webqem blog

Adobe today announced significant updates to Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro.

The new version of Acrobat Connect Pro includes a number of really cool new features including Universal Voice, Webcast, Secure Desktop Sharing, and PDF Integration.

Universal Voice enables Connect Pro customers to integrate their meetings with any audio conferencing provider.  Telephone audio can be recorded with a web meeting and broadcast over VOIP to enable participants to listen to the audio without dialing in.

Connect Pro Webcast will allow for very large events with up to 80,000 participants attending high-impact sessions that can incorporate rich media, video, slides, and interactive Q&A.

Secure Desktop Sharing introduces more granular control over the Compliance and Control settings in Connect Pro.  New administrative tools enable organizations to create a white list of applications that can be screen-shared.

In addition to the features listed above, Adobe has also added PDF integration, a new add-in for Lotus Notes and VMWare support.

For more information, there is a tutorial on the new features available on connectusers.com. You can also view the press release from Adobe.

For the October ACUGA meeting Ryan Monger – Adobe Connect Pro Technician, gave an excellent presentation on the audio best practices for using Connect Pro. Ryan looked at all aspects of a users’ audio when using Connect Pro such as the setup process, combining VoIP & Teleconferencing, best settings, and much more. Ryan also gave all attendees a plethora of great resources for audio best practices for Connect Pro.

If you happened to miss the event, a recording is available online with all of the links to the resources still available. Make sure you register on connectusers.com for the upcoming November meeting.

Come join the webqem team at this month’s ACUGA meeting. For the October ACUGA meeting we will be joined by Adobe Connect Pro Technician, Ryan Monger.  Ryan will be taking us through the audio best practices for Connect Pro Meetings. Some of the topics we are covering are:

• Tips and Tricks for creating a great VoIP experience
• Deciding between Integrated Teleconferencing and VoIP
• How to create a blended environment using both teleconferencing and VoIP
• Audio considerations for meeting recordings
• And more…

The online meeting is being held on Tuesday 27th October at 11.00am Sydney time. Make sure you register and we hope to see you there – and don’t forget to join the ACUGA user group.

ACUGA is short for the Adobe Connect Users Group Asia-Pacific

webqem is hosting more Connect Pro seminars next week, this time in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is a great opportunity for webqem as it marks the first seminar to be held in Malaysia. The free 90 minute seminar will demonstrate to people for all sectors, whether corporate, government, not for profit and education, how Connect Pro can drive out cost in collaboration and be using for elearning and conferencing purposes.

The seminar will be running next week on Tuesday 27th Oct, from 10am to 11.30am. It is being held at: The Royale Bintang Kuala Lumpur, 17-21 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur. If you would like to attend, please reserve your place by calling us on +65 9179 9527 or send an email to danielo@webqem.com.

webqem & Adobe teamed up to host a 90 minute seminar on shortening sales cycles and lowering selling costs via Adobe Connect Pro. Larry was the primary speaker at this free seminar and took sales and marketing people through the many ways that Connect Pro can benefit an organisation. Some of these benefits were: dramatically reducing sales and marketing costs, how to qualifying prospects quicker, and speeding up the sales process through frequent meetings.

Like the other seminar held by webqem that week, this one was successful and webqem is likely to be holding more seminars like this one in Hong Kong. Keep eye out on this blog for upcoming seminars.

In Hong Kong last week, webqem and Asiasoft hosted a free seminar on Adobe Connect Pro . IT directors from companies in Hong Kong were invited to join webqem Operations Director, Larry, for a 90 minute seminar on driving down costs in eLearning and conference using Adobe’s Acrobat Connect Pro. All attendees were shown how they can securely stay connected to people from all over the globe, as well as communicate with greater frequency and higher quality.

The seminar was very successful and webqem is likely to run similar seminars next year, so be sure to keep an eye out.

The power of Adobe Connect Pro has found its way into a unique not-for-profit organisation by the name of Mensheds Australia. Mensheds Australia specialise in the health and well-being of men through local organisations that act like a social groups aka a ‘Men’s shed’.

One of the biggest challenges faced by Mensheds Australia was reaching men throughout the country, in particular in remote areas. Furthermore, even where men’s sheds have been established, successfully managing and maintaining them was particularly hard to achieve from head office in Sydney as each men’s shed requires resources, training, and detailed information 24/7.

So, thanks to the team at webqem, Mensheds Australia has implemented a very successful solution – Adobe Connect Pro. From an administrative perspective, Connect Pro has drastically reduced the cost of delivery, travel, training, and Occupational Health & Safety compliance. Explains managing director Peter Sergeant, “When you consider the thousands of documents and information packages used by Mensheds Australia to communicate and collaborate with individual men’s sheds and our partners everywhere, Acrobat Connect Pro is worth approximately $5 million to our organisation.”

Now Mensheds can conduct online meetings to remote areas via Connect Meetings. They can provide access to an plethora of information via the Connect Pro Training module, and can easily create engaging mulitmedia presentations via Adobe Presenter.

The feedback from supporters and stakeholders on the organisation’s portal, www.mensheds.com.au has been outstanding and exceeded all expectations. “Simply put, without Acrobat Connect Professional, we would not have been able to continue with our work at Mensheds,” concludes Sergeant. “We couldn’t deliver the volume of information needed anywhere near as efficiently and compellingly without the Adobe software.”

For more information about this success story, you can view a full article online.

Leading kitchen retailer – Australian Kitchen Industries (AKI), is prospering from the power of Adobe Connect Pro. In recent years, AKI has significantly grown and prospered into a large franchise. With this growth, communicating with, and training it’s geographically dispersed network of franchisees had become particularly difficult and more costly. To streamline training and communications company-wide, AKI found a cost-effective, powerful solution: Adobe Presenter and Adobe Connect Pro software.

Since implementing Connect Pro, AKI have noticeably benefited from the high-impact web conferencing and ease of access that eLearning provides. Over 400 people across the company are now using Connect Pro to conduct online meetings and training. The solution has been so successful that it, amazingly, paid for itself within the first seven months. The team from webqem were instrumental in implementing this solution, which involved: software procurement, installation, hosting & training. A full report is available online.

The number of people in the world using Adobe Connect Pro is set for a massive increase in users as Adobe has secured a huge US$9.5 million with the U.S. Marines Corps. The Marine Corps cited several factors for choosing the awesome Connect Pro: stringent standards for security, availability & quality, and the solution is “Joint Interoperability & Test Command Certified” – so troops can connect quickly across any Department of Defense network (who already have Connect Pro). Connect, being based on the Flash platform, which is on 98% of internet-enable  desktops, was, as always, a major selling point..

This deal was great news for our Connect Pro team at webqem, as it demonstrates the quality and high-value placed on one of our top solutions that we specialize in. We can only hope more of the armed forces choose Connect Pro as their preferred solution and expand the Connect user base. A full report on this is available online.

For the August ACUGA meeting, we were joined by Terry Shane – the President and founder of Refined Data Solutions. Terry showed us the synchronization and automation that can occur between two completely different systems: Adobe Connect Pro and Moodle. Terry’s company has developed a level of integration between the two systems that is “unmatched”. It is so well integrated, that students would never see the Connect system, only the Moodle interface.

The two systems work so well together, it must be magic! No, its just a great piece of technology that has enabled the two systems to work together. For more details check out the recording, or click on the image.