Video Hosting Service

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.

This is the eighth video in the series of Widen customer interviews with Jim Scarlata, Senior Marketing Operations Manager for Knaack LLC. In this segment, Jim talks about how in any business there are choices. The digital asset management market has clearly differentiated itself between hosted and installed solutions. To Jim, SaaS made the most sense five years ago and makes the most sense now. Regardless of the relationship, Scarlata explains that if Widen wasn’t performing, Knaack would have to look at replacing that system. However, Widen meets and exceeds expectations in all aspects of the service for managing digital media and brand assets. Watch the video to learn more about why Widen is Knaack’s choice for digital asset management software.

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.

New in 2010, Widen is offering free Digital Asset Management system access for up to 90 days to companies and organizations researching DAM or needing a hosted DAM solution.  Try it for a special project, campaign, product launch, trade show or event!  Request VIP Access to the Widen DAM demo system.

Widen has spent over 13 years developing and supporting web-based digital asset management solutions to marketers of all sizes – from Fortune 500 enterprises to small and medium-sized businesses, agencies and non-profits.  In that time, Widen has offered the opportunity for individuals and teams to experiment, test and trial live online digital asset management systems in live production environments, real-time marketing workflows, and sales channel relationships.

Widen is rolling out the red carpet by providing free digital asset management system access to Widen's live online digital asset library for up to 90 days.  You and your users get the same basic functionality as Widen DAM clients within Widen's Digital Asset Management demo site.

Free Digital Asset Management System access includes the following capabilities:

• Setup your own personalized role and permissions 
• Upload your own digital media – hi-res images, videos, audio, PDFs, Word, PowerPoint, InDesign, etc.
• Add your own metadata – descriptions, tags and automatically captured file info
• Download or send media with on-the-fly file conversions to print and web formats
• Create additional users
• Create custom system messages and user announcements

As a Software as a Service (SaaS) provider, Widen DAM solutions are 100% web-based and designed for creative and marketing workflows.  No software downloads or installs, no IT support required, and no specialized skills needed.  Widen SaaS solutions scale to meet the demand for unlimited simultaneous users and unlimited asset uploads and downloads.  Training and support is provided entirely by Widen.  Ownership of Widen DAM SaaS solutions can be afforded with a low monthly subscription.  Widen clients get their own branded web-based DAM solution and personalized URL, plus the ability to administrate their system with custom metadata structures and output types. Contact Us for more information about Widen DAM SaaS products and pricing.

For basic demo access to search and order stock assets, register for the Widen Guest Pass.

Notice:  Widen's Free Digital Asset Management System Access does not provide users with a fixed permanent solution, but is intended to provide those investigating DAM solutions with a no-cost, no-commitment resource for evaluating Digital Asset Management technology and support to answer questions along the way.

Widen Enterprises has released Widen Media Collective® Version 5.4 with its winter 2009 update to the flagship Software as a Service product for digital asset management (DAM).

Over 180 technical enhancements were made to improve usability, reliability, scalability and security with the Widen Media Collective.  Nearly forty customer-suggested features were incorporated into the winter update offering improved support across various creative and marketing workflows for creating, managing and distributing digital media and brand assets.

Upgrades to the core Web-based Digital Asset Management application include: asset uploader improvements for faster file processing, additional search functionality for more focused search results and video player enhancements.  Dynamic Media Building, a template-based ad and brochure building application, has been enhanced to include a new layout engine for more flexibility during the initial template design and end user media customization processes.  The upgrade allows for more advanced text handling, including: dynamic text reflow when variable text is used, copy fitting for reducing text size based on specific formatting instructions, block flexing for automatic resizing and repositioning of design elements, and rule-based block control to automatically populate template blocks.

The most significant advancement with Widen’s winter release is the launch of Source Controller version 1.0 for the Widen Appliance.  Advancing from its previous beta state, the Widen Appliance and Source Controller provide a hardware/software combination that enables internal staff to access and modify digital assets on their own network and automatically update these changes in the Widen Collective hosted platform.  Internal designers, marketing staff, and administrators find files in the browser-based Source Controller application and then check these files out into their own local workspace.  When changes are made to a file, it can be checked back in to update the asset in Source Controller and made globally available to the client’s external audiences.      

