But here we are in August, and that vacation is nowhere to be seen and everything just has to get done RIGHT NOW. Where’s that vacation you’ve been waiting on for months on end?

Well, Adobe SendNow can’t send you on a sailing getaway – but it can send your most important documents sailing off securely and quickly to your clients and colleagues. Need to send out some new contracts? SendNow saves you a battle with that grumpy office fax machine. Have some video files that need approval from a client? SendNow lets you get those videos to their destination without an excruciatingly hot walk down the street to mail a hard drive.

For a limited time, an annual subscription to SendNow will be available for a super summer discount. Go check out the SendNow summer break savings today!

-       Rebecca Staley

What’s more, IT life isn’t likely to get any simpler. The perfect storm looks to be on the horizon. A recent study by the Accenture Institute for High Performance and reported by Mike Vizard of ITBusinessEdge suggests that IT departments are “likely to be shaped more by forces outside the control of the IT organization” than by the IT department itself.

While we wait for the big blow, there are a lot of squalls IT has to navigate just to get through the day. I came away from some recent customer visits with this list of IT challenges they face:

• Demonstrate the ROI of all technology investments.
• Ensure solutions don’t indirectly drive up the cost of IT, such as more help-desk calls, unnecessary additions to the IT footprint, or difficult deployments which strain IT resources.
• Buy solutions that fit within the IT infrastructure. Because of the large investment within existing systems, any solution that doesn’t fit within the established standards requires a very strong business justification.
• Acquire programs that can enhance the value of existing infrastructure by driving higher usage are appealing.

So why make IT more complicated than it needs to be? Companies like yours have standardized on Adobe Acrobat to address many of these pain points. They simplified the licensing that supports enterprise-wide deployment and with that software license management. They benefit from enterprise-wide maintenance and support that helps them get the most out of the investment. Plus, Acrobat integrates easily to the IT environment.

For example, Arup, a global engineering and design firm, standardized its operations on the latest version of Acrobat using the Adobe enterprise license agreement (ELA) to distribute software to employees worldwide through the Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager suite—a virtual software store. Arup employees can simply request Acrobat, submit the request for approval, and IT support will download the software directly to their desktops in an automated process.

For RSM McGladrey, a tax and assurance consultancy, the enterprise program with Adobe streamlined Acrobat licensing and deployment on an ongoing basis. Today, the company spends about two hours annually tracking and updating Acrobat software licenses—a 98 percent decrease over the previous time spent by IT.

Similarly, since moving to the enterprise contract, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers has reduced IT maintenance and administrative costs because everyone throughout the agency is using the same version of Acrobat. In addition, predictable budget requirements result in more effective fiscal planning.

Bottom line, by standardizing on Acrobat across your IT environment you can save a lot of time and money. Check out the Adobe ELA to see where you can cut costs and save time.

Mark Grilli, senior director of Acrobat Solutions product marketing

Q: What is the Adobe Acrobat and Reader update schedule?

About three years ago, we moved to a quarterly update schedule for Adobe Reader and Acrobat. It was part of a major initiative to strengthen the security of our products. At the time, three-month update cycles seemed like the right cadence given the threat environment and the pace we were adding new mitigation capabilities into the products. Fast-forward three years, and technologies like Protected Mode in Adobe Reader and Protected View in Acrobat (sandboxes) have provided effective layers of defense, reducing the need for the ongoing quarterly cadence.

So, recently we announced a closer alignment with the Microsoft Patch Tuesday model. Instead of delivering updates on a quarterly schedule, we will provide Adobe Acrobat and Reader updates on the second Tuesday of any given month as needed throughout the year to best address customer requirements and keep all of our users safe. We will also continue to publish a prenotification on the Adobe Product Security Incident Response Team blog three business days before we release a security update, and we will continue to be flexible and respond “out-of-cycle” to urgent needs, such as a zero-day attack.

Q: How is Flash content being handled in Adobe Acrobat and Reader?

Starting with Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.5.1, we have classified Flash content into two categories, “known” and “unknown.” Known Flash content has been authored by Adobe and ships with the product. For instance, Portfolio Navigators and user interface elements are classified as known Flash content. Unknown Flash content has been authored outside of Adobe and does not ship with the product. For example, Custom Portfolio Navigators and Flash content embedded into PDFs are considered unknown. With this classification scheme, we are able to selectively render Flash content with different Flash Players. In 9.5.1 and later, we render known Flash content with an internal component embedded inside of Adobe Reader and Acrobat, and let the system Flash Player (NPAPI version) render the unknown content.

