How Technology Managers Leverage Flex to Achieve their Goals Faster

PRISCILLA NING: Hi, everyone. Welcome to "How Technology Managers Leverage Flex to Achieve their Goals Faster." My name is Priscilla Ning, and I'm a marketing communication specialist here at Autodesk. I focus on communicating changes to Flex and other business models. I'm very excited today to share how you can achieve your goals faster with Flex. So this is where you would add the agenda slide, Chet.

So I guess I got to go back to here. Flex is a new way for you to access Autodesk products and services. Over 116 products are included with Flex along with additional services paid by [? result. ?] Here are some examples of the cost per day in USD for some of our most popular products along with their tokens per day. If you're interested in seeing whether a specific product or service is included with Flex, you can go to the landing page, www.autodesk.com/flexratesheet to see a full list of products and services available with Flex along with their token and dollar cost.

So for everyone here today that is new to Flex or not so familiar with this offering yet, here's a look at how Flex works. Flex allows you to purchase tokens to access the many products and services that are available with Flex. We introduced Flex back in 2021 to provide customers with a more flexible purchasing option that aligns value with usage and outcomes. You can purchase tokens for your team at any custom quantity starting from 100 tokens.

This makes it very easy to try new products or access specialized tools with very low commitment. You can purchase and estimate your tokens that you'll need for your team just by using our handy estimator tool at the same landing page. Here's also a direct link autodesk.com/flexestimator. And there, you can figure out exactly how many users and products that you would like to try with Flex. Or you can also discuss with your Autodesk sales rep or solutions provider so they can help you decide the right amount of tokens for you to start with.

Once you purchase Flex, you will see Flex in your Autodesk account. If you have multiple teams, you can choose which team at that point you would like Flex to go to. With Flex, there's actually no need to assign users to individual products. You will be able to assign an unlimited amount of users to all products included with Flex, or you can choose and see which specific products would like your users to get with Flex.

Flex users will be able to access their products the same way they access products with subscriptions. And that's just by opening the product and signing in. Simple as that-- nothing more complicated to use Flex if you're already a subscription user. So once they open the product, your token balance will be deducted with the daily rate of the product. Your users won't be charged for re-entering the product until 24 hours have passed since their initial first opening.

So if they do not need to use the product for another day, all they need to do at that point is close the product. As a best practice, it's really best to urge your users to close their products and get in the habit of closing their products whenever they're not in use, or they're done using them. And that's just the best way to avoid accidental token charges and accidentally using Flex for another day.

You'll be able to keep track of your token usage and spending in your Autodesk account so you can maximize your spend with Flex. You'll also have the ability to easily keep tabs on your users with the one-page usage report summary we have that will give you a snapshot of all the usage of your users. If you would like to get really granular, you can check out "by user" and "by product" pages in your reporting that'll let you dive deep. You'll be able to see exactly which of your users are using which products and when.

If you're already familiar with subscription, here's a quick and easy comparison between our two offerings. As you can see here, subscription is offered on an annual or three-year term, while you prepurchase tokens for Flex that lasts up to a year. And that gives you access to Flex until you run out of tokens. You can buy more tokens easily at any time. So there's no need to over-purchase when you're still figuring out the right usage quantities.

With subscription, you pay up front for a dedicated product subscription. So your users can have unlimited access to the product. With Flex, you actually prepurchase those tokens, and then that can be used for any product available with Flex. Each product, as I mentioned, has its own daily rate. So all your users assigned to Flex can access whichever product they need until you run out of tokens.

If you purchase Flex, you'll be automatically receiving the standard plan. However, if you're already on the premium plan for your subscriptions, you can also receive premium tokens. Token usage reporting for Flex as well to match your premium suite usage reporting. The offline allowance for subscriptions are for 30 days, while with Flex, it's 24 hours. And that's just the nature of the program.

As I mentioned, there's a daily rate associated with Flex products. So you would have to connect to the internet for it to know that it's another day. And so in that regard, we can only let you be offline for 24 hours. And in terms of users, single-user subscriptions are a dedicated user subscription, while Flex is a shared licensing model. So tokens can be shared with other users in the team. Actually, there's no limit to the number of users you can have with Flex.

