To revisit my previous post with content contributed by guest blogger Sean Banahan, “Accountability From Your Software Vendors,” I want to discuss three areas that marketing and I.T. departments looking at implementing a Digital Asset Management software solution should consider. 

With enterprise content management technologies and other software, you have options between installed software solutions, hosted / Software as a Service solutions, and options including both flavors.  When it comes to evaluating systems and service providers that help you create, manage, distribute, publish and archive the digital media that is the lifeblood of your brand and promotional materials, you’ll want to keep these 3 things in mind.

1. Support

From the point you say go on a software solution, what type of support do you get for each stage in the process – technical implementation, marketing launch, user  training, helpdesk, upgrades, more training, user promotions, customization?  Who is providing that support? 

Who handles the implementation?  Is there assistance with collecting and migrating existing digital assets from whatever scattered locations they exist? 

If you’re looking at SaaS, is the company who actually hosts the software the same company that develops it?  How many levels removed are you from the developers who handle customization requests? 

Often overlooked, but extremely important, what type of training is available – for both administrators and end-users?  First consider how easy-to-use the solution is.  Can users basically walk right up and use it based on their experience working with other common desktop applications or web interfaces? Or, are extensive user training sessions required?

What about when you have questions and don’t want to go looking through heaping piles of documentation?  Can you pick up the phone and speak with someone? Email? Chat?

Consider the technical support, marketing support and every-day user support. 

2. Upgrades

How are upgrades handled?  Who’s responsible – internal I.T. or the hosted provider?  How often are new upgrades released?  Is there a cost or annual support fee to receive the upgrades?

Are upgrades available on a routine release cycle? Each time there’s an upgrade, what documentation and training is available?  How much of each release is dedicated to new innovations vs. bug fixes and technical backlog? 

Can you skip an upgrade?  What happens if you do?  Nobody likes a legacy software application and no vendor wants to support it.

3.  Risk

Lastly, consider the risk involved with making a DAM selection.  Who assumes the risk?  If you’re looking at installed software, you assume the risk.  If you’re looking at SaaS, the vendor shares in the risk because their livelihood depends on the longevity of the business relationship.

What’s the risk?  The risk is making sure you never lose an asset … disaster recovery plans ensure business continuity … access level controls enforce accountability … security protects against external threats … system scalability accommodates future growth.

With more and more DAM vendors entering the SaaS space, I encourage you to look into company background and challenge that there’s more to SaaS than just the software.  (Consider Al’s post SaaS: Widen’s definition of “Service” is different…in a good way.”)  Coming from a 60-year-old company whose business has always been providing professional services, we understand that SaaS has a double meaning.

Post from guest blogger Sean Banahan, Widen Area Sales Executive

While browsing my iGoogle home page the other day I was presented with an interesting press release that reminded me again of a key difference between traditionally licensed software products and those offered through the Software as a Service (SaaS) model.  The press release that caught my eye described the latest upgrade of a competitor’s digital asset management application.  The recently released software upgrade included a number of bug fixes, but not one new feature or enhancement worth mentioning in the press release.  The release went on to describe the next scheduled upgrade of this competitor’s product as well, which of course was promised to be chalk full of the missing new features and enhancements.  Best of all, the next upgrade with all of the promised features was scheduled for just a few short weeks away. 

This might leave one asking why a customer should go through all the trouble of upgrading to the version that was just released if a better upgrade with all the “fixings” was just around the corner anyway.  I mean, why dedicate the time and resources when you are just going to have to do it all over again in a couple of months?  The press release doesn’t directly answer that question, though it does state that those users who were using the system’s data backup utility should seriously consider upgrading their installed application to this new release immediately.  It also warned that customers should consider renewing their support policies.  Ok… that’s a bit scary. 

On the bright side, the press release told customers who currently have support policies in place not to worry about upgrading at all until the next version was released.  Now I am scared and confused.  I think what they are saying is that those of you who pay annually for support need not worry.  For the rest of you… watch out.  If you plan on using your DAM system to back up any of your data you just might find yourself up a creek.  Since a big reason for implementing a DAM system to begin with is to centralize and protect your assets, a broken backup utility kind of kills the whole point doesn’t it. 

