Adobe Connect Blog

Adobe Connect is primarily sold by a network of trusted partners who in addition to delivering the software provide additional services to our customers.  Most of them have been selling and supporting the product for a very long time; some since the Macromedia days.  They have deep expertise to make sure the solution proposed match your needs and ensure your Adobe Connect deployment will be successful.  In a serie of blogposts, we want to give you the opportunity to meet some of them.  This week, we talk with Sophie Lal, CEO and Chairman of MeetingOne and Nicolas Perdrillat, VP Connect Audio Integration at MeetingOne.

Guillaume Privat (Adobe):  Sophie,  as the CEO of MeetingOne, can you give us a quick overview of  your company?

Sophie Lal (MeetingOne): MeetingOne was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado with international locations in France and Belgium. MeetingOne sells in North America and Europe.  MeetingOne’s mission is to enable businesses and educational institutions around the world to communicate and collaborate more effectively despite geographic distances, by using a combination of tools and services including Adobe Connect web-conferencing.

GP: MeetingOne has been selling Adobe Connect for a long time, hasn’t it?

SL: Quite a long time indeed. MeetingOne’s partnership with Adobe started in July 2005 and the status of Gold Partner got awarded in 2007 for its sales achievements as a VAR and its advanced integrated Adobe Connect audio conferencing technology.

GP: At the time, what prompted you to choose to resell Adobe Connect?

SL: We chose to sell Adobe Connect exclusively because of the extended functionality the technology provides compared to other web conferencing  providers. Beyond Web Conferencing, Adobe Connect also provides a full on-demand e-Learning Suite that is un-matched and present an ‘All-In-One’ solution. Adobe Connect elevates online training, marketing, sales, and web conferencing to a whole new level, delivering high-impact communications everyone can access. And because Connect is deployed using Flash Player, it is already installed on more than 97% of browsers worldwide, the audience can always join a Connect online meeting and/or on-demand training course instantly.

GP: What would you say is unique about MeetingOne?

SL: MeetingOne offers the most advanced audio integration for Adobe Connect and the best expertise in facilitating high profile integrated audio and Adobe Connect events with our live event facilitation team. In addition MeetingOne has developed Click&Meet, a fully integrated teleconferencing online visual interface that allows you to control your call more efficiently. It revolutionizes the way businesses conduct conference calls by providing users with unparalleled control through a visual and easy-to-use interface.

Nicolas Perdrillat (MeetingOne): Let me add a few details to what Sophie just said.  Because we are reselling Adobe Connect exclusively, we have focused all our web conferencing integration efforts on Adobe Connect.  As a result we offer audio services to Adobe Connect that no other conferencing provider does.  For example, we offer Adobe Connect on-premise customer with a SIP service that connects directly to their Flash Media Gateway interface.   We also support up to 20 break out rooms to match the total number of break out rooms supported by Adobe Connect.  Since 2005 we have built a very strong technical expertise to help customers with any audio integration needs they might have.

Adobe Connect is primarily sold by a network of trusted partners who in addition to delivering the software provide additional services to our customers.  Most of them have been selling and supporting the product for a very long time; some since the Macromedia days.  They have deep expertise to make sure the solution proposed match your needs and ensure your Adobe Connect deployment will be successful.  In a serie of blogposts, we want to give you the opportunity to meet some of them.  This week, we talk with Mark Alexander, President of Arkadin’s North American operations.

Guillaume Privat (Adobe):  Mark,  can you give us a quick overview of Arkadin?

Mark Alexander (Arkadin):  We were founded in Paris in 2001, and today Arkadin is one of the largest and fastest growing collaboration service providers in the world. With a vision rooted in the belief that progress emerges from people’s desire to share, Arkadin offers a complete range of remote audio, web, and video conferencing and unified collaboration solutions. The services are delivered in a cloud model for fast, scalable deployments and a high ROI.

GP: So I take that you have market presence in France and in the US.  Where else?

MA: Our global headquarters is in Paris and our North American operations are based in Atlanta. We have over 1,000 employees worldwide and a global network of 51 operating centers in 31 countries spanning Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and North and South America. Dedicated local-language support teams service our 37,000 customers.

GP: Why did you choose to resell Adobe Connect ?

MA: Arkadin has been selling Adobe Connect since February 2012.   Adobe Connect’s full enterprise web conferencing solution gives us a more complete suite of web collaboration services to appeal to large businesses. It offers an unparalleled user experience resulting in rapid adoption throughout the enterprise. Together with our integrated audio platform, our large business customers now have a robust all-in-one unified collaboration solution for all their needs.