It's pretty much you just assign them to Flex, and they can share the same pool of Flex tokens. This makes management easy as you only have to worry about re-upping your tokens when they run low instead of worrying about whether every single one of your users still has access. And compared to subscription, where every product subscription is only usable by one user at a time, you are able to have an unlimited number of users with your pool of Flex tokens. Flex asks this, and only if you run out of tokens, or if they expire, which is after one year.

As someone who has been part of the communications team for Flex, since Flex was just an idea, it's really crazy to see how much time has flown by. It truly seems like just yesterday when we launched Flex. It was day 1. And it was so exciting to see how much it has grown in the last two years. I'm really excited to share some fun facts about Flex for you today.

It's been so wonderful to see our customers in over 36 countries use Flex to create exciting and cutting-edge projects. 12 million Flex tokens have already been used to create masterpieces by 13,000 of the Flex customers as of October 2023. And although it may come as a little bit of a surprise, Flex is actually more than just AutoCAD. And customers like you have used 105 products out of the 116 products currently available with Flex, again, as of October 2023.

And Flex has been a huge hit for those of you that are looking to experiment with new products. We found that customers who have both subscription and Flex prefer using Flex to experiment with new products and have actually taken advantage of the huge catalog of products we have included with Flex to see how they can further enhance their work. We can't wait to see the momentum going and keep it up and keep expanding access to Flex so that we can continue to provide effortless access to Autodesk products for more and more customers around the world-- which brings us to why you're probably here with us today.

Based on what you may have heard about Flex previously or what we shared about Flex so far, it probably has occurred to you that Flex is a great option for your occasional users. And this is definitely true. If you have users that are using their subscription less than seven days a month, Flex is a better value. However, since Flex has launched, our customers have shared the many other benefits that they have seen in their business that made them realize Flex was the right fit for their team.

Some of the ways you can leverage Flex may be a surprise or actually very unexpected for you. With Flex, you have the ability to assign the full portfolio of the products available with Flex, or you can pick and choose which products your users get access to out of the full 116 plus products I mentioned. This feature gives you extra control, while allowing you to push your team's limits and see what your users can create when there are no roadblocks to creativity. They can experiment with new products and find ways to think outside the box and improve their work.

For admins, I've heard it can be such a shock when you start managing Flex and realize that's it. That's all the setup and management needed. Without having to move single user licenses around or deal with the headache or refined art of network licenses, you'll never experience your users getting locked out of products again. You just assign them Flex to start, and it manages itself, basically.

So we've developed Autodesk account features as well to help you save time with user management. And our token usage reporting features make it really easy for you to track usage and make sure you're optimizing your costs. No need to painstakingly estimate your usage for the year up front. It's really easy to keep purchasing tokens as you need it and continue to pay as you go.

And when you have deadlines looming, Flex is a great way to get your users started immediately. No need to wait around for IT to purchase more software or to get the necessary approvals to open another PO. We want it to be as effortless and quick for you as possible so you can focus on your other more pressing tasks.

With college students and graduates getting brighter and brighter every year, we're seeing an increase of interns in every business. These interns and new graduates can be such a great source of creativity and talent, but it can be such a headache to move around subscriptions just for them to leave after a couple months. Flex fixes this issue by making it easy to provide temporary access. No need to predict what products they'll need or reassign if they switch projects and help a different team.

Flex keeps everything easy with that, even for contractors that are coming in for seasonal needs or fluctuations in workload due to different phases of the project or set of demand. It's really easy to manage any varying usage with Flex. But don't just take it from us. Hear it directly from our customers. And Chet this is where interview video 1 goes.

So I'm very excited to have Ridge join us today. Ridge is a mid-sized property and construction consultancy based in Oxford in the United Kingdom. They have graciously agreed to let the attendees of this session take a look behind the curtain and share how they have been using Flex to achieve their goals faster. Just a little bit about Ridge. Ridge is an award-winning multi-discipline property and construction consultancy. They help our clients create better, more sustainable places for people to live, learn, and work.

