Digital Asset Management System

1. Photograph 1 neutral grey apparel sample
2. Digitally create all color swatches according to league approved team colors
3. Apply graphics according to Adidas supplied technical guidelines

 

• Accelerated search and retrieval time
• Increased real-time collaboration of assets and approvals
• Cost savings through the elimination of physical delivery
• Elimination of the cost of lost or misplaced work
• Reduction in time-to-market through digital delivery

While images have historically dominated the make up of digital asset management systems, the trends are showing a growing amount of video and audio files are growing as the dominant asset types.  A more diversified digital asset library means that we’re dealing with much larger file sizes.  Widen is embracing trends by giving customers the scalability they need to use video in their digital asset mix. It’s our job to say no problem and be prepared to handle the video demand.  We’ve thought of the next step because we watch the trends and position the technology to best serve customer needs so that you don’t have to.  Watch the video commentary.
 

A prospective customer and I were discussing their current digital asset management vendor and DAM solution evaluation processes and how those have changed with the recent economic climate.  They pointed to a previous software implementation they had gone through two years prior as a scenario that was one to learn from.  During the evaluation process they had brought in a major consulting firm to help pinpoint their requirements, prepare a formal and lengthy RFP, evaluate responses, and prepare a risk assessment and so on.  They ended up selecting a licensed software solution that cost them a couple hundred thousand dollars after the dust settled.  That included the cost for the solution they purchased as well as the licenses for all of the required hardware and software needed to get it up and running.  They also had to account for ongoing annual maintenance, training and implementation fees.  What was surprising to me was that nearly a quarter of the cost was for the consultants. 

They were never presented with a hosted option though some ASP providers were on the list of early vendors to look at.  He couldn’t immediately recall why none of them were ever included on the list of vendors to receive the RFP though.  I asked him if the consultant was involved in the implementation process at all and he confirmed that they had been.  We got to talking about how DAM SaaS solutions provide the consulting and change management services as part of the package.  Hosted solutions are designed to eliminate most of the heavy lifting and costs associated with licensed software implementations.  Hosted providers typically bundle all of the costs into a single subscription fee of some kind, have fast and easy implementations and because they are working with their own software can make changes, configurations and even customizations fairly easily.
 
Consultants have a right to say that they save the customer countless thousands by ensuring they get a software solution to exactly match their requirements.  They can make a case about hidden costs for hosted solutions and how many customers have no idea how their own businesses are even run and require a steady hand to figure it out.  The prospect I was talking to was implementing another digital asset management system the first go around.  This is in fact why we were speaking in the first place.  They were in the market to replace the solution they had previously purchased with something that will work for them.  The solution they originally chose is still not implemented and is only supporting a handful of administrative users at present, though they planned a rollout to thousands of people.  This time around, they have decided to forego a formal evaluation process and speak directly to the vendors.    
 

• LightSource Colortron 1997 - 2001
  
  • First hand held sub $5000 spectrophotometer ($1500)
  • Used software on a computer for intelligence
• ColorBlind software 1997 - 2000
  
  • First to use 3D modeling so you could see what was happening with gamuts
• Standards Committees
  
  • Dave McDowell, Larry Warter, Mike Rodriguez, Larry Steele worked tirelessly to provide the framework that enabled all of this color management technology. "These guys don't get enough credit. Because without them, this industry would really be in disarray." Dave said.

I have other posts regarding a "Mezzanine" format for video...something that is high enough quality for repurposing, but more compressed than the original to save on storage space in your digital asset management or video asset management system. H.264 is an excellent video format to use as a mezzanine, but with compression, comes "loss." One of the main issues with H.264 is a loss of color saturation. Here are a couple helpful tips to give your video a little "bump" if choosing H.264 as your format.

When rendering or exporting your video, depending on which encoder you use, you should add a couple filters. You can play with the settings to fine tune it, but when rendering, I tend to lower the brightness a couple clicks, up the contrast a couple clicks, and increase the saturation between 10-20. If I am feeling spunky, I will add a level of sharpen to it as well. Below are before and after frame grabs. The first is a straight H.264. The second is the H.264 with the above enhancements. As you can see, it is a much better looking image, which will repurpose better in a video asset management system.