“Source Controller provides an attractive browser-based user interface and integration direct to the desktop for internal users working within creative applications,” says Edward Chwae, Director of Research and Development at Widen Enterprises.  “Besides providing benefits of streamlining creative workflows and making the benefits of DAM more entrenched with those workflows, the Widen Appliance provides for a fully replicated set of assets at the client’s location to support disaster recovery and business continuity plans.”

The Widen Appliance bridges the gap between hosted and installed software by offering Widen-managed services on the client site with replicated data to seamlessly serve the internal and external demand for assets.  File management and synchronization between the Widen Appliance and Widen Collective hosted service are automatic, which keeps administration to a minimum for improved efficiency and helps clients better manage the obsolescence of assets for improved brand consistency.

For more specific information about the Widen Media Collective and 5.4 release visit: http://www.widencollective.com.

The growing popularity of video is well documented... There are a number of reports available. They explain the power and attractiveness of using video, specifically in the enterprise environment.

More than 65% of companies are using online video and that number is expected to continue increasing (VideoBloom, 2009). (Remember an earlier post, Gartner Predicts 25 Percent of Content in the Workforce to be Images, Audio or Video by 2013.) Online video is a key method of delivering and consuming information that educates, entertains, and/or inspires in ways that touch emotions static text on a page cannot achieve.

Director of research and design at Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab, Dr. BJ Fogg, writes that for a consumer to make a purchase, it requires a “behavior change.” Fogg’s behavior model talks about the convergence of three things that need to happen for the change to occur – a trigger, ability and a motivation. Motivation is strictly tied to “sensation.” Inherently, video combines the use of more human senses than most other traditional sales and marketing tools. Read more about the reason "why" video use is on the rise in business marketing.

How does that impact Digital Asset Management? Video is a digital asset. As its popularity grows, enterprises will struggle to manage the creation, storage, and distribution of it. Video files are exponentially larger than text documents. Multiple copies of a file in multiple locations use even more storage. Version control is nearly impossible since someone has to remember each file's location and update or renew it when a new one becomes available or when it expires. Plus, there isn’t always an easy way to search for the right video based on the content. Beyond that, an increase in video will also mean an increase in the amount of bandwidth required to serve the video – a requirement that many SMBs struggle with.

We can learn a lot just by looking at trends within Widen’s own organization and DAM software customer base. There are notable increases in not only the number of video assets being added to our DAM systems, but also in the rate of videos added per year. Due to the raw size of high resolution video, the percentage of the overall file size of our DAM taken up by video has grown extensively. Again, the rate of growth per year is also increasing as we choose to use video more and more for marketing, sales and customer service purposes.

From a sales and marketing standpoint, there are dramatic increases in the coverage of video as a topic in many of our sales calls, and in RFPs that we receive. There are a number of factors that are causing these increases. One is the growing popularity of video. Again, this is well documented. In addition, there is the entire social movement. For video, this requires organizations to not only produce video content, but to make it accessible and publish it to as many online video channels as possible.

An often unnoticed factor is the shift in video camcorder technology from “tape” to “tapeless.” Tape has been a crutch for video storage and backup for… well, for forever. With the new tapeless camcorders recording very high resolution files resulting in very large file sizes with no tape to put them on, suddenly, organizations are faced with storing, securing, backing up, and distributing files that are ten times the size of the files they are familiar with managing. And remember, it is GROWING!

Bottom line, the increasing demand for video will place demands on DAM software and digital asset hosting providers to make sure that video is handled seamlessly alongside all other assets.


Stats on video usage from VideoBloom's VIEW Index (Video-Enabled Web Index):
100 Web Sites Surveyed

In August of 2009, the VIEW main index for the 100 surveyed companies was 30-75-25, which indicates that 30% of the companies had video on their home page, 75% had video on their site, and 25% didn't use any video on their Web site.

• 41% of the 100 surveyed companies have placed their Web videos 1 click away from the home page.
• 25% of the surveyed companies have placed their Web videos deep into their Web sites, 3 clicks or more away from the home page.
• 25% use online video in an advanced manner: contextual integration of videos, variety of video players, call-to-action tied to the video.
• 32% offer a full-fledged "video center" comparable to a corporate TV channel.
• 21% give access to such video center directly from their home page (one click away).
• 12% display video ads for products on their site; 7% display video ads on their home page.
• 36% offer full-screen video option.
• 4% have video on auto-play (i.e. video starts as soon as the user lands on the page).
• 11% open video in a new browser Web page.
• 18% use a pop-up window to display video.

