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.

Kristina and I represented Widen at the ACCM Show in May showcasing our newest brand and product addition to the Widen Collective family – Backdrop –a photography routing and approval application.  Backdrop is a “new face to DAM” for photography and creative teams to collaborate on approvals and manage workflows.  

At the ACCM Show, we demonstrated how Backdrop helps catalogers cut cycle time with photography review workflows to allow more time for more demanding time-sensitive tasks in the creative process. Going into the show we believed we were right on the money placing all focus on Backdrop because it is a  tremendous time and cost savings mechanism for companies doing a lot of photography by allowing creative people to be a part of the photo shoot without physically being “at the shoot.”

We had several catalogers say they would use Backdrop to manage photography shoots, however, they weren’t doing a lot of their own photography – it was supplied by their vendors (among others).  When we asked “how many images do you have and where are they?” the common response was “we have tons of images and they’re everywhere.” 

The lesson here is simple:  If you need to be two places at once and one of those places is at a photo shoot – you need Backdrop.  If you have tons of images and their everywhere – seek professional help from a DAM service provider.

Honda announced today that they have started production on a vehicle that produces no measurable emissions.  Beyond the implications for the environment and all of us on this planet, it’s even more encouraging that steps are being taken to limit and eradicate inefficiencies.  Now that it’s possible with vehicles, what about marketing and creative departments?  I know, I know, marketing and creative departments…zero emissions…not possible.  Well, getting rid of all excess might be slightly ambiguous, Widen is certainly lending a hand in cutting down on the creative department carbon footprint.

Widen’s digital asset management (DAM) solutions help thousands of users every day.  Simplifying the storage, conversion and delivery of assets, as well as streamlining photography workflows and collateral material creation are all just benefits of using Widen’s services.  While duplicate and misplaced files, corrupted file data and complicated conversions may be raising your departmental level of “emissions”, technology now exists that can help you eradicate that unneeded waste.

Widen’s current users experience “zero emissions” marketing on a daily basis.  Brand and content management are simplified, time to market is decreased and our favorite praise, frustration has greatly decreased.  While the status quo may be fine for secondary workflows, asset management certainly is an exception.  Departments and organizations are seeing an ROI inside of 12 months and the acceptable rate of your departmental emissions is more than likely going to be decreased in the near future.  Maybe it’s time to take a step in the right direction and explore a little bit more about possible solutions.

Our theme at Henry Stewart New York last month was “A New Twist on DAM” featuring the twist ice cream cone… what does ice cream have to do with software, you ask?  As a pure play Software as a Service (SaaS) provider of digital asset management, Widen has blended hosted and installed solutions by putting hardware/software on the client site – the Widen Appliance.  How is that different than installed software?  Widen manages the installation, replication, monitoring, maintenance and upgrades in tandem with the Widen Collective hosted platform … staying true to the model of providing software as a service.

I presented our concept of “DAM as SaaS 2.0” – managed services on the client site – in one of the technology tracks and featured case studies from Sub-Zero/Wolf and The Sports Licensed Division of the Adidas Group.  At the beginning of the presentation, I polled the audience to get an idea of what roles of people I was actually talking to – creative, marketing, or I.T. – because the meat of my presentation talked about how each of those roles benefit from the Widen Appliance.

Creative 

• High-speed workflow
• No application switching
• Eliminate redundant work
• Eliminate distribution of outdated materials

Marketing

• Feeds the global demand
• Consistent use of materials
• Self-service access for sales channels
• Immediate use / no training necessary

I.T.

• Disaster recovery policies
• Share data with other applications
• Higher security standards
• Widen handles the customer support
• External access uses Widen security and bandwidth

In the case of Sub-Zero/Wolf, their master assets reside in Widen’s data center to feed the external demand from their distributors and dealers, while replicated assets are available on the Appliance for local search and consumption by Sub-Zero corporate marketing teams. 

In the case of the Adidas Sports Licensed Division, they have six different locations of fully replicated data at each site.  Their creative groups work with files at LAN speeds and have employee mobility to access the same data from site-to-site.