Regular H.264

Multichannel Merchant had an article by Melissa Dowling titled Software Selection Smarts yesterday, which included several good tips about selecting a software vendor.

What to look for when selecting a software vendor?

• Proven success in your niche
• Cultural fit between organizations
• Complete package vs. custom technology
• Future functionality requirements
• Training and user adoption

After reading the article and dissecting the main points I had an “Aha! Moment” recognizing that these are all reasons contributing to the popularity of Software as a Service (SaaS), particularly in this economic climate where it is difficult to justify large capital expenditures on software, hardware and a reallocation of IT resources.

Successful SaaS providers grasp these points and are the reason why they continue to be the answer to software questions in this economic climate...

1. Proven success in your industry and with people in similar roles
2. Cultural fit as an extension of your business and/or functional areas
3. Configurable package options without heavy need for customization
4. Shared transparency of future product roadmap to align with the goals of the customer
5. Widespread user adoption achieved through proper training, marketing support and ongoing tech support

These factors are what drives the ongoing success of a software implementation at any company dealing with restricted budgets, too much on the” to-do list,” increased demand of specialization and fewer resources to focus on the core business.  Whether you’re looking for an enterprise digital asset management system or hosted DAM software for your SMB or agency, consider these factors for any marketing or creative software.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) demand continues to rise thanks to the pairing of great technology providers and decision makers trusting in the SaaS model to help solve their business challenges.  We speak with prospective customers every minute of the day and the shift in demand over the last 3 years has been enlightening.  Isolating the request for proposals (RFP) alone can give you insight into how buyers have changed.

Three years ago we had RFP’s for digital asset management (DAM) because the organizations had challenges managing their collections of digital media (and still do today, just an exponentially greater volume of digital media).  But only a fraction of these DAM RFP’s (appropriate use of acronyms but the irony of the DAM RFP is oh so great)  were requesting how they could better manage their images, audio, and video files because the rest of it was specifying hardware and other I.T. requirements.  As a SaaS provider, it was a simple copy and paste of the words, “Not Applicable, Software-as-a-Service Provider.”

So the SaaS providers would rarely get invited any further in the process, but on occasion would be taken to the final decision to stand against the installed software provider just so the organization could compare apples and oranges.  If you could hear what was being said in the decision room, it might have sounded something like this (with heavy sarcasm for fun):

“We have entertained two different methods of deploying our digital asset management technology.  One method is purchasing software from a digital asset management provider and then using all our available I.T. resources to acquire the necessary hardware that we will never upgrade. 

A few other highlights if we go with the installed DAM software option:
 

• We then deploy the $200,000 software on these devices so that we can determine what customizations we would need to accommodate the original specifications in our RFP. 
   
• Then we could customize it for 5x the cost we paid for the setup solidifying our legacy application status which makes future upgrades from this DAM software provider more difficult (but I am leaving the organization in 12-months for a better job so what do I care). 
   
• Then we get to roll it out to the user base after partnering with one of the integrators that the DAM provider recommends. 
   
• This also gives I.T. the opportunity to purchase more bandwidth because we are going to be transferring massive sized files and with the upcoming demands of marketing including lots of video, we can plan on about 50% of our total bandwidth being consumed by feeding video to our web and channel partners. 
   
• This should all take anywhere between 3 and 36 months.

The other option is DAM SaaS which is having someone else manage the technology and we manage our digital media, which was kinda the original purpose of the RFP process but we’re not sure anymore.

Our recommendation is to purchase the software because we get to own it…not really though because we don’t own the source code… Well, I guess we don’t own it… we just license it… But, we have the perceived sense of owning it so we’ll call it that because it sounds better. 

We recommend the installed option for the following reasons as well: 

• We also get total control over the deployment and our I.T. team will work closely with marketing and creative to meet their schedules and requirements.  I know they haven’t gotten along in the past because their projects keep getting pushed for other I.T. priorities but this time is different. 
   
• I.T. says they should deploy everything anyway because they want to continually purchase new hardware because it is fun looking at new stuff and the hardware suppliers give me tickets to cool events and other gadgets to play with for personal use. 
   
• More importantly, when the DAM provider releases new software they get a chance to debug it on the fly which is a great high pressure situation to help advance their skill set; almost like defusing a bomb. 
   