• Video uses: 48% of the surveyed web sites use video for promotional purposes, 24% use it for informational purposes, 20% use it for demonstrative purposes, 6% use it to deliver news, 5% use it for entertainment purposes, 1% use it for other purposes and 0% use it for UGC (user generated content). (The percentages don’t add up to 75% because many sites use online video for several different purposes.)

• Video formats: 61% use Flash video, 21% use Windows Media Player, 8% use QuickTime and 4% use Real Player. (The percentages don’t add up to 75% because some websites use more than one video format.)

Watch the interview with Brian Becker, VP of Client Development for Widen Enterprises, as he talks about the prepress production processes performed for a large apparel marketer. Part II focuses on Widen's digital sampling and color retouching services in the life cycle of a digital asset.
 

Intro

Widen recently helped a large apparel company improve quality and streamline creative production processes by utilizing a blend of Widen premedia services and digital asset management technologies. Widen helped the client make the move from showcasing garments currently shot on mannequins to garments shot on live models for a new women's sports licensed apparel campaign. In meeting the goal of going live inside 30 days, Widen created over 500 images with 20-25% of their shots featuring garments on live models versus mannequins.

To get up to speed with the photo shoot and Widen photography workflow management capabilities, check out Widen Premedia Workflow Study Part I - Photography Workflow Management.


Color Production
The image work for the project was done by the Widen Color Production department, which consists of six master graphic artists. They are the ones that go in and clean-up the files… They take the camera raw data and optimize it for the best environment for lighting of the flesh tones, hair color, garment color, detail and sharpness, etc. Widen’s color retouching experts have a knack for understanding the customer expectations, which was very simple and natural for them given the jobs they work on every day.


Digital Sampling
The Digital Sampling department is the group that applies the graphics to the garments shot on the models and mannequins. The color operators take artwork from Illustrator and merge them onto the actual photograph in Photoshop. There challenge and expertise is to make sure the graphics follow the contours, shapes, highlights, shadows and wrinkles in the garments as they apply logos, team names, numbers and names, etc. supplied in the client's technical specs.

Many people don't realize what a huge production process there is that goes on behind the scenes to get garments sent to Widen, put on models, styled, shot correctly, color-optimized, digital-sampled, posted to a database and eventually marketed on a website or print catalog, signage, etc.


Color Management
Consumers only spend a few seconds shopping for garments online, so it’s critical that what they see on the screen is what they’ll get in real life.  We don’t use our eyes to confirm what we “think” we like on a screen, we use technical data that comes from a strong color management umbrella over the top of everything we do in production. From our cameras to our proofing devices, everything is color managed for the desired output – website or printed material.

In the end, Widen created approximately 500 images, which are upload to their digital asset library also hosted by Widen. From there, the images are ordered for placement on any number of websites. Posting images via embed links will help to ensure the most current images are used across all web domains.

The Widen Advantage caters to the life cycle of a digital asset by offering all of the production, management and distribution services under one roof. The blend of Widen premedia services and digital asset management solutions working together help clients in a number of ways, including:

Cost Savings - Increases efficiency in creative/production cycles plus centralization of re-usable assets minimizes efforts re-inventing every process of the creation-production-distribution value chain.

Faster Time to Revenue - Shortens time to market and increases effectiveness of marketing execution by empowering sales channels with on-demand access to use brand-approved digital assets.

Competitive Advantage - Improves brand consistency with quality representation of products and ensures compliance across targeted, multi-channel marketing campaigns.

Better Planning and Strategy - Tracking of usage patterns including reuse and repurposing of assets allows for more effective budgeting, resource allocation and planning of future marketing campaigns.

Check out the Widen Premedia Workflow Study Part I - Photography Workflow Management.

Again, I had the opportunity to provide a preview of what Widen is doing in the SaaS / cloud computing space at the SIIA OnDemand Conference on October 28, 2009. Check out the video from the conference.




