I'm Matthew Gonnering. In a 10-minute conversation that is supposed to be 2-minutes, you will clearly see I am a rambling marketer. The madness comes from my passion for marketing and why global domination is actually a reasonable goal with the right resources.

I have a fancy executive title for visionary purposes but getting in the marketing trenches is where I revolutionize change.

My goal is to help marketing teams create sustainable change within their departments leveraging internal champions to influence stakeholders and let them take all the credit.

Caution before reading: My highly competitive spirit may offend the avoiders and compromisers.

Follow me at http://twitter.com/mgonnering.

Do you believe the Widen’s highly responsive and knowledgeable teams, accessible to every client, provide an unmatched service experience for every customer?

We do.

Our challenge is to differentiate ourselves with our service when our competitors make similar claims. So how is the market to know who to trust and what to expect from a specific digital asset management (DAM) vendor prior to signing an agreement?

Evidence.

Last year, we launched the SaaSisfaction Gauntlet, a challenge to the DAM community to share customer satisfaction survey results. We led the way, and set the industry benchmark, by sharing our customer results. We knew this would also benefit DAM seekers, who need to know what the service experience will be with a vendor. Backing claims of “great customer service” with little more than lip service is not good enough.

With a service legacy since 1948, we strongly believe that the Widen service model and the way we treat customers is what other digital asset management vendors strive to become. We like paving the way and shall continue by sharing evidence that our customers are the most satisfied digital asset management customers in the market.

Since the competitive response to sharing customer satisfaction results was zero, we thought maybe the survey was too much work, too many questions; perhaps there was not enough time available for the marketing teams at the other digital asset management vendors to determine how satisfied their customers are. Maybe a survey was done but it was not worth sharing with everyone because the results did not match up to Widen. Either way, the response was noticeably absent for all. 

The poor DAM buyers, they have no idea what they are getting into without vendor evidence of a satisfied customer experience.

This year we simplified things to one question. For the benefit of continuous improvement and more satisfied digital asset management experiences, we are asking DAM vendors to ask one question then share the results of that question. The question comes from Net Promoter and is as follows:

How likely is it that you would recommend [DAM Vendor Name] to a friend or colleague?

That’s it. One question. Too tough because you have never surveyed your customers before and don’t have a good survey tool to use? Use Survey Monkey; it’s free and easy to use. 

Widen results are available here.

Please let us know who you are by completing the form then you will be taken directly to the download page where you can see how our customers responded to that one question.

If you are a DAM vendor, post your responses back to your blog, website, or issue a press release so industry bloggers can pick it up and post for you. Remember, DAM seekers need to know how satisfied their service experience will be and you can tell them by communicating the loyalty of your customers through one question.

Matthew

We realize all customers need assistance when it comes to the ongoing success of their Digital Asset Management implementation. Watch the video to learn more about Widen’s approach to digital asset management as a service.




In the video, I discuss how the most successful digital asset management deployments start with a very candid conversation to identify the objectives for managing and distributing digital assets. Then, we’ll work with you to create a long-term vision for what’s to be accomplished. We do not manage projects in terms of feature by feature requests. Our mission is to understand your objectives and work with you to create a plan by leveraging our expertise in the DAM space.

How are you going to prove that DAM is going to work for your company? What are you going to do to provide a very clear ROI to your management team? As we’ve done for many successful DAM deployments, we will paint a clear, long-term picture of how our product direction aligns with your vision, while executing in the short term to get the brand under control by centralizing all digital media assets used by the marketing organization. With Widen being a DAM Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, you get the benefit of being on a platform with over one hundred other customers sharing in the same universal functionality to achieve the purposes of meeting their long-term vision.

