How to Transform Partner Communications – with Autodesk

While communicating with partners is critical, what it takes to get a newsletter out the door is generally a dismal process. Cutting and pasting, special favors, multiple tools, and manual steps are standard challenges and make the process cumbersome and one that often requires multiple triple checks for correct formatting, working links, accurate information and more.

That was certainly the case with software giant Autodesk, which was sending 13 newsletters each week to partners across a wide range of geographies and industries, from architecture to entertainment to manufacturing.  Given partners are responsible for as much as 75 percent of Autodesk’s revenue, getting communications right was crucial for the company. Adding to the pressure, the multinational software corporation was undergoing a large business model transition from selling perpetual licenses to selling its software as a subscription – and making sure its partners were aware of new promotions, policies and more had become even more critical.

All that changed when the company implemented Impartner’s News on Demand. In a new webinar, available here, Autodesk Project Manager Eric Owen highlights how Autodesk was able to streamline its global partner communications strategy and delivery using Impartner’s 100 percent customizable newsletter platform, News on Demand. Using this comprehensive, dynamic, and targeted solution, the company immediately saw the following 8 tangible results:

1. Better Relationships. Autodesk has been able to work closely with each partner to customize tools and set up. This allowed them to build more personal connections between themselves and their channel partners.
2. Greater Internal Productivity. Instead of five or six different tools, News on Demand consolidated everything into one, handling initial submission all the way through archiving. In addition, each article is now handled individually, which means less manual work and reporting because all the necessary metrics and insights are their fingertips.
3. Increased Flexibility. As an alternative to a rigid process of managing every article individually, it is now extremely easy for Autodesk to pull out, edit, and retest a single article without having to worry about the entire newsletter.
4. Clearer Channel Communication. Autodesk realized that News on Demand’s main tools were designed and built with channel partners at the forefront. They are now able to work with partners who truly understand the channel and who can discern the special challenges and complexities of working with partners.
5. Faster Publication. Autodesk has shortened their lead time by up to 3 days for translating articles and sometimes even more.
6. More Partner Satisfaction. With over 700 partners visiting the preferences page, which accommodates the type of information each person wants to receive, Autodesk knows they are sending out very targeted newsletters.
7. New Opportunities. Autodesk articles are now available to new audiences they were never able to target before. They also discovered that News on Demand can support as many languages as they like and easily reach their emerging global markets and regions.
8. Better Business. Autodesk is now able to streamline their internal processes by producing better newsletters with fewer resources. By making the switch, they realized News on Demand was much more cost-efficient and a very good long-term investment.

“I’ve had really good feedback from my stakeholders; we have a lot of people who have been auditors and submitting articles for channel news. I’ve had nothing but positive feedback,” said Owen.

To learn more about Autodesk’s use of News on Demand, view to the full webinar here.  To take a demo and see how News on Demand can help drive your business, click here.