Since an attack would leverage unknown, as opposed to known, Flash content, this means that Adobe Reader/Acrobat 9.x users will no longer have to update Adobe Reader/Acrobat each time we update the Flash Player. This is particularly beneficial to customers in managed environments, because fewer updates means a lower cost of ownership, while maintaining a vigilant security posture. Keeping in mind that there is no silver bullet when it comes to security, we do follow a defense-in-depth security strategy. Therefore, even though we run all Flash content inside the sandbox in Adobe Reader and Acrobat X, where we’ve had great success thwarting attacks, we’ll still implement this new handling of Flash content into those products in the future. We’ll let you know when that happens.

Q: Can you explain the new security ratings?

In the past, security ratings were based on the worst-case scenario of a vulnerability without taking into account the presence or likelihood of an exploit. For a bit of background, a vulnerability is a code defect that can potentially be leveraged by an exploit to attack a system. Imagine the exact same code defect in two products. One product has a known exploit, while the other product has extra layers of defense that thwart the exploit from working. If you only consider the vulnerability, the security rating would look the same. But, if you consider the presence (or lack) of a functioning exploit as part of the security rating, you’ll get a different answer, and a better understanding of the threat, which in turn, provides better guidance on how quickly you should deploy the update.

This has happened with the introduction of new security mitigation technologies, like Adobe Reader Protected Mode (sandbox protections), which has made vulnerabilities much more difficult to exploit. Therefore, we’ve taken the degree of difficulty for exploit creation and included it in our new update priority ratings. We feel that this is the best way to clearly communicate real-world risk associated with the vulnerabilities addressed in any given security update.

Steve Gottwals, Group Product Manager, Adobe Acrobat Solutions Security

But back to the question. Can Acrobat save you money? Short answer is yes.  Adobe Acrobat and its free companion, Adobe Reader, can have a positive impact on return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) across the enterprise.  But don’t take my word it.

Customers from a variety of businesses are finding that Adobe Acrobat is a proven solution that helps reduce IT cost and complexity. For example, tax consultancy, McGladrey, expects to save $600,000 over four years by standardizing on Acrobat, and that, they said, did not even begin to factor in all the IT time and effort saved.

Pharmaceuticals company, Astellas Pharma, who introduced Acrobat via the Adobe Volume Licensing program, which best suits large purchases, achieved cost reductions and centralized license management. “We can upgrade without incurring any other charges when a new version is released during the agreement term. This is extremely valuable to us,” said Shuichi Hiraki, associate manager of Infrastructure, Information Systems for Astrellas.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said that in addition to saving $1.3 million in licensing costs in the first year, it estimates it will reduce costs by $750,000 per year by reducing the number of purchase transactions from more than 500 to a single transaction each year.

Quantitative Research

Recently, we commissioned the Forrester Consulting Group to look into the question, too. The study, “Total Economic Impact™ Study of Adobe Acrobat X,” looked at seven current Adobe Acrobat X customers and identified a series of IT and end user productivity costs savings by standardizing on Acrobat X. These include reimaging systems cost savings, end user productivity gains from more efficient patch deployments, IT cost savings in managing patch rollouts, and cost savings from converting PDF to Microsoft Word or Excel.

Based on the interviews, Forrester created a financial analysis for a composite organization of 1,000 Adobe Acrobat X users. Over three years, the IT staff time that the composite organization devoted to patch testing and release declined from seven months (pre-Acrobat X) to three weeks (with Acrobat X).  IT also saved three hours per machine on hardware reimaging by automating the deployment of Acrobat X using Microsoft SCCM. The three-year, risk-adjusted ROI for Forrester’s composite company was 112 percent, with a breakeven point (payback period) after deployment of 11.8 months.

The Forrester study helped confirm some things we already know about how Acrobat X can benefit an IT organization:

• Enhance existing systems and processes to increase organizational productivity
• Help safeguard systems and data
• Easy deployment and management across the entire enterprise
• Quick data collection using fillable PDF forms
• Streamline PDF tasks
• Expedite document reviews and approvals

Mike Vizard of IT BusinessEdge wrote recently, “Most companies are looking for a way to do what they have always done more efficiently rather than experimenting with something totally new and different no matter how much upside potential there might be.” If this is you, stay tuned.