If this all seems confusing and spiritually draining then I think you and I are on the same page.  For the rest of you, I have to ask why you allow this kind of abuse to continue?  Haven’t you suffered enough?  Why don’t you hold your software vendors accountable?  If you think I am exaggerating then do a search on Google for the press release I describe above yourself.  It was published by a well known DAM provider so I am sure you can find it.  With that in hand, ask yourself if you haven’t been thrown into this spin cycle before.  Your software vendor forces you to upgrade an application repeatedly each year along with all of the databases, application servers and service packs that go along with it just so you can protect your investment.  Plus you have to pay additional support fees just to have access to an 800 number should anything go disastrously wrong.   

One of the biggest differences between software and software as a service providers is accountability.  SaaS providers are contractually obligated to provide you more than a simple software disc in a box.  Do all software products have problems?  Of course that’s true and bugs definitely pop up, but that shouldn’t excuse your vendor from providing a reasonable level of service.  As a customer you have the right to feel that the vendor you partnered with is actually on your side.  Hosted and SaaS providers take all of this out of your hands and upgrade everything for you, seamlessly, automatically and without hassle.  Why you would go any other route is beyond me.  I know software providers argue for flexibility in customizing and tailoring the service to meet your specific needs.  Though that argument is hardly true and most SaaS solutions can be customized just as easily as licensed products, a heavily customized platform is all the more difficult to upgrade and support and ultimately compounds your problem even more. 

I like to periodically expose some of the actual stories that take place with clients looking for ways to get control of their brand assets and rich media.  This was my original intention for Dr. DAM.  Does this sound like you?

We recently had a discussion and demo with the creative director at an advertising agency seeking help in managing two terabytes of data stored on local hard drives and CDs.  They currently use FTP sites to distribute digital assets to clients, but they're getting complaints that this isn’t meeting their needs.  The current processes are not user friendly, assets aren’t globally accessible, they’re grappling with multiple file formats and all of the files are too large to email at 70MB+. 

Like many agencies working with big companies, they have an enterprise client that has turned to them for help in building a web based DAM system to manage their brand assets.  The client needs to allow people from multiple departments all over the world to access current assets, add metadata, share, send and download images, store displays, banners and other marketing resources. 

Other “must-haves” for the client include:

• Branded site to meet corporate branding standards
• Full reporting and tracking of asset usage
• Simple ability to upload assets, add metadata and structure content
• User permissions to control who sees what

Since many ad agencies do not have the time or resources to take on enterprise digital asset management software implementations nor is it within their area of expertise, it’s becoming more common for agencies to turn to a hosted service or SaaS provider for help.  If you’re interested in Dr. DAM’s recommendation… trust the experts.

...in more ways than one.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I traveled to New York this year for the Henry Stewart DAM and Marketing Operations Symposium.  Along with participating in the vendor shootout panel on Brand Asset Management software, I was also joined by Jim Magruder, Director of Marketing at InSinkErator. Talk about a brand dominating an industry… InSinkErator is a case study in Global Brand Recognition.  Granted they only sell two products (in sink garbage disposers, and hot water dispensers), they blow away the competition...  In fact, I don't think there is any competition in those markets.

Jim and I went out for dinner and I thought he would be a good person to ask his opinion on how our DAM service enables InSinkErator's corporate branding. Jim had a very interesting answer that I believe will resonate with other businesses.  He skipped over all the standard DAM jargon on how it centrally organizes brand approved assets… roles and permissions... blah blah.  He went directly to InSinkErator's Brand Guidelines Document.  A large sum of time, research, resources and money went into creating this document that was to define how InSinkErator is to look to its customers and its dealers and distributors worldwide.  There is a sentence explaining that InSinkErator is constantly striving to incorporate the newest technology available, not only in their products but in the way they communicate with customers - both retail and professional.  Jim directed me to that section as one of his main reasons.  DAM to InSinkErator is not only a tool to protect their brand, it’s also a major part of positioning it as well.

I just read a great article about how photography studios should ‘farm things out’ to become more profitable, less stressed, and overall more productive.  Brilliant!  The author of “Farm It Out,” (PDN Online) Sarah Coleman, discusses how once photography moved to digital, photographers started doing more and more work.  Retouching images, tweaking color, storing client images, burning CDs and shipping them to clients – the list goes on and on!  These secondary tasks not only take away from spending time shooting images but also take additional time and resources to complete.  By outsourcing things such as these – photographers spend more time shooting – less time doing time-consuming administrative tasks – saving time and money.  By hiring outside service providers to take care of image management and photography workflow – photographers can earn more doing less.  Now who doesn’t want that?