One of the questions/concerns at the end of the presentation asked about the speed of the replication between appliance sites and Widen’s master data center (a.k.a. “the mothership”).  Widen Director of R&D, Ed Chwae, was available to answer and there were multiple responses… Speed of the replication is dependent on the bandwidth available at the client site.  We can use private networks or public networks, VPN tunnel over public networks (dependent on bandwidth) determined by amount of files to be replicated daily.  We can throttle the bandwidth… post-pone it for after-hours activity – all of which is dependent on user needs. 

Basically, the ability to the give our clients exactly what they need is simple because we are the experts - we develop the software, manage the hardware and have the service and support teams to make it happen…

View the full presentation and other resources at www.widen.com/twist. 

Wasn’t the purpose of digital asset management always supposed to be a platform technology?  By platform technology, I mean not acting as a stand-alone application but as an enabling technology allowing other applications to perform a task without having to be concerned with the complexities associated with digital media.

So why are so many digital asset management providers unable to easily provide other applications a means to use the digital assets in the most efficient manner?  Simple answer is because they created their digital asset management system with the intent of being a stand-alone application and not with the intent of being a platform technology.

What’s the difference; don’t they both have a purpose in digital asset management land? 

Sure they both have a purpose; the stand-alone digital asset management application is for temporary use and has a lifecycle that places it near end of life the minute you purchase it.  The stand-alone application has some of the following traits:

• New releases and functionality are promised but never delivered – no formal release cycle exists
•  You have a phone number to call for support but nobody picks it up or returns the call
• The application is not used by the company to help manage their own digital media challenges
• The company that sold it to you is not the company that creates the software
• The product portfolio consists of DAM and that’s it – no other complementary products
• Customization is part of the standard offering because they cannot anticipate how you will use it
• When you ask for integration, they say, “Sure, we are partnered with several integrators; let me find you a phone number.”
• The price tag borders on ridiculous and you begin to question their financial viability
• They might also be under the cover of the “installed software provider” label and cringe at the very thought of the software-as-a-service market
• After you shake their hand you need to count your fingers

I recommend you purchase a stand-alone application if you have:

1. Money to burn
2. Internal I.T. teams looking for something to do
3. A complete understanding of digital asset management and all the related technologies
4. No direction or vision for how you want to use your digital media as your organization expands and your market reach increases

A digital asset management provider positioning as a platform technology possesses the following traits:

• Religious release cycles with proactive development addressing the future needs of the market
• Service and support teams that pick up the phone and hold several training sessions for the user community to attend
• Their own digital asset management platform is used by the marketing, creative, and production teams to drive internal workflows
• The digital assets are not duplicated and placed into other locations; all sources using the digital assets of the organization reference the digital asset management platform eliminating redundant and outdated libraries of digital assets serving other applications and/or individuals
• The value resides in the combination of efforts from on-site marketing, development, and service, and product teams
• The portfolio of products is rich with other ways of using digital media in the approval and collaboration process or distribution and publishing channels
• Digital asset management functionality is designed around use cases creating immediate value from day one
• Integration teams are in the same facility as the development, infrastructure, service, product, and marketing teams so when you ask for integration, the parties involved already understand the technology and the process
• The price tag makes you wonder why the other providers are so expensive
• Software-as-a-service organizations commonly create digital asset management as a platform technology because the relationship continues after the agreement is signed; stand-alone digital asset management providers have a tough time looking someone in the eye after selling a soon-to-be outdated application
• Trustworthy and transparent

I recommend you purchase a digital asset management platform technology if you have:

1. Restricted budgets
2. Limited or no internal I.T. resources
3. A complete understanding of your business
4. A vision for how you want to expand the use of your digital media

In the past, text-based materials dominated sales and marketing collateral.  With the eventual inclusion of images into these materials, multi-media representations of both brands and products started heading in a new direction.  While images have been present for quite some time now, the simplified operation and enhanced quality of video has brought it to the forefront of the marketers arsenal.

Videos are now regularly used for projects like new customer acquisition, loyalty programs and sales support.  While all of these functions are vital to various departments, an overall effect has been the socializing of both companies and products.  When you stop and think about viral videos that have been viewed millions of times online, you are essentially reaching an audience similar in size to purchasing national commercial time, but for only a fraction of the cost.

The "Will It Blend" videos as well as Smirnoff’s "Tea Partay" are both great examples of corporations using video in a new way.  The humor and creativity involved in both of these campaigns has put a more customer friendly face on their products.  While most people had never even heard of Blendtec before seeing "Will It Blend", their home and industrial blenders are now familiar to millions of people.