They offer a partner-led approach with a team of over 1,000 plus working from 12 locations across the UK and using our Autodesk products to successfully deliver projects in 75 countries worldwide. They offer a variety of services such as architecture, cost management, engineering, building surveying, health and safety, lighting design, project management, transport planning-- I could go on forever-- and much more.

Ridge stands out due to their commitment to customer care, continuous improvement, and providing social value that supports the needs of their people, clients, local communities, local economic development, and the environment. Through their 360 sustainability framework, they're helping clients deliver and in a very environmentally and socially sustainable way, while addressing important environmental, social, and governance challenges for the community.

Today in the session, I'm sitting down virtually with James over Zoom. He joined Ridge in 2012 and has over 10 years of experience in the industry delivering projects, specializing in complex technical facilities, campus design, and education. He's driven to innovate across all projects. He's involved in and really keen on disseminating lessons learned across the business and industry. Coupled with an interest in software and hardware, he now works with a team to develop best practice principles and workflows within Ridge.

Yeah, thanks, James, for joining us today. It would be great if you can start with chatting a little bit about your company and industry for people who aren't familiar with Ridge.

JAMES BELL: Yeah, sure. So yeah, my name is James Bell. I work with Ridge and Partners. We're a multidisciplinary property construction consultancy in the UK. Around 1,000 plus employees now across 12 offices in the UK. And specifically, I'm an associate architect. And within architecture, we've got around 120 architects across various offices in the UK.

PRISCILLA NING: Great. And what are some recent projects you can share with us that your company has worked on?

JAMES BELL: So we've got expertise across numerous sectors. Advanced manufacturing and motorsport has been certainly a large portion of what I've worked on across the 10 plus years that I've been with Ridge. And it's certainly something that's certainly well-known for. And that includes high-profile Formula One teams and a number of car manufacturers in the UK.

But we've also got expertise and experience across public projects in defense and security, education at primary, secondary, further education, health care, logistics. We cover quite a broad breadth of sectors, really.

PRISCILLA NING: Wow. Very interesting. I know Formula One is a hot topic right now. Actually, it's right after this conference, right, in AU so--

JAMES BELL: Yes.

PRISCILLA NING: --we're all pretty excited to think about the relationship there. What can you tell us about your role and what your day-to-day schedule looks like?

JAMES BELL: Yeah, sure. So in my role, since joining Ridge, I mean, I've always had a keen interest in computers and hardware and software. So even through my career in training to be an architect, I've always had that kind of interest in the software and technology side. So since being at Ridge, I've orientated myself to pick up on our workflows, our best practice, and most recently, working with a team in Ridge to promote that within the company and externally at events like this.

PRISCILLA NING: Awesome. And moving on to Flex, what is the involvement of Flex within your company? How many Autodesk users do you have at your company in general? And how many users of those are on Flex currently?

JAMES BELL: So, well, across all the various offices, we've got around 250 users that are signed up to the AEC suite. And it varies slightly. So I don't know quite day-to-day or--

[INTERPOSING VOICES]

PRISCILLA NING: Yeah.

JAMES BELL: Yeah, but the tweaks if the AEC suite and Flex. And then on Flex, we got around 270. So it's kind of almost equal numbers across both Flex and AEC suite.

PRISCILLA NING: Got it. So you said you have 250 just on the AEC collection and 270 on Flex?

JAMES BELL: Yep.

PRISCILLA NING: Got it.

JAMES BELL: And it sort of at various points moves between the two as and when demand sort of goes--

PRISCILLA NING: Yeah, the usage. Yeah, got it.

JAMES BELL: Exactly.

PRISCILLA NING: So what products are they using on Flex?

JAMES BELL: So the key ones seem to be AutoCAD and Revit. But we're also seeing a lot of usage in robot structural analysis, Civil 3D, Navisworks, and the vehicle tracking software as well.

PRISCILLA NING: Got it. And how do you decide whether they're on AEC collection or on Flex?

JAMES BELL: So I mean, I think probably a key part that we implemented in line with moving to Flex was a monitoring piece of software so that as a company, we can track who is best positioned on either a Flex license or on the full AEC collection. And through that monitoring software, we were able to see who's best suited to each.

