So I am on the plane flying back to Madison after attending the Henry Stewart DAM Symposium in New York City, and I am realizing (to borrow a line from Sesame Street) that one of these things is not like the others, one of these things is not the same. Lets look at the acronym “SaaS, or software as a service.” What is “different” is how hosted, or SaaS digital asset management companies define the last S, “Service.”
 
I sat on a panel with 3 other companies. To be completely honest, it was my first panel in the DAM industry (I have been in the Audio and  Video, and Service world for quite a while) and I was outranked….flanked by VP’s and Chief’s. My goal was to answer any direct questions and keep my comments conservative. As I was listening to them talk, a number of things were going through my head, most of it I truly believe to be technical jargon that made them sound extremely intelligent, but which in reality just confuses the audience….taking away from the simplicity of the reason for the panel….explaining what made us different.

There is a famous saying…”Jack of all trades, master of none.” The one thing I think I did make clear, through the clutter, was that Widen was a 60 year old company, we have never been acquired, bought, sold, eaten, spit out, and that we have a long history of Service. “Service,” that magical word. We have been in a “Service” industry for 60 years. I started to mention some of the things that we do for our customers,…things that we do not charge “extra” for. They are not part of an “extended service plan.” They are just part of doing business with Widen. Nothing else was said by the other vendors that had anything to do with this…. If you believe that most DAM companies have the same functionality in their software, then what’s the difference between us?

I now realize that it is “Service.” I took for granted that what Widen calls Service, was the same as everyone else. My mistake! There is a line in one of our customer case studies that states that because of our excellent service, and quick response, Widen felt like it became and extension of that company’s Marketing dept.

After the conference, that line has now taken on new meaning for me.