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

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

1. Support

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

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

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

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

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

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

2. Upgrades

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

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

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

3.  Risk

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

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

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

Your message of “we are currently reducing our marketing budget at the same time the amount of marketing projects is increasing” is heard, but what are you going to do about it? 

If a marketing professional wants to make their presence known to the organization, the time is now.  Instead of cowering in the corner waiting for your job to be cut, rise up and take charge.  Establish yourself as a marketer that can work in all types of situations, even the darkest of economic hours.  Prove to the organization that marketing will not be steered off course in the effort to reach the marketplace with a consistent brand voice.

Your resources are being eliminated and your budget cut in half but what are you going to do about it?  The time to step up and advance your career is now; but how?  Let the spotlight shine in the corner of software-as-a-service.  You could not paint a better picture for the justification of software-as-a-service technologies:

• Marketing resources being eliminated – CHECK
• I.T. resources being eliminated – CHECK
• Marketing budgets being cut – CHECK
• Marketing project load increasing – CHECK

You have heard the message from every software-as-a-service provider but maybe this time that message will resonate.  When the provider says you can do more with less, they are talking about the situation you are currently in.  Trying to market in a downturn is an extremely difficult task but doing so successfully requires the right strategy, the right resources, and the right attitude. The attitude is all in your court but strategy and resources is where you can reach out and ask for help. 

Isolate the creation, management, and distribution of your digital media.  You cannot just stop creating the digital media that helps drive revenue.  In fact you are creating exponentially more of it because the impact is greater and it is the most cost effective way to reach the market with your message.

As you create more of it, you create larger problems with managing and distributing it.  Managing and distributing large and large amounts of marketing and creative files is a responsibility you can delegate to your sales and marketing channels.  Establish the process by which everyone in need of your digital media is granted self-service access.  Establish one central source of digital media that can be repurposed and distributed worldwide while maintaining the integrity of your brand.  Establish the foundation for reducing costs.  Establish a digital asset management system using a software-as-a-service provider.

As a fellow marketer, I have used software-as-a-service technologies to manage and distribute digital media and I can guarantee that software-as-a-service providers enable you to do more with less.  Whether it is customer relationship management with Salesforce.com, digital asset management with Widen, or web content management with Clickability, a software-as-a-service provider is the answer to the ultimate question; what are you going to do about it?

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

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

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

Other “must-haves” for the client include:

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

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

...in more ways than one.

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

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

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. 

Omri Duek from InfoTrends stopped by Widen's booth at the Henry Stewart DAM Symposium in New York this year to conduct a video interview with Jake Athey and I. Our booth was promoting the Widen Appliance - "A New Twist on DAM." Traditionally, in Digital Asset Management, there are 2 main delivery methods, 'Installed' and 'hosted.' Historically, one of the advantages 'installed' providers had over SaaS/hosted/Software as a Service providers was that internal employees could work on files at network speeds rather than over the internet. The Widen Appliance is Widen's attempt to blur that line. It is a hardware/software combination that we maintain, but at the client's location. Thus, internal employees can work at network speeds while Widen still provides a complete managed service to that company without any need for IT resources.

I don't think anyone is confused about the staying power of newspapers and television news.  While internet news sources have been consistently growing over the years and gaining readership, the actual amount of the users are stunning to some people.  An in-depth study by Ipsos MediaCT has revealed exactly what these user numbers look like.

According to the study (link) 72% of business executives think that a strong web presence is integral for business publications.  Essentially, these executives may be watching or reading the news at a different time, but the web presence and search ability of the same publication's website is also a vital aspect of providing the news.

The convergence of the news media formats is also something that is growing tremendously.  As many as 57% of these executives have streamed or watched broadband video on their computer.  What we can see from this is that the synergy of media is allowing for a more cohesive presentation of the news.  Can't make it to a television in time?  Watch the exact same news on your computer.  This also seems to provide a technological security blanket for users, allowing them to experience traditional media through a new interface.

Along with this study regarding the ingestion of media, it has also been found in a separate study that promotional spending on traditional media is dropping significantly (link).  According to Eloqua, marketers plan on reducing their spending on printed media by 55% over the next three years.  While this is significant in itself, they also claim that the majority of this money will be re-appropriated to internet advertising budgets.

Alternative media forms have also gained a foothold in the market according to these reports as well.  According to Ipsos Media CT, there has been a 40% increase in blogging and social marketing usership, while Eloqua goes on to point out that marketers plan to increase their spending by as much as 77% over the next three years.

