Did you know that you can have a fully integrated digital asset management (DAM) sytem in your Salesforce.com CRM system?  Widen Enterprises developed Digital Media Organizer (DMO) to empower your Salesforce.com with online DAM services.  Within Salesforce.com you can quickly search, download, and distribute digital media through integration with Contacts, Accounts, Leads, and Campaigns – or simply search through the self-service DMO tab located at the top of the page.  Keep all your photos, logos, audio/video assets, and other branded materials in one location and send out with a couple clicks of the keyboard.  Files are automatically converted into different formats and resolutions on-demand. 

If the following scenario happens in your office, you might want to consider Digital Media Organizer.  It’s Friday afternoon and you’re hoping to get out of the office early – but then one of your sales reps call.  She’s meeting an important client on Monday and needs to put together a deal-closing presentation.  It’s going to take hours to find the images and prepare everything.  The files are too large to email so you’ll have to prepare a CD and overnight.  Another long night in the office.  Or give your sales rep self-service access to marketing materials via Salesforce.com and Widen’s Digital Media Organizer!  And you’ll be skipping out of the office early on Friday like the rest of us!

DAM is the environment where we people, processes and systems connect around digital information to be able to deliver the message to the customer faster, more cost effective and with a tightly controlled brand identity.

DAM is the full stack of
- a repository, managing the unique version of the 'digital truth',
- a processing and/or workflow system to allow people to share and collaborate
- and a reporting tool to keep track of the information between people, processes and systems.

At its root, digital asset management is a set of processes which provides a way to store your stuff so you can find it later. It has many parallels with resource and inventory management processes. As we build upon the foundation, we define tools sets (index cards, printouts, enterprise software) to assist with the core requirement. These tools bring additional capabilities which are then added to an overall solution (i.e., while DAM software can manage where something is, conversions, transcode, workflow and more can be built atop the software foundation. As more is built on the foundation, the baseline expectation of a DAM user continues to rise.

In the current market, I would consider DAM as the combination of tools and processes required to manage storage and retrieval of massive number of assets. Additional functionality is useful but is mainly business process and workflow which can leverage the core DAM, rather than DAM itself.

Many marketing departments have a ‘wish list’ of things they would like to have to make their life easier.  I’ve complied a list based on (1) things I’ve heard on the street (well, maybe not ‘on the street’ but down the hall from my cubicle); (2) what people tell me; and (3) random things I just wanted to put on the list.

1. Asset management software to organize all my digital media
2. Brand consistency across all sales reps, distributors, and retailers
3. A software as a service application so I don’t have to charm the IT department
4. Childlike enthusiasm to get me through the day
5. Improved brand recognition = more sales = bigger raise
6. Better digital asset optimization (like repurposing stuff)
7. Superhero powers
8. More efficient photography workflow
9. To never hear the term ‘robust’
10. Widen Enterprises Inc

Of all the people employed at your organization, how many understand the process your customers go through from acquisition to retention?  Marketing-driven organizations create an internal culture around the customer experience so everyone knows how customers are pursued, how they are communicated to, why customers choose to do business with your organization and why they stay loyal to your brand.

If everyone knows the customer experience you can build additional value at each step, which should be an objective of every marketing-driven organization; adding value to the customer relationship with every single touch point.

For example, at Widen we have major software upgrades every 4-months to our digital asset management system.  Customers don’t have to do anything they just inherit the new DAM functionality we publish.  That was our DAM software development teams providing value to the customer relationship by creating software architectures that are sustainable.  Marketing and support picked up from this point and added value to the customer relationship by providing formal training sessions and individual sessions to help customers understand the benefit of these upgrades and how to use the new functionality.  One example of how an organization understands the customer experience to add value to the overall relationship.

Change the culture: maximize the customer experience by adding value to relationships with every single touch point.

Marketing teams should feel empowered to make decisions on technology without I.T. involvement.   Why?  Marketing teams move fast because they have to in order to keep up with the ever-changing demands of the marketplace.  Other parts of the organization may not be positioned to move as fast as marketing wants to and therefore may hinder marketing’s performance. 

A good example of this might be I.T. teams that may not entirely understand what marketing is trying to accomplish – but the prioritization of I.T. projects usually places marketing near or at the end, after business systems support; absolutely not good enough for marketing.  Try explaining the importance of brand equity and digital asset management to an I.T. person and it will get placed in the “to do” pile which means “we’ll never get to it, but good idea.” 

