welcome to experience means business a

podcast by Adobe Professional

[Music]

Services all right well hey team we have

a fantastic group of experts across

Adobe Professional Services gathered

here today I'm truly honored because I

feel like I talk to each of you guys

individually or in groups of two but we

have all of you here together an awesome

opportunity um so Doug and Liz we're

going to be chatting with Jason about

content supply chain but before we get

into that you know how's everybody doing

how's summer going Doug I know you're in

the DC area how's your summer been it

has not been as muggy as we thought um

it's been pretty good we've um been able

to get

the wonderful daughter outside

skateboarding and bicycling and not

totally drenched or buggy so good we're

good

awesome and I think you guys are all

kind of in the same region of the US

right Liz where are you and how's your

summer going yeah I'm uh outside of

Pittsburgh I'm in a very small town so

um Jason is probably roughly familiar

with the area but uh yeah I'm I'm an

outside uh gal so spend most of my

weekends and and evenings kind of

outside try to hike and paddle as much

as I can so it's been the weather's been

great for it this summer it's been

really nice

awesome and last but not least Jason

dowy how are you my friend oh fantastic

yeah like Doug and Liz said I'm kind of

right in the middle of those two and I

visit both right so I'm in Maryland uh I

have family live in Pittsburgh so I'm

back there I go to DC a lot with uh with

work and kids uh but it's been fantastic

I mean the summer has been great it's

we've been getting outside it hasn't

been as uh the weather hasn't been as

impressive as it usually is which is

nice in in the you know Northeast region

with humidity when you go outside I have

a be beard so you know not a whole lot

of hair so when I go outside you know

and most people get their hair get curly

my beard gets curly when it's human

outside so I need to watch when I go

outside but it's been a fantastic summer

so

far love that that's awesome that's

awesome I'm I'm actually an ex

marylander an ex- New Yorker myself so

grew up uh outside DC in Bethesda

Maryland go Orioles by the way leading

the league can't wait World Series here

we come uh but spent a lot of time in

New York but actually reside down in the

hot humid south of the United States

here in New Orleans Louisiana so I think

today it's a blistering 101 degrees

outside so hopefully my AC keeps going

uh otherwise if I start perspiring it's

not because I'm you know sweating

content right I'm just sweating bullets

of humidity and

heat well awesome well yeah it's kind of

you know we're bantering here a little

bit it's really fun but uh for those who

don't know what's professional we can do

a little quick introduction so yours

truly I'll be your informed moderator

for this series of content Supply Chain

by Adobe Professional Services on our

experience means business podcast

channel so this is our pilot episode uh

we've never done this before with all of

us together so I'm really excited um

I'll be as I said hosting this episode

and the future ones to come I'm on the

Adobe Professional Services marketing

team so representing all things content

supply chain as well as generative AI uh

Adobe experience manager Adobe Commerce

and basically the whole experience cloud

and now Creative Cloud so really excited

to be here uh but real quick let's just

State um who we are from a professional

perspective and we'll jump in Jason go

for it yeah absolutely so uh I

concentrate mostly on the a platform the

Adobe experience manager platform um

architect so we usually get really deep

with customers on the technical needs

how they line up their business but once

again I'll I'll really focus in on uh

Adobe experience manager uh for their

web and for assets and forms all those

great

things and Doug um I'm from the digital

performance strategy team and we do

mostly content strategy for um Adobe

clients and a lot of that is um Tech

non-technological work spanning setting

content value I'm talking about uh

governance and plan planning for Content

programs and publishing programs and we

cover the am World sometimes and the

workfront world sometimes and neither

other

times all of the above or none of the

above right that great sat answer uh Liz

yeah so um I'm a workfront technical

solution architect similar to Jason's

role but with a lot of expertise um on

the workfront side so helping customers

understand um how their processes will

fit into the technology that we offer um

and helping them understand what

implementations will look like long

history with workfront I'm a I was a

workfront customer for almost 10 years

before I joined Adobe so excited to be

here and excited to be working on

content supply chain where we bring

everything together love that love that

and content supply chain where we bring

everything together so it's funny I'll

start out with a little story so a while

back when I first heard the ter term

content supply chain uh I I was you know

typing into the Google machine what is

content supply chain so this is pre-

chat gbt right so it can of just spit

out everything at me and it you know

threw something out it's like oh you

know uh content that's in a Cargo

Carrier that's stuck in a supply chain