So what does this all mean?  The internet is getting bigger and more popular right?  Well who didn't know that.  While this may not seem like big news to some people, it may serve as a very slight wake up call for others.  Some businesses have resisted the changes associated with Web 2.0 and associated workflows.  While it may not have been justifiable to have someone on staff or outsource a portion of your business to address these needs, it seems that the time has come to pay more attention to where the internet may be going.

When we set up digital asset management systems for our clients, they typically contain a full mix of marketing's brand assets....images, logos, brochures, audio and video.

As corporate marketing departments are adding video production and video services to the mix, the wrench in adding these files to DAM is the relative size of a video file compared to other file types. Typical hi res image files pale in comparisson to broadcast quality videos, not to mention videos that are longer than 30 seconds in length. A hi res image from a digital slr camera will be around 50 Megabytes. That is a little over 10 seconds of Standard Definition DV quality video...less than 3 seconds of HD video. If you do the math, you see how storing video can eat up hard drive space very quickly.

One way to combat this is to store what are called "Mezzanine" files in the DAM. They are compressed videos that take up less space than the full res files, but are hi res "enough" that they make great quality highly compressed videos typically used on the web.

For example, if you decide to use Mpeg 2 as your mezzanine file for a 10 minute video, it will look completely normal on if burned to a DVD, while only taking up 1/5th the disk space of the full res DV version. If you decide to make a flash video for your website or publish to Youtube (converts all videos to flv or flash after you upload) you will see virtually no visable difference in the quality of the flash video created from the mpeg 2 verses one made from the DV file. Vid-heads will argue about this, including myself. But make no mistake, they....we are looking at it under a microscope. Everyone else will see no difference.

If your video collection is growing, and you are worrying about storing all the hi res versions, settling on a mezzanine format may be a great solution for you.

Several new forms of media have come to be associated with the catch phrase of ‘Web 2.0’.  There are wikis, blogs, varying video usage and also podcasts and vidcasts.  While these are all viable avenues for communicating a brand message, podcasts and vidcasts are growing rapidly in adoption rates due to the underlying principle of this media vehicle: convenience.

Both podcasts and vidcasts are designed to be taken with the viewer and experienced on the go.  Users appreciate this due to the growing number of responsibilities of departments and individuals, which leaves less time for examining and experiencing new products or services.  Messages can be communicated clearly and quickly so that the user can get a quick snapshot of whatever it is you are communicating.

While podcasts and vidcasts still have a good amount of room to grow, the advancements in technology and technology adoption are allowing for broader audiences to be reached.  What was previously only viewable on a portable media player can now be seen on cell phones, ultra-portable laptops or even streamed through gaming consoles.  The possibilities for message delivery have grown immensely, with development continuing in these type of applications at an astounding pace.

The overall ease of use and the growing types of delivery for these messages have opened a new stream of contact directly to the consumer.  Unlike television commercials, users select the information that they ingest and are willing to be confronted with targeted commercial messaging as long as it is comparable to the rest of the information they are viewing.

The benefit of this type of connection to marketing and sales departments is huge.  You are able to reach a much more segmented audience that wants to hear your message.  While this may have been rare in the past, Web 2.0 methods and tactics are allowing for higher levels of direct customer interaction than ever before.  While the adoption of new technology may not be near the top of the priority list for some companies, it may be time to do some more exploring as to what other possibilities you may be missing out on by not being part of the Web 2.0 movement.

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.

With the recent tragedies in Asia, it has become blatantly obvious that catastrophes can happen anywhere, at any time.  These events have destroyed families and also businesses.  Many businesses haven’t even considered the need for a recovery plan, not realizing that their brand management efforts could suffer greatly following any sort of system failure, large or small.  Those that may have thought about it haven’t stopped to think about what sort of disaster recovery plan they should have, or how to implement it. 

There are several risks involved in not being prepared for such an event.  You stand the chance of losing all of your branded materials as well as any marketing or sales assets that will cripple overall sales.  What are some processes that could be put into place to prevent this?  Who do you need to contact?  What can they do for us?  These are all questions that are answered and serviced by Widen.

Widen not only provides digital asset management services that can help with this, but we also have several security measures in place for our own office.  We back up all of our servers to an off-site facility once a week as well as having security standards in place that will ensure the protection of both your brand and data.  With a new-found emphasis on security and threats growing by the day, you need to start examining your options.  Let Widen help.

