The "New" Adobe Connect?

A few weeks ago Adobe announced "Adobe Connect," which is simply a rebranded version of the recently acquired Macromedia Breeze application with Adobe Acrobat. Same capabilities as before, nothing really new except for the integration piece and now a different name. It looks like Adobe is doing the same thing Macromedia did when they acquired the Breeze technology from Presidia and the same thing Microsoft did with Placeware and Groove Networks. Simply rebranding the same product and positioning the "new" product as a new product. (Casey Ryan from Nollenberger Capital Partners states, "Macromedia has been acquired and we believe their collaboration offerings will be less competitive as a piece of a larger company.") Adobe Connect Security Problems

Initially, the strategy to integrate Breeze with Acrobat to instantly start meetings from PDF's is interesting but how useful is this really? (The Important of Integration) PDF's are static documents that cannot be revised or changed. How useful would it be to start a Breeze meeting and not have the ability to make changes to a document? Imagine a Marketing Manager starting a Breeze meeting from a marketing collateral piece that has already been converted to PDF. The Marketing Manager simply wants to review the final version with the VP of Marketing before they go into print. They step into the meeting together and the VP of Marketing decides he/she wants to see what the text would look like in a different font. Granted the meeting was launched from a PDF but now what? Zero changes can be made from the static PDF file! How productive, collaborative or efficient is this? Another Adobe Security Flaw

I am not sure how much value or benefit the Breeze/PDf integration will provide, most likely very little. It is a unique differentiator for Adobe but not a very compelling one since many competitors like WebEx or Live Meeting could easily create this integration capability over night. I could see Adobe/Macromedia taking this integration a step further and integrating Breeze with Illustrator, Dreamweaver, and Photoshop which could prove to be more fruitful. More on Adobe Connect

A few interesting quotes from analysts:

Claire Schooley from Forrester Research has stated, "Breeze does not integrate with many applications and systems out-of-the-box. It integrates with other systems through an extensive set of API's." (The Forrester Wave: Web Conferencing, Q2 2006)

In TMR's "Synchronous Learning Report 2006, "For new users-even those with experience with other synchronous tools- Breeze is a challenge to learn."

ZDNet Review: "Macromedia, like its competitors, bundles telephone and email support with its service. The Macromedia Breeze five-user, $375/month plan, for instance, allows you just five tech-support incidents per month, which is a bit stingy, in our opinion."

According to Frost & Sullivan, Breeze has a 0.3% market share.

I have also included a downloadable Excel spreadsheet that details the "research" Adobe/Macromedia performed when comparing their technology to industry leader, WebEx. It was very interesting to see the number of erroneous claims and data points they mentioned. Take a look at the spreadsheet for a more accurate comparison between technology capabilities, infrastructure, along with other criteria like training and support that was not mentioned. More on Adobe Connect

Download macromedia_false_claims.xls 

More on Adobe Connect:

Another Adobe Security Flaw
Adobe Connect Security Problems
Adobe Connect History
Same Song and Dance

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Thanks,

David Chao
The Web Conferencing Expert

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Comments

[Justin Howley]

Interesting, our company was debating the Connect purchase and we were conisdering WebEx and Live meeting. The plus to Adobe Connect was the marketshare of Flash and the one click entrance for clients. The key is no downloads.

[rita christensen]

I am new to this blog...what would you recommend for a mac user to perform elearning/training? Thanks, Rita

[dave pitcher]

to be fair you are only posting half truths about connect i imagine due to your web ex bias if youhave the plug in for connect it means you have a license for acrobat which in turns means that while in a meeting you can change the doc. you shouldnt embarass your self by posting things you dont know about

[Anthony Roy]

David:

You bring up a great point. Sharing static documents via the web is not productive us of anyone's time. Static documents can be emailed or posted to a site for review and comment without the need to meet via a web meeting.

The purpose of meeting real time is to encourage interaction among the team to gather valuable feedback and ideas as it happens. Enabling the modification of information amongst a group in this manner increases the team's ability to identify obstacles and their solutions. It also increases the sense of ownership and provides a clear understanding of next steps.

Our customers have proven that meetings are more effective when the documents dynamic, enabling content to change, action items to be added and input captured. Based on customer feedback, we released an integration with WebEx, called MindManager Instant Meeting, powered by WebEx, http://www.mindjet.com/us/products/mindmanager_addins/instant_meeting/webex.php , providing a quick method for teams to meet productively.

While there are times in which a static presentation is appropriate, truly effective meetings must provide an interactive, collaborative environment.