WhatTheyThink.com's Senior Editor Cary Sherburne has filed a special report on the Adobe/FedEx Kinko’s Firestorm (WTT subscription required) resulting from Adobe's agreement with FedEx Kinko's to include Kinko's proprietary web-to-print technology in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat 8 software.
The deal has many print service providers to crying foul, as well as NAPL, NAQP, DICE and PIA/GATF. Adobe has been rather silent publicly on the issue with no press releases on their PR page and reports of canned statements being sent to Adobe customers and journalists including the response sent to Cary Sherburne:
Dear Cary,
Thank you for your recent communication concerning the Adobe/FedEx Kinko's announcement. We wish we could send a personal note to everyone who has contacted us, but due to the overwhelming response, we are forced to send you a more formal letter. We understand that this announcement has caused concern among some of our partners and key business allies in the print community.
Our motivation for the deal was simple – offer customers, who are already printing and shipping through FedEx Kinko's, a more seamless way of getting their print jobs done. Clearly, the industry did not view our announcement in that way. It was not Adobe’s intent to upset our loyal print partners or in-house print service providers. Adobe has a long history with the print community that we appreciate and value greatly.
We are currently working to set up a forum with a group of print partners to serve as an advisory council to Adobe on this issue. We will look for ways to accommodate your needs and those of the other members of the print community while respecting our contractual obligations with FedEx Kinko's. The advisory meeting is tentatively scheduled for July 17. If you have ideas or suggestions, please email them to [email protected] by July 11th so we can include them in the forum.
Our goal remains steadfast: working with you to improve our customers’ experiences. Again, thank you for your feedback.
Regards,
Johnny Loiacono
Senior Vice-President
Creative Solutions Business Unit
You will also find no mention of the subject on Johnny Loiacono's JohnnyL’s Blogic blog or on the Creative Solutions PR blog. Going into the July 17 meeting, my suggestion to Adobe: Start using your blogs to engage the customers who feel betrayed by your deal with Kinko's. Use your blogs to be more open about why you did what you did, what your contractual obligations to Kinko's are, and how all of your customers can streamline the specification and procurement of print using the Adobe products and Web. Blogs work, ask Microsoft.
To join the Adobe-FedEx Kinko’s Deal discussion here at the PrintCEO Blog, head over to the Adobe and Kinko’s deal has printers in an uproar thread.
Upadate Dr. Joe Webb has posted More on the Adobe Kerfuffle in WhatTheyThink.com's Economics and Research Center
Discussion
By Noel Ward on Jul 10, 2007
Back in the last century I heard about a project involving Adobe and a leading print franchisor. The idea was to facilitate a basic PDF workflow to simplify job submission by a franchisee's customers, based on using Acrobat for document submission. As I recall, a customer could have pre-set Acrobat Job Options for their local franchised shop, but could not actually send the job via a File>Print type of option. The idea of a more intimate connection was there, but it was far from reality, largely because the electronic pipes connecting printers and customers were small or non-existent and most jobs still came in on CDs or diskettes. At the time, though, the idea was to expand the program to any print provider, NOT make it an exclusive deal between Adobe and a print franchisor. Flash forward to now, and damage control in San Jose. There is opportunity here for Adobe to take a high road and work with all types of print providers to craft strong connections between customers. Imagine the ability to select "Print at FedEx Kinko's" as just one of several options--installed much the same way as print drivers--so that someone using InDesign, for example, can choose from a list of their preferred printers when the go to File>Print. To do something like this, Adobe will certainly take a financial hit from the inevitable settlement FedEx Kinko's would demand, but that damage would be a one-time event. The substantial long term value would be in the way Adobe could build support among thousands of printers and Adobe CS customers. And you probably can't put a dollar figure on that. After all, the idea behind PDF was that it worked on all computers and printers. And that should include the presses at all print providers, too.
By William B. Birkett on Jul 20, 2007
There is exactly one right way for Adobe to respond, and that is to remove the offending "feature" from their software, and return the money they got from Kinkos. Obviously, they have no plan to do that, and think they can weather the storm by creating an "advisory council." In my mind, that just adds insult to injury. For Adobe, this is a "moment of truth." It is a test of their integrity. They should admit their mistake and fix it. I used to admire this company. A very sad situation.
By Dan Clarke on Jul 25, 2007
RETURN TO SENDER: If the printing industry really wants to exorcise this FedExKinko's demon, it's not complaining thru Adobe. It's thru the pocketbook or in this case the cost of doing business with FedEx.
This deal was to increase FedEx Shipping's bottom line.
Put a sign on your backdoor "Any Shipper But FedEx accepted here, All FedEx Packages Refused."
What if Print Shops around the country refused to except FedEx Shipping for a Week of even a month. Think of the return shipping cost FedEx would incur. The loss of revenue.
It would get the FedEx Board of Director's to look up and start asking questions about the agreement with Adobe.
If the National Media got wind, Then Wall Street would know, Then FedEx will want to change.
Let's take a stand. Just "Return to Sender"
By Bob Moore on Jul 31, 2007
Our industry is much larger than Adobe and FedEx combined and need to stand strong on this issue, assignment of an advisory panel is much like appeal to the Supreme Court. Settlement will be made long after our businesses have gone under.
If Adobe really values the long term relationship with those who helped them overcome Quark and become the industry standard they need to settle with FedEx and support their customer base. As an industry we adopted the Adobe products and gave it market dominance, maybe we can reverse this.
Some examples of our strategy, only use Adobe Design and pdf, all support files will be created using alternatives to Illustrator, Photoshop and Adobe GoLive. Further, we now recommend that our customers do the same for files submitted. Lastly, we have shifted 90% of our FedEx shipping to UPS. This is a biggie,
98% of our print ships overnight and accounts for the most weight on our FedEx route.
Last of all I sold all my stock holdings in both companies. Quark it’s time to make a come back, all of us support the under dog….. it’s human nature.
Discussion
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