Generally, by hiring a software as a service provider such as Widen to take care of image management – studios find that they don’t have to worry about storage, IT, infrastructure, hardware, etc – which is both an emotional and financial relief.  Backdrop™ helps streamline photography workflows by automating, centralizing, and tracking all reviews, comments, and approvals from anywhere in the world.  By combining this with digital asset management – photographers not only improve their workflow but provide their clients with a secure, centralized location in which they can access their images (by permission, of course).

For studios looking to expand, farming out digital asset management and workflow applications can help move them to another level of business growth.  By utilizing partners who are experts in their respective markets, studios can enhance what they do best and offer their clients the latest technology to outpace their competitors.  What better way to do this than offer your client’s digital asset management and Backdrop for photography routing and approval?

Two weeks ago, I was one of the presenters at the $5 Friday seminar hosted by C2 Graphic Productivity Solutions in Milwaukee titled Life Cycle of a Digital Asset. C2, the only Wisconsin-based Adobe Authorized Training Center, hosts the $5 seminars once a month for those interested in learning more about current topics in the world of graphic design and creative.  The topic of the seminar – Lifecycle of a Digital Asset – was a learning session about how Digital Asset Management (DAM) software helps design, creative, and marketing communications people “find all their stuff.”  

My co-presenter, Jim Conway, a photographer and C2 instructor with years of experience managing a digital imaging center, discussed some of the fundamentals of file management and showcased Adobe Bridge & Lightroom software and other single-user management solutions.  He talked about how metadata is used and why it is useful to help you catalog, manage and find files using Adobe XMP metadata.

My presentation focused on the advantages of web-based, enterprise-level digital asset management systems over the single-user applications for larger workgroups, enterprises and organizations with a distributed user base. 

Advantages of enterprise-level digital asset management software solutions (as we see it) include:

Internet Accessibility – With whenever - wherever access, web-based DAM systems allow marketing and sales channels to find and retrieve exactly what is needed in the hustle and bustle of a highly competitive sales environment. 
 
On-the-fly File Conversions – With the power to store one, yet deliver many files via on-demand conversions allows organizations to maintain only one master hi-resolution or hi-definition asset and not have to mess with an infinite number of multiple file formats of multiple assets.

Distribution & Fulfillment – Emailing large files straps I.T. resources and sending CDs doesn’t allow you to react to last second demands for tight deadlines and deal closing meetings.  Upon placing an asset order to another person, Widen web-based DAM sends an automatic email containing a link to download the assets in the format(s) requested.  If you need a CD library of images or video on DVD, Widen will handle it for you and ship it overnight without tying up your staff. 

Security and Access Control – Need to keep user groups apart so only certain users have access to specific sets of assets or features…you won’t find that with single-user asset management systems.  Cases include granting your ad agency access to upload assets, while granting salespeople basic access to view and order materials they need.  Or in the case of many of our clients, you may have products branded for your separate dealers in which you need to keep their assets separate as well.  Motorola wouldn’t want Verizon Wireless to have access to Sprint branded image assets and vice-versa.  You see the reasons…

Administration & Management – Enterprise / web-based asset management systems have a tremendous amount of configurability and scalability to accommodate growth and expansion, which often comes with high-levels of administration and management functionality.  There are often multiple tiers of administrators and user groups having separate roles, responsibilities and levels of interaction with the system’s features and assets. 

Reporting & Measurement – What good are your assets if they can’t be found, retrieved and used?  … That’s why you implement a digital asset management system.  But how great would it be if you could quickly and easily know who, what, where, when and why your assets are used?  Enterprise / web-based digital asset management systems are more than just a means of organizing and distributing assets, they are a marketing tool for intelligence, strategy and budgeting purposes. 

