Adobe and the Future of Work: Simplified Collaboration for Hybrid Teams

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Adobe and the Future of Work: Simplified Collaboration for Hybrid Teams

Erin

Hello, and thank you for joining us today for another Insight Tech Talk. My name is Erin Hazen and I'm a client Solutions executive here at Insight. Today, I'm joined by Lori DeFurio, an evangelist at Adobe. I love that title by the way. And, today we are going to discuss the future of work through the digital document experiences. When businesses rely on a hybrid workforce, they discover the need to streamline complex workflows and the importance of integrated multi-device solutions. Lori, I'm excited to dive into this topic with you today. Thank you so much for being here.

Lori

Thank you, Erin. I'm actually so excited to be here too. And, I've... I'm... I've had the pleasure of working at Adobe for many years, both in the office and as a remote employee, and so this whole, how our world is shifting, is very interesting, and I've lived both sides of it for many years. So, I'm excited to talk with you about it.

Erin

I love it. And, I love that you are named an evangelist, that tells me everything I need to know, and our viewers everything we need to know about who you are and what Adobe means to you. I love that. So, let's dive in and get started here. Talk to me a little bit about how Adobe sees the current landscape evolving with the boom of hybrid work dynamics.

Lori

Yeah, absolutely. Well, our teams at Adobe rely on studies and data to understand what is happening in regards to the future of work. For example, last year we released a study, the Future of Time Report, and we focused it on the hybrid workplace. And, we learned and validated that businesses are investing in solutions for digital work. So, here's a couple of stats. I'm not a big stat person, but I wanted to throw a few out there, in the study. One in three small and mid-size business leaders invested in new technology in 2021. And, of the ones that did, 90% of those, believe that their investment will pay for itself in productivity enhancements. And, many respondents in the study also believe that hybrid work would be impossible without access to the... Some of the modern digital tools that we see today, right? And, the ease in the transition. The pandemic really required organizations to adapt to remote work. I mentioned, I've done it most of my life, but it was, for a lot of people, it was a new world order. And, now the learnings from the remote work really provides a business with solid arguments for a new hybrid model, right?

Erin

Totally.

Lori

But, here's the other thing. One in three employees feel that their companies designed the new work... Return to work policies without any input from them, and it causes them a lot of anxiety And, in the study, at least 59% of the workforce are in favor of moving towards flexible work hours. And, 33% said, great, if we're going to do this, we need to upgrade our existing technology.

Erin

Right.

Lori

And, it's not just employees, it's customers too. They want more remote products as well.

Erin

It really changed everything for us, for everybody, you know? How are we operating? What is making things more functional for us? And, how are businesses responding? So, maybe that transitions us into the next question, which is, what kind of evolution do these digital solutions need in order to support these hybrid teams? And, what are businesses and users demanding?

Lori

Absolutely. So, the main requirement is productive collaboration. We've conducted studies to measure how much time and cost businesses can save, right? So, for example, when Acrobat is integrated with Microsoft apps and services, organizations can save more than 65 hours a year. Now, I know that everybody's different, but those... That's what the study said. But, I'd like to mention three things that really are what's really helping us move into this. One is digitizing paper-based tasks, right?

Erin

Yep.

Lori

And, I've said for a few years, it's all about going digital and then staying digital, right? So, you're going to take your paper and we're never going to really be paperless. Let's call it. People have been saying it for 15, 20 years, but what I like to say is let's strive for less paper, right? So, we can... We're not paperless, but we're less paper. And, I think that really helps. Number two, reducing the rework of stuff, right? Like I... In case... In my case, I work at Adobe, I'm all about Acrobat, right? But, can you use PDF to convert it back to native formats like Word or Excel, or be able to copy paste things out, so that you're getting to rework the information versus starting from ground zero. And, also you can even edit PDFs if you have to, especially if you don't even have another version, and you're like, just got to make a quick fix, right? And, number three, I'm going to... You're probably going to hear me say the word mobile so many times that you're going to say, Lori, you've said it so much, but really leveraging the mobile capabilities to continue your work stream outside of the office, right? And, it's not just about supporting the current demands, but anticipating what we're going to need in the future. I think everybody's always thinking a little bit ahead if they can. And, we recognize that mobile tools are so important in the future of work and to help people make faster business decisions. So, through Acrobat and its integrations with Microsoft apps and services, our goal continues to be optimized for mobile first, right? And, then the digital experiences aren't just for employees, but for customers as well, right? Because, you want to make sure that the customers can interact and collaborate from any device anywhere, and there's no extra cost to them, right? I mean, I think about when I... If I was going to have you and I review this for today's talk, like we were going to review our questions ahead of time, I might need the technology to ask you to participate, but for you, you would not... you should be able to just do it on any device you have and again no cost to you as well.

Erin

I love that. And, it's such a, I think, a necessary advancement in where the future is going, and gone are the days where we'd have to print off a PDF, make our changes, scan that in, send it back to somebody, like just the time alone that we're saving, right?

Lori

And, that's where I think about stay digital, right?

Erin

Yes.

Lori

Think about if, okay, we're talking about the... Some questions, but what if I asked you to sign something for me today, right? Can we see... Between you and me, will you sign this for me? You're right, I went and email it to you. Okay, you're like, okay, I got to print it, find a printer, I got to sign it, find a scanner, and it's painful, but now if you can stay digital, if I can email it to you, you can do it all digitally, get a back to me digitally, it's faster, but it's also just more indicative of this remote work that we have, because I'm not having to worry about trying to set up a whole another environment outside of the office place.

