Adobe (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced a major new release of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS), which includes innovations in sales enablement and content marketing functionality, among other new features. The new release extends DPS' capabilities as a critical, enterprise mobile app publishing platform for sales- and marketing-driven organizations that wish to use apps as part of their mobile marketing strategy. In addition, Adobe announced DPS is the only publishing platform supported on Samsung’s new magazine service, Papergarden, on the just announced Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablet devices.

Powerful Sales Enablement through CRM Integration

DPS can now be integrated with leading CRM platforms including Salesforce1 Sales Cloud. Automatic tracking of content shared from a DPS sales enablement app during a customer meeting is recorded directly in a CRM solution. This enables marketing and sale management teams to more effectively evaluate the impact and success of content to drive improved sales performance and faster close rates.

“An enterprise agreement between a sales organization and a customer can take six to 12 months to close, depending on complexity of the solution and deal size. We are seeing savvy CMOs invest in sophisticated CRM, CMS and other marketing automation technologies to accelerate the pipeline and close deals faster,” said Nick Bogaty, head of digital publishing, Adobe. “At Adobe we are continuing to find ways that enable marketing and sales organizations to succeed through solutions such as DPS by giving them tools and technologies to more effectively market, sell and service their customers.”

Advanced Features in Digital Publishing Suite

Additional new features announced today in DPS include:

• Improved mobile content experiences: New Required Folio Updates ensure that app users get access to new content without having to specifically download updated folios or take additional action. This is especially critical for internal facing sales enablement, human resource, and corporate communication apps which require accurate, timely information be served as soon as available.
• Deeper audience targeting: Enhanced Push Notification service with deep linking can be used in conjunction with Adobe Analytics to target specific articles within an app to specific user segments. Selected users can tap on a text notification, which directly jumps them to a pre-defined article within an app for deeper engagement.
• Enhanced in-app promotional capabilities. New Folio Showcase feature better enables promotion of new content by showcasing it for download in a prominent position within a standard library to draw user interest and attention. Highlight new product catalogs, sales materials or other communication content within DPS apps.  
• Broad reach of content across leading mobile devices: New support for folio rotation, pan & zoom, image sequence and more through the native Android Viewer ensure that organizations can deliver interactive, branded experiences consistently through DPS native viewers on iOS, Android and Windows 8.1 mobile tablets and phones. Companies can further leverage other critical features on iOS and Android including support for HTML content, custom store and libraries, restricted distribution, entitlement and access to robust analytics.

Support for New Samsung Papergarden Magazine Service

Adobe is also announcing support for the Samsung magazine service, Papergarden. This new marketplace will be installed on the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab S tablet devices and fully leverages the capabilities of the DPS Native Android Viewer. Within the Papergarden app, users will have access to a rich array of magazines from leading publishers such as Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, National Geographic and Wenner Media rendered with DPS, and the ability to see a list of publications to which they currently subscribe. Through tight integration between the Papergarden app and DPS, the purchase experience is simple and intuitive, allowing readers to fully preview and immediately purchase single issues or subscriptions without having to first install the magazine app from the Papergarden service.

“Samsung is excited to have partnered with Adobe to use Digital Publishing Suite to build the new Papergarden application. Samsung’s new magazine service, Papergarden, enables users to view a wide range of top-tier magazine titles exactly as the photographers intended, reproducing colors just as vividly and accurately as the print versions,” said Daniel Park, senior vice president of Samsung Electronics’ Media Solution Center. “Papergarden is tightly integrated with the robust DPS native Android Viewer and strives to deliver a highly engaging service that will delight Samsung Galaxy users in its purchase simplicity and interactive content experience with an optimized viewing environment for interactive digital magazines."

The new release of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite is now available on a worldwide basis.

Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.

Commentary by Cary Sherburne

In addition to the significant enhancements to Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite (DPS), the Samsung partnership announcement is quite exciting.  You can view the Samsung announcement here about the Samsung Galaxy Tab S.  It starts about 30 minutes into the video.  When you watch the show, you will have to agree that this tablet is quite innovative and brings a great deal of elegance and functionality to the tablet world, even if you are an iPad aficionado!

In 2011, the Samsung tablet market share was less than 10% and now the company has a 22% market share. This new tablet is sure to continue this momentum. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S has come a long way from the somewhat clunky original Samsung Galaxy tablet.

The inclusion of the Adobe DPS based Papergarden magazine service with a native Android viewer in the tablet is a coup for Adobe, and a great new tool for publishers, bringing the magazine experience into parity with iOS. Papergarden is only shipping on this tablet. It is based on the latest release of Adobe Digital Publishing Suite (DPS) V31, released today.

Magazine publishers have struggled to establish a business model that effectively blends print and digital. Adobe and Samsung have done a nice job to present an innovative interface that encourages reader engagement with publisher content and will help solidify digital financial models for publishers. In addition to the excellent screen resolution providing an exceptional viewing experience, publishers can allow viewers to more easily explore content and see a preview. The application clearly presents pricing and purchase options.  Have you ever downloaded a “free” app for a publication and then found that the app is only the container, not the content?  You have to pay for the content—as you should.  This feature of making the pricing and purchase process clear right from the start in a native service, and without the need to download a separate app, will surely streamline the process for readers wishing to consume this type of content on their tablet.

V31 has lots of other great features as outlined in the press release, including the ability to do deep linking with push notifications—in other words, publishers can push out notifications about content availability, events or anything else they wish to communicate, and right from those notifications, they can link the reader directly to the desired content—a particular article, an ad, a web URL, technical support—the possibilities are endless. Combined with Adobe Analytics, publishers can more closely target push notifications to make them as relevant as possible to the recipient.

There are many new functions as well for enterprise publishers. Required Folio Updates is another interesting one, which means that users will receive the most recent and relevant content when they view a publication.  For example, when a pharmaceutical sales person accesses material to present to a doctor or other healthcare professional, they will be sure to have all of the latest regulatory information at their fingertips. In addition, the ability to integrate with a variety of CRM solutions means that as sales people increasingly use tablets as a key sales tool, marketing and sales management also gain further insight into the sales process and effectiveness of materials.

We in the printing industry should be paying attention to these developments.  Why? Well, they do have the potential of reducing the volume of print produced.  But more importantly, they open up significant opportunities for print service providers to expand the range of services they can offer to their publisher or enterprise customers.  We have written in depth about that in this space, and will continue to do so.  We encourage you to let us know if you take advantage of any of these opportunities, and what the results have been for you and your customers. We believe the opportunity is significant.  We hope you do as well.