SaaS Infrastructure / Support – Like most software, you have choices… two in fact – installed or hosted a.k.a. Software as a Service (SaaS).  With the former, it’s up to your I.T. department to handle the implementation, maintenance, upgrades, training, security, support, trouble-shooting, customization, etc. along with their list of other projects supporting critical business operations.  With the latter, the service provider handles all of that for you … and if you pick ‘em right – they’ll put marketing, creative and sales at the top of the priority list. 

Integrations and Other Applications – Does the software provider offer other technologies than DAM related to the digital media lifecycle – upstream to support the creation and workflow or downstream to support the distribution and publishing of assets?  That’s another thing to look at when considering an asset management system.  On top of that, do they play nice with others?  Integration and the ability to share information (assets and metadata) with other systems supporting critical business functions is key to selecting a system that can continue to grow with an organization. 

Earth Day reminds us that there are many areas of our lives where we could cut back, conserve and do a little bit more for the environment.  While to many this means carpooling, making sure lights aren't left on in empty rooms and exploring the use of more environmentally friendly every-day products, there is also a conservation that could be going on in both marketing and creative departments.

Marketing and creative images and collateral materials used for brochure creation and brand management a lot of times are managed through cluttered hard drives and spread across several locations.  Perhaps conserving your time used in searching for these images and also the memory needlessly used in redundant saving could be a possible business application of Earth Day principles.

While digital asset management (DAM) isn’t the most familiar topic to everyone, there are several inherent benefits of having one centralized, searchable database of all vital branded materials.  Brand management can become a simple process with approvals and access only being granted to the correct materials and logos, as well as digital media distribution becoming a simple task with media routing and conversion on the fly.  This stealthy process allows you to direct required media to the correct individuals in a timely fashion, while also having some comfort in the fact that you know it will be arriving in the correct format.

While there will be a lot of talk surrounding today’s events regarding reducing our carbon footprint and renewable energy resources, but maybe it’s time to improve on the efficiency of your efforts.  Sometimes it is as simple as remembering the “Three R’s” that we all learned as kids.  Reduce wasted memory and time spend on scattered digital media. Reuse approved branded materials with no worry of corrupting the brand image. Recycle old logos and branded materials to the archives once they have become obsolete or no longer effective. 

With the presidential primary elections rolling into Wisconsin, I realize that it’s going to be a few months of making decisions.  What issues are most important to me, where do the candidates stand on these issues and do I think that they’ll be an overall capable leader are all things that you have to mull over when deciding who to give your vote.  In a way, it is actually somewhat comparable to selecting your asset management system if you’re in a marketing or creative department.

What issues are the most important to me?  Is it the time that’s consumed by fulfilling requests?  Getting the files in the correct format?  IT delays with the system?  All of these questions and many more help in determining what sort of asset management system is best for your needs.  It’s not to say that software is a service is always the appropriate solution, but in many cases it can save your department quite a bit in time to implementation and overall cost, without losing any of the features that you typically would associate with software that’s installed on site.

Where does the candidate stand on these issues, or as I look at it, where does the provider stand on addressing these issues?  Of all the concerns that surround asset management, there needs to be some sort of safety net in place so that you know you’re being taken care of.  Helpful customer service that can answer your questions both quickly and accurately and regular updates so that you know you’re staying with the technology trends within the industry both fall within this category of providing a little more comfort to your asset management system.  System security is also integral when considering software as a service, but as any user can tell you; our user authentication process can be quite intimidating and is by no means a free pass into your branded materials.

Is this system capable of being my leader, the core of my marketing workflows?  In short, yes.  The multiple functions of our digital asset management (DAM) system allows you to leverage your current assets in a way that you previously haven’t experienced while also opening the door to new solutions such as photography routing and approval systems, catalog management systems and media building applications.  With all of this at your finger tips from one, multi-faceted application, your marketing department will operate more efficiently then ever before, and just as importantly, your sales channels will be enabled to function at a whole new level.

Overall, our DAM system is capable of serving you, wants to serve you and has a service record that stands out among candidates within the industry.  It’s time for a new and better asset management system – our digital asset management system.  If you aren’t sure if it’s right for you, I implore you to ask yourself; why you aren’t ready for a better tomorrow?  A better next quarter?  Even, a better fiscal year?  The time has come to ask not what you can do for your asset management software, but what can your DAM provider do for you….

Good Night!!!

