Printed circuit software company Altium (ASX:ALU) says it is going to try to emulate Netflix with a “hard pivot to the cloud”, separating its cloud operations from its software business and giving each their own leadership structure.

“The separate will allow Altium’s cloud business to develop at a different cadence and to form a SaaS-like organisational structure around its product and go-to-market processes,” Altium said.

Executive director Sergey Kotinsky has been appointed as president to drive adoption of the company’s cloud platform, Altium 365.

Chairman Sam Weiss said the platform “is set to revolutionise the way that electronic products are designed and manufactured”.

Chief executive Aram Mirkazemi said Altium 365 was a turning point for the company.

“I refer to this as Altium’s Netflix moment, which is commonly referred to in the high-tech industry as a hard pivot to the cloud,” he said, referring to the way Netflix pivoted away from distributing rental DVDs in the mail to becoming an online streaming platform.

Joe Bedewi has stepped down as CFO to take a new role as executive vice president of corporate development and external affairs. He’ll be replaced by Martin Ive.

In midafternoon trade, shares were up slightly to $35.16.

Altium (ASX:ALU) share price chart