malfunction in China right that's

literally what I got back so how far

we've come uh and Adobe has been at the

Forefront I think of pioneering with

ways to understand and optimize your

content supply chain and we'll talk all

about that but I think for folks that

might be in the same boat I was a while

back about not understanding what is the

content supply chain I think that's

where we can start our first episode and

our first

question what is a Content supply chain

and what do it mean the customers that

we deal with every day Jason yeah no

absolutely yeah it's kind of an

interesting top IC because you know

coming from a background of mine like I

was around when internet wasn't around

and now I am internet here so they have

conversations with customers I think a

lot of it comes from it's not really new

what is new though is that we're

creating content at a unparalleled Pace

right you know addressing customer needs

with Hyper personalization if you think

about it like you know when I was

younger uh we had certain social media

platforms where we had uh the top eight

and we were trying to customize a hyper

in for our friends organizations are

doing that at a scale that's huge right

so across the world so how do you do

that in a in a really quick quick and

efficient way to address your consumer

needs and and really that's where

content supply chain comes in being able

to produce the right content at the

right speed to get to your audience at

the right time right so that's that's

essentially in its Essence a lot of our

customers that were that I talked to at

least on on on the Adobe experience

manager side has you know multiple

different partners that they're trying

to facilitate content to working with a

lot of different people at different

stages of content creation and not

always knowing what what's going on at

different times how much do it costing

is it being is it worth it uh all those

things kind of are bubbling up to this

ma massive content supply chain push now

you know obviously Doug and and Liz are

going to have tremendous more insights

with customers they're talking to but

you know every customer has that same

general vein right Doug I don't know if

you're seeing the same things um I a lot

um we I came out of desktop publishing

back in the day too and we're seeing

just just sort of like globally expanded

uh versions of the same problems um

people wonder when something's going to

get made that they eagerly anticipate um

so we have you know a lot of questions

about what goes on in Creative

operations and um people wondering how

they're going to be able to afford to

reach more people or you know publish at

higher volumes uh or higher quality uh

or with in global markets

yeah that they've haven't been in before

and we see those challenges um become

especially interesting and complicated

given the number of channels and devices

and other things that we now can reach

through publishing so there's there's a

lot of and there's a lot of uh

ultimately governance problems that goes

with making decisions about building

publishing systems for those many many

needs so that's what we see it's it's um

it looks a little bit different for

every client but it's similar problems

is the similar shapes and we can bring a

lot to bear on those

problems yeah absolutely yeah you know

it's inter you touched on a good point

Doug is is governance right you know

when you have a Conant supply chain

framework like we're dealing with new

technology all the time right so we're

dealing with generation uh generative AI

that's coming out I mentioned hyp

personalization where we're trying to

personalize content uh for every single

visit right that governance comes into a

big factor when you talk about C supply

chain right I think all so obviously I'm

a I'm a grew up on the Internet person

so I'm kind of the other end of the

spectrum but it's interesting you know a

lot of our customers I think have the

technology that they need for all of

these different pieces but where a lot

of folks are struggling is how to

understand the intersection points

between those different pieces of

technology and how they tie together

right so we may have workfront in the

mix and we may have amem in the mix and

maybe even other products in the middle

of that but it's really understanding

how to make all of those pieces work

together in the most efficient way so

you know how are we planning and and

setting ourselves up for Success from

when the work is starting to come in how

are we collecting metadata that informs

how we find that content and reuse it

later so it's really thinking about from

like the idea the initial idea of

needing to create content all the way

through where we're pushing it out out

and how we can really interconnect all

of the different pieces to make it

efficient and cost effective and you

know think about variations and things

so that we can meet that growing

demand yes so so if I'm hearing we have

we have need for Content at an

unprecedented unprecedented uh uh rate

we have governance needs and now we have

technology that that folks have and and

don't know how to put it together I

think that is the makings of content

supply chain I think

yeah yeah there makes people pick up the

phone you know to Adobe more often than

[Music]