Widen still recognizes there are certain cases where customers have unique requirements and workflows requiring additional functionality and, oftentimes, customization. There are advantages and disadvantages to this. How do we handle those cases? We still start those customers at the basic brand management level because that platform is consistent with the DAM needs for all customers and users. If requirements are unique and a different level of customization is required to meet specific needs, then we will break you away from the pack of all the other customers on the same universal functionality. We know what works and what doesn’t in DAM and it’s our mission to provide you with the service and technology that proves ongoing success.

Throwdown with Bobby Flay, SmackDown from WWE, and now the SaaSisfaction Gauntlet from Widen. 

SaaSisfaction: The satisfaction levels of customers in a software world. My theory is that customers using software-as-a-service (SaaS) are happier with their overall experience than customers using installed software. I am throwing down the gauntlet and sharing our survey results from a recent set of questions that we asked our customers. This challenge is focused in the digital asset management industry.  

For those not familiar with digital asset management technology, systems, and services: marketers need help managing and distributing images and video files – in a nutshell, that's what a digital asset management system does. Of course there is much more but we're keeping it simple here.

In the digital asset management market there are big enterprise players, small desktop providers and everything in between. The buying cycle involves analyst reports, vendor conversations, product demos, feature-by-feature comparisons, reference checks, credit checks, vaporware, future truths, pointless RFP's, overcommitments – but the ultimate question that remains unanswered in the buying cycle is what is my service experience going to be after I sign up? How can we allow a customer to experience what it's going to be like before commitment? You can capture some of this from the analysts, demos, and references but sharing customer satisfaction survey results allows customers to understand what their satisfaction level might be throughout the relationship.

Hence the SaaSisfaction Gauntlet. We invite all the competitors in the digital asset management space to actively participate. Some of these competitors are listed on the recent analyst report by Theresa Regli at The Real Story Group available on the Enterprise Information Watch DAM Stream. Other competitors are listed on the bottom right of one of the best blogs in the digital asset management community at DigitalAssetManagement.org.uk. By all the competitors, I mean big and small – from the Open Text, EMC and Autonomy acquisitions to North Plains, MediaBeacon, Celum, Wave, Xinet, ADAM, MerlinOne, WebDAM, Thirdlight, Honeycomb, Extensis and Canto. There are lots, these are only a few. Come one, come all to the SaaSisfaction Gauntlet for the digital asset management market.  

Full Disclosure

In the interest of full disclosure, here are the details of how we ran our survey:

• There were 7 questions and 18 clicks with a $25 Amazon gift card incentive for completion
• We focused on the main contacts at each customer, amounting to 321 total invitations delivered
• The invitations were sent via email in two stages, the first email was sent to all main contacts on 05/12/10 and the next email was sent on 05/27/10 to all those that did not reply to the first invite
• We received 121 responses equating to a 37.7% response rate from 73 unique companies

The Survey Questions

A copy of the survey that you should use is located here: Download Survey Structure 

We used SurveyMonkey.com with a Widen logo in the upper left. Substitute Widen for your organization's name and that's all the changes you need to make. The questions and structure are available at the aforementioned link in addition to the questions below:

1) Please rate your experience with <DAM Company> in the following areas: (4 options given: Excellent, Good, Adequate, Poor)

• Responsiveness of our service teams
• Communicating clearly and effectively
• Keeping you informed of our progress
• Collaborating with you and your team
• Performance of systems/applications
• Product functionality meets your expectations
• Providing value for the money
• Meeting overall project objectives

2) Overall, how do you rate the quality of <DAM Company> products and services? (4 options given: Excellent, Good, Adequate, Poor)

3) Would you recommend <DAM Company> to other organizations? (2 options given: yes or no)

4) What is your perception of the advancements in <DAM Company> technology (6 options given: Ahead of the Curve, Just About Right, Getting Better, Not Fast Enough, Stagnant, Behind the Times)

5) How likely is it that you will continue to use <DAM Company> in the future (5 options given: Certain, Very Likely, Somewhat Likely, Unlikely, Very Unlikely)

