What company doesn’t pitch customers hard on the ROI of upgrading to a newer version of their software? Well, count Autodesk among the firms building a strong case for productivity boosts resulting from a move to the latest version of AutoCAD.
The firm commissioned AutoCAD expert and independent consulting firm David S. Cohn Consulting to do a study comparing user productivity using AutoCAD 2008 and AutoCAD 2011 when creating typical drawings and designs. The AutoCAD 2011 Productivity Study, as it’s called, found that it took more than 13 hours to complete eight designs using AutoCAD 2008 compared to 9 hours, 16 minutes to complete the same eight designs in the newest version. This represents an average improvement in overall user productivity of 31% as result of upgrading from AutoCAD 2008 to AutoCAD 2011 without any changes in the computer on which AutoCAD was run, the study contends.
Upgrading to a more modern workstation running Windows 7 yielded an even greater productivity boost to the tune of 7.5 hours to complete the same drawings-an improvement in overall user productivity by 44%. Cohn prefaced the findings with the disclaimer that the productivity gains were subject to the nature of the drawings being produced and the skill level of the individual user of the software.
For all of you nay sayers, there’s quite a bit of detail in the report on each of the drawings and how Cohn arrived at his conclusions. Check it out and decide for yourself if there’s an argument to be made that justifies your own upgrade.
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