Today is Earth Day, and in 2011 we are encouraged by the Earth Day Network to join its “people-powered” campaign of pledging our acts of environmental service, with the goal of reaching a billion Acts of Green by 2012. It’s no secret that as a company, Adobe has been at the forefront of implementing green operating practices – in fact, we were the world’s first business to achieve four Platinum-level certifications for energy and environmental design excellence by the U.S. Green Building Council.

This year I also find myself reflecting on the various ways that our enterprise technology helps organizations leverage green business practices that ultimately help them decrease their environmental footprint, while increasing business efficiency and connecting people across geographies and time zones.

Acrobat solutions allow our customers to reduce the use of paper documents, while Adobe Connect makes it possible for people to collaborate and communicate globally in real time, helping reduce business travel and its related environmental impact.

For example, the U.S. Government Printing Office was able to save 20 million tons of paper over five years by using Acrobat and LiveCycle to generate, authenticate and share documents electronically. Adobe Connect enabled more than 50,000 SAP employees to communicate around the world instantly, reducing the company’s travel by as much as 90%.

And all along we have been focused with our Customer Experience Management platform on delivering highly personalized, engaging online interactions between enterprises and their customers to power great customer experiences that build brand loyalty without all the environmental damage caused by burning fuel for worldwide travel and wasting paper when electronic means would suffice.

That’s why I found it so interesting when I heard recently about an acquaintance who received a personal, handwritten note – not a personalized email – from leading online retailer Amazon.com, thanking him for his business over the past nine years.  That act of personal outreach had a marked impact.  He not only felt valued by Amazon.com after receiving this note, he now associates a human face with the company.

Can this be done in more environmentally friendly ways?  Of course it can.  Record a quick Flash video and send it on to someone you want to thank.  Send them a personalized PDF portfolio complete with pictures of past experiences together.  The Amazon story is about personal touch – about a real person inside a company reaching out to another real person to establish trust and loyalty.  Just because we are using greener means to communicate doesn’t mean we have to lose the essence of one-to-one personal communication.  In fact in many cases the technology allows us to do it more effectively.

This act of a real person at Amazon.com reaching out to a customer in a very personal way underscores the desire for us to connect with each other, even in our always-on, always-connected online business and personal lives.

We have powerful technology that enables us to know our customers and connect across geographies without the need to ever leave our offices — and that’s a great thing. Yet, we shouldn’t forget that behind the technology lie people.

And so on this Earth Day, I’m going to follow the “people-powered” examples of the Earth Day Network and leverage our great technologies to send something personal – you should do the same!

– Rob

Follow me on Twitter for more perspectives.

Ed Van Siclen, Vice President of Technology and Partner Solutions shares highlights from this week’s Adobe Partner Community Conference in Barcelona.   We welcome you to view the presentations and give us you feedback!

In a recent conversation, Andre Dolder, IT relationship manager at SUVA, told us that he implemented Adobe LiveCycle solutions to automate several key data collection and entry activities. The solution equips employees with electronic forms that are automatically updated, lowering the amount of manual entry and data collection required.

Along with a rich Internet application (RIA), which uses Adobe AIR to create a persistent presence on desktops and mobile devices—the solution enables SUVA field staff to instantly recall existing customer information, make any updates or changes necessary, and have customers sign the documents electronically to complete the application process. Now, instead of processing applications in batches once per week, applications can be processed on a daily basis, helping SUVA deliver services more rapidly and be more responsive to customer needs.

Dolder says that because of the improvements with the Adobe software the company has saved around 800,000 francs annually by reducing the amount of time and resources spent planning for customer visits. Click here to learn more.

Back from Vegas, exhausted but energized.  Look, I wouldn’t wish a week in Las Vegas on my worst enemy, but the Adobe sales kickoff was outstanding — complete with truly mind bending technology, breakout sessions with comprehensive solution offerings tailored to solving customer pain points, and some inspirational validations of our vision from some of the largest companies on the planet who have engaged Adobe to transform how they reach and converse with their customers online.

And the week started off with a bang.  On Monday, we announced our global partnership with Deloitte to launch the conference.  This agreement is a culmination of several years of mutual commitment and really exemplifies Adobe’s growth in the enterprise software market.  We were also the beneficiary of a couple of outstanding presentations from Mark White, Deloitte CTO, and Paul Clemmons, who took Adobe under his wing a few years back and has been instrumental in nurturing our partnership.  The energy radiating off of the Deloitte team was contagious, but it didn’t stop there.