PRISCILLA NING: Yeah, got it. And so what challenges were you facing that made you decide to take on Flex on top of your AEC collection?

JAMES BELL: I mean, previously-- and I'm sure it was probably common across numerous businesses-- we were getting all company emails asking to free up licenses for people that weren't using them. And I'm sure everyone can appreciate every business will be trying to find the sweet spot in terms of number of licenses. No business wants to be over-spending. And yet if you don't have enough licenses, you'll soon hear about it from employees that can't get access to the tools they require to do their daily work.

PRISCILLA NING: Yeah, I definitely hear that pretty often in the industry, especially when you know you're managing so many licenses there with 250 AECs. So I'm sure that's a lot of emails going back and forth. And so do you feel like Flex was a good solution for that? Was it able to help you overcome those challenges?

JAMES BELL: Yeah, definitely. And the feedback I hear across the business that not only across users that have a very varying workload. So certainly, in our building surveyor discipline, they may go weeks or months without having to access, for instance, AutoCAD. They might be doing reports for a long period of time and then infrequently need to produce drawings, or they might have a suddenly an intensive period where they've got to produce a lot of drawings. So across those disciplines where the workload varies, Flex is able to accommodate their needs.

PRISCILLA NING: Got it. Yeah, so that's amazing to hear. Do you feel like there's a top benefit there that you can specify? Or is it just being able to accommodate based on people's needs?

JAMES BELL: Yeah. Well, I think it kind of delivers both business-wide on value for money, I suppose, in terms of when people are using the tools, but also for employees being able to access software when they need it. So it works at both levels, really.

PRISCILLA NING: Got it. Yeah. So it sounds like the first benefit is that you're able to maximize the value between the collection and Flex. And then the second top benefit is not having to deal with those company-wide emails of people getting locked out and constantly dealing with moving around extra licenses and users since you're not at the perfect sweet spot with the changing flow.

JAMES BELL: That's it.

PRISCILLA NING: Yeah, great. So do you feel like Flex has changed the work in process of you and your users and different people in the company?

JAMES BELL: I think people actually haven't noticed the change. And that's probably, again, one of the main highlights of it-- the fact that people haven't had to change their process. They've just, without knowing, switched from either a full collection to Flex, or the other way. Our IT department can kind of make that change. And there's no disruption to the user. So I think the fact that we haven't really seen a change and no one's noticed it, it's almost the exactly what we wanted.

PRISCILLA NING: Fantastic. That's wonderful to hear. I think that's a common concern from other admins is if it'll require a lot of training, and it'll mess up all their workflows and have to be a lot of active management. But it's great to hear that it's actually the same or decrease that active management as you having to worry about moving around licenses. So that's great to hear.

So would you say, overall, you're satisfied with the decision to have users on Flex?

JAMES BELL: Yeah. No, definitely yeah. I think both feedback from the business and from staff would be-- it's all positive, yeah.

PRISCILLA NING: Awesome. That's wonderful to hear. And do you have any advice that you would provide your peers listening in who might be considering Flex?

JAMES BELL: Yeah. I mean, I think just the key for us was almost that monitoring piece of software on the side. With that, you've got full knowledge, really, and full visibility of where your licenses are best placed in either Flex or in AEC collection. So yeah, I think that's--

PRISCILLA NING: Perfect. Yeah, I think that'll be really helpful to everyone listening in. And thank you so much for your time and sharing how Flex is going your company. For other companies similar, either in the situation or in size, I'm sure this is really valuable. So thank you so much for your time, James.

JAMES BELL: Yeah, no problem. Thanks very much.

PRISCILLA NING: Thanks. Great. After that fantastic chat with James, just putting up this quick summary for the big points we touched on during our chat. A major benefit that James highlighted was the importance of providing quick and immediate access for varying product needs for a mid-sized business like Ridge. James mentioned that their building surveyors have a very varying workload.

So just being able to go months and weeks without accessing a product such as AutoCAD, followed by needing immediate access to the product, it's just easier with Flex. It's able to accommodate their needs without having to move around any subscriptions just because they need intensive use or no use at all.