• That is only after we determine if we can take the upgrade because we might have done so much customization that is will cause too much disruption which means we just won’t upgrade, ever.  But I.T. also thinks that is ok because they would increase their networking opportunities because they could work more closely with the integrators and third party providers that would write the customizations to the original DAM software.

It is obvious that the installed software choice for this digital asset management system is more exciting which is why I am asking for an open purchase order because I am not clear with the total cost related to owning this thing.  Someone asked about scalability earlier as well, but we have opted not to address that because I am leaving the company before that becomes an issue anyway.”

Fond memories... 

Thank goodness nearly every RFP for managing digital media now requires that the service be managed by a software-as-a-service organization so the focus can be on managing and distributing digital media.
 

DEAR DR. DAM:  My name is Patrick, Director of Premedia at a mid-sized marketing agency.  I have an extreme problem providing and controlling access to our digital files.  I have a number of internal departments that require different levels of access and our current method of using an internal shared folder is driving me nuts with all the problems we encounter just trying to keep things organized.  We do a high amount of direct mail pieces and need an efficient way for my team and clients to review the prints.  How can something so basic be so difficult to handle?

DEAR PERPLEXED PATRICK:  You would think that everyone would be utilizing a web-based digital asset management system by now...  just kidding.  Your prescription calls for a central repository with role-based access controls, complete with on-the-fly file transformations and a project collaboration component.  With Widen marketing resource management features, you have the ability to upload proofs for internal and external review and approval tracking.  I caution you of the intense spike in productivity you may experience by cutting out much of the manual labor dealing with content management and structure.

From images, to audio and video, Widen DAM SaaS applications provide the tools to help clients successfully manage and distribute their digital assets.  For the majority of our clients, there are select individuals that become the champions of their digital asset management implementation.  These are the people that hold the most responsibility in administering the applications and are the key decision makers into what the system manages and how to manage the system.

One of the great capabilities with a DAM System is that Administrators have the ability to run reports on all activity.  These reports include determining who is logging in to the platform, which assets are ordered the most or even determining how many assets you have for a particular product. 

Reporting is key to gathering market insights, determining product popularity, and understanding how/where to allocate marketing resources.  Moreover, reporting is extremely important when it comes to managing rights and knowing exactly how, where and by whom your brand assets are being used.  Reporting and tracking tools are vital to leveraging digital asset management programs as a true resource to marketing operations driving brand consistency and revenues.
 

Here’s a brief overview of a few standard reporting options for Widen Administrators:

Site Overview – Dashboard showing number of users, number of assets, total size (GB/TB), top users by number of logins, top assets ordered, and top asset quick searches.

Trend Graphs – Standard list of out-of-the-box reports showing trend graphs and data tables over time for Assets Orders, Assets, Versions, Asset Groups and Users

User Reports – Custom reports on user demographic info, roles, and activity such as logins

Registration Reports – Custom reports to control / monitor system access

Asset Reports – Custom reports on all asset metadata and security / release dates

Asset Order Reports – Custom reports with sender and recipient data

Asset Upload Reports – Custom reports on all assets entering the DAM system

Other Reports – Photo Routing (for Backdrop), Projects (for Collaboration), Templates (for Media Building) and Catalog Production

Do you ever get the urge of “I just gotta have it”...  Who doesn’t? ... Whatever “it” is.

Now when it comes to info, video clips and pictures, what do you do when you just gotta have it?

Applications like Facebook and devices like the iPhone have made that so much easier and have trained us to think that way. 

Now, how does this apply to digital asset management software?  The demand for rich media has been on the rise and will only continue to skyrocket.  If you’re responsible for creating, managing and distributing digital assets – the lifeblood driving brand awareness and revenue – you need to have a system that can satisfy the “I gotta have it” need for those that need it most. 

Search – Whether you’re a marketer, designer, web developer or salesperson, when you need a file – you just gotta have it now.  You can’t wait for someone else and you can’t waste time sifting through file folders or legacy systems.  Google has trained us to search by keyword and get the most relevant search results.  It’s expected.  Shouldn’t your rich media be the same way?

Preview – So now you got the file in front of you – print brochure, hi-res image, PowerPoint presentation, audio / video clips – don’t you want to actually see it.  It’s no good to you if all you get is a small thumbnail preview.  You want the whole DAM thing.  The ability to preview files saves you the time of waiting for a file to download, unzip or pull down off an FTP site. 