6) If you have any comments or suggestions regarding how <DAM Company> could improve the services or performance, please enter them in the box below. (1 option given: enter free form text)

7) To receive your $25 gift card from Amazon, please provide your information below and the gift certification will be emailed to you. (4 fields displayed: Name, Company, Email, Phone)

A Few Guidelines

Set up the survey using the same questions and incentive:

• Share the results on your web site or blog post (I'm sure the digital asset management blogs will pick it up and post it for us as results come in)
• Share the quantity of open ended responses for question #6 understanding that ideas from customers possess product advancement ideas that may be used for differentiation
• Disclose your invitation methods, list quantities, response rate and unique companies responding 
• I'd like to say there is a minimum number of participants, let's say at least 50 unique companies represented but even if you have less than that, it's ok, the information will be revealed in your disclosure

Widen Results

We have already setup the questions, disclosed our methods, shared our response rate and participation, so now I invite you to see the results of the Widen customer satisfaction survey for free at widen.com. There is a form requesting your information so please provide complete contact info. I already understand competitors are interested in this information so there is no need to register as ABC company with a fake email address. With our web analytics we already know how many times you visit our pages and which pages you visit. So just use your real information.

Sign-up to receive the Widen SaaSisfaction Gauntlet Customer Survey Results

Looking forward to seeing how satisfied your customers are relative to Widen customers.

Good luck!

At the Henry Stewart digital asset management conference in New York and realized there is some confusion over hosted DAM and software as a service DAM. I attended the vendor round-up for SaaS providers of digital asset management systems and shot the video below.

Widen continues the Digital Asset Management education series of "DAM Analogies” with “DAM is like a tool shed.” In this video, shot outside the Widen headquarters in Madison, I talk about how DAM is an essential tool for marketing and sales teams. Widen marketing and sales teams use a SaaS pack of tools from leading providers including Salesforce.com, Google, ExactTarget, Compendium, Success Factors and our own Widen DAM software. Equally, DAM is like a tool shed because it houses other marketing and sales tools in the form of digital media - images, videos, brochures and other materials – used to assist with marketing campaigns and sales activities. Like a tool shed, DAM allows you to organize your tools and provide access to anyone who needs them to execute marketing programs.

We continue the offbeat Digital Asset Management education series of "DAM analogies on the beanbag" with this timely one on “Rotting Eggs.” In this analogy, we relate DAM to the Easter Bunny and finding Easter eggs. Like eggs that are left hidden behind the couch or some corner somewhere, lost digital assets are left rotting away without any opportunity to realize a return on the investments made in producing the asset.

When we talk with people about digital asset management, we’re often using techy jargon and fluffy marketing-speak to help marketing and IT teams understand the value of using digital media management systems for their images and videos. This time around, we’ve decided to relate DAM software technologies to everyday encounters and common conveniences. This video kicks off a new series on “DAM Analogies from the Widen CEO on the Beanbag” (for those that follow my tweets @mgonnering we recently made a purchase from Awesomesack.com) focusing on “getting organized.”

In this analogy, I relate getting organized with your images, videos and marketing materials in a DAM system to the use of storage bins and totes for all your stuff in your basement. Check it out and stay tuned for more DAM analogies. Leave a comment or tweet @mgonnering to provide your best DAM analogy.

One of the best things about my job is that I get to talk to customers.  And since we have been good at talking to customers, we keep getting more customers.  So….really, it is not just talking to customers that I like, it is taking the conversations I have with customers and putting them into action.
 
Some customer conversations highlight the simple things whereas others recommend changes to process or product.  Our customers have valuable insight into how we can continue to help them and throughout my conversations I have learned five key things:
 
We have great customers
We get to work with some of the most reputable brands in the world in addition to the rising stars in the small and medium size business world.  It is an honor to help these organizations and their marketing and creative teams with digital asset management.  These teams have exceptional insight into the management of their DAM system because it is the library for everything they work for; the brand.  They love it and they want to advance it just like we do.  We strongly believe our customer base is the most educated and well versed digital asset management team across the industry.
 
