I found out today that Michael Selwyn, my friend and Adobe’s AR contractor in France, passed away late last week.
I first meet Michael a few years ago when he was the analyst relations lead at Firefly. He later struck out on his own, and carried on doing great work for Adobe in France as an independent AR contractor.
Michael was a great AR pro, smart, incredibly nice and diligent. I know he’ll be greatly missed.
R.I.P. Michael
Just a VERY quick entry to let you all know that I have moved from the UK to the USA. I’m still with Adobe – and still in Analyst Relations, but now I’m based in San Jose, not Stockley Park.
My new roles is looking after Analyst Relations around the LiveCycle products and solutions, but I’ll still be using ARena to keep you informed on all areas of Adobe’s business.
More soon
Adobe’s mission is to revolutionize how the world engages with ideas and information. For businesses and organizations, engaging customers has never been more critical to their bottom line. In December 2007 we sponsored a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit into the importance of engagement in the public sector. According to the press release "eight out of 10 government executives see constituent engagement as important to their agency’s success going forward. Most executives also acknowledge that failure to engage with citizens can hurt an agency’s ability to stay on budget and fulfill its mission." Read the full press release here, or keep up with Adobe’s Engagement theme here.
Happy New Year and welcome to 2008. I hope you had a wonderful and relaxing holiday.
First up, New Year Resolution time – I will (try really hard) to keep ARena up-dated a lot more regularly in 2008 that I did during the second half of 2007!
Now the Happy Birthday bit – as you might know Adobe celebrated its 25th anniversary at the very end of 2007 and I thought you’d be interested in seeing how Adobe is celebrating. The Adobe 25th Anniversary Newsletter (newsletter doesn’t actually do it justice, really it’s an incredibly cool ebook) commemorates Adobe’s history of innovation and the complete Adobe story, including past, present and a look toward the future. You can find it here – http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/history/
The newsletter is produced in Flash (what else!) and contains some amazing video and a digital timeline.
I wish you a very successful 2008 and look forward to providing you with more and more compelling and engaging stories on ARena over the new 12 months.
For a change I’m focusing on US-based customers for the April round-up.
The United Sates Defense Department -
The United States Department of Defense’s (DoD) Forms Management Program has licensed Adobe technology (Acrobat and LiveCycle) to deploy a new solution aimed at automating processes and streamline operations by providing fillable forms to all US DoD entities, including the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard and Joint Chiefs of Staff, as well as the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Defense Agencies.
The DoD Forms Management Program will provide nearly 1,000 electronic PDF forms across the military, ranging from officer commissions to facilities, medical claims, purchasing and accounts payable.
University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center (Fetal Treatment Center) -”With (Acrobat Connect) we can eliminate geographic barriers to world-class expertise for patients and physicians. Hospitals everywhere will look at our program as a new model to help save lives.” – Colin Fahrion,
UCSF Fetal Treatment Center. The Center has more expertise and experience in fetal medicine than any other institution in the world, integrating teams of specialists in surgery, genetics, obstetrics/perinatology, radiology, nursing, and neonatal medicine. Despite being a world-leader in the field, access to medical expertise can be severely limited simply by where a patient lives. By implementing an Acrobat Connect (Macromedia Breeze) solution experts at the UCSF Fetal Treatment Center are making themselves more accessible to patients and referring physicians anywhere in the world.
The UCSF has seen multiple benefits in implementing this solution, including; expanded patient and doctor access to specialist consultations; enhanced security of sensitive patient information delivered online; established new revenue streams for UCSF Medical Center; and
adhered to archiving requirements.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center – watch the video
Colorado Department of Transportation -
With more than 23 billion vehicle miles of travel on its roads each year, the Colorado Department of Transportation manages a 9,122-mile highway system, including 3,698 bridges
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has more than 150 highway construction projects underway statewide, all of which are being built by private contractors. Last winter, CDOT maintenance teams plowed 5.9 million miles of highway—equivalent to more than 10 round trips to the moon. They also repair road damage and potholes using more than 330,000 tons of asphalt!! The Colorado Department of Transportation used ColdFusion to develop the REMS – Real Estate Management System
in only six months. This custom application helped CDOT justify new capital expenditures to upgrade existing facilities. The zero-footprint intranet application is accessible by 3,000 CDOT employees and cost a fraction of other possible commercial packages in the marketplace.
One of the entries on ARena from last year that seemed pretty popular was the round-up of customer success stories I provided. So, with that in mind I’ve decided that once a month (fingers crossed) I’ll provide a snap-shot of 4 or 5 recent case studies. I hope this is useful.
Gerling Group Insurance Service AG – a market leading business-to-business European insurer, with operations in more than 20 countries, has implemented an Adobe Flex-based RIA to its recently redesigned website that streamlines the claims process.
Gerling Switzerland wanted to use RIA technology to create an interactive and engaging user interface to the claims process. Using Flex they created a test application that far exceeded the very high expectations Gerling Switzerland had. In only four months the Gerling claim portal (GSMP) was developed and Gerling employee productivity increased by 30% as a result. In addition, customers are more satisfied because they have direct access to their cases.
SNS Bank -
As the 5th largest bank in the Netherlands – with annual revenues of nearly €3.5 billion,
over 3000 employees and 170 offices throughout the country – SNS Bank aims to provide its customers with as personal and flexible banking experience as possible.
To this end, SNS Bank implemented a Macromedia Breeze (now know as Adobe Acrobat Connect) solution enabling its mortgage advisors to offer live, online advice to customers. Consequently, customers can now receive mortgage advice where and when they want it, without having to visit an office or see an advisor at home. The new service, called SNS Live@dvies, is setting new standards for serving customers.
DSG International -
a leading European electrical retailer – including well-known high street brands such as PC World, Currys, currys.digital, and The TechGuys – strives to provides its customers with a wide range of quality of products, competitive pricing and high standards of service.
DSG use a range of Adobe products, including the Creative Suite and Acrobat, to produce and distribute point-of-sale marketing material throughout its store network. However, when a devastating oil explosion at a major fuel depot opposite DSGi’s headquarters acted as a catalyst for the team to use Adobe Acrobat more extensively.
Department of Trade and Industry – is the UK Government department responsible for trade, business, employees, consumers, science, and energy. In a world of rapid change and intense competition, DTI employees play a vital role in fostering conditions for business success and helping the UK respond to Globalization challenges.
To enhance productivity, the DTI implemented an electronic forms workflow built around Adobe LiveCycle software. The solution improves operations and efficiencies in Human Resources (HR) and other forms-based processes.
Very cool Flex customer story about a Spainish company -
Indo – who manufactures and markets ophthalmic lenses, frames, contact lenses and sunglasses for opticians and ophthalmologists
Indo – via the Indonet website – allow Spainish opticians to order custom lenses online. The company recently updated the Indonet site – using Adobe Flex – with the aim of having an exceptionally usable and rich RIA-based solution to increase customer satisfaction and drive sales.
Read the full story here.
FYI – Adobe is moving its European analyst relations account to Bite, so if you want to get in touch you can contact the new team at:
Email: adobe@bitepr.com
Phone: 020 8741 1123
The new team is:
Marjan Khanji: +44 20 8834 3479)
Fionnula (Finn) Eastwood: +44 20 8834 3463
Emma Ward: +44 207 8834 3403
Or contact me direct via this blog, via email or +44 20 8606 1203
Finally, I’d just like to thanks the team at Firefly for their hard work over the last 16 months – thanks guys.