In a DM Review Special Report on February 5, "The Marriage of Customer Relationship Management and Content Management," Dan Carmel discusses the inefficiencies plaguing sales and marketing organizations and the benefits of integrating CRM systems with SaaS-based content management systems. 

According to Dan Carmel, the top 5 benefits of combining CRM and content management are:

1. Improved win rates with more effective and timely responses to opportunities
2. More effective marketing with greater collaboration, faster turnaround and greater ability to leverage the latest material across distributed sales networks
3. Sales & marketing alignment by eliminating the gap between different processes and workflows
4. Faster time-to-revenue by speeding up sales cycles
5. Broader impact by integrating other best-in-class technologies serving their own distinct purpose to share information via web services

As the form of content management dealing with rich media, Widen has integrated our digital asset management software as a service platform with the Salesforce.com customer relationship management system.  Widen’s Digital Media Organizer brings the content marketing creates – images, videos and marketing materials – closer to the salesperson and end users. 

Widen’s Marketing Template Creation gives salespeople the ability to easily customize or localize printable materials such as ads, brochures, direct mail and point-of-sale signage using marketing-controlled templates and content. 

Marketing users within Salesforce.com have the ability to direct campaigns and manage all media used for email marketing, websites and print campaigns.  Our web analytics indicate that interest levels in Widen’s video asset management capabilities within Salesforce are of the greatest interest as video grows in popularity for marketers and consumers alike. 

As Carmel explains, five benefits of SaaS-based content management include:

• Faster time to deploy because there is no hardware or software to install
• Low initial cost for subscription-based pricing models
• Rapid innovation with automatic upgrades every few months
• Easy to use and configure specific to the requirements of each client
• Globally available with no burden on IT because applications are delivered via web browser and maintained by the hosted provider

These five benefits overlap with the same benefits Widen DAM customers enjoy.  SaaS-based business applications are not just for small to medium-sized businesses as larger companies continue to adopt best-in-class software as a service solutions.  Jim Egan, Director of Communications Programs at Kerry America, a leader in global food ingredients markets, stated, "By integrating [the Widen] tools within our Salesforce application, we now have a 'one-stop-shop' for all marketing and collateral material; making them easily accessible for our sales teams and channel members. These tools will help us strengthen our overall brand messages and enable our sales and application experts to deliver innovative, business-building solutions for our customers."

View Dan Carmel’s full article at: http://www.dmreview.com/specialreports/2008_60/10000666-1.html

Learn more about Widen’s digital asset management integration with Salesforce.com – Digital Media Organizer – and the brochure creation application – Marketing Template Creation.

Widen is featured in the February 2008 Henry Stewart newsletter for being recognized by Frost & Sullivan for strategies in place regarding digital asset management software as a service.  Frost & Sullivan’s global analysis promoted Widen to a market leadership contender from emerging player.  Widen DAM as SaaS technologies will be on display at the Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management & Workflow Automation industry event in New York, May 12 & 13, 2008.  Other top stories in this month’s newsletter include “The Fifth Wave of DAM” by Micheal Moon, Marketing Operations Benchmarking Study findings by Gary Katz, and summaries from the latest Journal of Digital Asset Management.

View the Henry Stewart February 2008 Newsletter

Learn more about Henry Stewart Events

I recently recorded a video to introduce many of the topics appearing in one of our whitepapers:

"Realizing the value proposition of hosted DAM solutions — A case study" authored by Mukul Krishna, Global Manager of Digital Media Practice at Frost & Sullivan.

View the video: Digital Asset Management Software as a Service 

The video is broken out in the following segments:

• Projected growth patterns of the DAM vendor landscape
• Blurring the lines with Software as a Service
• Increasing productivity
• Relieving I.T.
• Widen's Value Proposition
• Interpreting the "unarticulated demand"
• The Widen Appliance

The author of the whitepaper, Mukul Krishna, is widely recognized as an expert and thought leader in the Digital Media industry with his primary expertise being in the Digital Asset Management, Video Server, Streaming and Encoding markets.

Download the complete article / white paper from the Journal of DAM

The whitepaper appeared in the Journal of Digital Asset Management (2007) and uncovers the buzz about hosted digital asset management, the DAM SaaS Vendor landscape, a Widen profile and case study featuring one of our more notable clients – Reebok.