Creative cloud move for adobe

Adobe’s latest milestone update for Creative Suite comes complete with a cloud-based subscription service which the company expects to drive user uptake, as Paul Robson tells Heather Wright.

Adobe’s latest version of Creative Suite has taken to the ‘cloud’ in a move Paul Robson, Adobe Australia and New Zealand managing director, says will drive adoption and open doors to new customers for Kiwi resellers.

Robson dubs Creative Suite 6 ‘the best release we have ever done’, saying that for the first time the company has added features to ‘every single product in the suite’. The suite features 14 applications including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator and Dreamweaver. Lead product Photoshop includes 100 new features and 600 enhancements, Robson says.

He says having significant changes across the entire suite will make CS6 an easier sell. “There’s a very significant opportunity for resellers to go back out and talk to customers who purchased the last release two years ago, because there are real benefits and a very significant return on investment [with this release].

“A key value proposition for customers, and for partners, is time to task has been reduced significantly. Things which have taken two hours in the past, can now be done in literally a few minutes and that’s going to drive significant upgrade take up.”

Robson says the release is particularly significant for the New Zealand creative community, with creative industries identified by the New Zealand government as a business sector capable of generating a transformational change in the country’s economic performance.

“Adobe’s vision is to change the world through digital experiences. This release builds on our reputation as a software innovator by empowering New Zealand creatives with the unprecedented ability to bring their vision to life and manage how and where it is delivered to the end audience — whether on smartphones, tablets, the desktop or through traditional media.”

Rich margins in cloud offering

CS6 will form the ‘heart’ of Adobe’s Creative Cloud offering — a subscription service allowing users to download and install every CS6 application. Adobe says Creative Cloud will be ‘a hub for making, sharing and delivering creative work’. Subscribers will receive immediate access to all upgrades and enhancements as they are made to the applications.

Adobe has built a programme, Team Ready, for channel partners around Creative Cloud, and Robson says there is ‘a very rich margin model in place for resellers’.

“This enables resellers to sell to customers the traditional way — with a perpetual license — but also offers an alternative selling option, so the channel gains, independentof how customers want to buy [CS6].

“A lot of cloud customers will be incremental,” says Robson.“We really see it as a lower price to entry which will open up the number of customers wanting to invest in this software. And it’s a new opening for resellers to talk to more customers.”

While the subscription offering is expected to prove popular, Robson says perpetual licenses are also expected to continue to be a popular option.