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By Jill Burger, Principal Research Analyst
During our rigorous research on the US market for Real-time Collaboration-based Learning products, fourteen vendors were selected by Ambient Insight for inclusion in this series. They were selected because they represent the full range of functionality and market positioning of Real-time Collaboration-based Learning products. Ambient Insight wrote the profiles and vendors were invited to review the content for errors or oversights, but each feature set was independently verified.
Breeze Presenter is the Real-time Collaboration-based Learning platform released by Macromedia in March 2003 and it has quickly gained traction in the market. Executives have commented that Breeze is the fastest growing product in the company’s history. It was an immediate hit in the corporate training market.
Macromedia, of course, is the supplier of development and graphics products as well as the pervasive Flash Player, on which Breeze is deployed. (Macromedia was purchased by Adobe Systems in 2005.) Macromedia has a prestigious background in the elearning industry. They still sell a product called Authorware, once the preeminent computer based training (CBT) authoring tool on the market. With Breeze, Macromedia has historically targeted large training organizations, but has recently made their product more accessible to smaller organizations via creative licensing, attractive pricing, and value-added service models.
Breeze requires, like most other Web conferencing solutions, that all participants download and install a plug-in. Breeze, however, is deployed using Macromedia Flash Player. Use of the Flash player, which is already installed on over 98% of browsers worldwide, presents a unique value proposition: clients get the feature-richness of the other high-end products (like WebEx and IBM), without having to bother their users or guests with special downloads. Breeze Presenter provides many of the essential features that users would require for presentations, and Breeze Meeting allows collaborative online meetings; but to take advantage of the Learning Management features, they offer Breeze Training – a module that must be purchased separately. Real-time Collaboration-based Learning features include:
- Blended Learning Management
- Bookmarking
- Bookmarking
- Certification Management
- Content Management and Keyword Search
- Curriculum Management
- Reports
- Quizzes
- Surveys
- Learner Transcripts
Breeze Meeting 5's latest interface allows the user to distinguish between applications and "windows" to be shared, which takes standard "desktop sharing" to the next level. "Preparing mode" is a feature unique to Breeze that allows presenters to set-up, practice, or edit their work inside Breeze, without interfering with any live delivery that may be going on.
In Breeze’s early days (when it was targeted at the largest of enterprises) it was necessary to speak with a representative to work up complicated enterprise pricing; but in an effort to get their product out to the broader market, they have simplified their pricing model while embarking on creative offerings and services for the small or medium business customer. For example, Macromedia Breeze Meeting for SMBs costs 32-cents-per-user-per-minute in a pay-as-you-go pricing model. But while their pricing model might now suit the small business user, some users have suggested that Breeze might be too feature rich for many of the tasks for which small business users are likely to need a collaboration tool--such as quick product demonstrations.
They have also launched an online meeting service that provides full support to a company executing a Web seminar. Adobe/Macromedia’s sells two levels of event management services: In-Meeting Event Services and End-to-End Event Services. The In-Meeting Event Services include pre-event consultation, product training for presenters and hosts, event practice session, and event moderation. The event moderation service includes room setup, user entry and permissions management, Q&A coordination, polls and survey management, technical assistance during the event, attendee and participation reports, and event recording.
Adobe/Macromedia’s End-to-End Event Services includes all of the In-Meeting Event services, but also includes customized registration pages, branding of event pages, and email management. The email management service includes sending invitations, reminders and follow-up emails, registration approval management, pre-event registration and attendee reports, and registration for archived events.
This service lets Breeze customers focus on the interaction itself, rather than dealing with event execution details. As part of the events solution, customers have access to a services team to handle logistics so they can focus on the marketing not the software, thus reducing the time needed to plan, coordinate and moderate an online event.
The Macromedia Breeze Meeting product is used for Collaboration-based Learning by American Express, McDonald's, and TicketMaster. Macromedia partners with Premiere Global Services to deliver adjunct telephone conferencing services. Premiere Global Services also provides compliance analysis as a premium service.
In late 2005 Adobe/Macromedia launched an installed product line designed for the PreK-12 and Higher Education markets. This is an alternative pricing solution to pay as you go, or per minute charging. They now have a full range of pricing options. That they would initially target the new installed products to the academic market might seem curious at first, but Adobe isn’t the only provider who has been successful in the education market with a site license, installed software solution. Ambient Insight believes that still more suppliers will take their lead and offer this pricing and installation option to education as well as other industry segments.
Adobe/Macromedia was the first vendor to realize that higher education academic buyers wanted installed technology products. Vendors without installed technology solutions will find it hard to dislodge Adobe/Macromedia from the higher education market.
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