While video isn’t the only new method for reaching large audiences, it is proving to be one of the most effective.  People enjoy seeing a comedic representation of products or services they are familiar with and it never hurts to have something the help you waste a little time over your lunch hour before diving back in to the next task.

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. 

There have been several varying and contradictory reports published regarding the adoption rates of Software as a Service (SaaS) in the SMB market.  While a department, or enterprise as a whole, won’t make a decision based strictly on overall adoption rates, it helps in know whether or not a particular technology is valid when considering options for marketing and creative support.

According to Kate Evans-Correia, News Director at SearchSMB.com, recent growth of adoption rates in the SMB market can be attributed to increased security measures by SaaS providers, as well as a payment and management structure that mirrors SMBs much closer than legacy applications.  (Article)

In Evans-Correia’s research regarding SaaS adoption, Jeff Kaplan, managing director of THINKstrategies Inc., had some comments regarding this growth.  “Indeed, the ability to pay for capabilities as needed is the main factor encouraging SMBs to use the remote software delivery model.  Adding new users without difficulty and easing the workload of the IT staff are factors nearly as important for medium-sized businesses.”

With the adoption rate growing and an expected market growth of $19.3 billion by 2011, the time has never been better to support marketing and creative departments with a digital asset management (DAM) solution.  While early adoption raises red flags for some, enterprise content management and brand integrity are always going to be vital to an organization, no matter what technology is powering those initiatives.  The quicker the adoption of SaaS will lead to further integration with other SaaS applications within the organization, leading to a ever-growing ROI…and that’s something everyone can get behind.

Swinging with the X-Rite Munki

If you are a designer or photographer that is forced to "monkey" around with color on a regular basis then you may want to check out X-Rite's new product, ColorMunki...  http://www.colormunki.com/

ColorMunki is a device about the size and shape of a tape measure that is capable of calibrating monitors or projectors, creating ICC profiles for printers, and capturing and communicating color. The user selects the device function by rotating a dial on the side of the unit.

At only $500, the ColorMunki is a low-cost, entry-level spectrophotometer aimed at the photography and design markets. It will quickly calibrate and profile a computer display or projector used for presentations or slide shows. It creates ICC profiles for desktop or large-format printers using only 50 -100 color patches, which it is able to quickly scan in about one minute. Painless monitor to printer agreement is promised by telling the ColorMunki to “match my printer to my display” as the user is guided through the profiling process for both the display and printer.

Designers will go "ape" over the color sampling and communication functions of ColorMunki. The user can grab color from almost any reflective surface and build a color library that can be shared with others or used in many popular applications like the Adobe Creative Suite. With ColorMunki's PrintSafe checking capabilities, you can preview your color palettes under different lighting conditions. You can even extract a color palette from any image.

The ColorMunki is not a device that serious color professionals will likely want to use, as it does not do things like interface with RIPS for calibration or linearization. Color geeks will want to stay with devices like X-Rite's Eye-One Photo/Print ($1600) or the iSis ($5000) along with ProfileMaker or Monaco software for creating very accurate ICC profiles and maintaining calibration on output devices.

But if your goal is swinging through the jungle of pleasing color without getting your fur ruffled or spending a lot of money, then the ColorMunki is for you. With this product, X-Rite will no doubt get color management tools into the hands of many more people. And I think that is a good thing. Besides, who doesn't love monkeys?

Mark

When did modern conveniences and technology become so inconvenient?  Driving takes too long, so you fly right?  Well, how are you supposed to get anywhere when thousands of flights are being cancelled every day?  You need to be connected to your business associates at any given time; yet dropped cell phone calls, unreliable wireless internet connections and non-coverage areas for cell phone carriers all plague your essential communications.       

We’ve started to accept all of the inconveniences as being part of the cumbersome processes involved in business communications.  What if there was a solution that would allow you to not need to catch that flight and not require that phone call?

Software as a service (SaaS), along with Widen’s digital asset management (DAM), is propelling new opportunities in business workflow architecture.  Projects can now be routed and approved through a digital workflow, rather than tedious meetings.  Photography can be routed, approved and catalogued in a streamlined online portal.  Searching for your marketing and creative assets isn’t any harder than making a few clicks and choosing which file format best meets your current needs.  