not you know if if picking up the phone

to Adobe right now for those ingredients

of content supply chain is is what we're

seeing from customers why is now the

right time are we seeing kind of an an

increase in Need for this type of um you

know solutioning right or what are you

guys seeing from your customer base

today yeah absolutely like like I

mentioned earlier I'm from the old days

so you know we had floppy discs and and

we thought we would never fill a 2 gig

flash drive with content there's no way

uh and now I can go buy a terabyte flash

drive at at no cost so low cost right

content is not slowing down the need for

personalization isn't slowing down it's

only going to get bigger it's only going

to get faster so it's only going to be

more expected from customers so

addressing this now and addressing cont

your contant supply chain in context of

something that is achievable today is

going to help long term right it's all

going to get bigger it's all going to

get faster and and more

complicated I think also like what we're

seeing from an economic standpoint right

is like we we have this hugely increased

demand for all of this content but we

need to do all of it faster and cheaper

than we've ever done it and so I think

that's where like a lot of content

supply chain comes into play like one of

the main things we talk about is like

asset reuse and Jason's kind of the

expert on you know that piece of things

but it's okay so we're creating content

but then maybe we can't find it and as

we need more and more and more of those

assets because that's such an important

part of how we you know send information

to our customers right now I think

there's more of a demand to understand

how we can pick up things that we've

already created and repurpose them

faster so that we can get that content

back out to you know our customers

customers y that's sometimes a

presenting issue especially for clients

that have say they're

producing large volumes of sales content

and sales collateral and large volumes

of customer facing product content that

is broadly similar and are now thinking

like you know we could actually have

this in the same repository and use it

in similar ways and converge those

processes um I think a lot of you know

places with really heavy product

cataloges deal with that on the other

hand sometimes we see you know companies

with with a lot of uh rights managed

content that want to get to get a grip

on how it's delivered in what channels

it can be delivered um when to Sunset it

when licenses run out stuff like that so

there's a a layer of management that

they want to be able to put in end to

end on process make sure that items are

logged particularly well or delivered

accurately at the other end and

sometimes we are solving that Suite of

problems for you know for Asset

Management you know across the from end

to end and it it's there's lots of

different kinds of clients who come to

us you know from media and entertainment

to financial services and Pharma which

are heavily regulated to um the uh other

other tech companies um in many cases

you know people who deal like us with

you know the amount of information that

surrounds complex software we have to

support clients we have to have

self-service as well as you know

excellent other services how do we get

that out and published appropriately and

in clients hands when they need it all

those different

things

yeah yeah and you you mentioned

something that's that's unique right so

as we talk about other verticals and

other um you know customer bases that

are out there you know content is

somewhat ambiguous in in those cases

right so uh what is content for Pharma

versus what is content for technical um

you know in in as I'm talking customers

uh and LZ mentioned it is uh you know

Atomic level content right uh can we

reuse content in our Communications to

our sales team or our content creation

to our customers or our customers

customer right content is anything that

we create in trying to communicate

something to our end audience right if

you think about it in that way and being

able to break down content in in its

Atomic format whether it be copy whether

it be Graphics whether it be

presentations it allows us to create the

things faster but also allows us to

reuse things so that way we're not uh

breaking brand uh having the same voice

those things are massively important in

in the C of spat chain I think and you

know lot one of the main topics that I

talk with my customers about and I also

think when you talk like the different

kinds of content and deploying content

different places right so like you may

have sales materials and maybe your team

Works in Salesforce and that's where

they need to be able to pull those

materials from I think that's also

another really big part of content

supply chain is thinking about where all

the different plac that we need to send

this at the end of the day and things

like you know maybe a Salesforce are

less um top of Mind than you know where

we would deploy an email from but I

think it's a really important use case

to think about you know at the end of

all of this no matter what kind of

content you're creating the goal is to

be able to automate or streamline the

way that you're not only planning for

and creating and storing that content

but where you're pushing it out to at

the end of it as well can we you know

have something on the back end that says

this is where this goes at the end of

the day um so that you don't have folks

like manually pushing things around and

I think that's like a really important

piece of kind of the the ingredients of

what we talk about when we talk about

content supply chain a great Point Liz I

see actually more customers today um

considering using their web content

Management Systems also as sort internal

document Management Systems um we see a

a cases for differential access to Asset

Management systems and using them in the

ways that people used to use document of

another big you know internal content

Management Systems so we're able to take

on that range of um of problems as well

and even more so with our you know our

document Cloud teammates um so it's it's

been it's been very interesting I didn't

I neverly didn't expect that development

in the last few years but it's come up

now three times in the past two weeks

with cl

it's

here that is awesome no it's from floppy

disc to today right so you know we

mentioned some of the challenges and use

cases that our customers are coming to

