M+E Connections

Modern teams need more time than ever to complete high-value strategic work, and powerful new tools connecting document workflows can help achieve that, boosting  productivity across every line of business, according to Adobe.

During the April 24 webinar “Top 6 Ways to Work Faster with Adobe Acrobat,” Shawn Rosie, senior solutions consultant at Adobe, explained how easy it is to save time and increase both quality and return on investment (ROI) with the right technology in place.

Through demos during the webinar, Adobe showed viewers how they can collaborate, edit and review on PDFs in Microsoft Teams; better handle everyday tasks with automation, integrations and generative artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities; quickly get legally binding e-signatures on any device; and also safeguard valuable information using security, according to Adobe.

Before the demos, Rosie said: “I’ll share some fresh industry findings around the future of digital work. I also have some case studies and stats… Then I’ll walk you through [on] how to use Acrobat from anywhere, how to quickly create a fillable form for Signature with Adobe Scan, how to collaborate on a PDF with Microsoft Teams, how to protect a PDF with Acrobat, and how to use new generative AI tools to accelerate productivity even further.”

Adobe recently did a study called “The Future of Digital Work,” he pointed out, noting Adobe “asked small, medium-sized, and enterprise organisations about the connection between technology and productivity.”

Among the findings: 86% of technology leaders and 83% of technology employees said that optimised digital technologies were an essential part of their day-to-day work, he said.

Meanwhile, 61% of technology leaders said that poor technology was costing them 2-4 hours a day, and 87%hurting organisational productivity, he pointed out.

“It’s clear that teams need high-performing solutions to do the heavy lifting so they can get back time for high value, creative and strategic work,” he said.

Adobe also commissioned consulting firm Pfeiffer to conduct a comprehensive study on the overall productivity impact that Acrobat can have on an organisation, he noted.

The resulting report, “The ROI of Acrobat and PDF Document Management, showed “significant time reductions happened in routine tasks, such as creating, editing and sharing documents using Acrobat,” he said. For example, when Acrobat was used to execute everyday document tasks, document editing became 55% more productive, he told viewers.

Meanwhile, document management had a 62% productivity gain, redaction was 71% faster and mobile file access had a 48% productivity gain, he said.

The report also showed that, overall, Acrobat was twice as fast as other document management systems, he added.

All this technology optimisation is impacting the day-to-day work of real businesses in a positive way, he noted.

Automation, along with integrations with Microsoft 365 and other productivity apps, meanwhile, reduced errors and made signing time for new contracts three times faster, he said.

There was also a 50% reduction in time spent on administrative tasks.

There was also a 50% reduction in time spent on administrTeams also saved time by working in one place, Rosie added, noting it streamlined document workflows, eliminated manual tasks, and  accessed PDFs across devices to collaborate in real time.