Overall, business communications are in a current state of organized chaos.  Too many mobile devices, all working on different platforms and all having different capabilities.  There are too many questions driving the frustrations of marketing and creative personnel, but there is no reason to overlook an intuitive solution to some of the most tedious tasks you’re faced with regularly.  Widen’s DAM will help you save time, money and most importantly, your sanity.

The Widen Appliance continues to evolve as the hybrid between installed and hosted software platforms in the digital asset management market.  There still remains an uncertainty in the marketplace about how to categorize such a hybrid device, so we explained the following points about the Widen Appliance to third party experts, such as Mukul Krishna, global manager of digital media practice for the research firm Frost & Sullivan.

• Owned, operated, and maintained by Widen Enterprises, Inc.
• Resides within the customer infrastructure
• Internal users interact at network speeds
• Integration with Widen data center

The consensus is that the definition of software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the most appropriate categorization because the device is owned, operated, and maintained by Widen.  Even though the Appliance exists within the customer infrastructure, it is still managed by the service provider and therefore, most appropriately defined as part of the SaaS model.
 
As a SaaS provider, we targeted two objectives for the initial release:

1.  Support internal workflows:  The hosted platform was intended for global access and distribution, but it broke down when large files (20MB+) needed to be consumed internally.  Instead of internal creative and marketing departments consuming this data at internet speeds, they should be consuming it at local area network speeds.  The Appliance is intended to embrace internal consumption of large files without internet connectivity and place the files as close to the end user as possible.

Krishna adds, “what you are doing as a service provider is taking the most critical content and moving it as close to the end users as possible, making delivery more effective for workgroups that need immediate access.

2.  Establish redundancy of customer data:  A concern for contracting with hosted providers has always been giving up the internal placement of content and releasing it to another data center.  The Appliance contains a fully replicated set of the data that exists in the hosted data center, acting as a hot-site backup to the hosted facility.

Krishna comments, “You are integrating end servers to your main servers helping to create redundancies in case of catastrophe.  You always have content on premise and on the main hosted servers; that is going to address business continuity planning.”

The future of the Appliance is driven by two main contributors: 1) customer interaction and feedback and 2) proactive Widen development and marketing teams.  These two valuable streams of information have established a roadmap for product development.  This roadmap includes the following items, some of which have already been successfully deployed:

Privatized Content Delivery Network (CDN):  Multiple Widen Appliances in different geographic locations connected to each other or through a data center hub that allows workgroups to share and interact with files locally.  The privatized CDN has been successfully deployed for one of the largest apparel companies in the world allowing creative workgroups to create, collaborate, share, and track multiple versions of digital assets.

Search API:  The search API enables developers to create custom searches or integrate with enterprise search.  As the application progresses, a library of example source code will be available for other organizations to use.

Desktop Integration:  Applications like InDesign and Quark frequently interact with files that are located on the Appliance.  Designing specific search and use case requirements to meet the customer workflow expectations will be critical for establishing the appropriate functionality of this and any other desktop application

Other Applications:  The existence of the Appliance within the customer infrastructure allows Widen to develop additional applications that can be presented to the Appliance and used by customers.  This constant state of product development based on customer feedback and proactive development and marketing teams will enable customers to experience ongoing improvements to internal processes.

With the NCAA tournament in full swing, I thought it would only be appropriate to have the most common available methods of marketing asset management face off as well.  Although there are always upset victories, as this year has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, I feel that Widen’s run through the finals is pretty much a sure thing.  Let me explain…

In the first round of the Content Management Final Four Widen was paired against Installed Software Solutions.  This would be comparable to the team with a rich history that just hasn’t really done much to update their recruiting or style of play.  Installed Software used to reign supreme, but their time has come and gone.  With Widen operating on the convenient hosted platform and also absorbing all of the IT load in regards to managing your marketing assets, the first game wasn’t much of a match up.  Widen seals the victory with pricing that is much more palatable to marketing and creative departments that doesn’t require regular software and hardware upgrades.

In the finals Widen has come up against the Shared Drive / Internal Network.  This is the relatively new team on the block that’s kind of scrappy and always seems to just barely get the job done.  While the teams may look similar to some, any experienced content manager fan will realize the difference is in the organization.  Widen’s search engine and conversion capabilities keep you on your toes, as any file format can be ingested, converted and delivered.  The Shared Drive / Internal Network seems to keep up for a little bit, but sloppy play ensues as soon as files are misplaced and re-work becomes a standard task.  Victory is ours!