Empowering marketing to make technology decisions without I.T. is what software-as-a-service providers are all about.  Software-as-a-service providers have already created the structure to accommodate the mover-and-shaker marketers that want to continuously change to meet the market demand. 

Some organizations still have I.T. teams validate with a simple yes or no that the providers meet the technology standards in the best interest of longevity.  But after the validation there is no longer a need for the I.T. teams to be involved with the technology that you want to use.

Feel empowered, use software-as-a-service.

Guest Blog Post from Amanda Jenny, Widen Client Services Assistant, regarding Widen color management and prepress services  

Do you ever find yourself thinking, “That person’s outfit is so hideous.  I wish I could change it so I don’t have to hurt my eyeballs looking at it anymore.”  Well, thanks to Widen’s digital sampling team, you can do just that. Part of what we do for the Adidas Sports Licensed Division involves altering Reebok images for catalog use.  Reebok sends us a digital photograph and asks us to change the color, team, player, etc.  For example, this is the image Reebok sent us: 

And since nobody likes the Bears anyway, we altered the image to look like this:

The basic process starts with outlining the article that needs to be altered and making a mask. Then the colorcast is removed from the background.  The blue shirt will cast a blue tint onto the model’s skin and hair. Once that is removed, the existing logos are brushed off.  The mask is then neutralized before the new color can be added.  The last step of the process is adding new logos. And voilà, you have a brand new outfit.

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m with the marketing department for a minor league baseball team.  If you know minor league baseball, you know that we know marketing – and all that goes with it.  We’re constantly coming up with new game promotions, branded materials, and partner programs in addition to managing the player profiles and team website.  We don’t have a lot of I.T. support so we’re looking for a web-based DAM system. 

DEAR MINOR LEAGUE MAJOR MARKETER:  You’re right… minor league baseball means major league marketing and big time marketing means you need some help with smart marketing software.  Widen’s Media Locker Room digital media management for professional sports organizations will help you manage all of your “stuff” without tying up your staff because it’s 100% software as a service.  
 

You wouldn’t be the first to tell us at Widen Enterprises that your sales channels drive you crazy with requests for custom promotional material.  Reps want sales flyers.  Distributors want product sell sheets.  Retailers call for custom brochures.  And many want the same thing with minor tweaking.  Often times you have the feeling that you are re-creating the same material over and over again.  Sound familiar? 

Widen’s Media Collective is not only a digital asset management application but also includes Dynamic Media Builder.  This web-based (Software as a Service) brand asset management software allows your sales channels to create their own localized promotional materials from a menu of brand approved content.  You select what they can or cannot change in a template – and they can log-in and build custom brochures, ads, and other marketing material for use in presentations, web sites, and print media.  By letting your sales channels help themselves with this type of digital asset management solution – your organization controls brand and image management.  And not only that – your life becomes easier!

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m the corporate marketing manager for a national home builder and we need a collective site to pull assets together with metadata and folder structure.  Our DAM needs are mostly for internal use, but we have three outside agencies that also need access to our images and ability to collaborate with our internal teams.  Our photo assets are scattered with three separate locations of similar data.  We also are beginning to use video now more than ever for our promotional efforts online and to build our business branding.  Because we’re growing and we have needs internally and externally, we’re only considering web based DAM solutions.  How does Widen stack up?

DEAR ASSETS NEED A HOME HEATHER:  Widen’s web based DAM will suit you well.  You’ll have one central location for all your photos, videos and marketing collateral.  Plus, since you can store anything digital, you might see benefits by using it in other areas outside of marketing.  Your agencies will find it easy to use and it will help both sides work more efficiently by being able to find and share exactly what is needed.  Widen’s video asset management capabilities will help you be a better marketer as you’re able to easily repurpose hi-def videos to multiple channels be it online or broadcast. 

DEAR DR. DAM:  My name is Tim and I run a tool and equipment distribution warehouse.  It’s a pretty competitive industry; however it’s an industry that is often reluctant to adopt new marketing strategies and technologies.  I’m looking for ways to leverage smart marketing to improve our competitive advantage and strengthen dealer relationships.  We work with dozens of manufacturers and about half of them supply us with their product images to use.  However, I’m looking for ways to create an advantage by delivering these images to our dealer network and allow them to create their own branded marketing materials.

