The main mission of NISC is to protect the government, but the organization’s other overall mission is to improve the entire security level of Japan. As the first step for protecting electronic documents, NISC implemented PDF as the standard format for electronic documents. “We prefer not to rely upon technology provided by one specific company, but we had no problems supporting the use of PDF files since they are the international standard ISO 32000-1,” says NISC.

NISC believed that the ideal solution would use the existing Japanese Government Public Key Infrastructure (GPKI) for handling certificates. Adobe formed a task force with NISC to work on support for GPKI and publish government official signatures to the Adobe Approved Trust List (AATL). This enables users of Adobe Acrobat X and Reader X to automatically and easily verify the electronic signatures of government officials on PDF files using the GPKI government official certificates.

“Thanks to cooperation from Adobe, we were able to effectively deploy GPKI, which enabled us to increase efficiency without raising costs,” says NISC. “With electronic signatures, we can thwart the intentions of attackers attempting to pull off spoofing attacks.”

Read more about this implementation here:

Akiko Yamamoto, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Acrobat Solutions

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Each ad mechanical we produce is a PDF document that moves through our workflow from start to finish. The entire production cycle is documented using Adobe Acrobat.  We time-stamp, log, and track production responsibilities and review cycles. Review cycles go faster as team members no longer have to decipher handwriting and can layer comments together within the file.

All of our print coordinators then run the files associated with an ad through a customized Acrobat preflight process that vets the mechanical for the requirements of hundreds of different publications. Everything is checked in great detail—ink density, dots per inch, missing fonts—you name it.

Our customized workflow is great because it allows us to take advantage of the out-of-the-box functionality of Acrobat   yet combine it with our own in-house production system. It gives us an enterprise-scale solution at low cost of ownership. Our users have more control and our IT professionals worry less about inadvertent errors.

Now, four print coordinators handle the workflow that previously required dozens of people working multiple shifts. We’ve eliminated the use of third-party software for checking final specifications, boosted the degree of quality assurance and predictability, and we’re getting closer to a paperless environment.

The main competitive differentiator for us is this turnkey automated workflow. It delivers highly repeatable, flexible, trusted outcomes that keep our clients happy. It also provides us with a strong sense of confidence and pride about our production services.

Adobe Acrobat brings a Zen approach to our project workflow; managing the job is easier and our employees are more productive.

Bill Lunsford, DBA, Graphics Manager, BBDO

Read the full story here: http://adobe.ly/O8XiSH

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-    Rebecca Staley, Marketing Specialist, Acrobat Solutions

Using Adobe Acrobat Pro, engineers and developers can now submit plans electronically as a PDF. Since the staff will no long has to manually input information from the plans into the central database, electronic submissions decrease the possibility of introducing errors.

Even if only 25% of the plans are submitted in PDF, the Sacramento CDD estimates that it will save some 1,200 hours of labor previously used to receive, time-stamp, collate, and distribute documents. This time savings does not even include efficiencies associated with easier review, processing and archiving with the PDF files.

“Standardizing on Adobe Acrobat to simplify increasingly complex plan check reviews—involved in managing development projects—helps our agency make the City more economically competitive, resourceful, and vibrant,” says Matthew Sites, project manager, Community Development Department for the City of Sacramento.

To read more about how the City of Sacramento is using Adobe Acrobat, check out the full story here: http://adobe.ly/OmEiOH

Ali Hanyaloglu, senior marketing manager, Acrobat Solutions

Follow Ali on Twitter, @acroboy. 

Two large government organizations are also taking advantage the ELA and standardizing on Acrobat. The U.S. Air Force has recently selected Acrobat X Professional as its standard, enterprise-wide PDF software. Using the premier PDF solution from Adobe, the Air Force can create higher-quality content while driving tighter collaboration and productivity, greater security and lower costs across the entire organization.

The Air Force cited several factors that led to adopting Adobe Acrobat as its PDF solution, with a three-year enterprise agreement, covering 600,000 seats. In addition to PDF creation capabilities, Adobe Acrobat delivers peace of mind by helping eliminate compatibility and other issues that drain valuable resources. Adobe Acrobat enables better software asset management and improved patch and update processes, which significantly reduces the effort and cost required to keep systems up-to-date.

Another large government agency, which I can’t name, entered into an ELA with Adobe recently, as well. The department consolidated software licenses for the most current versions of Acrobat X as well as LiveCycle Enterprise Suite, and Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Master Collection. They now have a standard PDF solution nationwide.

