Flash and Flex used to lure corporate clients
Flash, the technology behind web graphics and animation, is now being promoted as a solution for companies looking to share information both internally and with customers.
Macromedia, the company behind Flash, is trying to convince corporations to use Flash and its other tools to develop applications for both internal use and for access by customers through their websites.
Les Schmidt, Macromedia's senior vice-president and general manager for cross-product development, said: 'It's all about the experience for the end user. For companies, it's about being able to engage the customer or to drive more sales through the website.'
Earlier this year, Macromedia launched Flex, a system for developers to create interfaces based on Flash that allow access to critical business applications.
Mr Schmidt said using Flex and Flash technology was advantageous as requests for information were responded to faster, and the presentation was better.
He said any application that combined data and design elements would benefit from using Flex, for example, a website that allowed customers to book airline tickets.
Among the organisations using Flex to develop applications are the University of Pennsylvania, the United States Senate and Brocade Communications. Macromedia hopes its technology will be deployed in corporate training.
The company has partnered with Oracle to integrate its products with the database giant's learning management system.
Although Macromedia was best known for developing tools for computer animation, Mr Schmidt said: 'This is really taking that experience gained through animation and applying it to business solutions. And Flash is not merely an animation tool; it is now being taken to the next level.'
He said that 'the community of developers that Macromedia has created over the past five to 10 years is one of the biggest assets Macromedia has'.
To help developers in this region, Macromedia will hold its first MAX Conference in Greater China in November, in Taipei.
The conference will cover six areas: creating rich media, designing and publishing for the Web, developing rich internet applications, mobile computing, training and collaboration and web application development.
Kenneth Lau, Macromedia's general manager for the Greater China region, said: 'We already have many designers and developers in Taiwan, and many operators and manufacturers in Taiwan.'
The company recently announced the launch of Contribute 3, part of its new web publishing system.
Contribute allows non-technical users to update pages on websites or corporate intranets without the need for complicated programming skills.
With Contribute, updating content is simply a matter of dragging and dropping text from a Microsoft Word document into Contribute. The software then preserves the text's formatting and any embedded pictures.
Mr Schmidt said the company hoped better to integrate its products in the future.
He said the goal was to package the different products to provide a complete solution for customers.
