Prepress
The1stMovement Uses Latest Adobe AIR(TM) Technology to Maximize Global Sales Effectiveness
Monday 26. January 2009 - In partnership with client Adobe Systems, Inc., The1stMovement, an award-winning digital communication agency with offices in Colorado and California, recently launched the Adobe Interactive Guide, a powerful and innovative sales tool designed to enhance productivity and effectiveness across the global sales organization.
This rich internet application (RIA), built on Adobe(R) Flex(TM) and Adobe AIR(TM), empowers and synchronizes Adobe’s global sales force with up-to-the minute product information, marking a new trend in beyond-the-browser interactive technology that is bringing a wealth of rich interactive features to the world of the desktop.
“As a digital communications partner, our goal is to help our clients advance their business through the creative use of cutting edge technologies, and this project is a great example of that philosophy in action,” says Ming Chan, CEO and CTO of The1stMovement. “Adobe came to us with a great idea that simply required smart execution and utilizing this new technology was just the answer. No longer are companies forced to rely on utilizing the Web or their desktop – with Adobe AIR(TM) the interactivity and scalability is endless.”
Before launching this new application, Adobe sales teams relied on a frequently updated series of documents to learn about new product features and pricing information, but enhancing, distributing, and printing these PDF files was incredibly time-consuming, wasteful, costly and inefficient. In contrast, the Adobe AIR application performs instant and automatic updates for every member of Adobe’s worldwide sales force, and content is localized and translated into one of four initial languages (with more to come), ensuring anywhere, anytime, information access to Adobe sales force around the world.
“Adobe AIR is an impressive technology,” says Chan. “It extends the rich and interactive features of the online world to the desktop while enabling innovative features like offline data synchronization and background processing of real-time update notifications, for example.” He adds, “Best of all, Adobe AIR allowed us to take proven web technologies and programming languages and apply them back to the desktop. We’re thrilled to have leveraged this amazing technology to help Adobe take a leap forward in the way they do business.”
Chan and his team worked with Adobe beginning with initial project strategy and design, through execution and deployment. Project goals included ensuring that the new application would deliver what the company needed today – and that it would be flexible and scalable enough to grow over time. In addition, The1stMovement provided a custom content management system utilizing the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) platform to allow delivery of up-to-the-minute promotions and product information.
“We are excited to have found a partner in The1stMovement, who built the Adobe Interactive Guide by utilizing the full potential of the Adobe AIR technology. This is a perfect tool that combines online and offline capabilities. It is excellent for quick dissemination of information to the entire Adobe Channel and Sales team, based all around the world,” said Paramita Bhattacharya, executive producer of Adobe’s Creative Strategy and Services group. “We have received very enthusiastic and positive feedback on launching this tool. I am very encouraged to see The1stMovement now take it to the next level by building a content management system that interacts with this tool to update information quickly and efficiently. The ability to update time sensitive content in a very efficient manner is especially critical for the sales cycle during these tough economic times.”
“We’re very pleased with the results,” Chan asserts, “and we’re excited about the way this project has extended our own capabilities beyond the browser. The online world is changing, and this project shows how we are co-evolving with emerging technologies to continue to offer cutting-edge, consistent and branded customer experiences through various digital platforms. With the very successful completion of this project, we’re delighted to add this to the list of tools we can leverage for our clients.”