Adobe is bringing broader integration of its document management, tracking and validation services into Microsoft's product ecosystem, including tighter connections to Teams and the Purview information protection framework.

At Microsoft's annual Build software conference, Adobe announced a new single sign-on option for Acrobat for Teams, integration with Purview from directly within the desktop version of Acrobat, and Microsoft Power Automation functionality that will allow users to make repetitive tasks with Acrobat Sign easier, among other features.

Adobe also announced unified installation technology for all of the newly released features, meaning that IT staff can deploy them across their organizations with relative simplicity, as well as the achievement of FedRAMP Moderate (a government security standard) certification and Sign Graph connectivity, meaning that checking on signature status for things like sales contracts and onboarding is now faster.

Adobe also shared a tech preview version of Live Share from recent acquisition Frame.io, also in combination with Microsoft Teams. This feature, if and when it enters production, could allow groups of workers to collaborate live on a document, discussing it via Teams and reviewing it interactively.

Remote work sparks new integration

The new feature sets are, in large part, a response to the pandemic-prompted spike in remote work, according to Adobe.

"Our new hybrid work reality has turbocharged the shift from paper to digital, and no one can afford to be left behind," the company said in a statement.

IDC research manager Steve Charbonnier said that hybrid working models demand different methods of handling important documents - remote employees, after all, can't simply walk down the hallway to HR to get a new copy of a crucial form.

"The reason they're looking at this is ... is that it gives the users lots of flexibility in terms of how they automate their sign-in processes," he said. "It's all managed, it has the correct audit trail attached to it."

According to Charbonnier, the most important part of today's Adobe announcements is probably the Power Automate integration with Acrobat Sign - automating the auditing of electronic signatures across the organization is a potentially powerful new piece of functionality.

"On the whole, it's a lot of nice steps kind of across the board," he said. "Even the Sign Graph connectors where they're reducing the time to check on status, that's a nice feature to include. But the Power Automate [feature] gives them much more robust capabilities."