we need to know who needs adobe pro and if they have not used it in a while remove the license so it can be assigned to someone else who will use it. Most users need adobe reader which is free but some need a pro license.

so if I have 2000 employees and only 50 out of which need pro the remainder can just use reader or edge /Chrome PDF viewer.

I am just saying it would have been nice if we can see when someone last used adobe pro in case if its not being used we can allocate to someone else.

J

john26026972cd67

Participating Frequently

We recently added some new Acrobat DC reporting, is this what would help:

https://www.softwaremetering.com/Adobe-Acrobat-Usage-and-Entitlement-Reports.html

kglad

Community Expert

S

sajid87747437

Participant

Oh Adobe can you share with me the information that I'm already sharing with you? This might be the usage stats that I'm looking for.

Abambo

Community Expert

Oh Adobe can you share with me the information that I'm already sharing with you? This might be the usage stats that I'm looking for.

By @sajid87747437

I doubt that this is a two-way solution.

ABAMBO | Hard- and Software Engineer | Photographer

mikeh32876248

Participant

Read the entire thread and agree with a few points...disagree with others.

Yep.. you need a Team or Enterprise account. You can manage all your users and license allocations in one place but...

As far as usage reports go... there are none.

Totally agree with the point about 'privileged users' wanting the software and never using it. We have the same issue.

Could Adobe add the extra info to the user profile. Absolutely they could. No different to managing the license and they have to check the license is applied every 90 days anyway.

Data protection - non issue. It's my account, my users, my data.

We use a software agent called ThreatLocker. As a byproduct it creates an audit log of everything that happens on a users machine... including when they run (or don't run) Adobe software but... it can only monitor the devices we install it on. If someone adds the Adobe license to a personal device as well, we have no visibility.

Come on Adobe... I get why you don't want us to know when expensive licenses aren't being used because we#ll cancel them and you'll lose money... but really! In this day and age I thought transparency was the way to a customer's heart 😉

stevenp81396465

Participating Frequently

Last Login Date - - - would be a very good start. Adobe "can't" do that (?!) One approach that we accidentally stumbled into which was very effective was simply to disable all accounts and then re-enable upon request. If the provisioning process is responsive - it's not the end of the world. We were forced to do so - when Adobe terminated some of our serial keys. It was actually a productive outcome as our deployed license count(s) fell by almost 25%. If ours is any evidence of what's going on - it speaks volumes as to why Adobe is unwilling to provide the same kinds of usage-related data that so many other providers do.

freves17391251

Participant

Any with expenrience with using "Software Tagging in Adobe Products" to obatin product usage per user?

https://blogs.adobe.com/deployment/2009/11/software_tagging_in_adobe_prod_1.html

stevenp81396465

Participating Frequently

No experience w/the tagging process described but from the read I conclude it is little more than a confirmation of the entitlement written to the user device. The file is not updated or changed based on usage so . . . . . you could know where there are installed instances but installed doesnt equal used.

ProDesignTools

Community Expert

This may help to some extent. As a System administrator for Teams/Enterprise, you can download detailed reports on how end users are working with corporate assets, such as folders, files, and libraries. These reports are called content logs.

See here also:

https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/using/users.html#Exportuserdata

arij2010

Inspiring

As I explained before, no statistics are visible. Even Adobe does not have these statistics. Adobe can not tell you for example "You used Photoshop today for 3 hours from 8am to 11am". They do not have this information.

Kevin Stohlmeyer

Community Expert

If your concern is having freelancers using licenses after they have left, you can use this console to remove their access to the license and redeploy it to a new user.

stevenp81396465

Participating Frequently

No, they do not, as long as they don't sell "usage". Adobe sells a licence. The licence can be installed and activated on two computers concurrently. That's what Adobe is tracking. They don't track, if you use the software. That is a difference.

Adobe is not interested, indeed, to track that. They get paid per licence. If you do not use the licence, it's your problem.

One possibility to see if the licence gets used, is simply to unallocate all licences. If users complain, the are using the licence. If they complain after half a year, you need to talk to them. May be their complaint is legit.

Pretty sure that Adobe attorney's would decribe theirs as a "license to use" (as opposed to a transfer or ownership). You are correct, Adobe is motivated by the pursuit of profit - not customer service. I like your unallocation approach - as mentioned in the very distant past - Adobe effectively forced our hand on that action and the results were very revealing as about 20 to 25% did not request an immediate renewal! Arguably - based on that one-off example - we were 20 to 25% over allocated. The "difference" you point out is an interesting distraction from the undlaying need. As pointed out in the past - simply reporting to me the last (most recent) date someone logged into a given service (irrespective of use or how many instances are active) would be a good start at making a dent in this need.

arij2010

Inspiring

No way to know when a license was used .When you launch a machine ,CC desktop contact Adobe servers but it doesn't mean that you used the applications .