The establishment of a new reseller in the Autodesk channel promised a win-win situation for the South African design industry as well as local users. Autodesk, a global design resource company, anticipates the new company, Autograph, will significantly increase its business in Africa. Autograph will localise Autodesk design software making it easier to use in South African conditions thereby helping to boost user productivity.

The new company, which became operational on 1 March 2001, is resourced with experienced local developers. The executive team, which includes Athol Phillips and Jaco Viljoen, have more than 30 years' experience in the South African design industry.

"We are well positioned to take advantage of Autodesk's world-class software and, using our technical expertise and knowledge of local requirements, develop a front-end third party application for the local market," explains Autograph executive member, Athol Phillips. "We are also focused on delivering high levels of support to our users."

Autograph will focus on customising and selling software targeted at the land development and building sectors of the design market.

"Design software solutions in these sectors typically require localisation as opposed to, say, manufacturing design software," explains Phillips. "Autograph will make its third party applications available for resale by other dealers in Autodesk's African channel."

Autodesk Africa Managing Director, Errol Ashwell, says the establishment of Autograph is an enormous growth opportunity for Autodesk in Africa.

"Autograph's approach exemplifies the way in which we operate around the world. Autodesk focuses on developing core design software and then encourages developers to customise it for local conditions. Globally, we have thousands of developers creating third party applications to operate with core Autodesk software. I'm thrilled to see this working in South Africa."

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