DEAR COMPETITIVE TOOLBOX TIM:  I like the initiative you’re taking here to bring smart marketing software to help smart marketing create a greater competitive advantage.  The Widen Media Collective digital asset management and media building software will help you centralize all the images supplied by your manufacturers and grant your dealers the authority to easily create customized, branded promotional materials.  Best of all, the web-based DAM system is easy-to-use and web-based, which means there is no learning curve or software to install for your dealers who may be reluctant to adopt marketing technology. 

Colleges and universities are always at the forefront of innovation and technology.  These institutions need organizational capability that is efficient, effective, and affordable.  At every educational institution, rich media content is being created and used every day and the need to manage these files is becoming more critical than ever.  Digital Asset Management is relevant for every area of the university from athletics to business to communications to marketing to public relations.

Widen Digital Asset Management (DAM) software for education helps departments in colleges and universities find, manage and distribute images, creative files, and audio/video materials.  With web-based DAM software, departments are able to:

• Centralize and preserve all digital media and image collections
• Control the usage of digital materials
• Maintain brand and message consistency
• Convert and deliver images, audio/video and PDF materials anytime, anywhere
• Repurpose your digital media across all channels - print, web and broadcast
• Reduce the cost of content creation

Are you ready for some football?  Week 2 of the NFL football season is this weekend and are you all geared up for the big game?  Who’s your team?  Where do you go to purchase team apparel?  Do you purchase NFL apparel from a catalog or online?

If you’ve purchased an NFL jersey or other officially-licensed NFL apparel item by Reebok online or from a catalog, then those images that sold you on the product were likely created by Widen.  Widen’s digital sampling department from the premedia services and color management division digitally creates all of the Reebok NFL apparel and Adidas NBA jerseys and apparel you see online or in print. 

Widen’s ability to digitally create product images allows apparel catalogers and e-tailers to sell to “shop anywhere” consumers before the physical products are available.  Take for example the “hot market” demands when a player is traded, such as Brett Favre for example. 

Widen apparel marketing technology and services help apparel marketers achieve first to market goals because their channel partners can instantly retrieve and post official product images to e-commerce websites as soon as they’re available digitally.  Widen’s web-based digital media management software allows apparel marketers to distribute product images to their sales and marketing channels quickly and cost-effectively, versus distributing physical product samples.  Widen also helps apparel marketers enforce brand recognition / consistency and carry the continuity of the products across multiple channels to match the quality of their physical products.  Plus, since the apparel marketers are supplying their dealers with official product imagery, it saves the retailer the added time and cost for capturing and preparing their own images. 

Guest Blog Post from Sean Banahan, Widen Sales Executive

Have you noticed how hesitant most enterprise digital asset management vendors are to actually let potential customers see their products?  We have found that more and more customers are showing an interest in really digging in when evaluating our rich media management solutions and services.  By now, DAM is becoming a familiar term and most marketers and creatives have had at least some experience with one platform or another.  They no longer need some slick salesman to dazzle them with pretty features and explain what benefits a DAM solution brings to the table.  Nowadays they want to get right in there and start playing with the tool right away like they can with many simple on-demand departmental systems.  We love to hear that.  It’s one of those indicators that speaks of how much DAM has grown as an industry.  Widen lets our prospective clients create their own accounts on demo sites so they can start evaluating the system from day one if they so choose.  With Widen it isn’t about getting you to sign the contract, then walking the other direction with a laugh and an evil grin.  We don’t even make our customer sign long term contracts so you won’t ever feel locked into Widen as your provider.  As a DAM SaaS provider, we try to earn your business each month.
  
With other enterprise digital asset software providers it seems to be a different story.  I keep hearing tales of customers that have been told by providers that their DAM systems need to be configured first, people need to be trained, sites need to be branded and on and on.  They never want you to actually see their solution unsupervised.  It makes you wonder how an actual implementation is going to go if they can’t even configure a simple demo site for people to explore at length.  Maybe they are frightened of their own application’s pitfalls and shortcomings.  Maybe they just don’t want to waste the time with someone who hasn’t committed yet.  I once heard a sales rep say he wouldn’t give more than three meetings or presentations to any one prospective customer.  Maybe they think the customer isn’t savvy enough.  I don’t know. 

