Adobe Acrobat DC usage report

[johnl15444025]

I need to see how many users are actively using the subscription Adobe Acrobat so that I an effectively manage the licenses.  There is no reporting capability, or at least none that I can find. 

When will we have access to these reporting capabilities?

[Test Screen Name]

Adobe do not give this feature. It would be, I think, hard to justify to their management, as it's hard to see there would be any result except less revenue... presumably you want it so you could spend less...

[Vikrant R · Accepted solution]

I don't believe that this capability is available. You can sign in to the Admin Console and leave your feedback/feature request. There is a link on the bottom-right of the Overview tab.

[stevenp81396465]

It's a request that pops up on a recurring basis and is an obvious need.    Other SaaS/software suppliers routinely supply even basic information (such as last login date).    Adobe says they cant.   I speculate that they have done analysis on the data and know that it means one thing - - fewer licenses sold.   Anecdotally, Adobe made the mistake of disabling a number of our serial keys several years ago.   In so doing - they shut off all of our users.    Since we were able to quickly re-provision upon request the turmoil created was relatively modest when compared to the benefit we ultimately realized which was that we were approximately 25% over-subscribed.   If our one-off instance is any example . . . . . . providing utilization data to customers would have significant consequences to Adobe revenue.

[Abambo]

So, you have the solution…

I, for my part, 2 months before renewal, I send out an e-mail to my users and their bosses, to ask if they still need the software.

To get accounting data, you need to use a third-party software.

[stevenp81396465]

Asking who needs a service gets a very different result than just turning it off.    Customers will say "I need something" - when they only utilize it rarely (or even never).    Turning it off - some percentage will never notice (because they dont use it).

[Abambo]

Yes, you can turn it off for everybody at the end of the subscription. They get an e-mail, that they have been removed. They will complain. The boss pays their licence via his allocated budget.

This reminds me of 35 years ago, when I Vice president asked people, who wanted a PC, if they can't share the PC hour wise.

Especially with Acrobat, I use Acrobat 75% or more of the time as a simple reader. Acrobat Reader would be enough. And you can never check, if the user uses Acrobat as reader or differently.

[stevenp81396465]

And in our case - when we turned off 100% - 25% never requested it back.  If you are using it 75% of the time - THAT'S great - phenominal - no manager in his or her right mind would mess iwth that.   I'm interested in licenses which havent been touched in 90 days or 6 months.

This reminds me of software services 40 years ago - - - when the supplier of the software couldnt tell you anything about usage (including how many times it had been installed).   Unfortunately, we know Adobe has advanced their capability(ies) considerably - - or at least we hope they have.

[Abambo]

75% I use Acrobat DC like I would use Acrobat Reader… Acrobat Reader is a free software! And I would guess, it's probably more.

On my Unix machines I had an accounting program, showing me, which user used which software for how long (CPU, runtime). That was part of the OS. And that is as it should be.