Once again, the topic of a declining workforce of experienced engineers and GIS professionals came up in discussion at the Autodesk University conference. The topic came up previously in our coverage at the GEOINT conference earlier this month.

During the press briefing with Chris Bradshaw, VP of Autodesk's Infrastructure group, he mentioned that with a baby boomer generation heading toward retirement and with American universities graduating fewer engineers a crisis looms on the horizon. Bradshaw mentioned that this was not the case in India and China where a baby boomer generation is non-existant and that some jobs may be outsourced to these countries.

Chris Bradshaw, VP of Autodesk’s Infrastructure Division put his company’s total market share for GIS and mapping products at approximately 1% given that his division sales were $175 million in 2005 and that the worldwide market is about $2 billion. Looking at his customer base specifically, he estimates that 300,000 of the 6 million AutoCAD user licenses are using it for mapping. These users may also have Map 3D or other mapping products but basically this reflects licenses of AutoCAD or AutoCAD LT.

Bradshaw understands that there are different levels of user maturation and market dynamics that affect software usage. As such, he divides his users into five levels of maturation. He said that he is currently conducting a survey of users to determine at what level he classifies his customer base. However, from anecdotal evidence, he estimates that perhaps more than 50% are using AutoCAD only for mapping or what he terms a "level 1 or 2" user. So, many users have not migrated to Map 3D or other more complex mapping add-ons. Some departments are higher up the value chain of application complexity such as moving data to an Oracle Spatial database. Hence, he sees an enormous potential for growth just within his own customer base.

Bradshaw wants to expand his market share as well as helping existing customers move up the value chain. Autodesk expects the company’s market share in geospatial technology to grow at 20-30% per year. But Bradshaw sees the overall GIS market is growing at only 4-5% annually so he expects to take market share from competitors.