Erin

Absolutely. I love it. So, you touched on a little bit the Microsoft integration. So, let's dive into that quickly. Why is Adobe focusing so much on evolving Acrobat through its Microsoft integrations and what should this tell us?

Lori

Yeah, absolutely. Well, what's interesting is, right now, and it's always a changing landscape, Acrobat and Adobe offer the most comprehensive Microsoft integrations for both PDFs and e-signatures. So, what it is is we want to make sure that we come to you where you are, right? You're in Microsoft, so we want you to work where you are. We've brought the Adobe tools into the Microsoft environment. It's really clear that this new hybrid work environment is really evolving from, as I mentioned before, go digital from paper-based. And, Microsoft Teams is really the key to collaboration in real time. I use it every day. I think a lot of people do, a lot of our customers listening today do, right? And, even if you're in your physical workspace, you'll see people holding meetings in Teams, because it's, even if we're sitting next to each other, because it's capturing it and we can collaborate in it, and it really brings us more for that. And, so our philosophy was let's bring the document actions in there, interacting with documents, doing a review of content, even sending signatures without ever having to leave the Team's environment. And, the other thing that's cool about that is I can include people that aren't even in my organization, remote people or... And, bring 'em into the conversation. So...

Erin

I was just going to say that. Yeah, love that.

Lori

Yeah. Absolutely. And, if my customers are focusing on Microsoft Teams, I want to be there too, right?

Erin

Absolutely. It just means there's so much more equality amongst collaborators when you can... When you can have everything in a central location. So, what should be the approach for our... For CIOs and business leaders focused on getting ahead and ensuring productivity in this hybrid and asynchronous model.

Lori

So, with hybrid work, it's a challenge for everybody that's not there yet to adopt a digital first mindset. Everybody wants to get there, but maybe you weren't really ready. And, clearly the pandemic caught us all by surprise, right? And, it really not being ready leads to employee burnout, right? So, looking back at the learnings from the great resignation, and I really don't like to use that term, but it's... I went on Wikipedia, it's actually... And, Wiki, it's really a term. It's all about. But anyways a key insight is really empowering employees to do their best work, but more importantly, their own way, right? That's really what it's about, is how do I do it? Businesses need to implement technology that allows employees to work as productively as they want in a strategic fashion, right?

Erin

Yeah.

Lori

Organizations need solutions with integrations that connect users, but they're multiple devices, and it's an essential step to getting work done wherever you are, whether you're in the office, whether you're at home or you're on the go. Maybe, you're out having a coffee, and something urgent comes in, and you need to get to it. It really allows you to focus in that fashion.

Erin

That's great. This is... This is so valuable, Lori. And, I think I have one more question and then we'll wrap it up here. But, are there any hybrid work challenges that businesses need to keep an eye on? What's coming--

Lori

The goal of course is to increase productivity without overloading anybody, because I think people are stressed as it is a little bit with what's happened over the last few years. And, you've got to be mindful of your employees. So, I'm going to refer back to my Future of Time Study that I mentioned at the beginning. We found that, again, two in five employees, and two in five, that's like 40%, right? Feel more stretched for time. It's a huge thing. So, we've got to figure out how to avoid burnout. And, one of the things is, oh, yeah, right, okay. Is to make sure that they have the right tools to help them. And, then when you turn it around, let's think of the IT side of it, right? When you're thinking about IT, they need to integrate these technologies together, right? They might have to bring these things together and we want to make sure that it makes it as seamless for IT, so they're not wasting time working with people trying to get people up and running. And, so Adobe and Microsoft came together to say, look, how can we make it easier a weight on an IT person so they don't have to worry about it. The other thing is we did at Adobe was similar to what Microsoft does, and I'm... I think your audience is aware of this. We built something called an admin console for IT, so that it's easy for them to manage the licenses, add new users, delete users, and the other thing that it's really... It opens support tickets. And, it even has the opportunity to say, we'd like a session with an expert, whether it's a session for IT on IT, like configuration things, or it's a session for end users where they say, our end users need to learn more about some of the Adobe technology, like Acrobat.

Erin

I love it. I hear IT people celebrating across the country right now. They're very excited about these opportunities and the fact that Adobe has really put so much thought and consideration into the needs and wants for a successful, productive workforce. That's such excellent news. I love learning about this, Lori, and this has been a sincere pleasure talking to you about all things Adobe. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us today. It's been very valuable for our viewers.

Lori

Well, thank you so much for having me and everyone take care and have a wonderful day.

Erin

Thank you. Thank you, Lori. And, thank you everyone for joining us today. If you'd like to learn more about Adobe Solutions, please be sure to visit insight.com. And, while you're there, make sure you sign up for our quarterly digital magazine, the Tech Journal, for even more inspiration and insights around the future of business and technology. My name is Erin and I'm so grateful for your time and attention today. We can't wait to Tech Talk with you again very soon. Have a fabulous day.

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TechTalk Adobe and the Future of Work: Simplified Collaboration for Hybrid Teams

For some hybrid teams, it can be a challenge to organize, manage and collaborate on physical assets. Let’s break out of that traditional environment with modern integrations that enable you to accomplish more – from anywhere.