While Widen has earned the 2008 Content Management Final Four Championship, they certainly won’t rest on their accomplishments, as they will continue to update and upgrade their services and application three times per year.  Be sure to tune in again next year as Widen defends their title against contenders and pretenders alike in the 2009 Content Management Final Four.

It has been rumored all week that Apple will be releasing their highly anticipated software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone on March 6^th.  This is a massive move in opening the previously locked iPhone platform.  It’s well known that a high percentage of iPhones are hacked and running third party applications, but this would allow for the development of applications that could be loaded to the unit without voiding any warranties or having to “unlock” the phone from its exclusive carrier contract with AT&T.

While this is a rather standard practice for mobile carriers and mobile devices, digital asset management has allowed for open integration for quite some time.  By using SOAP and Widen’s API configuration, we have been able to integrate with other internal workflow applications, CRM applications and even failing foreign digital asset management systems that aren’t able to be abandoned by some clients.

The overall openness of Widen’s applications allow for a higher level of marketing execution, creative support and sales enablement.  This capacity has led to a partnership exclusively with Salesforce.com and has enabled several clients to work with their marketing assets in a familiar environment while also allowing for brand approved materials to be distributed in a timely fashion.

The iPhone SDK may not be exciting to non-users, but it should.  Revolutionary gadgets have constantly been the engine promoting change in technology related industries.  What this means is that your standard, clamshell phone could soon be enabled to read your Outlook calendar, send emails and even work with things like spreadsheets and PDFs. 

Digital asset management is no exception to this inspiration.  Workflow management and photo approval processes are all procedures that could benefit from being accessed from a mobile platform.  With a constant development and testing cycle, Widen will be able to keep up with a rapidly changing industry and serve clients at a higher level with a cutting-edge services and applications that will allow them to venture to territories previously unexplored and possibly even unimagined.

With the lack of screen writing over the past months, it seems that reality TV is taking over almost all programming.  There’s Big Brother, America’s Next Top Model, American Idol, Survivor and many, many more.  Why is it that these shows are able to fill the void?  When you boil it down, there’s simply less scripting required and nearly free actors.  The shows are later edited to highlight a specific part or process of the human condition that is seen by viewers as “the plot”.

How can this possibly be related to software as a service you ask?  There’s actually some interesting parallels between the behind-the-scenes functionality of standard programming and software as a service.  These similarities can also be seen when comparing reality TV and installed software.

Mind you, I’m not talking about functionality here, but more what goes on behind the scenes through the eyes of the providers.  Your typical installed software solution for asset management in similar to reality TV in the way that there is less required for deployment.  Once the software is installed on site the provider typically gets to sit back and watch it’s product.  It has left the building and it is now the job of their client to maintain what they created.  This is similar to reality TV as they release their segment and see how people react to the situations and the characters.  Their work is continually done with much less behind the scenes.

Software as a service isn’t quite as lucky.  There is the constant hosting and transmission of information all around the globe and continuous updating and development that goes into keeping a system on the cutting edge of technology.  Standard television programming can be similar with research constantly being done to keep the topics socially relevant as well as working with many actors and intricate sets.  All of this compounds into what arrives at the consumer as a much more polished product. 

There are general differences in the ways that both comparable situations are forced to operate as well.  Reality TV requires constant changing of characters and plot twists to keep people interested, while installed software solutions also require large sweeping upgrades too keep with modern development trends and functionality.  With so much more going on behind the scenes, your favorite sit-com is able to stay on the air for decades without changing the core characters and keeping similar stories going all along the way.  Software as a service is comparable, with minor changes being made here and there, but the overall product keeps pace with your workflows while never needing a complete overhaul.

The end result seems to be a system that you’re able to be more familiar with.  It grows and adjusts with you, and never leaves you wondering why a certain parts may have been left out or even why new, crazy things are included.  It’s logical.  It’s intuitive.  It’s exactly how you like it.

It’s been a little over three months since the writer’s strike began, and the lack of new programming has left me with very little to do during my free time.  I was greatly relieved when it recently ended, then I soon found out that new programming is more than likely still five weeks out.  FIVE WEEKS!  What do they expect all of us TV addicts to do with all that time?  I know that finding something constructive to do would be more productive, but it made me think about delays that marketing departments deal with every day.

