Adobe Announces New Acrobat Connect Pro

admin — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:50:09 +0000

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced a new version of Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro, the company’s comprehensive Web conferencing and eLearning solution. The version includes new functionality that enriches online communication and collaboration, enabling organizations and schools to offer more engaging rapid training, interactive virtual classes and dynamic online meetings.

Acrobat Connect Pro includes many new features for Web conferencing such as options for archiving and editing recorded online meetings; new presence capabilities that can allow federation with popular instant messaging (IM) clients; and powerful compliance and usage reporting tools. eLearning enhancements include break-out rooms to let students in virtual classes initiate separate conversations online; rapid authoring of video-based content; integration with Learning Management Systems (LMS) from Blackboard and SumTotal; and tools that track and organize online classes. Users also can easily tailor training sessions or meetings that help capture participants’ attention and increase knowledge retention, resulting in an online learning experience remarkably similar to an in-person class.

Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (TABS) has been using Acrobat Connect Pro to provide dealers and employees with training and presentations ranging from compliance issues to new product introductions. “With Acrobat Connect Pro, we have been able to reach more people and maintain greater control over the content, which has given us a much higher degree of training consistency,” said Steve Bamberger, national training manager, eLearning, Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. “Integrating Acrobat Connect Pro into our online training initiatives has been enormously instrumental in helping us enhance communications and grow business lines, and we’ve been able to extend this enrichment to other teams for use in product launches and customer meetings.”

Combined with the new version of Adobe Presenter, also introduced today, Acrobat Connect Pro can enable users to hold engaging online meetings that incorporate high-impact Adobe Flash® Player compatible presentations. Adobe Presenter can give virtually anyone the power to easily turn Microsoft® PowerPoint presentations into multimedia experiences that include video, narration, animations, interactivity and advanced quizzes. New capabilities in this release include question pooling and randomization, easy-to-work-with video, and the ability to publish presentations to mobile devices or within PDF files.

“Organizations and educational institutions alike are challenged with reaching highly distributed workforces or student populations, as well as communicating, collaborating, and transferring knowledge at the accelerated pace of today’s demands,” said Rob Tarkoff, senior vice president of Adobe’s Business Productivity Business Unit. “Whether it’s meeting with co-workers across departments, or conducting virtual classes across continents, Acrobat Connect Pro can help break through technology barriers by letting virtually anyone participate in effective online communication and knowledge transfer.”

Deployed using the Adobe Flash Player, already installed on more than 98 percent of Internet connected PCs worldwide; Acrobat Connect Pro lets virtually anyone connect to an online meeting or classroom instantly using a simple Web address, regardless of operating system or browser version, and without the need to download additional software.

Acrobat Connect Pro is expected to be available by the end of May 2008, on a hosted or on-premise basis. It will be available in English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese.

Tags: Acrobat, ADBE, Adobe, business, Connect, editing, Flash, Learning, LMS, management, Nasdaq, Rob Tarkoff, Steve Bamberger, TABS

Worldwide Availability of E-Government Platform

admin — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:55:04 +0000

The Citizen Service Platform (CSP) now is available to customers along with free templates to help customers implement technological solutions to some of the most common issues governments face. The CSP application framework, announced by Microsoft Corp. in January 2008, is designed to help governments of all sizes more responsively deliver services to citizens via the Internet, which facilitates easier interaction with citizens, streamlines processes and, as a result, saves time and taxpayer dollars.

The CSP, a culmination of Microsoft’s partnerships, programs and projects conducted with governments over several years, was developed based on challenges faced by diverse government offices and different regions worldwide.

From London to Porto, Portugal, to all the municipalities of Denmark, governments of all sizes are using technology to interact with citizens in a variety of new and innovative ways. Microsoft has developed an applications framework upon which partners can build solutions that address specific government needs, including technical guidance regarding implementation and customization for use by both partners and customers. To date, more than 90 partners have signed up to build solutions on the CSP.

“The need for a platform like the CSP is clearly demonstrated by the response we’ve received from our partners,” said Ralph Young, vice president for the Worldwide Public Sector at Microsoft. “A common framework to build from allows partners to tailor their solutions to specific government needs and, after working with governments for the past several years on early versions of the CSP, it’s exciting to watch this community effort really start to pay dividends to both citizens and the governments that serve them.”

In Porto this week, the Local and Regional Government Solutions Forum will bring together almost 300 partners and customers to discuss the management challenges governments face and technology’s role in solving these issues. Some already have experienced how the CSP, in combination with a tailored partner solution, can increase efficiency, decrease costs and bring constituents and government closer together. Others will be coming to view firsthand how they can make further use of their existing technology investments by using them as part of the CSP rather than starting from scratch.

“E-government initiatives can be difficult to implement as resistance is generally high due to legacy and integration issues,” said A. Kaare Norgaard, CEO of Resultmaker A/S, the CSP partner on the implementation of Denmark’s sickness reimbursement program. “However, now the system is appreciated as the best example of e-government in practice, which simply demonstrates how installing a platform where parts already exist is half the battle, as is often the case with the CSP.”

CSP availability includes templates available for existing customers to download at no cost, bolstering their ability to do more with existing technology investments.

Tags: A. Kaare, CSP, Denmark, Government, Internet, London, management, Microsoft, Porto, Portugal, Ralph Young

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Adobe Announces New Acrobat Connect Pro

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Worldwide Availability of E-Government Platform

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