For people who have to make decisions about implementing distributed programs and services, these times of impending changes and the market spin that accompanies that can be excruciating. SO much hand-wringing. Lots of sniping. It's hard to know who or what to believe.
For better or worse, there is a lot of fear, uncertainty and dread (FUD) dished in times of change...say, when a major acquisition is likely to have some impact on particular communities of practice.
So in the spirit of opening up some real dialogue on an important topic I would like to gently comment on some of the obviously heart-felt yet misinformed assertions from Valerie Schreiner, Senior Director of Product Management at Elluminate in a recent blogpost entitled Why is the true enemy getting the praise?
Huh?? True Enemy?? Seriously??
I'm assuming she is cranky that one of the very common responses from the announcement about Blackboard's intention to acquire Elluminate and Wimba is the expressed hope that WebEx and Adobe will step up their game in the education market. To which I also say "here, here".
May I offer a another perspective to inform the dialogue?
(Full disclaimers/disclosures - Blackboard is a client. So is Adobe Systems. Another client, the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) is an Elluminate customer, and I will soon be negotiating our ongoing services contract. My employer, Sage Road, uses Connect for our virtual offices. All companies mentioned so far are sponsors and partners of WCET. We like them all very much, and are glad to be working with each enterprise.)
Let's be very clear. Adobe is not an elearning company. It is a software company, the biggest design software company in the world. Adobe produces tools, applications and frameworks used to build rich, engaging and empowering digital experiences of ALL kinds, including elearning in all of its various flavors. It sells platforms and tools to vertical markets including education, government, financial services, publishing, manufacturing, pharma and health care.
Even so, anyone who suggests that Adobe is not education focused isn't paying very close attention to market data. Adobe's education business is bigger than all of Blackboard, Inc. and its various impending acquisitions, several times over. Adobe's Education Leaders represent a global community of practitioners, researchers and decision-makers working at all levels of education. The Adobe Education team's portals, programs, certifications, publications and services are extensively used by institutions, agencies and governments around the world. Lots of education licensing programs, from ministries of education to individual institutions and school districts.
Adobe ceded the education market for web conferencing to Elluminate several years ago, after repeated attempts to work with Blackboard on integration efforts with Connect were pretty much spurned. (True story. Personal experience. I have scar tissue to prove.) It also seemed that every time Adobe worked to create a set of integrated apps with companies including Web CT and Angel, that Adobe got spanked by those Blackboard acquisitions just like everyone else did. Even so, 40% of the colleges and universities in the US still feature Adobe Connect implementations.
Seriously?? True Enemy?
I personally DO hope that Adobe sees this as an opportunity to re-visit its focus on providing web conferencing solutions to the education community, because I would like to see more competition in the web conferencing space now that Elluminate and Wimba will be one and the same.
But more than anything I would really like to see Elluminate show a little more restraint in name calling and put a little more energy into informing customer about what you are going to do for them going forward. Because THAT is really what your education customers want to hear.
I expect I will have a few things to say on this topic when I see many of you at the upcoming Sloan C conference in San Jose this week. Stay tuned.
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