Transform – After you find the asset you’re looking for, you’re going to need it in different formats.  No marketer is running a single channel anymore.  You’re assets must be available for use in web pages, print pieces, catalogs, emails, blogs and social media.  Moreover, they're being consumed on a whole variety of devices.  You can’t always depend on a designer to convert the files for you or having the right software to handle every single file processing need.  Wouldn’t it be great if you could automate file transformation services?

Apply that mindset to a whole organization whose team is dependent on the ability to access, share and repurpose your digital assets – they all just gotta have it.  For those that don’t (or shouldn’t), a digital asset library gives you the ability to control rights, access and usage levels.

When it comes to producing and repurposing digital assets, a web-based digital asset management system offering the ability to access what you need, when you need it satisfies the hunger for “I gotta have it.”

• Can you create the appropriate levels of access into the system?
• Can you manage when users should have access to content and when those rights should expire? 
• Can you track who is using what and when? 
• Can you warn users about the appropriate use for a file?

DEAR DR. DAM:  My name is Stacey, the Sales Director at a pet food distribution company. My job is to make sure our sales reps are fully equipped to sell our product. Right now, we are seeing tremendous lag time in getting the latest materials out to them, and also making sure the corporate branding is consistent. We work with themed promotions and when we release the latest version we have to spend so much time customizing each contact portion for our sales reps all over the US and then get all the materials sent out. Shipping costs are outrageous!  In terms of representing our brand consistently, I have sales reps that get sick of waiting and try to manipulate the old piece themselves and quite frankly the end product doesn’t represent the company the way we would like.  Marketing and Sales teams are just on two completely different chapters… let alone pages.  It’s like working with cats and dogs!  What can I do?

DEAR SELF-EMPOWERED STACEY:  Simply put, you need to take a look at Widen’s Marketing Asset Management system for dynamic media building. This application will allow your sales reps to build promotional materials on-demand by selecting a pre-approved layout, group of images and text, and have the ability to customize each piece to their specific selling situation. Your reps can log on to your web-based library and build flyers, brochures, direct mail and all sorts of printable collateral – instantly.  What’s more, they can seamlessly send the files to a local printer to be professionally printed on-demand. This will reduce high shipping costs, high lag times and give you the ability to keep brand consistency at the forefront.  Best of all, you’re enabling your sales channels to get the latest and greatest materials in the hands of your customers. The best part is your sales team will feel self empowered and the person having to do these batch creations can actually get some rest.

Video, Video, Video!  It’s the buzz for marketers in 2009. I’d say about 80% of my daily contacts involve questions revolving around video asset management.  I’ve had several conversations with agencies having clients demanding more videos and they need web-based storage and global access.

Recently, I had a conversation with an agency who, in looking for value-added services was interested in our video handling capabilities. As video became hotter and hotter, they quickly out-grew their low end system.  Now they want their clients to be able to login, view the videos without downloading anything, and have the files hosted externally where there is more scalability. This agency recognized that with the right tools, the video hosting service has extreme profitability potential. They needed to look no further…

Also need to connect your video to your web content management system? Check out our new feature of Embed Links. Each asset in Widen DAM comes complete with a unique URL that can be pasted into any online source. Once that page loads, the video is being pulled from your collective. This will streamline the process of updating a video, by allowing you to make an edit in one central location, and have it automatically update in every place it is being used.

Communicating Color Effectively

At the 2008 PIA Color Management Conference, Don Hutcheson presented a session called, "How to Communicate Color Effectively" Originally from New Zealand, Don is a private consultant (www.hutchcolor.com) with over 30 years of experience, specializing in the development and installation of color management systems.  Although his work focuses on high end prepress, premedia and printing users, his clients also include agencies, art galleries, billboard makers, image banks, movie studios, newspapers, photolabs, publishers, and color management developers. 

If you've never had the opportunity to hear Don speak, he is truly a pleasure to listen to.  I think he really embodies the term "edutainment."  You can't help but be entertained as you listen and learn from him.  Maybe it's just his New Zealand accent that cracks me up.  Or maybe I'm just easily entertained.  Anyway, if you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak, do it.

