In-plants Furious About Adobe/Kinko’s Link

In-plants everywhere have felt shocked (and a little betrayed) to learn that the new Adobe Reader 8.1 and Acrobat 8.1 will feature a connection to FedEx Kinko’s Print Online application, giving in-plant customers an easy way to overlook the in-plant and send work outside the organization.

The Association of College and University Printers is circulating a petition of protest to send to Adobe. It states, in part, “Your adding a commercial link complicates the process of serving our client base who may unintentionally send work outside the corporation or school believing that the link is authorized by our parent organizations. Please revisit your decision to include this link as an unnecessary and invasive interference in our organization’s business.”

Meanwhile, NAPL, a trade association for printers, has already fired off a letter to Adobe’s Chief Executive Officer Bruce Chizen expressing the disappointment of its members.

“The advantage gained by FedEx Kinko’s through this agreement with Adobe comes at the expense of the many other printers—including many of our members—who have played such a pivotal role in establishing Adobe as the defacto standard among many end users for reading documents and printing file submission,” stated the letter, cowritten by Joseph P. Truncale, president and chief executive officer of NAPL, and Steve Johnson, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Quick Printers (NAQP).

A personal note sent to Chizen from an in-plant manager elicited a quick response:

“I have received numerous e-mails pointing out what a poor decision we made. Clearly a mistake and we are sorry for that. We are currently looking for a solution that works within the constraints of our contractual commitment with Kinko’s.”

The free Adobe Reader 8.1 has a “Send to FedEx Kinko’s” option within the File menu plus a FedEx Kinko’s beacon icon on the main toolbar acting as a button. Acrobat 8.1 will also let users route work to FedEx Kinko’s via the File menu.