Another great call-out from our chat was the simplified management that they were able to receive from using Flex. Gone are those company-wide emails asking to free up licenses that paused everyone's workday and distracted them from their tasks. With the limited amount of users you can assign a Flex, everyone gets access immediately and as soon as they need it. So they were able to find the sweet spot for subscription Flex, letting them maximize their values with Autodesk. And Chet, this is where interview 2 goes.

Next, I'm honored to introduce the renowned Nippon Koei, who are a famous industry-leading property and construction consultancy based in Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1946, the Nippon Koei Group is one of the largest and most successful consulting and engineering companies in the world. Nippon Koei is headquartered in Japan and leads their national civil engineering industry in sales annually.

So with over 6,000 employees in over 160 countries, maximizing productivity is top of mind for them. Their average of approximately 9,000 projects a year-- wow-- has focused their priorities on developing new technologies and improving the expertise of their workforce so that their projects can be completed as efficiently and as accurately as possible.

So at this time, I would like to introduce Tetsuhiro Kurahashi, who is a professional engineer in Nippon Koei's BIM Technical Center and R&D Center Consulting Operations Headquarters. Since they've implemented Flex, Nippon Koei has been able to lead productivity in their industry, achieving time efficiency like they've never seen before.

Today, Tetsuhiro graciously agreed to carve some time out in his busy schedule to sit down with his sales representative Yumi Inada, who will be sharing what drove them to invest so heavily in Flex and how they have been able to use Flex to work smarter and stay ahead of the competition.

YUMI INADA: Hello, everyone. I am Yumi Inada at [? EC Tiles ?] in Japan. And I'm Nippon Koei's sales representative. I'm so excited about sharing the customer success story of the top civil engineering consulting company in Japan. Today, I have the interviewee Mr. Kurahashi here. Thank you for taking your time, Mr. Kurahashi.

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Thank you.

YUMI INADA: Thank you. So I'd like to interview the three key categories-- background of your business and why they are interested in Flex, and the benefit of Flex. So let's get started. So in terms of background, could you please share a quick summary about your company and industry?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Sure. We provide consultancy services regarding infrastructure to clients in construction industry both domestically and internationally in more than 150 countries from the planning, designing, construction, supervision, and maintenance phases. We have different types of engineers. Each of them is knowledgeable about roads, bridges, airports, railways, or sewers, et cetera. Therefore, we can deal with complicated issues that require multiple expertise. Actually, we have the highest annual turnover of any construction consultancy in Japan.

YUMI INADA: Thank you for the introduction. So what is the general work of BIM Technical Center and your role in the division?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Our department takes care of almost everything related to BIM in the company, such as giving employees training of BIM, research and development, managing licenses, supporting BIM projects and so on. As for me, I sometimes get questions from colleagues in other departments how to use specific software.

On the other day, I attend a meeting regarding managing license, research and development, BIM projects and so on. In my spare time, I make training materials of BIM and attending webinars to obtain latest information. Every day is different. So there is no typical day.

YUMI INADA: Thank you. So every time, active license are all occupied, you had a hard time to assign and reassign incense to users?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: That's right, yes.

YUMI INADA: Thank you. So about Flex, how many Autodesk users do you have at your company?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: About 1,500 users.

YUMI INADA: OK. So how many of your users are on Flex?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: About 1,000 users on Flex.

YUMI INADA: Wow that's a lot of users. So 2/3 of all engineers are using Flex?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Yes, that's right.

YUMI INADA: Thank you. So what products are you mainly using?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: They use Civil 3D, Revit, Navisworks, and InfraWorks provided previously in AEC collection.

YUMI INADA: So they're using mainly BIM solution? Thank you.

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Welcome.

YUMI INADA: So what challenges were you facing before using Flex?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: We used subscription services before subscribing to Flex. We often encounter the situation where the number of simultaneous users reached the limit as the demand for software among employees had been increasing. On top of that, as you guessed, amid COVID-19, our company had employees work from home.

I remember that some employees were struggling with launching the software due to network issues because the rising server was inside our company's network. Our department used to consume a lot of human resources to combat such kind of issues.

