry’s decision to move customers to subscription models has been somewhat controversial. With Serif Affinity Adobe Creative Cloud now has a serious threat

IT directors at AEC firms are analysing usage and need, and seeking powerful alternatives. There’s no doubt that with the move to subscription, the cost of software ownership is going up, as well as introducing limitations with dynamic licensing.

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