The ELA enables the department to consolidate more than 400 separate purchase orders into just a handful of annual purchases or renewals. The ELA saves a lot of time and helps to ensure that the latest software is deployed to employees needing it in a timely manner. In addition, the agreement positions the department to secure the lowest, most consistent price for the latest software and technology, creating massive savings year after year.

Using the ELA to deploy PDF solutions across your organization is a smart move and you’d be in good company. Check it out.

Mark Grilli, senior director of Acrobat Solutions product marketing

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-       Rebecca Staley, Marketing Specialist, Acrobat Solutions

The implications of this are enormous. Leaked sensitive information damages your competitive advantage and erodes your customers’ and partners’ trust in you. And that, of course, hits the bottom line. IT departments can choose a user-friendly, document-level security solution to protect the company’s documents, inside and outside the firewall. For their part, users need the ability to secure documents with a solution that can easily integrate into the existing IT environment. That way, everybody’s happy.

Adobe Acrobat customers deal with document-level security risks all day long. We all remember the embarrassing high profile cases in which law firms or government agencies thought they’d deleted sensitive content only to find it on the front page of the NYTimes. However, using Acrobat, Andrew Moir, a partner at international law firm Herbert Smith, says “we know that information we need to keep confidential, stays confidential.”

Adobe Acrobat lets you remove sensitive data from documents before sharing them with others. The PDF redaction tools permanently delete confidential information, while sanitization tools remove hidden information with one click. Acrobat’s Guided actions also help ensure that all team members prepare documents for distribution correctly and consistently.

You can further mitigate the risk of sensitive information being leaked by controlling access to documents. “We need to control who accesses documents and give people the assurance that the materials they receive have not been altered,” says Margaret M. DiBianca, Associate, Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor

Young Conaway uses Acrobat to password-protect those documents with Acrobat’s 256-bit AES encryption technology to control access. The firm also sets file permissions to prevent editing, printing, or copying content. “With Acrobat, we can put controls on PDF files to limit access to information and restrict copying of data from files,” DiBianca adds. Acrobat also works with Adobe LiveCycle® Rights Management ES2 for extended rights management protection.

It’s also important to understand the role eSignatures play in security. Without an assurance that someone’s signature is the real deal, business could come to a screeching halt. That was one reason Adobe acquired EchoSign last year. With Adobe EchoSign eSignature and Web contracting services, you can send and receive digitally signed documents securely and quickly. EchoSign has been designed from the ground up for state-of-the-art ASP security. Electronic signatures are also protected by the federal ESIGN Act, which ensures that customers who sign contracts electronically are as protected as they would be had they opted for pen-on-paper agreements. You could argue the protections are even greater with digital contracts, since eSignature solutions can offer additional authentications from email, IP addresses, passwords, social network credentials and other safeguards that surpass anything possible with physical copies or fax transmissions.

What’s happening now is that Web contracting, which includes the automation of the entire contract process — from creation, collaboration, and execution to archiving and management — is quickly replacing the painful paper-based processes of the past with the advantages of working on the Web.

The main drivers of Web contracting and eSignatures are customers, partners, and internal users. Customers are increasingly comfortable conducting business via the Web and mobile devices, and they are demanding that companies move more of their customer-facing processes online. That, of course, adds a new dimension to security considerations.

So whether your security needs are redaction, rights management, access or secure e-signatures, Acrobat can provide a solution. There’s more information at the Acrobat IT Resource Center for insights into how to Acrobat can make your documents — and your IT operation — more secure.

Mark Grilli, senior director of Acrobat Solutions product marketing

Steve Gottwals, Group Product Manager

General Director Roberto Colletto of Piscine Castiglione says navigating through the detailed product information is quick and easy, “Moving from one section of the document to another is very similar to web navigation. The functionality of Adobe Acrobat X helped us develop a brochure that makes it easy for sales staff to communicate with customers efficiently, with accuracy, and leverage high-quality images and videos for more dramatic impact.” The company has even seen routine requests for additional information from customers drop because the interactive catalog covers so many topics in great detail.

For Piscine Castiglione, the Adobe solution has enhanced the impact of presentations by sales agents to customers and resellers. Now, agents can bring laptops or tablets along to sales calls and show customers polished, multimedia presentations on demand. With the help of Adobe Acrobat X Pro to create and deliver powerful product information, Piscine is further strengthening its image as an industry leader and innovator. Says Colletto, “Using Adobe Acrobat X…nicely mirrors our commitment to innovation.” To learn more about Piscine Castiglione and its use of Adobe Acrobat X, click here.

Ali Hanyaloglu, senior marketing manager, Acrobat Solutions