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m the director of marketing for a very small department for an industrial products manufacturer.  We actually just purchased another company to add more products to our line.  With that, we’ve added new distribution channels, which mean more work for my department with the same amount of staff. 

My office is responsible for all the copy writing, brochure layouts, web design, direct marketing, media placement and trade shows.  We have a couple creative people including myself.  I know we’re small, but we’re still producing a tremendous amount of digital assets, which are stored at a variety of local hard drives.  With my time at a premium, our process of digital media management is very time-consuming.  Since there is no centralized system, redundant work has become a big issue. 
 
DEAR SMALL DEPT BIG DAM DENISE:  Small marketing teams still need a marketing asset management system.  I’m not surprised you are creating a tremendous amount of marketing assets and the problem of marketing asset management has spun out of control.  Naturally, smaller-sized implementations lend themselves to hosted digital asset management solutions.  Widen’s pricing model will suit your needs, plus the system is flexible enough to scale as you grow.  Somewhere down the line, you’ll also enjoy the brand asset management benefits by supplying distributors with self-serve access and collateral customization.

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m Sean, a web marketing manager for a sportswear apparel manufacturer and retailer.  We currently have three e-commerce websites and expanding to six by the end of the year.  We also do a print catalog each year.  We have over 20,000 sku’s and multiple images for most of them.  Version control has historically been a nightmare.  We need to provide access to our product images to over 1,000 users – some with more repeat usage than others.  I need to provide our catalog customers with self-serve access to our corporate image library.  I turn to a web-based distribution model with an easy-to-use portal so our customers can efficiently respond to hot market demands.

DEAR SPORTSWEAR SEAN:  Did I mention Widen works with a number of top apparel brands?  Widen marketing software and premedia services will help you create, manage, version, distribute, publish and track all your digital apparel samples.  In fact, Widen has a whole department that specializes in supporting apparel marketers.  Visit Widen’s video testimonials to hear how Widen has helped the Adidas Sports Licensed Division with market advantage, sales enablement and speed to market.

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m in IT and my colleague is in marketing with a health insurance company.  We’re Salesforce.com customers and looking for other types or marketing software on the Appexchange.  We stumbled on a digital asset management solution integrated with the Salesforce.com CRM.  We service 3,000 agents nationwide with sales and marketing collateral including PowerPoint presentations, sales scripts, radio spots and direct mail among other digital media.  We currently have an advertising library with a catalog of custom templates for our agents to place orders.  Most of the sales collateral distributed has been created by our field sales force, which has created a lot of redundant efforts and lack of control.

We have assets scattered in various locations and our lack of brand control is beginning to show.  We’re looking to scrap our current library and take a “push-down” approach with sales collateral to come from marketing and supplied to sales agents to better control our brand.  However, we do want our collateral to be customizable by field agents within certain parameters.  We’d like to role out a program in time for our national sales conference this winter and provide training to our agents at that time. 

DEAR CRM & DAM COLEEN:  If you want to “insure” brand control and consistency from marketing to your field sales agents, then Widen’s digital asset management solutions for Salesforce.com are the way to go.  By the way, Widen is the only Digital Asset Management system integrated with the Salesforce.com CRM.  Your field sales reps will be able to work directly within the application and send digital media directly to their contacts with just a few clicks.  They will also have the ability to customize sales collateral specific to each selling situation, but within marketing-set parameters.  As a pair of software as a service solutions, you’ll like the combination of Salesforce.com and Widen.

DEAR DR. DAM:  My names Ashley and I’m the marketing manager for several brand-name hotel and resort chains.  I’m a current DAM customer, but I’m looking for solutions that offer more flexibility and integrates well with others.  We have multiple systems that I would like integrated with our digital asset library.

We do a lot with video and we have a team that spends a lot of time burning a large volume of DVDs.  I’m looking for some automation that can help.  Automation for image conversions and video transcoding would be huge.  We’re looking at digital asset solutions that offer robust version control capabilities.  As for collaboration, an automated photography approval application would be incredible.  About 80% of assets are photos and we have shooters all over the world.  Right now we use CDs and FTP sites to get the images back to the corporate office, where we tag all of the metadata and manually upload to our corporate image library.  I’m hearing some buzz about digital asset management solutions using embed links to provide a single control point for image and video delivery to online sources.  What’s that all about?
 