YUMI INADA: So what was the biggest deciding factor in choosing Flex?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: The deciding factor was how easy it is to manage licenses.

YUMI INADA: Thank you. So what solution did Flex provide that helped you overcome those challenges?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Flex has no limitation in terms of simultaneous users. And since the license server is on the cloud, each employee has access to a license in order to run software via the internet. This factor is crucial because, as I told the earlier, we mobilize employees in more than 150 countries.

YUMI INADA: So Flex allows all users to use licenses at any time and from anywhere? That's great to hear that.

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Eventually, yes.

YUMI INADA: Thank you. So what is the top benefit that Flex has provided you?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Flex allows us to reduce troubleshooting works and concentrate on technical matters. And we can purchase additional tokens when running out. It is difficult for us to anticipate annual tokens when purchasing. Flex makes the license management more flexible.

YUMI INADA: Does that mean you are enjoying the benefit of Flex not only for users and for licenses managers?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Yes, I am.

YUMI INADA: Thank you. So let's move on about reflection. So has Flex changed the working process of you and your users?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Apparently, it hasn't changed. However, working process became smoother because of reducing troubleshooting works.

YUMI INADA: Thank you. So are you satisfied with your decision to put all users on Flex?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Definitely. Yes, I am. Some colleagues who work internationally seem to be satisfied, too.

YUMI INADA: That's great to hear that. So I believe that users are also satisfied with using Flex as well?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Right.

YUMI INADA: So this is the last question. What advice would you give to peers who may be considering Flex in the future?

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Well, you should consider reducing costs coming from not only software itself, but also human resources of troubleshooting. Flex ensures enhancing the productivity in Nippon Koei. So it's your turn next time.

YUMI INADA: Thank you. Thank you again for sharing Nippon Koei's wonderful story, Mr. Kurahashi. I also appreciate all audiences for listening to the video interview. I strongly hope this customer success story will help our other customers who are now using Flex and considering using Flex program in the future. Thank you.

TETSUHIRO KURAHASHI: Thank you so much.

YUMI INADA: Thank you so much.

PRISCILLA NING: Great. It was such a treat to hear those insights from Tetsuhiro, especially for an extra large global enterprise such as Nippon. It's easy to see how global usage and subsidiary management is way easier with an unlimited user model such as Flex. Flex users are able to access and use offerings anywhere in the world, those Flex offerings I'm referring to regardless of their territory.

So for enterprise customers like Nippon, there are a lot of unforeseen benefits for streamlining subsidiary management. It can get really challenging for customers to maintain product access across their multiple subsidiaries. So Flex allows them to centrally manage their products together so they can better maximize their spend and simplify procurement. As Tetsuhiro touched on a bit during that chat, he found that managing Flex centrally allowed him to ensure that his products and his users are staying efficient.

And that extends to all subsidiaries under Nippon. They're able to access products immediately with no downtime. And it's also easier to centrally track token usage for all their subsidiaries and ensure no tokens end up going to waste. It can get really time-consuming very quickly to actively manage each subsidiary separately and ensure each subsidiary always has the exact number of subscriptions they need.

Flex ends up removing that complexity of active management, while making it easy to track token usage so they can easily add more tokens whenever they run low. Instead of ensuring each subsidiary always has the exact number of subscriptions they need, having centimeter pool of tokens has made procurement way more streamlined for Nippon. As an extra large company, they mentioned it's difficult for them to anticipate their annual software needs before the start of each year.

And being able to purchase additional tokens when they run out has allowed them to stop spending on unused subscriptions or wasting precious time, rushing around to purchase more when users are locked out. Purchasing Flex has made licensing management for them way more flexible. He also touched on how their technology managers and users have saved countless hours with easy access through Flex.

As they talked about the work-from-home mandates and office closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic made managing access for their users around the world almost impossible at their scale. It was very inefficient and time-consuming. However, Nippon Koei's technology managers were able to provide instant product access to all their users with Flex, allowing them to bypass any slowdown in productivity.

Despite having thousands of users on Autodesk products globally in their multiple subsidiaries, Nippon Koei was able to adapt their in-office workflow to a more remote process without any trouble. While their competitors struggled to provide product access to their newly remote workforce, Nippon Koei took full advantage of Flex, utilizing their time wisely to reduce their active user management and increase efficiency for their users.

