Adobe and Microsoft expand strategic partnership to drive e-signatures and collaboration among teams in the cloud

SAN JOSE, Calif., and REDMOND, Wash., Sept. 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Adobe (NASD "ADBE") and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq "MSFT")  recently delivered their first set of joint solutions to help enterprises transform their customer experience with Adobe Experience Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Dynamics. The companies are now expanding their strategic alliance to increase workforce productivity and drive more efficient business processes. Beginning today, Adobe Sign, the market-leading e-signature service in Adobe Document Cloud, is now Microsoft's preferred e-signature solution across the company's portfolio, including the 100 million monthly commercial active users of Microsoft Office 365. In addition, Microsoft Teams, the new chat-based workspace in Microsoft Office 365, is now the preferred collaboration service for Adobe Creative Cloud, Document Cloud and Experience Cloud. In addition to product integrations, Adobe will make Microsoft Azure its preferred cloud platform for Adobe Sign. Together, Adobe and Microsoft will ensure individuals and teams can efficiently collaborate, communicate and drive decision-making across devices.

Adobe and Microsoft are the leaders in document and productivity software, with a rich heritage of innovating to deliver ubiquitous solutions that touch hundreds of millions of customers through integrated desktop tools, innovative mobile apps and cloud-based services. In addition to the partnership announced today, the companies will explore opportunities to continue collaborating on artificial intelligence, analytics and intelligent document automation, taking productivity in the cloud to the next level.

"Adobe and Microsoft are working together to redefine what the modern enterprise experience looks like with collaboration, identity, data and intelligence at the core," said Abhay Parasnis, chief technology officer, Adobe. "Together we will develop integrated cloud services with best-in-class solutions like Adobe Sign and Office 365 that help businesses digitally transform while delivering great experiences to their customers."

"Together with Adobe, we're committed to fostering creativity and a culture of teamwork for our shared customers, so they can unlock the opportunities of today's rapidly evolving workplace," said Peggy Johnson, executive vice president, business development, Microsoft. "We're thrilled that our partnership with Adobe has now grown to span our three clouds — Microsoft Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics 365 — providing customers with the powerful integrations they need to navigate digital transformation."

The first integrations resulting from this partnership are expected to be available to customers in the coming weeks:

• Integration between Microsoft Office 365 and Adobe Sign will deliver fast, secure electronic signing across Office 365, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Outlook, so that signing documents electronically, on any device, can become an everyday experience. 
• Adobe Creative Cloud and Adobe Stock integration with Microsoft Teams will give Adobe's creative customers access to a world-class collaboration workspace that speeds up creative feedback, iteration and decision-making. Microsoft Teams integration will expand to Adobe Experience Cloud in the future.
• Adobe Sign integration with Microsoft Teams will accelerate electronic agreement creation, approval and signature processes across teams. The Adobe Sign app in Microsoft Teams includes a tab to send documents for signature and a bot that allows team members to manage and track documents.
• Adobe Sign integration with Microsoft Flow will allow users to build end-to-end digital workflows by adding Adobe Sign to any Microsoft Flow process. In the coming months, organizations will benefit from Flow integration with other Microsoft applications such as SharePoint, Dynamics and OneDrive.

"When Adobe and Microsoft team up to innovate, their customers win," said Jamie McLellan, chief technology officer, J. Walter Thompson Worldwide. "As power users of Microsoft Teams, Adobe Sign and Adobe Creative Cloud, we're excited to realize the immediate impact delivered by these integrations that will enhance creativity, teamwork and overall productivity across our agency."

"The most successful companies today are relentlessly focused on helping employees be more effective. Productivity suffers when work requires multiple applications that don't interact," said Alan Lepofsky, VP and principal analyst at Constellation Research. "The integration of team collaboration, electronic signatures and creative content provides customers with huge efficiency gains, and paves the way for how people will get work done in the future."

Availability
Adobe Sign for Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft SharePoint is already available. New Adobe Sign integrations for Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Flow, Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint and Microsoft Outlook are expected to be available in the coming weeks. Adobe Creative Cloud integration with Microsoft Teams is also expected to be available in the coming weeks with Experience Cloud integrations to follow.

Helpful links

• Learn more about Adobe's integrations with Microsoft: https://acrobat.adobe.com/us/en/why-adobe/integrations/microsoft.html.
• Read more from Adobe's chief technology officer, Abhay Parasnis:  http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2017/09/redefining-the-future-of-work.html.

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

About Microsoft
Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) is the leading platform and productivity company for the mobile-first, cloud-first world, and its mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.

SOURCE Microsoft Corp.

Related Links

http://www.microsoft.com