Autodesk Debuts New SI Program, Plans to 'Forge' New Partnerships

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Autodesk has rolled out its Forge Systems Integrators Program, providing its customers with access to a community of partners to help build their Forge cloud-based offerings.

Autodesk’s Ron Locklin

The Autodesk Forge Platform is a set of cloud services that connect design, engineering, visualization, collaboration, production and operations workflows. It allows small and large software developers to build intuitive cloud-powered applications, services and “experiences.”

Ron Locklin, director of strategy and business development, Autodesk Cloud Platform (Forge), tells Channel Partners that many customers are curious about the Forge platform, and while some are able to tap in-house talent to develop a Forge offering, others need more support with integration, and for those that need support, “they can rely on tried and tested systems integrators who have had Forge training and a track record of success in building similar solutions for other end users.”

“This program allows these customers to identify the right Forge Certified Systems Integrator partner to help them build and deploy their custom cloud-based solutions through Forge software integrations,” he said. “Systems integrators can benefit from training, co-marketing and an opportunity to partner with Autodesk at events. Becoming Forge Certified also allows partners who have demonstrated success working on Forge to connect with customers who want to leverage that expertise and skill, and to grow their business.”

Autodesk makes software for the architecture, engineering, construction, manufacturing, media and entertainment industries.

The new program complements Autodesk’s channel strategy in multiple ways, Locklin said.

“For one, as Autodesk’s SaaS solutions continue to grow, the importance of services in the portfolio of Autodesk’s partner business grows, and this program is another step and another building block in that portfolio of services,” he said. “Second, many of Autodesk’s resellers are also systems integrators, and this program allows those resellers to both resell Autodesk solutions and also build a services business with Forge. Third, a major use case for Forge is to extend the BIM360 solution as well as the Fusion solution, so for Autodesk channel partners that are heavily invested in BIM360 or Fusion, this program is a great way to both grow their business but also to differentiate their BIM360 and Fusion solutions and deployments from their competition.”

Current SIs enrolled in the program include: AMC Bridge, CAD & Co., CCTech, CADAC Group, D3 Technologies, ProtoTech Solutions and IMAGINiT Technologies.

Last fall, Nutonian partnered with Autodesk to allow companies to analyze the massive amounts of Internet of Things (IoT) data they collect to predict product failure and anticipate machine maintenance.