So now that you've heard from your peers, I hope you have a much better idea of how you can implement Flex in your business to meet your specific needs and achieve your goals faster. I've compiled some of the most frequently asked questions that I've heard from customers so you can leave this session ready to get started with Flex. Let's start easy. How do tokens work? I covered this a bit in the first section, but I'm happy to go into additional details here.

Your users use tokens every time they access the product available with Flex. Each product has its own rate. So for specific rates, or if there's a product you're looking for, take a look at the rate sheet at autodesk.com/flexratesheet for the full list. Tokens last one year from purchase and don't auto renew or roll over. So make sure you only purchase what you need since you can re-up any time.

And that brings me to my next point-- you can always purchase tokens yourself on the website. So no need to feel stressed about predicting your usage. Tokens that expire earliest will be used first. So if you purchase tokens in March and then in May, the tokens in March will definitely be used first. Next, you might be wondering exactly how you'll be charged for usage. So let's talk about the products and services charged per day.

Most products and services included in Flex are charged per day. This means that when a user opens a product included with Flex, they'll be charged a daily rate per product once every 24 hours. During those 24 hours, users will not be charged for using multiple versions. So for example, if they're switching between a current version and a previous version of the same product, or if they'll be taking a look at accessing read-only or viewer modes, they also won't be charged for that.

They won't be charged if they reopen the product during the 24-hour period. And if a user accidentally clicks on a product they didn't mean to open, they won't be charged if they close it immediately within five minutes. And that's just to prevent accidental use. However, not all Flex products and versions have this auto feature built in yet. So I would just highly suggest you urge your users to just close the product and make sure that they don't accidentally run the product in the background.

Since the auto use will suspend a daily token charge if the product becomes inactive, we don't really have that feature built out yet for all the products included with Flex. And if they do trigger the auto feature, once the user starts using the software again, the token charge will again restart and count it as a new day. To help clarify this a bit more, imagine I'm a Flex user, and I sign into AutoCAD at 8:00 AM on Monday. And I use it until 5:00 PM the same day.

I close the product when I'm done with my workday. And that was what was specified in my email that my admin sent me. So I'm a good user, and I was like, all right, I'm done using this product. And I'm closing it down. I come back to work the next morning, and I open AutoCAD at 7:00 AM. Since I opened it at 8:00 AM the day before, my team won't be charged their token balance until 8:00 AM. I, again, close the product at 5:00 PM to go home. And since I'm working on a different project the rest of the week, I don't open it again for the rest of the week. The rate of AutoCAD is 7 tokens per day. And so for those two days of use, I will have used 14 tokens.

However, some products and services included with Flex are charged by result instead of per day. And these rates are variable depending on the product or service and the type of result you requested. We have much more detail into this on the Flex rate sheet page that breaks down what result you're trying to achieve. But here's just a quick example to illustrate. Let's say you have a user, Liz, who needs ReCap Photo to convert 85 aerial photos to a 3D site model.

For ReCap Photo, one token can convert 50 photos. Therefore, to convert 85 photos, Liz will use two tokens. And you might be wondering, what notifications will you receive? So starting with no use, you'll receive a reminder to get started with Flex if you haven't used any tokens after day 12 after your purchase. We just want to make sure that you remember to start assigning and giving your users access to Flex and provide you with the resources you need to maximize the value of all the products and cloud services we have included with Flex.

And you'll also receive another reminder to keep maximizing Flex if you have over 70% of your tokens remaining after four months after your purchase. And if you're running low on tokens, we'll give you a notification via email and also one via account just to let you know that you have less than 20% of your tokens left. So we just want to make sure users don't accidentally lose access to their Flex products and that you keep it streamlined and easy for your users.

So for example, if you purchase 500 tokens, we'll let you know you're running low on tokens if you have 100 left so that you can go ahead and purchase more and make sure that all your users don't get locked out. We'll also notify you once you run out. But again, we highly recommend you purchase more as soon as you receive the low token notification or earlier just so that your users aren't denied access to their products when they urgently need them.

