Curses. Foiled again.

Interesting statement from Adobe about its licensing practices:

…during the subsequent three months, we have learned that ALM [Adobe's e-licensing management system] requires a greater level of administrator resources than many of our customers have available to them. In some instances, there have also been difficulties in managing certain customer workflows and requirements. As a result, we have decided to disable the ALM technology in Acrobat 8…

So I’m thinking one of two scenarios: IT departments weren’t paying attention to what their creatives were ordering…or Adobe didn’t think to mention that there was a whole new licensing scheme that might overload the usually-strapped IT resource pool (especially at small-to-medium companies where IT departments might be one guy and a lot of contractors).

Ooops.

I’m only bringing this up because a couple of clicks over on the Adobe home page is a hearts-and-flowers from CEO Bruce Chizen about customer engagement:

Every time you touch a customer, he or she becomes a little more or a little less engaged.

Sounds like there was a bit less engagement going on there, Bruce.

I’m in a kinda peevish mood as far as Adobe is concerned–they cost me several hundred dollars last December by messing up a software order and coming down on the wrong side of a tax deduction. And now that CS3–which I’ve been eagerly awaiting as a present for Freddie Mac–is just about out, I’ve learned that Adobe’s licensing policy will require that I pay full–that’s LIST–price for my “upgrade” because I’ll switch from Windows to Mac.

Tonight one of my artist friends added her plaint: after paying through the nose for CS3 she was informed that an instruction manual would cost her another $20.

Hmmm. Just a wee bit more customer engagement, Adobe, if you please…

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