The interactive agencies, which joined Adobe through our recent DAY Software acquisition, were also blown away.  If I could bottle their energy and sell it…well, let’s just say that it would probably be illegal even in Vegas!  All kidding aside, no company can deliver customer experiences from creative expression to wrapping content into the customer conversation to data insertion from legacy systems to human centric orchestration of process flows to the analytics that arch over the entire experience (and so much more in between).  And these partners paid us back throughout the conference, leading so many great sessions.  So, a huge shout out to Chris and team at Acquity – Dan and his team at SapientNitro – Jens from Logica – and so many other partners.

We truly value and appreciate the impact that our partners have on our business.  From our global network of regional partners to our interactive agency partners to our global SI partnerships, we thank you for your support and the enthusiasm that you expressed around our vision ahead.

So, from the Enterprise Solution Partner team at Adobe, happy holidays, and we’ll see you in Barcelona on January 25^th for what will sure to be another epic Adobe Partner Community Day.  What?  You haven’t registered?  You know what to do – just click on the link below:

http://engagewithadobe.com/

Today at MAX, our annual worldwide developer conference, Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch delivered an exciting keynote focused on the multiscreen revolution and its impact on designers, developers, content owners and consumers. Focusing on web design, video, digital publishing, enterprise applications and gaming, Kevin welcomed some of Adobe’s most important partners onstage:

• Martha Stewart, who is partnering with Adobe to deliver a rich, interactive edition of Martha Stewart Living across a range of platforms and devices
• Mike Lazaridis, co-CEO of Research and Motion, who demonstrated AIR and Flash content on the Blackberry PlayBook, which was demonstrated live for the first time today.
• Joe Simon, CTO of the iconic magazine publisher Conde Nast, who announced that Conde Nast has selected the Adobe(r) Digital Publishing Suite to produce and deliver new high impact digital editions across its magazine portfolio.
• Motorola gave away Droid 2 devices to MAX attendees!

Some excerpts from the keynote are below. Be sure to visit MAX Online to watch a full replay, and click the links for more highlights.

Adobe Powers Multiscreen Revolution at MAX 2010
Condé Nast Selects Adobe Technology for Digital Magazine Production
Adobe Announces New Digital Publishing Suite
Adobe Unveils LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 2.5
Adobe Extends AIR Applications Across Screens

Martha Stewart on stage with Kevin Lynch:

RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis Talks and Demos PlayBook:

Today we have more news to communicate about Adobe’s 3D technology business. As I mentioned in my blog post in May, Adobe is committed to providing a set of strong, broad platform technologies on which our partners can build vertical-specific solutions, as well as working with vertical-focused partners that can bring 3D technology to our combined customers.

To that end, PROSTEP AG today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to license technology from Adobe for development of a 3D translation server product. Additionally, PROSTEP has a license to resell Adobe LiveCycle PDF Generator 3D ES2 until a PROSTEP replacement product is offered. The interim product will be named PROSTEP PDF Generator 3D for Adobe LiveCycle ES2. Similar to Tech Soft 3D, PROSTEP is a long-term Adobe partner with extensive experience in the manufacturing industry, and is a leading solution provider for PLM integration, product data exchange and integration of enterprise systems into a single, overall PLM process.

As with our Tech Soft 3D partnership, we believe our customers will benefit from Adobe’s partnership with PROSTEP through their global presence, as well as their commitment to provide long-term support for Adobe’s enterprise customers in the aerospace, defense and automotive segments where LiveCycle PDF Generator 3D ES2 has been adopted. One of the most important capabilities we considered when partnering with PROSTEP was their ability to support the integration of multiple enterprise systems, including PDM, CRM and ERP systems, with server-based 3D PDF translation solutions. We know PROSTEP has strong experience with supporting enterprise customers and integrating disparate enterprise systems together.

Of course, current customers of LiveCycle PDF Generator ES2 may have questions about how they will be affected by the transition of responsibilities to PROSTEP. Adobe will continue to provide support to current customers on LiveCycle PDF Generator 3D ES, and PROSTEP will be able to assist those who wish to receive the latest version (LiveCycle PDF Generator 3D ES2).

Additionally, I’d like to emphasize that Adobe is committed to the future development of the LiveCycle platform, and Adobe believes that there are several benefits for manufacturing customers who use LiveCycle document services such as LiveCycle Reader Extensions, Rights Management, and Forms. From managing, reviewing and tracking design reviews inside and outside of the organization, to digitally signing and validating PDF documents in a 3D workflow, to protecting and controlling sensitive information in 3D PDF files, the LiveCycle platform helps organizations — including those in the manufacturing industry — improve operational efficiencies while enabling more effective communication with customers and partners.