And this is a question we get pretty often-- can I put users on both subscription and Flex? And the answer is yes. Flex is not all or nothing. We actually had a combo use of them in mind when we developed Flex. They fit very different needs so you can get the most value from managing both Flex and subscription for your users based on their individual needs. So let's take a look at what users you might be managing that would need both.

James has several single-user subscriptions, but he also realizes he needs ReCap Pro for the next week to create a 3D model for his project that his client requested. He's on a tight timeline to get started. And luckily, he's already assigned to Flex. He opens ReCap and starts working on the model immediately, no time wasted. Sending a mass email to everyone asking for a free seat to ReCap Pro.

Your next user, Derek, is your most skilled user and uses AutoCAD daily. Your firm is gearing up to pitch a potential very valuable client. And Derek is the right man for the job. Hoping to land this big client, you tell Derek to use his creativity and think outside the box for his pitch. Derek gets straight to work and starts exploring different tools available with Flex to see how they can pleasantly surprise their potential client. With the products available with Flex, Derek creates a winning pitch. And you are rewarded for winning the bid.

Your third user type Sarah is consistently working in two products, Revit and Navisworks. She uses Revit every day. However, she only needs Navisworks three days per month. It really makes sense to keep Sarah assigned to a Revit subscription but also assign her to Flex so she can use Navisworks through Flex.

And I just want to note that for users like Sarah who are assigned to product subscriptions and Flex, they will always use your subscriptions before tokens. So Sarah won't be charged tokens to use Revit since she's already assigned a Revit subscription. But she will use tokens for Navisworks since she doesn't have a Navisworks subscription. So how do you know who to assign Flex to? An easy way to find out is to check your Usage Reporting Page, which launched earlier this year.

Before, admins had to go to different reporting pages and account to view their Flex usage and subscription usage separately. Having all the users usage in one view allows you to see your usage in one holistic view. So you can see the trends and better determine if your users would be a better fit for subscription, Flex, or both to ultimately help you better plan and forecast your software needs.

Basically, this is a summary page that does it all. It makes it easier than ever for you to distinguish frequent users from occasional users and optimize their assignments. You can save time by viewing product usage for all the users on one page, whether they are on subscription or Flex. You can see data such as the total number of subscriptions for their teams, the number of active or inactive users, the number of Flex tokens used and remaining, and the monthly average of Flex Tokens being used and much more.

When you navigate to each user on the list, you can see at-a-glance summaries for each user. And you can see additional details by clicking on each user's name. We've taken your feedback and even giving you the extra control you asked for. You can apply filters to narrow down the data further. It even extends to the export. So you can export a CSV with your chosen filters applied for easier management.

So how do you repurchase Flex? It's super easy. There's no renewals with Flex. It's as simple as purchasing more tokens when you run low. You can review your token usage reporting, especially with a handy page I just mentioned. So you can decide the custom token quantity that's best for your business needs. The purchase of Flex tokens don't affect your Autodesk account user assignments at all.

So once users are assigned, they will get access to the tokens added to their team immediately. There's no need to reassign users there. And if you have multiple Flex purchases, tokens are consumed in the order that they're purchased. And each purchase has its own 12-month term. And there's no co-terming for Flex.

And that's pretty much the most frequently asked questions I've received. If you have any additional questions, I urge you to check out the list on the bottom of the Flex landing page. We have even more answers there. So your question might be already answered there. It's at autodesk.com/flex.

All right, I hope that wasn't too overwhelming of an amount of information. I'm sure you have a lot to consider that's swirling around in your head right now. To organize some of that, here's some next steps that you can take. Besides some frequently asked questions, the Flex landing page has a wealth of great information about Flex and a full breakdown of daily product rates.

I hope after hearing all of those great applied use cases from your peers that have transformed their day to day and their business, you're ready to get up and running with Flex. To do so, make sure you put some time aside to estimate the tokens you'll need. The Flex landing page has a very handy estimator tool that makes it really easy to input all the products and users you have to calculate exactly how many tokens you need. Or you can reach out directly to your Autodesk rep or solutions provider if you have any questions or want any advice on getting started.