As the sun shines and summertime nears it makes me want to get outside and play yard games – bocce ball, bean bags (where I come from) and that game with the golf balls on a string.  Would you agree?   However, I have a game you can play right there in the office… it’s a classic called “Where’s my assets?” 

Unfortunately, I doubt the one you’re looking for has a hat, sweater and glasses. 

Al, Ryan, Kristina and I enjoy it because it gives a chance to really give each other lots of grief.  I’ve been with the marketing team the longest, so naturally I’ve structured a majority of the internal shared drive for our sales and marketing materials.  It’s great because I know where some of the stuff is so I get to laugh at them when they’re basically stuck in the mud (another childhood favorite).  

When our sales team asks us to create something that I swear we did at the end of the year last year, it’s like a game of duck, duck, goose or rock paper scissors to see who gets to handle the request.  Hmmm… I’m not sure if this ever happens to you, but after about 20 minutes of hide and seek we’re forced to ask our designer, Danielle, if she can quickly whip up a new document.  I can’t even begin to tell you how many lunches we owe her for the number of times she’s had to recreate a new version of something that’s been done a half-dozen times. 

What’s even more fun is when Matthew calls on us for the most current slide that he needs for a presentation tomorrow – it’s kind of like a game of marco polo the way our speaker phones echo across the corridor – more office fun!

For a marketing department of 7 at a company of 110, we really don’t have any excuses because we have this DAM marketing software at our fingertips to help us manage our content and brand assets.  But, I’m sure bigger companies don’t really have these problems because they’ve got it all figured out.   If you feel like joining in on the fun, just ask Dr. DAM. 

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. 

1.  Recycle your digital assets in something new.

Recycling your assets in new projects and media channels prevents the loss of potentially useful content, reducing the energy required to re-create misplaced materials.

2.  Reduce administration, re-work and time to market with new materials.

Reducing the amount of time and resources (human or technology) required to recreate, locate, re-process and use promotional materials increases the overall productivity and effectiveness of the people responsible for creating them.

3.  Reuse your digital assets again and again.

Reusing digital assets across new promotional materials, channels and more people increases their impact and value, in addition to driving a consistent message.

4.  Retrieve your digital assets anywhere, anytime.

Retrieving promotional materials using a powerful, easy-to-use system makes it possible to re-apply the efforts invested in the creation of those assets.  

5.  Repurpose your digital assets across multiple media and selling channels.

Repurposing promotional materials in a variety of mediums using workflow automation increases the effectiveness of the asset and the person using the asset and increases consistency of your brand message across multiple channels.

6.  Respond to changing market conditions, consumer demands and selling situations.

Responding quickly to changing market conditions, consumer demands and selling situations with resources and promotional materials adequately satisfying the need helps increase marketing agility and brand equity. 

7.  Realize a Return on Marketing Investments.

ROI, as in justifying expectations of performance and cost savings (hard & soft), is a fundamental factor for marketing decisions dealing with new technologies, resources, and projects.

Digital Asset Management helps you realize a quick ROI from implementation to ongoing maintenance and support, in addition to helping you increase ROI for the creation, use and effectiveness of digital media.  

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.

With gas floating over $3 per gallon, people seem to be questioning now, more than ever, whether or not they should be making changes to try to conserve.  The rising fuel prices have also had a chain effect on everything from milk to lumber.  With that sort of reaction, you have to wonder if your marketing software might be gouging your pocket book in the same way.

Installed solutions are typically more expensive than newer, software as a service solutions.  This comes from a higher cost for the initial implementation, all the way down to higher maintenance costs for both IT and software and hardware upgrades.  While some marketers may be able to justify this cost initially, the effect that it has on overall budgets can be decimating.  Whether its trade shows that get scrapped, or R and D budgets that are hindered, it’s an expenditure that is unnecessary.

In many instances software as a service, and more specifically digital asset management, can provide the same brand management tools that are being sold by large installed software companies.  By selecting software as a service, you not only save on a quicker implementation and no immediate hardware upgrades, but you will also see a relatively quick ROI due to all of the maintenance that your IT department will no longer be held accountable for.

The overall user experience for digital asset management is overwhelmingly high.  Brand recognition routinely increases as well as the creation of all promotional materials for both sales and marketing departments.  Digital asset management as a solution to your marketing needs is something you can’t overlook anymore.  Think of it this way: Would you continue to pay $3 per gallon if there was a fuel that was available for $2 per gallon that would make your vehicle perform better?  If you still felt that the $3 per gallon was the better option, we wish you the best in your installed software endeavors…

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.