The delays of your favorite TV programming are similar to delays that many of our clients experienced before using our digital asset management (DAM) application.  File conversions and routing are always issues for marketing and photography departments.  Our newest application, Backdrop™, is specifically designed for photo routing and approval, helping photographers even more.

With all of the media requests that marketing individuals are getting on a daily basis, some sort of process needs to be in place for fulfilling these requests, whether it be for images, audio or video.  These requests not only need to be fulfilled in the most timely fashion possible, but also in the correct format.  Interaction with media is especially sensitive as feeding your press outlets bad information or the incorrect media could lead to your company, product or service not being covered appropriately.

While five weeks seems like an eternity to wait for new shows, I’m grateful that it only effects my free time and now my work.  If these delays are something that I encountered at work I would constantly be struggling just to keep my head above water, not to mention trying to keep my sanity.

Hopefully, with the time off during the strike, the writers will have a renewed sense of productivity and creativity, similar to what DAM provides to marketing departments due to time being able to be spent on more core activities rather than inefficient processes like file conversion.

I recently purchased a personal camcorder for my honeymoon.  My wife and I decided to go to the Caribbean and I wanted to capture the highlights our first trip together.  I did my due diligence, researching all of the ins and outs of various camcorder capabilities, and eventually went to Best Buy to make my purchase.  I got the batteries charged and off we went.  The camera worked great throughout the trip, but I discovered a huge problem when we got home; the camcorder wasn’t compatible with my Apple computer at home.

It confused me as to how this could even be a problem.  I knew it was a potential issue, but all I was asking was for was the camera to upload footage to what has become the most popular platform for consumer video editing.  I started to think even more and it made me realize that this may not just be a consumer issue, but also a problem that video editors and marketing departments face every day when trying to work with their video materials.

How difficult can it really be to convert the video quickly to another format so that one of your possible prospects can view it?  With thousands of possible video codecs and formats, it can be very difficult, and possibly expensive.  The different conversion programs can take significant amounts of time to actually convert the video (many convert in real time) and some are also quite expensive.

I was now thinking that my best option was probably just to take my camera to work.  It suddenly occurred to me why our Video Asset Management application has been making such a splash with video-centric clients as well as other marketing departments that just needed to work with their marketing videos.  Everyone wants to use video, whether it’s for video white papers, customer testimonials or video product tours.  It’s become the mark of industry conscious marketers, and those that don’t have the capability, want it.

Our application allows you to import video in nearly any format and then with the help of Rhozet Carbon coder, we can convert that video on the fly to wherever it needs to go.  Whether it’s to your personal desktop or to a client, the video will always arrive in the appropriate format without having to worry about delays from your media department or conversion programs.

In the end I was able to use our system to upload the footage and deliver it directly to my desktop at home in the appropriate format.  I was able to save all of the footage that I had started to think was taken in vain.  The conversions happened in a flash and I couldn’t be happier with the finished product, now all I have to do is make sure my boss doesn’t get curious as to why I keep bringing my video camera at work…

Every night when I get home the news blares for over an hour before I get frustrated about hearing the same leads and stories over and over again on all of the different channels.  It’s not that I don’t care about what’s going on in the world; I just can’t take the repetition, even if there is more information with this particular report.  Marketing works the same way, and making sure that your messaging and workflows aren’t repetitious is just as important as the message you’re trying to communicate.

Software as a Service (SaaS) has revolutionized marketing communications for years now, helping ease the burden of complicated workflows involving images, audio and video.  By storing all of your marketing assets in one location and regulating entry to the collection, time is eliminated that you would typically spend searching for images and then making sure they’re in the right format.  While the time saving is nice for you, media outlets and bloggers greatly appreciate this freedom to locate their own materials.

While these individuals may be working with you now through bulky emails and excessive disc burning, SaaS allows them immediate access to images, audio and video that can all be used in a more timely fashion to help them meet deadlines.  These individuals outside of your company that want to discuss your products or services are vital to the health of your marketing department. 

In this new Web 2.0 world timeliness is fundamental, along with a simple user experience that will leave these outside individuals always wanting more.  One of our clients, Nikki Beach Publishing, has started using our DAM system for just such a purpose.  Nikki Beach is using the central repository of images and marketing materials to feed the creation of launch kits for hotel openings, collateral material creation and overall brand management of this rapidly growing company.