PROSTEP has been a trusted partner of Adobe’s over the years with our LiveCycle products. We believe this expanded partnership will help achieve an even higher level of use of 3D PDF technology in the global manufacturing industry, and we are looking forward to collaborating closely with PROSTEP to better serve our customers and partners in this market.

Kumar Vora, Vice President and GM of the LiveCycle Business, shares his thoughts on rising customer expectations and challenges to making a meaningful experience with your customers. Vora says to deliver a great experience, organizations must provide a high standard of quality across multiple channels, including online and mobile, in line with customer preferences and personal choices. He believes that reaching the right balance of self-service and personalized service that delivers rich, meaningful experiences for customers – while improving the bottom line – is the state of nirvana for conducting business online.

To read the entire post, please visit the Experience Delivers blog.

Adobe recently released a new initiative to go outside of our organization to facilitate research and development on emerging products and incorporate user-feedback into our online developer community, Adobe Labs.™

Named Adobe Labs Ideas™, the site utilizes multiple interfaces to provide ideation capabilities for specific Adobe products, including Adobe AIR,™Adobe Flash Builder,™ Adobe Flash Catalyst,™Adobe Flash Professional,™ Adobe Flex,™ Adobe LiveCycle ES™ and WorkflowLab.™

The ability to collect and prioritize feature suggestions and feedback has the potential to dramatically improve workflow and increase the productivity of product managers, while at the same time providing real-time customer and developer feedback, in-depth customer insights for improved marketing and further refining features through community collaboration among peers.

For developers and users of Adobe products, Adobe Labs Ideas is an incredible opportunity to influence the development of your favorite applications. Popular suggestions collected so far include requests to streamline user interfaces to make programming more intuitive, improved integration of product lines and tips for improved hardware utilization.

According to Adobe Labs manager Daniel Taborga, the company has long been interested in engaging the user community for idea generation and after a successful pilot of BrightIdea’s technology, they decided to integrate it into the official launch of Adobe Labs Ideas. Now all product managers at Adobe now have the potential to utilize the platform to drive innovation in their products.

In the one month since the program was launched, Adobe Labs Ideas has already seen over 20,000 unique visitors, 1,200 registered users and generated upwards of 450 feature and usability recommendations on participating product lines.

Visit Adobe Labs Ideas now to check it out!

Today, Adobe’s long-term partner Tech Soft 3D announced it is taking over responsibilities to develop and deliver Adobe’s 3D technologies that are currently in our Acrobat 9 Pro Extended product. While this decision brings about significant benefits for our manufacturing customers, some may have questions about Adobe’s decision to transfer these 3D technologies to Tech Soft 3D. With that in mind, I wanted to provide some background information to help provide context for this action.

As we came out of the global economic downturn in 2009, Adobe conducted an in-depth evaluation of how the company’s product lines were helping to meet business goals for 2010 and beyond. As part of this review, when we looked at the 3D capabilities in our products for technical professionals and organizations, we determined we need to focus on what we do best. That is, to provide the strongest, broadest platform technologies on which our partner ecosystem can build vertical-specific solutions for our customers, and find vertical-focused partners that can best provide the 3D technology to the market.

Ultimately, we determined we need to work with a partner who is deeply rooted in the manufacturing segment in order to best meet these ongoing customer needs. To that end, we’ve signed a long-term contract with Tech Soft 3D in which it will provide the continued development, delivery, sales and support of 3D technologies currently in Acrobat Pro Extended. In Tech Soft 3D, we’re confident we’ve selected a long-term partner who can successfully satisfy the 3D CAD importer needs of our collective manufacturing customers for converting native CAD data to 3D PDF.

As I’ve talked with customers throughout this process, the number one question on their minds is, “Will Adobe continue to support 3D in the free Adobe Reader long-term?” The answer is — and I can’t stress this enough — that Adobe is fully committed to supporting 3D viewing and interaction capabilities within Adobe Reader and Acrobat. We recognize our responsibility to customers worldwide who depend on 3D PDF to collaborate, control, and store their product development data for long-term archival and retrieval. That commitment hasn’t diminished, and, I think, has actually strengthened through this partnership.

Along with Tech Soft 3D, we can focus our resources on making Acrobat the best solution for customers who need to effectively and more securely communicate, collaborate, and exchange 3D data with their customers and supply chains, and who have chosen 3D PDF as the format for controlling their intellectual property beyond the firewall.