Our employees are awesome
Customers are referencing employees and telling me stories about how they benchmark other technology deployments against the Widen experience.  In a recent case, the customer told me they were implementing another marketing system and they asked the supplier why they couldn’t be more like the people at Widen.  We have great employees and they go out of the way for our customers – and the customers recognize it.  We have expertise that match up precisely with customer teams to ensure customers receive value with every interaction.
 
The product is powerful
Widen digital asset management technology typically starts at the workgroup level to serve the immediate demands of marketing personnel.  After successful experiences at that level, the decision to scale to the enterprise is an easy one because of the Widen product configuration.  Whether it is thousands of additional users, terabytes of data, or brands spread throughout the world, the product is powerful enough to scale to meet the enterprise demand.
 
When we say service, we really mean it
It is people talking to people.  It is digital asset management teams at Widen holding the hands of the customer implementation team.  We are sharing in the risk of the success because we are a software-as-a-service organization.  Customers trust us because we have earned that trust.   They trust us to engage their user community and educate them on digital asset management.  They need our expertise to help them manage their images and video files throughout the relationship and we do not let them down.  Our project management and help desk teams are positioned to proactively address the demands of our customers.  Widen customers understand what the last “S” in SaaS really means.
 
Our teams manage expectations very well
In response to the question, did you experience any disconnects between the selling process and the use of the Widen digital asset management system, the response is absolutely not.  Our sales and marketing teams manage expectations early in the process to ensure that customer expectations and our product and service combination is a good match.  Dissatisfied customers lie in the gap between what was promised and what was actually delivered and our teams are deliberate in our process to make sure each customer experience is exceptional.

Common challenges with digital asset management programs include segmenting internal and external groups of users to have varying levels of access to specific groups of digital assets. Widen makes this easy by empowering clients to govern their user base and the level of interaction they have with different digital asset libraries. Roles and Permissions controlled by client administrators make governance a critical yet manageable part of DAM software deployments in organizations of all sizes. Watch the video to learn more.

Widen provides Digital Asset Management implementations with a phased approach. As a service provider, it’s important to Widen that we work with your team at the pace that you see fit. What does “done” look like? We want to know your expectations so we can help you manage the success in phases. Technologically, we provide the scalability to meet your demands as the system grows. Watch the video to learn more.

The Digital Asset Management system is the hub of the digital asset life cycle. DAM covers the management portion of the life cycle. Widen has developed tools upstream from DAM to support the creative workflow and approval cycles in addition to marketing and sales tools downstream. Watch the video to learn more.

Widen recognizes that digital assets need to be externally distributed, but also need to be internally consumed. Creative workflows demand hi-resolution files be accessible at local speeds. Marketing networks require remote access to the most current assets. Watch the video to learn more about the hybrid approach to digital asset management with the Widen Appliance as the creative workflow extension to the hosted model… entirely under the Software as a Service approach to DAM.

Every user experience is important to Widen. An important part of the user digital asset management software experience is having a clean, friendly, intuitive user interface. Widen continues to advance the User Interface to make the user experience as enjoyable as possible. Watch the video to learn more about how Widen shares in the success of adoption with digital asset management system deployments.

Widen helps companies get more value from their digital assets. We don’t do that only by providing cool, usable technology. We help companies get more value because we have the service commitments and service teams in place to ensure success. Watch the video to learn more about how Widen ensures success beyond implementation.

Everyone wants to know about best practices in digital asset management. Best practices with digital assets metadata and taxonomy development, categorization, etc. As a DAM SaaS provider, Widen takes digital asset management best practices to another level by leveraging the collections of digital asset usage data to help clients compare against past usage and performance within their DAM system and with other Widen clients. Watch the video to learn more about Widen’s ratios referred to as “Digital Asset Management Success Metrics.”