In future posts, I’ll look at some of the topics from the Forrester study and pass along what customers are saying about the impact Acrobat is having on their IT organizations. In the meantime, check out the Acrobat IT Resource Center for tips and tricks and insights into how to make Acrobat work for your IT shop.

 Mark Grilli, senior director of Acrobat Solutions product marketing

Previously, I relied on a combination of email, custom code, phone calls, and spreadsheets. I spent most of my time cutting and pasting information between spreadsheets and making sure I had the details right, versus making our events better.

With Adobe FormsCentral, I designed professional, branded forms by customizing sample templates. I was initially drawn to FormsCentral because of the professional-looking templates. When I saw the reasonable price, I was pleasantly surprised.

I embed the forms on our website and make them available to members and non-members. The form links current members to an email invitation system that sends each member a unique ID. Once members receive their invites, they can log in to register for events electronically.

Today, data submitted in the forms is more complete, consistent, and accurate than it was in the past, and I no longer endure the tedious cut-and-paste spreadsheet method. Event and banquet managers can log in to online tables or charts, or view the data in spreadsheets offline to see who is confirmed to attend, making event logistics, meals, and topics easier to manage.

I’m happy that I can now add genuine value. For a recent event, a trade union executive wanted to survey attendees while the event was in progress by asking questions about topics conference-goers would like to see in the future. Within 30 minutes, I created a survey on FormsCentral and projected it onto the 10-foot screens in the room.

For me, Adobe FormsCentral has streamlined the forms management process by 100% and given us all great ideas for applying the data—not to mention making me look good to my boss.

To learn more about United Association Local 46 and its use of Adobe FormsCentral, read the full story here: http://adobe.ly/MYpd3L

Ryan Skalko, information technology director, United Association Local 46

Almere has tapped Adobe Acrobat Pro to streamline a wide range of essential , intensive document driven activities, ranging from collaborating on city council meeting documents to streamlining completion of service forms to simplifying management of its vast archives. The results include dramatically reduced document storage requirements and productivity boosts across diverse city workers.

“Keeping pace with the city’s rapid growth requires technology that enables us to operate more efficiently and more cost effectively,” says Ludwig van Dijk, ICT manager at the city of Almere. “We rely on Adobe Acrobat Pro to help us streamline our internal and external collaboration, back-end processes, and online services to improve how we operate and enhance the quality of services we deliver.”

For example, Almere’s social workers have doubled their productivity by using PDF forms on tablets to capture evaluation details and obtain client signatures—all while meeting with clients in the comfort and convenience of their homes. Equally impressive, the city has used Adobe Acrobat to improve preparations for weekly council meetings, accelerating the process of assembling and delivering information bundles for council meetings by days.

The inventive city even standardized on PDF/A for document archiving, providing more reliable long-term access to critical city records while reducing storage requirements 20% and saving an estimated €140,000 annually.

“Our challenge is to infuse digital PDF workflows into all our programs, processes, and public services,” explains van Dijk. “Adobe Acrobat Pro delivers superb levels of security, reliability, and speed that help us make this city an even better place.”

To read more about how Almere is using Adobe Acrobat Pro, check out the full story here: http://adobe.ly/NIhy0m

Ali Hanyaloglu, senior marketing manager, Acrobat Solutions

That’s why we’re committed to making Adobe EchoSign the premier eSignature solution for today’s smart businesses. So today, we’re announcing several new features aimed at giving you greater control, greater flexibility and a peace of mind, so to speak.

First, with today’s announcement, all PDF files delivered from Adobe EchoSign will be certified with the Adobe CDS certificate. Adobe Reader and Acrobat will display your document with the Blue Certified Bar. The Adobe stamp certifies that a document delivered via Adobe EchoSign has not been altered or tampered with in any way. It is the genuine article. This is the kind of peace of mind that adds trust and confidence to your deals.

Next, we’ve added the ability to collect supporting documents from signers and attach them to the contract, creating a complete package of the deal. Signers simply upload files during e-signing. The uploaded documents become part of the record for the signed document and they also can be downloaded independently as needed.