Widen’s digital asset management has allowed the media to get brand approved pictures of new venues, while also allowing creative and marketing internal access for a more searchable and overall usable system where the catalog virtually every piece of marketing collateral.  And all of this without waiting on one cd to burn, or getting burned out on repetitive messaging or tasks.

Several articles have been published since the Aberdeen Group recently released a study on “Marketing Digital Asset Management: Capturing, Storing, and Retrieving Digital Media to Deliver Strategic Value,” however I want to focus on one particular figure from the study – “Qualitative Value in DAM.”   To clarify, Marketing Digital Asset Management is DAM for the marketing function – makes sense.  The report was authored by Ian Michiels, Sr. Research Analyst for Marketing Management & Digital Marketing, Customer Management Technology Group.

The Qualitative Value in DAM

The study reveals the following improvements for Best-in-Class organizations as a result of digital asset management implementations:

• Time spent locating content DECREASED 75%
• Employee productivity INCREASED 83%
• Asset utilization INCREASED 67%

These are some impressive stats.  I particularly like the increase in asset utilization, which is a good indicator of high user adoption, high return on marketing investments and greater marketing effectiveness.  Since DAM is the central repository for brand-approved assets, increases in asset utilization should also represent increases in marketing efficiency.  This makes the protectors of the brand (like myself) very happy as well. 

To provide a quick customer statistic, Widen’s DAM system has helped the Reebok On-field Apparel Group (now the Sports Licensed Division of the Adidas Group) repurpose each digital asset created over six times in its lifecycle versus a one-time use prior to Widen.   Before Widen, Reebok used to ship physical apparel samples to their retail customers to conduct their own photography for use in catalogs and e-commerce sites.  Widen’s digital sampling process and digital asset management technology allowed Reebok to give their customers on-demand access to official Reebok images, each to be used for a different purpose an average of six times per asset.  In a library of 200,000 assets, that’s a lot of repurposing and brand exposure. View the case study to learn more.

Another interesting part of the Aberdeen report were the “Steps to Success,” separating companies into three categories of Laggard, Industry-Average and Best-in-Class.

Steps to Success

Laggards

• Provide sales & marketing access to marketing assets
• Evaluate asset usage
• Identify business drivers and formalize process for measuring ROI

Industry Average

• Extend access to key stakeholders beyond sales & marketing to others in the value chain
• Standardize the use of one DAM system vs. multiple systems in one organization
• Integrate with workflow processes

Best-in-Class

• Extend access to external members in the marketing value chain
• Integrate DAM with creative applications
• Formalize process allowing users to provide feedback and rating system for content – along the lines of web 2.0
• Invest in people and processes to support the technology

Access the full report from Aberdeen Group

Other people have talked about customization and configuration, but now I want to talk about repackaging digital asset management technologies to serve a slightly different purpose.  The Widen DAM is a very configurable application, however our research team found there were very few web-based applications dedicated to photography workflow so we decided a more drastic change was necessary.

Widen launched a beta version of Backdrop™ with the Winter ‘07 release of the Widen Collective suite of digital asset management technologies to better serve the needs of  photographers and creative teams who can’t be at the same place at the same time during the review process.

Similar in look to Adobe Lightroom, Phase One’s Capture One and Apple Aperture, Backdrop is the web-based extension of these desktop software apps developed to streamline the photography routing and review process by speeding up the front end of the creative cycle.  It means photographers spend more time shooting pictures (and not doing admin tasks) and organizations get their images faster so they can focus on merchandising, marketing and creative.  What is there not to love?

Some of the overlapping parts with DAM and Backdrop include the drag-and-drop uploads, metadata and search functionality.  That’s all well and good, but the cool parts of the app include: an interface designed for professional photography review, automated workflow triggers for approvals, comments and re-shoot notifications, and the ability to integrate the application with other digital asset management systems via web services.  Plus, our favorite part – all the positive feedback we’ve received from photographers and art directors.

Backdrop is available for photography studios and corporate marketing / creative departments.  Learn more at http://www.widenbackdrop.com/.

Check out a demo of Backdrop at: http://www.widen.com/widenbackdrop/backdrop_demo.html