Adobe Software

RMC purchases Adobe products through our reseller JourneyEd and enjoys a group discount by virtue of being part of the Council of Independent Colleges in Virginia (CICV). We are a Teams Tier Customer. This means that we do not use enterprise adobe ids with single-sign-on (SS0) but business adobe ids managed through the licensed RMC email address and a password of your choosing. Business IDs govern product access and storage, and are separate from users' login accounts, which govern authentication.

Our annual renewal date is February 25th when the bulk of our subscriptions are renewed.  Individual products run ~$132 per year and the entire suite ~$284.

In July 2024, Adobe discontinued Acrobat perpetual licenses. Support for this product ends June of 2025. End users on Adobe 2020 will need to switch to an annual subscription product once the product is no longer supported (i.e. new operating system). The perpetual Adobe Photoshop and Premiere bundle (~$79) remains available without subscription. 

End users can add both annual subscription and perpetual products throughout the year via a prorated invoice and request for vendor payment process for both perpetual and subscription products. The process is as follows:

1. A ticket is created to track the license request.
2. The Service Desk Manager contacts our rep at JourneyEd to get an invoice for the requested product(s),
3. The Service Desk Manager supplies the invoice to the requestor and advises them to submit a request for vendor payment to accountspayable@rmc.edu, being careful to cc: the Service Desk Manager and the vendor on the form so the vendor knows to place the order and the lead knows when the order is processed by JourneyEd and Adobe.
4. When the license becomes available, the Service Desk Manager (or other admin designee will assign the requestor's RMC email address to the license in the admin portal if it is a subscription product.
5. When deploying replacement assets, the Service Desk is responsible for documenting if there are Adobe products that need to be installed on the new machine. For perpetual products, the Service Desk is responsible for installing the version of the Adobe software from the network share that was in use on the old machine prior to deployment. In the case of a legacy version, a quote and requisition process to replace the product will be initiated for which the requestor's department/office is responsible for funding.
6. The end user is contacted for a time that the software can be installed via remote assist for the perpetual installs from our files server and given a LAPS cred (Windows) or promoted to admin (Macs) to download and install subscription Adobe Creative Cloud from adobe.com once they have created an adobe id using their R-MC email address.
7. Once Adobe Creative Cloud is installed, licensed product(s) are installed from within this application without need of administrative privileges.
8. For Adobe Acrobat DC (Pro), the version that the end user needs is dependent on whether they just need to edit PDFs (*perpetual product) or if they need originate Adobe Sign agreements (subscription product). If an end user is switching from a perpetual to the subscription version, the old version has to be uninstalled first before installing the new.
   • It is important to make sure the default PDF handler is set to Adobe Acrobat DC instead of Reader which is installed as part of our standard image.
9. It is also important to check for updates once installed by going to the Help menu.

*Please note that the current Acrobat 2020 perpetual version (~$150 one-time cost) has an end of life slated for 6/1/2025 at which time an annual subscription (~$132 annually) will be the only choice offered by Adobe. NEW perpetual licenses are no longer available for purchase.

1. Once your license has been assigned, sign in at adobe.com using your R-MC email address.
2. First time use requires a verification process.
3. Choose personal on first login screen if subscription or company account if perpetual.
4. Enter password of your choosing. (this can be the same or different than your RMC password, they are not connected)
5. Choose the Randolph-Macon Profile.
6. Adobe requires birth date for authentication, recovery and ensure age-appropriate access (one-time only).
7. View your available licensed products available for download once logged in.

ITS does not provide training for Adobe products but Adobe has excellent tutorials and support for its entire suite of apps.