DEAR INTEGRATION NEEDS ASHLEY:  You do have a very “robust” need for your workflow.  I think you’ll enjoy the single-source-ness you’ll find with Widen, plus the flexibility to integrate multiple systems, both Widen’s and 3rd-party solutions.   From asset capture to delivery you’ll love the end-to-end solutions from Backdrop photography routing and approval to the digital media management system.  Widen’s video asset management with on-demand transcoding and DVD authoring will automate much of the manual tasks.  Plus, you’ll really enjoy having to maintain only one master library while being able to repurpose images and video files to multiple online mediums with the embed links.

DEAR DR. DAM:  My name’s Hank and I work as the web marketing manager for a recreational sporting goods manufacturer.  I’m looking for a DAM system and collateral builder.  We have a budget for this sort of tool and hope to have something in place and fully functional for the new year.  We don’t have much of an I.T. department and limited resources to support marketing software, so we’re looking for a hosted digital asset management solution that offers global access, is easy to use and has the ability to restrict the level of user access.  Like most marketing people, consistency in our business branding carried across all of our customer touch points is very important.  Our creative and marketing teams use Adobe CS3 products for our work in process assets, in addition to PDFs, MS Word and Excel documents.  Our storage requirements are in the 200GB range and growing, especially since we hope to add video in the near future.  Our dealers currently use word docs as templates for ads and brochure and some sort of collateral customization feature would be a big help to automatically control brand consistency throughout our dealer network.  We currently have assets stored in multiple locations with a file folder structure and have no associated metadata.  Our FTP site does not work well for dealers and we’re doing away with the dealer extranet for a new solution.

A DAM system would help us collaboratively with our retailers and print partners, serving as a media warehouse to download approved files for advertising, as well as to use as a replacement to the FTP site for printers doing our few different catalogs.  We have seven different brands under the corporate brand.  We have 500 employees, 30 of which in sales and marketing.  We have 300 different dealers and some have their own catalogs.  We work with multiple printers and advertising agencies.  I just started looking for DAMs and I have not drilled down very far into any one product, but have recognized that there are DAM solutions ranging from light, medium and heavy.  What do you suggest?

DEAR HOSTED DAM HANK:  I think you know who I will recommend.  Widen can offer you a top of the line DAM SaaS solution that will make for a good medium-sized marketing asset management system with strong brand asset management appeal.  Widen’s hosted DAM solutions are competitively priced to suit and will scale as you grow.  Your dealers, printer and agency partners will all enjoy the ease of use.  Your dealers will especially enjoy to the ability to build professional quality ads with just simple point-and-click functions.  Plus, you’ll have the peace of mind of building brand recognition within your guidelines.  Best of all, Widen will have you up and running in 30 days – well trained full steam ahead for the new year!

Since digital asset management (DAM) solutions are often adopted by corporate marketing departments, we often change the acronym from DAM to MAM for marketing asset management.  Here’s why…

• Store marketing’s rich media in a centralized repository to repurpose final materials and their individual parts such as content from a brochure or clips from a video so they can be easily repurposed.
• Prevent digital asset duplication and repeat work by reducing amount of assets lost in the shuffle from increasing quantity, demand and storage locations.
• Control who, when and how assets are used via roles and permission settings.
• Minimize errors and enhance brand consistency across the organization from uses by internal departments and external affiliates.
• Lessen dependence on outside agencies to create and manage assets for everyday marketing tasks.
• Enhance collaboration internally and externally with ease of accessibility of existing assets.
• Reduce marketing need to email large files and stop hunting down project reviewers for comments and approval tracking.
• Tailor marketing collateral with content unique to different market segments and selling situations.
• Gather practical intelligence about where and when assets are used and how they performed for more informed future decisions by creative, marketing and communications.

What are the top 10 benefits of Widen DAM SaaS for marketing asset management?

1. Reduce costly errors and enrich quality of marketing deliverables
2. Reduce time-to-market with marketing deliverables
3. Eliminate redundant costs
4. Improve brand recognition and control
5. Improve departmental productivity
6. Improve return on marketing investments
7. Improve tracking of marketing material usage and markets served
8. Empower sales channels with customizable marketing deliverables
9. Secure existing market presence
10. Solidify customer relationships