GP: What would you say is unique about Arkadin?

MA: Arkadin provides unique expertise in delivering integrated audio, video and web conferencing services that are supported by our global client-service teams. Arkadin was founded on the principle that no one understands local customer needs better than support teams that live in the same country and speak the language. This global, yet local service expertise is in our DNA. It’s especially advantageous for businesses that need seamless and cost efficient global deployments for Adobe Connect.

Adobe Connect is primarily sold by a network of trusted partners who in addition to delivering the software provide additional services to our customers.  Most of them have been selling and supporting the product for a very long time; some since the Macromedia days.  They have deep expertise to make sure the solution proposed match your needs and ensure your Adobe Connect deployment will be successful.  In a serie of blogposts, we want to give you the opportunity to meet some of them.  This week, we talk with Melanie Flowers, Senior Director of Unified Collaboration Product Management at InterCall.

Guillaume Privat (Adobe):  Melanie,  can you give us a quick overview of InterCall?

Melanie Flowers (InterCall): Sure.  InterCall is a subsidiary of West Corporation and is the largest conference and collaborations service provider in the world with over 4,000 employees globally.  We are a leading provider of global cloud-based unified communications services.  Founded in 1991, InterCall offers telephony, messaging, event services and conferencing and collaboration tools for businesses of all sizes, from large global enterprises to small or regional companies.

GP: Do you have a global presence?

MF: Yes, InterCall has a global footprint.  It is headquartered in Chicago and has a strong U.S. presence, including four call centers and 26 sales offices across North America.  We also have operations and sales offices across the globe in Canada, Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan that managed over 130 million conference calls in 2012.

 GP: How long have you been selling web conferencing?

MF: InterCall has been selling web conferencing services since 1997.  We have seen tremendous success with Adobe Connect since adding it to our portfolio in 2009.

GP: Why did you choose to resell Adobe Connect ?

MF: We listened to our customers and prospects and their request was pretty clear.    They required a solution that would allow multiple participants to join from any device.  As the market and technologies expand, adding Adobe to our portfolio made sense – to offer a solution that is not only easy to join but can allow for robust multi-media files to be shared along with the creation of custom content to truly make your meetings unique.   Adobe Connect has a specialization in eLearning and the event space, which fits nicely into our overall portfolio.  Adobe is a strong recognizable brand in the market and coupled with their universally compatible Flash technology, the platform offers a solution that meets our customers’ needs.

GP: When selling Adobe Connect, what would you say is the unique value brought by InterCall?

MF: InterCall knows more about remotely connecting people in business settings than anyone else, and we are making it more seamless and more flexible to the user – without sacrificing security or quality.  This is where our experience provides the most impact and value to businesses of any size.   But when you look at all we offer, what really sets us apart from other Adobe partners is our Reservationless-Plus® audio conferencing service and our first class web conferencing training and support organization.     We have spent the time and technology to integrate our audio conferencing with Adobe Connect to ensure a seamless audio and web meeting experience for our customers and their participants.  Through this integration we are able to leverage our extensive global audio conferencing platform to provide our customers with the best end to end combined audio and web conferencing solution.  In addition, InterCall is able to able to create unique offers in the marketplace, for example WebConnectUS, which bundles Adobe with both audio conferencing and event services to offer customers a premium event service for a flat fee without a long term contract.

We’re thrilled to announce that Arkadin, one of the world’s largest collaboration service providers, has joined the Adobe Connect partner community as a global reseller.  Arkadin delivers a wide range of collaboration solutions, including remote audio, web, video conferencing and Unified Communications solutions in a SaaS based model for fast, scalable deployment and greater ROI.

Earlier this year, Arkadin announced Arkadin Oneplace, an all-in-one collaboration offering that integrates Arkadin’s comprehensive audio services with the Adobe Connect technology platform to deliver a unified audio, video and web conferencing solution.  The new global reseller agreement expands our relationship with Arkadin, enabling them to sell the complete Adobe Connect product line.

With Arkadin’s global footprint, including 50 operating centers and local-language teams in 29 countries, and unique expertise in delivering integrated audio, video and web conferencing services, we are excited to better enable customers to deploy global collaboration, e-learning and webinar solutions based on Adobe Connect through this new relationship.  To read more on this announcement, check out Arkadin’s press release here.

- Guillaume Privat | Director, Adobe Connect