In this release, we’ve also added the ability to get documents approved, in addition to the existing functionality of getting documents signed. Approvals can be a very powerful tool for organizational business processes, which require one or more people to approve an agreement before it is sent for signature. Approvers can also be required to fill in data, add initials, or even sign the document.

Finally, Adobe EchoSign is introducing conditional rules that let you define rules in your document for specific form fields to either show or hide based on the data entered during signing. Applying the appropriate conditional rules to form fields within an agreement ensures that the data collected from signers during the signing process matches the organization’s business requirements. Conditions can be defined through the authoring interface or via text-tags. Finally, new radio button fields make it easier for signers and approvers to complete forms.

We want eSignatures to be the standard way people conduct business. And we’ll continue to add features like these to get you there. You can get a more complete description of these new features and how they can enhance your businesses workflow on the Adobe EchoSign website.

Mangesh Bhandarkar, group product manager, Adobe EchoSign

But what if you live in Norway and need to send a form to the denizens of Holland? No problem. Any form you build with your language-specific interface will allow for input in any of the twelve available languages. You can specify the language in which the distributed form will be presented, and you can build the form using your familiar Norwegian interface, but then distribute the form for speakers of Dutch. In this particular case, certain elements of the form (such as the submit button or any error messages that your form respondents might see) will be in Dutch, and not Norwegian—and you don’t need to do any translating (although you’re still on the hook for writing your own questions).

We’re so excited about localizing FormsCentral that we may just go throw ourselves a fiesta. Or maybe a feestje. Maybe we’ll send a form out to the FormsCentral team to see what kind of divertimento everyone wants to have. In the meantime, you can change your language settings by clicking on your account menu in FormsCentral and choosing “My Information”. Or “Dati personali”. Or “Eigene Informationen”. Or…well, you get the idea.

Our iOS application continues to make it easy and legally binding to get documents signed digitally in minutes, rather than the days or weeks it might otherwise take via paper document delivery. Users have reported the value of getting documents signed in person via their iPads and of sending documents from their EchoSign libraries, photo albums, email attachments and other applications. As of today, iOS users will also be able to:

1. Integrate with cloud-based document storage systems such as Box and Dropbox;
2. Save frequently used documents locally to the device and send these saved documents for signature;
3. Integrate with Box OneCloud’s mobile application to allow the Box iOS app to send documents directly to the EchoSign app;
4. Open documents in outside applications;
5. Print documents straight from the mobile device; and
6. Preview documents before sending them out for signature.

Business today is a more mobile pursuit than ever before, and teams are eager to leverage cloud-based, mobile-enabled tools to increase efficiency and close more deals – faster. Adobe EchoSign for iOS devices makes it easier for mobile workforces to incorporate Web contracting into their business activities, increasing productivity.

The latest Adobe EchoSign for iOS is available now. Download the app here.

Mangesh Bhandarkar, group product manager, Adobe EchoSign

Large health services companies like CIGNA constantly add new physicians and small practices to their network, which is a long process. CIGNA expands its network by more than 20,000 customers a year – resulting in more than one million pieces of paper that require signatures. In order to reduce the time needed to complete the paperwork associated with these additions, the company switched to Adobe EchoSign’s eSignature solution. As a result, CIGNA decreased the time it takes to add new physicians and practices into its network by more than half.

After seeing success with Adobe EchoSign, CIGNA adopted the service enterprise-wide. With more than 65 million customers worldwide, it is important that the company has enough physicians and offices to meet its customers’ needs.

With Adobe EchoSign, CIGNA can expand its network faster, giving patients access to more resources and providing faster treatment. Switching to an e-contracting process improved CIGNA’s internal operations and customer relationships. By giving customers faster access to healthcare, CIGNA sees notably greater levels of customer satisfaction. Plus, CIGNA experienced significant savings by eliminating paper and postage, all while expanding its green initiative.

This scenario is not only true for CIGNA, but for many health providers. Paperwork is a necessary part of the healthcare industry; however, it should not prevent patients from receiving the care they need, when they need it.

See how Adobe EchoSign helps other healthcare companies improve the contracting process and provide their patients with more resources in less time here.

Loretta Jones, senior marketing manager, Adobe EchoSign