Email, Browser, Login, Approve is just too long. I don’t know about you but it really bugs me when systems send me emails with links to a browser, which then asks me to authenticate, which then shows me a form that I need to approve. If the system is internal then I need to wait until i’m back in the office or conected via VPN. Ugh!

Adobe have updated the LiveCycle Mobile ES2 client for iOS to include support for the iPad’s extra screen real estate. Now you can fill out forms, approve tasks and navigate through LiveCycle Content services, Alfresco & SharePoint document libraries. This is extremely useful for people out in the field who need to approve tasks, initiate processes or access content on the fly!

Here is a quick video I recorded that demos some of the new capabilities on the iPad.

Have an iPad? Download the app now from the iTunes app store. If you had the existing app it should update!
There is also a version of this app for Android, Blackberry, iPhone & Windows Mobile!
Read more here: LiveCycle Workspace ES2 Mobile

I’m seeing a lot of organisations adopt Microsoft’s SharePoint server lately and one common discussion point is around PDF workflows and how to support functions such as Check In / Check out etc. For those users out there, you’ll be please to know that Adobe has quite a few new ways for you to extend your SharePoint workflows into the world of PDF, including native support within Adobe Acrobat X and LiveCycle ES2.5

Check-in / Check-out support

Acrobat X allows users to support Checkin & out workflows. Acrobat will automatically prompt a user when they open a PDF file from within SharePoint and ask if they just want to open the file, or check it out and open. Acrobat then remembers the links to Sharepoint and will prompt the user to check the file back in when they close it. A new menu item will appear whenever a document is opened from Sharepoint allowing the user to access additional functions.

Good news for Adobe Reader users too.. this functionality is included in the free Adobe Reader X!

Review & Commenting on PDF documents.

Sharepoint can be used as a repository for all the correspondence during an Acrobat Shared Review. As long as all the users have permission and can access the Sharepoint server, the integration is quite easy. With a PDF file open in Acrobat 9 or Acrobat X, simply start the Shared Review wizard, select Sharepoint, select your workspace, then invite other users. Acrobat will upload the file to SharePoint and send out a download link to each invited user. From there on any user with Acrobat or Reader (if the initiator used Acrobat Pro) simply adds comments to the PDF and clicks “Publish My Comments” on the top right of the document.

All the comments  go back into Sharepoint automatically (just the small comment data, not the whole PDF) and all the other reviewers immediately get the new comments!

Acrobat Form Distribution

In much the same way as the Shared Review feature in Acrobat can use SharePoint, so too can PDF Forms. Simply run through the Distribute wizard, select SharePoint and upload and track your PDF Form submissions!

Server-side integration

LiveCycle ES2.5 now includes a connector for SharePoint 2007 & SharePoint 2010. By enabling this connector and configuring it to work with your LiveCycle installation, users can perform server-side conversions of native documents into PDF, invoke LiveCycle processes & secure information with LiveCycle’s Rights Management component.

Read more about the SharePoint Connector for Adobe LiveCycle ES

Demo

I recently recorded a 1 hour demonstration of most of what I’ve talked about above. Take a look and see how Sharepoint & Acrobat X (and a just a quick look at LiveCycle ES) work together: http://pacific.adobe.acrobat.com/p50957540/

Adobe today announced the availability of Adobe® LiveCycle® Enterprise Suite 2.5 (ES2.5), expanding the company’s set ofsolutions for delivering superior customer experiences. New capabilities in LiveCycle ES2.5 include enterprise mobility for improved multiscreen delivery of applications, an enhanced framework for building enterprise rich Internet applications (RIAs),and real-time collaboration to empower organizations to interact with customers and citizens in more meaningful, personal ways. Adobe is also announcing three next-generation Solution Accelerators to reduce development time and increase quality ofenterprise applications.

Improving Customer Experience One Customer at a Time

For organizations with complex multi-channel or multi-device customer contact requirements, IT systems are challenged to keep pace with mobile and social customer adoption and meet customer experience expectations. When customers encounter anegative experience, it undermines brand loyalty. When citizens encounter a negative experience, it impacts an agency’s ability to assist someone in need. Adobe LiveCycle ES2.5 enables organizations to provide their customers with consistent and contextual experiences across channels and devices according to their customers own preference.

• Adobe LiveCycle Mobile ES2, new to the LiveCycle ES2.5 family, extends process management, data capture, andcontent services to mobile devices, providing true enterprise mobility. LiveCycle Mobile ES2 easily integrates with back-end systems and enables intuitive mobile experiences for Android, Blackberry, iPhone and Windows Mobile devices.
• Organizations can also provide more social experiences by creating user-centric RIAs that embed real-time collaborationincluding chat, voice, video, screen and application sharing to their customers. For the developer, LiveCycle ES2.5 provides a standard toolset and methodology for design, modeling and development of user-centric enterprise RIAs.
• LiveCycle ES2.5 enhances company’s ability to improve customer service and operational efficiency by extending existing business processes to the point of customer interaction by leveraging the ubiquitous Adobe® Flash® Platform andAdobe® Reader®.

