Adobe offers 20 percent deal reg with new cloud suite

Software giant Adobe is relying on its resellers to move their customers onto a subscription-based model with today's A/NZ launch of Creative Cloud for Teams.

The release follows the arrival of Adobe's Creative Cloud for Individuals mid last year, which Adobe called a "blockbuster success", claiming over 1 million subscribers since launch.

Creative Cloud for Teams marks a "very firm" push towards subscriptions. The suite is a collection of all of Adobe's Creative Suite 6 products plus several others including Acrobat XI, Lightroom 4, Edge, Muse, as well as administrative tools for centralised license purchase and management, increased storage capacity, and expert services.

The product offers 100GB of cloud storage per user, compared to 20GB offered in Creative Cloud for Individuals. The data is hosted in Adobe provisioned servers in the US. Adobe said there were no plans to host the data locally.

Adobe head of channels Steve Martin told CRN said the cloud element was optional and was offered to those small businesses that chose to take advantage of it.

Martin said the selling point for resellers and customers lay in Adobe's ability to now push out updates to each product involved in the suite to customers as soon as they become available.

"Since we launched Creative Suite version 6, we have updated Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, InDesign and a number of the tools. The only customers that have got those updates have been the cloud customers," Martin said.

"In the world of Creative Cloud the products are being constantly updated with new features. It comes automatically to the customer, you don’t have to wait for new products to be shipped."

Despite the name, each piece of software in the suite runs on the local device: the cloud element applies to the storage capabilty. Martin said an internet connection is not always available in moments of creativity. 

Alongside the product release comes a new reseller portal which marks a major change in the way resellers interact with their clients, Martin said.

Resellers can invite customers to join VIP, and once the invitation is accepted, a hard connection is created between the two. Customers can also manage license deployment through the VIP portal without having to raise a purchase order.

Sticky business

"The partner then gets notified through the portal that they need to invoice the customer," Martin said. "It makes the relationship far stickier than traditional license purchasing because it helps the partner focus on servicing the customer’s needs whilst allowing the customer to address their needs immediately.

"It’s a different way of purchasing to what partners and customers are traditionally used to, and we’re getting very positive feedback."

VIP has been in operation for a month. All Adobe platinum, gold and certified partners, totalling around 100 in A/NZ, have been automatically added to the program. 

Creative Cloud for Teams is available for $87.49 a month, paid annually. A special price of $62.99 is on offer for existing CS3 and later customers, who have purchased through a volume licensing program. Customers with Creative Cloud for Individuals can upgrade for free.

Luring resellers in

Adobe is enticing its resellers over to the suite via a range of margins, rebates and incentives, including a new 20 percent deal registration for partners with opportunities of five seats and higher.

"We’re absolutely trying to get partners to lead on the front foot, that’s the profitable way to sell Adobe today," Martin said. "The most important thing about the deal registration is once we’ve accepted the partner’s deal registration, if the customer decides to purchase through another partner, the first partner will get the 20 percent."

Businesses can deploy as many licenses as they choose. An enterprise version of Creative Cloud will arrive later this year, which Martin said will offer additional technology deployment tools for enterprises to test the software internally before desktop deployment. VIP will not be available with the enterprise version.

Martin declined to provide details on pricing or availability, but said partners looking to offer customers an enterprise Creative Cloud solution today should speak to Adobe directly for a custom offering.

Adobe is offering the suite through Ingram Micro, Scholastic and Express Data. It is also available via the Adobe store but Martin said he expects customers will prefer to buy through partners.