Item: Adobe Connect
Rating: 2
Author: Ellie Kemmeter

Overall Satisfaction

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

At Foley, we utilize the Adobe Connect Web Conference platform in both our external and internal CLE sessions in the Marketing Department as well as internal training sessions through our Technology Team. The Marketing Department is the primary user of Adobe Connect, with attorneys and outside speakers using it solely for presenting purposes. We hold multiple Web Conferences each month and it is our primary tool for coordinating and executing each session.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It allows us to present exactly how we want to present; We can share one PowerPoint presentation for all speakers to use during their presentation, allowing them to move their own slides. Allows for a cleaner presentation overall.
Relatively user-friendly once you're in your Seminar Room for your presentation. Attorneys seem to be able to use the software with ease.
Various pods in your Seminar Room allow you to set up your room exactly as you want it with the features you use most often or find helpful during your presentation.

Cons

Overall support and communication from Adobe Connect is lacking. When new features come out, we have a lack of knowledge of what changes are actually being made. Mostly we figure out what the changes are based on our own experiences and usually something that goes wrong during a Web Conference. There should be detailed information that is provided to us when changes will be made and how to adapt our current processes with those changes.
Setting up a Web Conference is not intuitive with Adobe Connect. Even after using the product for over a year, I still refer back to the notes I took during my tutorial session. Making a mistake with one question in either the Seminar Room or the Event Management tab can create major problems the day of the Web Conference. The process needs to be streamlined in order to make the front-end process more user friendly.
Certain features of the room itself could have been better thought out before implenting across the board. For example, the rule of only 10 people maximum in a room until a certain point can actually cause major problems for users. There have been situations on our team where hosts and speakers have been locked out of the room right before a presentation. I think they need to listen to their users more in order to implement more changes with the software.
I think Adobe Connect lacks reliability. Many of our attendees and even speakers or hosts are dropped from the Seminar Room during our presentations. This is unacceptable during external client facing programs.

Return on Investment

Unfortunately, some of our marketers have actually stopped doing Web conferences with their attorneys due to our reliability issues with the software. We're losing out on key touchpoints with our clients and prospects because of reliability and complexity issues.
I think the ability to do Web conferences does help greatly. It's another service we can offer to existing clients to present in-house CLE series for their GCs. It also helps establish our attorneys as thoguht leaders in a given area.
I think one of our biggest issues is the reliability of the software, which many times can reflect badly on us and in turn may make our contacts not come back for a second web conference. We hope that the content we provide outweighs any technical issues our participants have, but we cannot be sure of this factor.

Alternatives Considered

Webcast Studio

When evaluating the Adobe Connect Software, we actually wanted to switch to Webcast Studio, but did not have enough time to set up the software before our next web conference. Adobe Connect's pricing was also better and ultimately our evaluation team lead decided that because of timing and pricing we would stick with Adobe Connect for another year. As can be seen, I do think there are many other Web conference platforms that are better which include Webcast Studio and WebEx Meetings.

Likelihood to Renew

The only reason I would see us renewing our contract is once again pricing, but also fear of switching. We cannot be certain that we won't encounter the same reliability, communication, and complexity issues we've experiences with the Adobe Connect software. I think this holds us back from switching, but ultimately, because of the vast and varied problems we've experienced with the platform, I do not believe we should or will renew our contract with Adobe Connect.

Likelihood to Recommend

Unfortunately, I think even if you ask all the appropriate questions during the selection process, you could still pick Adobe Connect over another product. I think that it's appropriate for our situation, but it lacks reliability and communication with its users. We never know of new changes coming up and when a problem occurs, Adobe Connect is not helpful in resolving the issue. It usually comes back as a user error issue, when that is definitely not the case in most instances. I think the software itself is appropriate as a simple Web conference platform to use if you want multiple speakers to be able to control the same presentation. It also provides pretty good reporting post-web conference. I think if you also want it as a "one stop shop" for invitations and reporting that way, it would work. Unfortunately, we use a separate system for that process, which doesn't always integrate correctly. Our attorneys like it because it's easy to use on their end as presenters, but I find as the host doing most of the set up and administrative duties, it's not the easiest software to use.

Comments

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Adobe Connect meets needs, but lacks reliability