Case AFRY: CAD license management at a global engineering company

We had the pleasure to talk with Martin Quist, CAD manager Corporate IT at AFRY (ÅF & Pöyry). In the video he shared the kind of challenges have they overcome and how are they handling the software that 8500-9000 frequent users globally need access to.

“For me it’s about giving our engineers the best possible conditions with the software we have. Of course, with ‘the best value for money’. That’s what it comes down to, best value, best efficiency, the ability to improve and develop,” tells Martin Quist, CAD manager Corporate IT at AFRY

He continues that the most important from his point of view for the users at AFRY is that software, installation and packaging works in everyday life; that it’s easy to install and update, and efficient. Making sure everyone has the right templates, the right customizations. Also access to training when needed.

In this interview Martin Quist shares his insight and experience at AFRY and gives also some tips for other companies how to handle a mix of CAD product portfolio in an efficient and secure way.

AFRY’s engineering software portfolio includes about 800 products

The CAD products are extremely business critical at AFRY; a number of billable hours and approximately 8500-9000 frequent CAD users globally working with the software. Autodesk represents a large part, but AFRY also has Bentley, MagiCAD, PTC and Aveva in the portfolio, in total the engineering software portfolio counts up to about 800 products.

In 2016 ÅF (now part of AFRY) did a pilot project together with Symetri, looking into Symetri’s CQi solution for software installations and deployment and if that can bring value to the company. With ÅF back then having approx 8000-9000 employees, the results of the feasibility study showed that we could save about 15,000 hours a year by using CQi installations or similar solution. This time saving is in installation time and configuration alone. Then there are other, more soft values that also is a factor.

AFRY has seen many benefits with their approach, including:

• Less installation support for Service desk
• 60-65% average time saving on installation and configuration
• No need for users to have admin rights with Super admins and IT handling the admin part

See the full interview with Martin Quist, AFRY and Johan Ljunqvist, Symetri