Don began by covering the reasons that we communicate color -  To describe a desired effect, to ask for a color correction or edit, to critique a color proof or print job, or to control how a file looks when printed.  All of these involve the need to be able to effectively communicate color.

Color is personal, it is technology-dependent, it is affected by the environment, clients often don't understand production limitations, and clients, artists and technicians use different terms.  These are all color communication problems.

Common causes for color errors:
• Non-profiled devices
• No embedded profile
• Ignoring the embedded profile
• Using the wrong profile
• Non-standard proofs
• Non-standard lighting
• Using non-standard color terminology

Key requirements when communicating color include:
• Education (client and industry)
• Proper use of ICC Profiles
• Use of standard color terms (spoken and written)
• Controlled viewing conditions
• Consistent, standardized proofing and printing
• Education, education, education, education....

Education is critical
To underscore how important client and self education is, Don stressed that education is a never-ending task.  "It is the normal cost of doing business.  They are cheap investments, and they pay for themselves," Don said.

Don then showed a number of screens to illustrate the fact that different devices see or display color differently.  He showed how nine different cameras will capture color in nine different ways.  He showed how four monitors can display the same RGB values differently, and how the same CMYK values can lead to five different images on five different output devices (press and paper differences).  "Color cannot be expressed unambiguously in CMYK or RGB units," Don said.

Monitor proofing
In speaking about viewing color on screen Don stressed that monitor profiling and proofing is the cheapest, MOST VALUABLE use of color management.  It saves cost and time of conventional proofing.  It is the stable basis for color management.

Proof standardization
"The ONLY purpose of a proof is to predict how the press will print.  And solving proof variations solves a major color communication problem," Don said.

He went on to discuss GRACoL/SWOP proofing and the need to have standardized proofing.  "Insisting on GRACoL or SWOP certified proofs solves 95% of all color communication problems," Don said.  He added that one of the outstanding proofing issues is that not everyone is using certified proofs yet.

Don went on to add that it is not enough to produce certified proofs.  They must be measured.  Control strips must be placed on every proof.

Note: Widen provides only industry certified SWOP and GRACoL proofing, and verifies each proof with color control strips on each proof.

Color Language Options
Don discussed the different terminology we all use when describing color, calling it the Babel Effect. He showed a single patch of red...

• The client calls it: Red hot
• The designer calls it: Pantone 185
• The printer calls it: 100M, 76Y
• The Photographer calls it: 230R, 0G, 50B
• The Scientist calls it: 49L*, 76a*, 43b*

Don then promoted LCH as the best color language when communicating color.  Pantone is not a color space, RGB and CMYK are not single color spaces, and CIELab is not human-friendly.  Don referred to LCH as "The human color space."  L = Luminance (lightness), C = Chroma, H = Hue.  Don used an analogy of the crayon to illustrate what LCH is.  "We all remember crayons, right?  Hue is what color the crayon is (red, blue, etc...), Chroma is how hard you press down with the crayon, and Luminance changes based on how much light is on the paper," Don said.

CIELCH as shown here in Don Hutcheson's diagram, is easier to understand, and communicates color more effectively than CMYK, RGB or Pantone.

When building a library of colors, Don stressed not to use the CMYK percentages indicated in the Pantone books.  They are not matched to any standard proofs or printing.  The Pantone number should be given. "Or better still, supply the actual Pantone chip.  That way, a spectrophotometer can be placed on the chip to determine the proper color," Don said.

Don stressed that you should always accept embedded profiles when receiving files, saying that it's your best hope to see what the sender saw along with accurately profiled monitors at both ends of the communication chain.

Getting the word out
Don wrapped up by saying that you can only teach the people you reach, so he thought about how to reach a wider audience with his color communication message.  He got some laughs as he showed his audience the billboards he created (in digital form only I suppose)...

There, I did my part to help get the word out, Don...

Mark

Hello all, I’ve been a guest blogger at Widen for awhile and want to catch you up on some of my previous blog posts.  Here’s a summary of some of my more popular ones:

The Shocking News of SaaS – Upgrades

Recapping an experience describing Widen’s four-time-per-year release cycle to a group of IT people – a feat unparalleled in the content management industry.  To an IT department where resources are very limited, they saw our release schedule as a real concern and liability.  However, that’s the beauty and a core advantage of Software as a Service – you don’t have to worry about upgrades. 