Our customers and ISV partners will benefit from this partnership through Tech Soft 3D’s deep understanding of the manufacturing market’s needs, and the expertise that Tech Soft 3D brings to providing solutions that help meet these needs. We believe Tech Soft 3D will continue to provide the best support possible for our customers as it takes direct responsibility for development and maintenance of the 3D Translator Libraries. Additionally, Tech Soft 3D plans to release the 3D Translator Libraries in a pure library form, which many of our ISV partners have requested.

Equally as important for our customers and ISV partners, Tech Soft 3D will have the capability to release updates, bug fixes and enhancements independently of Adobe’s product release cycles when new versions of CAD formats like CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, SolidWorks, and others are released. And moving forward, Tech Soft 3D plans to make updated CAD translators available to end users as plug-ins to applicable Adobe software for reading and outputting 3D PDF.

This strategic partnership will allow Adobe to focus on the core aspects of the Acrobat product, while continuing to innovate and service customer requirements for managing, collaborating, and securing data — 3D or otherwise — throughout a business process.

We’d like to thank Tech Soft 3D for its collaboration over time in this market, and now for this new partnership in place. And we want to reassure our valued customers and partners in the manufacturing market of the combined commitment to serving and supporting them.

Like everyone, I sign stuff, lots of stuff — NDAs, contracts, and all sorts of other documents. I always find myself frustrated with the signature process.

The simple act of signing doesn’t particularly bother me. It’s all the mundane tasks that need to be completed before and after signing that drive me batty.

First, I typically receive the document to be signed in electronic form — meaning I need to print it out to sign it. Then, I need to figure out how to get it back to the other party. In some cases, I might need to find an overnight envelope, fill-in the address form, stick the document in the envelope, seal the envelope, and then find a drop box. Depending on where I am, this could take up to an hour, round trip. (Did you know that people spend $7.4B/year overnighting documents just because a signature is needed?)

Or in some cases, I need to fax it back. Faxing might be quicker, but it’s no easier: (1) create a cover sheet, (2) print the cover sheet, (3) fill in the receiving parties information, and (4) walk down to the fax machine and stand next to it waiting for the transmission to complete. But wait, I’m not done — the person whom I’ve faxed it to usually wants an ‘original copy’! So now I’m back to hunting for an overnight envelope…

Oh brother.

There’s got to be a better way. Why can’t we just sign things electronically? In this Internet age, signing something really should be as easy and fast as sending an email.

It turns out that Adobe already has a big, well established business providing a highly secure digital signature capability into large banks, the military and a number of governments. In fact, we’re a market leader in digital signatures. The first digitally signed judicial order was executed using Adobe technology as was the FY 2011 US Federal Budget. We’ve built a digital signature capability into Adobe® Acrobat® and we have a server-side technology called Adobe® LiveCycle® that supports digital signatures in automated workflows. This type of digital signature requires sophisticated computer infrastructure that’s often beyond the reach of small businesses and individuals. And therein lies the opportunity — take our LiveCycle signature technology, put it in the cloud and simplify it to make it easy for everyday signatures.

Today we’re announcing the beta release of this service. We’re calling it Adobe eSignatures™. We wanted to create something that was easy to use, fast, accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a browser, and that wasn’t overloaded with complicated features.

The service is really convenient. Just go to Adobe eSignatures and sign-in. There you’ll find a very simple guided process that allows you to upload a PDF, designate the email address of the other party, and click to sign. You don’t need any special tokens or smartcards.

Unlike paper documents, when a document is executed using Adobe eSignatures, it is certified to provide additional assurance that the document has not changed since it was signed. If you subsequently open the document in Adobe® Reader® or Adobe Acrobat you’ll see a blue ribbon at the top of the screen. If someone modifies a document after it has been signed, Adobe Reader or Adobe Acrobat will detect that something has changed and the blue ribbon will no longer appear.

Adobe eSignatures complies with both the US ESign Act of 2000 and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA). According the US ESign Act, “signatures and records cannot be denied legal validity simply because they are electronic.”

So give it a try and let us know what you think. There’re a few things that we’d like to add to the service, but we want to hear from you first so that we can know what things are most important. We hope you’ll find our new service easy and convenient and we hope you’ll use it for all of your everyday signature tasks.

I look forward to hearing from you,
Paul McNamara
Entrepreneur in Residence, Cloud Computing