Structured retirement of software releases, like the recently announced retirement of Autodesk's AutoCAD 2000i family of design software products, enables software developers to pass savings, achieved by improved management with their infrastructure costs, on to software users.

That is the message from Autodesk Africa MD, Errol Ashwell, who recently announced the 15 December retirement date of the company's AutoCAD 2000i family of products.

The decision to 'retire' the AutoCAD 2000i family at the end of this year is consistent with the company's policy of supporting two software releases previous to the currently shipping release of that product, and follows the recent launch of the AutoCAD 2005 family of products.

From 15 December, Autodesk will support the AutoCAD 2005, AutoCAD 2004 and AutoCAD 2002 families of products. The old AutoCAD 2000i software will be removed from the company's price list on that date.

"Limiting the number of releases we have to support, enables us to contain our training and support costs," explains Ashwell. "The efficiencies achieved by means of our retirement programme enable us to reduce the cost of our software."

Ashwell says companies that move to AutoCAD 2005 will be able to efficiently and confidently respond to project changes and increase their productivity. "Increased productivity alone will enable users to quickly recoup the cost of the upgrade."

To encourage AutoCAD 2000i uses to upgrade to AutoCAD 2005, the company has introduced an attractive 'stepped' pricing programme. The sooner users upgrade, the more they will save.

Until 30 June, savings on an upgrade to AutoCAD 2005 software will be as much as 35% of the suggested retail price. For the following three months, the saving dips to 21% of the suggested retail price and from 1 October to the retirement date of the software, upgrades will be charged the full suggested retail price.

For more information contact Autodesk, 012 664 8115, www.autodesk.co.za