A major 3D design, engineering and entertainment software vendor, Autodesk, has increased its channel footprint in Africa by over 300 per cent on order to combat piracy of its software.This 300 per cent channel expansion, the company said on Friday, was marked by concluding partnership deals with 148 partners across Africa.The Managing Director, Innovation Distribution, Autodesk South Africa, Mr. Richard Smedley- Williams, said the company was poised to curb counterfeiting of its software on the continent.He said, Over the years we only have two channels port and two organisations that certainly do not have the capacity to strike the market and make a substantial difference. About 18 months ago we realised that the need to restructure our service by spreading our channel so that we can address the need of our customersAccording to him, it is widely believed that the bulk of the companys software piracy emanates from countries within SADC, mainly South Africa, Swaziland, Lesotho and Namibia.He noted that Nigeria and Ghana were leading in software piracy in West Africa while Kenya was being ravaged by fake software solutions in the East African region.Smedley-Williams noted that the new partnership was aimed at improving access to licensed software thereby discouraging fake software.He said, One of our biggest challenges is accessibility. Customers in Nigeria are willing to pay for software but they dont know where to get them. We believe that people want to derive our products.The Autodesk boss lamented that most of the companys customers in Africa would prefer to buy licensed software, but often didnt know where to find it.He said, they resorted to pirated copies which didnt carry any of the benefits associated with buying valid licensed software, including after sales support and regular upgrades.To address the challenge, he said Autodesk implemented a strategy to grow its reseller network across Africa with the aim of decreasing the purchase and use of pirated software by increasing the availability of genuine Autodesk products.Stating the amount involved on the product, he lamented that hundreds of millions of dollars had been spent on research development coupled with channel development to recruit company and train them on the software.To supplement the growth in the number of channel partners, he said the software company was also running an awareness campaign on the benefits of using licensed software, such as support, proper updates, and access to other services such as the ability to use the licensed copy in the office and on a home PC.
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