The DAM Middle Class

Commenting on Theresa Regli’s (CMS Watch) blog on Digital Asset Management about the lack of what she calls a “Middle Class” DAM software solution.  Theresa points out that an empty gap exists between smaller desktop solutions with price points under $5,000 and those enterprise solutions costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.  With the lack of options available to them, more and more companies are looking to hosted services – like the one offered by Widen – as the answer.  This is because SaaS solutions do not force customers to choose between functionality and price.


Digital Asset Management Implementation: Complex or Simple

Do you realize how complex a DAM implementation can become?  In many cases, it just doesn’t need to be that big of a deal.  Many vendors tell customers they need to invest months and months in planning and preparation for a DAM solution, define very complex processes and then spend tens of thousands on RFP development, vendor shootouts, risk analysis, consulting fees, and then the implementation and integration.  If all that worked then why are so many companies looking to migrate to a second or even a third DAM system?  That’s why the hosted or on-demand model works well…


You have the right to a quick, successful Digital Asset Management system implementation

How can any company trust a vendor as a future partner and service provider who can't even respond to a simple RFP and instead provides a list of weak excuses?  This is an interesting story illustrating how some DAM vendors don’t recognize that service starts before the sale.


My Take on DAM. Period.

DAM should be more than just a simple repository of rich media.  The DAM platform should be the base of your entire digital media environment.  DAM should feed all of your media portals and websites so partners, agencies, offices, vendors, your boss and your grandmother can go to the get the latest image, logo, commercial or brochure they need.  Right?  Read On.


What Have Vendors Got to Hide?

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.  (And you should…) Read on to understand why.


Digital Asset Management Software as a Service – selecting a partner

We talk a lot about hosted vs. installed software and it’s becoming more obvious why organizations choose DAM SaaS, but here are a couple more things to look for:  Support, Product Improvement, Cost, Experience, Ease-of-use (and do your users use it?), Features, Vision.


Accountability From Your Software Vendors

An interesting press release reminded me again of a key difference between traditionally licensed software products and those offered through the Software as a Service (SaaS) model – Upgrades.


Where have all the DAM SaaS Providers Gone?

There has never been a shortage of vendors claiming to offer some sort of tool to manage, archive or distribute rich media files.  Of the throngs of Digital Asset Management vendors that cloud the market, few competent pure play vendors and even fewer DAM as Software as a Service (SaaS) providers remain.  A landscape that has traditionally been characterized by companies who focused exclusively on providing solutions for managing digital media files has been taken over by the larger Content Management behemoths that have gobbled up the original inhabitants to offer DAM modules instead of solutions.

Being the gatekeeper for video here at Widen, I decided to piece together some clips of our client interviews that deal with how Digital Asset Management, and Video Asset Managment has helped our clients reduce costs, increase efficiency, and increase capabilities.  In the current economic climate, we often hear companies say that they have a freeze on new spending.  The reality is that most of our clients don't consider our web-based digital asset management system a "new spend." They are reallocating budgeted dollars from other areas that DAM will free up resources or cost spending in.

Jim Scarlata from Knaack Manufacturing talks about saving time and cost of burning CD/DVDs and shipping.  Doug Rammel from Reebok talks about how they would not even be able to produce the amount of physical samples needed to support their current sales.  DAM and Digital Sampling not only reduce their production costs, but support their current sales volume which would not be able to be supported with out it.  John Wernecke from Motorola talks about how there would need to be four more employees to do the amount of work he can do with Digital Asset Management as a tool.  How's that for an ROI?

Take a look at the video compilation titled Reallocate in Down Market.

"Ease of Use" video interview with Jim Magruder, Senior Marketing Communications Manager of InSinkErator, Division of Emerson Electric Co.

How simple can it be?  Well, Jim Magruder of InSinkErator says the Widen Digital Asset Management system runs itself it’s so simple.  It saves his staff a lot of time with how easy it is to order up an image using the web-based DAM.  When all you need to do to find an image is type in a keyword and you’re presented with an array of high-quality images, you’re relieved!  Then, when a user sees the yellow star highlighting the most preferred image and can access it instantly in the preferred file format using a simple check out system, that’s simple.  Who wouldn’t want something so easy to work with?  If only life in general was that simple.