us with here at Adobe Professional

Services what what are some of the

solutions that we provide how can

Professional Services from Adobe help

customers solve some of these content

supply chain

challenges yeah and like I said I'll you

know Liz and and Doug have some really

good insights here too but you know when

we start to think about content supply

chain and you and you kind of look at

you know your content operations your

your content technology and then your

adoption across all those right so if

you're you know launching the like Liz

said having technology out there doesn't

mean that it's going to be used properly

or used in a way that's going to

streamline your contant spling uh

generally when we start to look at those

those three major kind of pillars of

things there's different pieces of parts

that we try to like you know progress

customers through from like Readiness

all the way through enhancing an

adoption from other platforms like this

distribution channels so you know as as

the teams engage with customers we start

looking at all the content start looking

at the end end process and in their life

cycle of content Doug mentioned uh

disposition and archival and Liz talk

about workflow all those things that go

into a constant supply chain we like to

have a holistic view of those

Technologies and those processes to to

recommend the best path for any

additional

customer yeah I you know that I I you

just brought something to mind that i'

forgotten about is we actually end up

doing a lot of a lot of excavation and

research with our own clients and

usually we're we're like we end up

surprising them by the breadth and reach

of their own you know publishing

processes sometimes we're getting people

around the table for the first time in a

workshop setting where we're getting you

know information about far you know

far-flung portions of their publishing

Empire back to the the mothership and

it's um we

people are are are just usually don't

see you know over the top of all the

things that happen with content in their

Enterprise and I think it feels like

presenting those big pictures is usually

the the the biggest contribution we make

and then we have to try to harness the

will to you know tackle it all as a big

picture um and sometimes with my

colleagues in the U operations group the

um adoption and change Group which works

in part of as part of organization spend

a lot of time on the ground trying to

build organizations around publishing or

more functional publishing than the ones

clients are outg growing yeah and I

think like to that point Doug you know

part of it is helping to understand the

bigger picture but also a a really

important part that goes along with that

is not saying we need to do absolutely

every part of this at once right and so

I think like that's one of the big

things that from an adobe Professional

Services perspective we've been thinking

about in you know what's going to work

best for our customers and a lot of that

is being able to break this down into

phases right that make sense so maybe

it's doing a Readiness or Discovery

phase to kick things off and then

setting up you know really the core

pieces of what makes sense um for their

content supply chain in like a

foundational phase and then we can think

about about scaling and innovating um as

we kind of move through the process but

it's also not to say that we may get

through that Readiness or or Discovery

phase at the beginning and say wow this

customer is really like ready to move

into Innovation right so um I think it's

the the flexibility of creating a phased

approach where we can say um you know

let's assess up front but that doesn't

mean that you're maybe starting at

Square One it could be you know you guys

are ready to start introducing some of

the more

um you know mature concepts of content

supply chain like the the genis of the

world um and I think that's something

that's really important to keep in mind

when as a you know as a business you're

thinking about undertaking this it's

understanding the big picture but also

not boiling the ocean um as we kind of

jump into the the plan for how to

address it the next step is really is

really strategic it's really focusing

and deciding what's important to do

first next and later and where the

organization needs to head because we

know in content World also all those

pieces pull against each other sometimes

um you know there people want High

freedom for their producers and you know

lots of creative freedom and they want

to lock down and govern at the same time

okay where's the trade-off how do we how

do we get that how do we get that sorted

out with them yeah yeah and yeah like

Liz mentioned you know at least the team

that we work with every day uh you know

when we start to look at those

uh those processes and and taking that

small bite of the first step it's really

just what can generate the most value

for that Organization for whatever

relation we're talking about and having

that and having a DA Professional

Services there we can guide customers of

of what might be the best step for them

uh to get the most bang for their buck

and their most value of the technology

um their operations internally and also

get their content a

[Music]

faster well awesome I think uh you guys

have Illustrated a fantastic overview of

what the content supply chain is uh note

it is not a shipping container stuck uh

in a port overseas right uh and then why

our customers are coming to us today

right and what we're proposing as

solutions to overcome some of these

challenges so Jason Doug Liz thank you

so much for sharing your insights for

everybody who's tuning in make sure you

stay tuned for the next episode where

we'll talk about how we start to

optimize your content supply chain and

the exact steps that we start to take to

achieve measurable outcomes so make sure

you tune in for that episode and if you

still have a floppy disc laying around

in your drawer I think I do somewhere

with some 8bit graphics on there you

know uh you can keep using that if you

want but I'd say reach out to your Adobe

Professional Services rep um if you want

to learn more about our content supply

chain service offerings so for now

signing off it's your fantastic Adobe

team of a wonderful rest of your day or

evening wherever you are and remember

Adobe is there when you need us

thanks we hope you enjoyed today's

episode let us know what you think by

writing to us at info ACS at adobe.com

see you later for more