Expediting Time to Value for a Customer Experience Strategy

Adobe is releasing its next generation of Solution Accelerators for organizations that want to improve customer experience quickly. Built on LiveCycle ES2.5, Solution Accelerators kick-start project planning, decrease development time for production applications, and reduce risk with a supportable and upgradable framework. Solution Accelerators provide best  practice methodologies, solution templates, and building blocks to extend LiveCycle ES2.5. The three Solution Accelerators are:

• Correspondence Management Solution Accelerator: Enable business users to dynamically create personalized communications using pre-approved layouts and content to provide consistent, high quality customer correspondence such as creating a customized claims letter.
• Interactive Statements Solution Accelerator: Engage customers through communications that embed the power ofpersonalized RIAs in secure PDF formats, including credit card statements, telecommunications bills and electronic invoices.
• Managed Review & Approval Solution Accelerator: Enable multi-party participation in content review processes.

Pioneering Solutions for Social Web Content Management, Measurement Optimization and Visualization

Additional enhancements to Adobe’s solutions for customer experience management are planned through Adobe’s intent to acquire Day Software, a leader in Web experience management for the enterprise. The company expects to add dynamic andsocial Web content management solutions, as well as measurement, analytics and visualization tools into future versions of LiveCycle, providing a platform to create, deliver and optimize customer experiences. Organizations will be able to easily trackand analyze customer behavior and process metrics, enabling them to continually hone and improve applications and processes.Ultimately, Day Software’s leading Web solutions, combined with Adobe’s existing enterprise portfolio, will enable customers tobetter integrate their Web presence and business applications and unlock the value of multichannel communications acrossmarketing, sales and services.

What do you get when you combine Adobe LiveCycle ES2, Forms & Adobe AIR? Tetrapod!

Created by my Adobe colleagues in Poland, it provides your end users with desktop access to forms and other content via a simple menu system. Tetrapod exposes information stored in LiveCycle ES Content Services and initiates forms based processes in LiveCycle ES Process Management.

You can watch a presentation on Tetrapod here: http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/tetrapod-demo/ or download Tetrapod and trial it yourself: http://devnet.host.adobe.com/download/tetrapod/ and finally a few extra videos on Tetrapod on Piotr Walczyszyn’s RIASPACE blog

Tetrapod Workflow from Piotr Walczyszyn on Vimeo.

Note: This is a repost of an article published in Australian Personal Computer (APC Mag) in January 2010

Adobe Acrobat Professional can do much than just create static PDFs. The Professional version creates interactive forms that collect data.

To start creating your form, open up Acrobat and select the Forms->Start Forms Wizard then choose between one of the options:

An existing electronic document – Converts a Word, Excel or other file types to PDF, then automatically detects & creates interactive form fields based on the existing artwork. You can then modify or add extra fields.

A paper form – Acrobat will use your connected scanner to scan a paper document, recognise the text with OCR, then recognize and creates interactive form fields based on the existing artwork.

No existing form – Windows users can open the bundled LiveCycle Designer application. LiveCycle Designer allows you to either design a form from scratch by dragging and dropping form objects or using one of the many bundled templates Continue Reading

I’ll be running a live repeat of my recent “Introduction to LiveCycle Designer ES2” eSeminar via Adobe Connect this Thursday at 12pm, 24th July 2010, Sydney, Australia time (GMT+10 – roughly 7pm Wednesday in California).

Watch me build a form from scratch in about 45 minutes as I take you through some of the features of Designer. This session will be good for both Adobe Acrobat users & LiveCycle developers. Come say hello and ask your questions live!

Register to attend the eSeminar on the Australian eSeminar site at http://adobeeseminars.com.au/sessions/view/acrobat/

Today I ran a live eSeminar introducing LiveCycle Designer ES2. In this session I covered how to build forms from scratch, included some tips and tricks along the way and included some of the latest features available in the latest Designer ES2 release.

The session was recorded and includes over 45 minutes of me demonstrating how to build a complete form from scratch. The recording is here;

Continue Reading

Adobe is hosting a free full day workshop at the Canberra Convention Centre on Tuesday 3rd February. If you keep wondering what the big deal with Acrobat (it only makes PDF right? Wrong!) or never really understood what Adobe LiveCycle was for, then come along and say hi.

The first part of the workshop is presented by Adobe colleagues Lindsay Brown and Adam Jeske. They will cover how to get the most out of Adobe Acrobat 9, including how to create accessible content, interactive presentations and use the new built in Flash runtime to create PDF portfolios.

At 1pm I’ll be taking over and presenting a two hour deep dive on building forms with LiveCycle Designer, as well as a quick look at how to take the new form and add a Flash based form guide and add workflow with the rest of the LiveCycle suite. Even if you have current budget issues, I’ll talk about how you can leverage the Business.gov.au SmartForms hosted service to get your smart forms hosted.

The full session breakdown of the workshop is listed in the attached PDF, and although it is free you will need to register to attend.

Adobe Workshop Registration Form

Over the weekend Australia’s ANZ Bank went live with their first few forms built with Adobe LiveCycle ES. PDF Forms you may think? Meh says some? No no no.. check out these great Flash based forms;

https://apply2.anz.com/au/savings/onlinesaver/ [Updated]

http://apply.onedirect.com.au/savings

So what makes the forms so special and customer friendly?  Well consider the following features of the form and compare it to your last web form experience; Continue Reading