Here’s what I talked about:

• Why DAM - Digital Asset Management - deserves recognition among other key enterprise software acronyms
• Why Widen is good at providing DAM SaaS - Digital Asset Management Software as a Service
• How we go about delivering software as an on-demand / hosted DAM provider
• How we differentiate in the market by emphasizing the last “S” in SaaS (backing 60 years of service)
• Widen25 commitment to response times – a new Widen service program
• How Widen uses an aggregate of data and key ratios to help clients understand usage, make comparisons and recommendations for improvement. Read the article: What Those DAM Statistics Can Tell You

Catch All Presentation Videos from SIIA OnDemand -- Keynotes, SaaS/Cloud Insights and Previews

If all you have is 30 seconds to watch a 10-second message, check out the version our marketing team decided to have some fun with: SaaS Remix: Service Is Equally, If Not More, Important Than the Technology


About SIIA OnDemand
SIIA OnDemand is an annual conference produced by the Software & Information Industry Association and is the industry’s most comprehensive ISV conference for understanding the business drivers around SaaS and Cloud Computing. For more information, visit the SIIA OnDemand Home Page.

There are a lot of companies that will say “now is the time to gear up for the new year so that you can hit the ground running,” but this customer video compilation goes to show why top marketers implemented Widen digital asset management programs to improve their marketing operations. See why these marketers have made the investment in Widen’s hosted DAM software to create efficiencies, improve productivity, and increase brand consistency throughout their marketing channels.



Is now the right time for you to implement Digital Asset Management programs?

• Are you wasting precious time and resources managing and fulfilling requests for brand assets?
• Are you looking for ways to improve marketing efficiency, effectiveness and agility?
• Are you seeking fool-proof ways to achieve brand consistency across all customer touch points? 
• Do you want to empower sales channels to be more effective?

In the first segment, Jim Magruder, Senior Marketing Communications Manager at InSinkErator, talks about their growing problem managing and distributing brand assets. He explains what a problem it was to regularly get calls from customers, sales reps, ad agencies and PR firms needing digital assets and there was no easy way to provide them what they needed in a timely matter. Sound familiar? He knew they needed a more efficient digital media asset management system so he wouldn’t lose precious time having to duplicate the same process over and over again fielding requests such as “I need an image and I don’t know what format I need.” Each time, he would have to stop what he’s doing to find the asset, convert it, ship it, etc. Widen DAM asset management services changed all that and removed the burden of having to manage and distribute assets “the old way.”

In the second segment, Jim Scarlata, Senior Marketing Operations Manager for Knaack LLC, explains that there was one gatekeeper to their digital asset library and there was no easy way to achieve brand consistency across all marketing channels, ensure the most current brand assets were always available (and used), and make assets easily available to all channel partners. With Widen’s help, Knaack has a single online location for all of the most current digital content to be globally available to any approved user.

In the third segment, John Wernecke, Global Marketing Manager (Former Public Relations Manager), Motorola Mobile Devices talks about the ease of use when it comes to digital assets management with the help of Widen. The Widen Media Collective provides Motorola with enterprise-wide ability to share and collaborate interactively 24 hours a day, which has allowed marketing and creative groups to come together at a central location that is always accurate and working.

In the fourth segment, Michele Bedard, Vice President of Marketing, Sub-Zero, Inc. and Wolf Appliance, Inc., explains how Sub-Zero and Wolf is all about the brand and making sure customers have  a consistent brand experience across all touch points. The Widen online digital asset management tools provide the people in the field with access to the most current assets so Sub-Zero and Wolf brands look the same from whatever source anyone would see it.

In the fifth and final segment, Michele Kowalkowski, Catalog Manager North America, Brady Worldwide, Inc., talks about how the Widen corporate image library empowers sales people to carry out their jobs and supports relationships with their distributor networks. Without always having to be reliant on the marketing team, they have a digital asset library they can trust to be accessible when they need assets and get them instantly in the format needed to complete their project.

To get more takes from the pros, watch more Widen Customer Interviews.

I had a little fun with the 12-second Widen segment from the SIIA OnDemand 2009 Day 1 in Review video. In this video segment, Widen CEO Matthew Gonnering, preaches “Service is equally, if not more, important than the technology itself” when it comes to delivering Digital Asset Management Software as a Service. Check it out…




Catch the original video here: SIIA OnDemand 2009 Day One in Review


Keywords: DAM SaaS, Digital Asset Management Video, Digital Media System, Digital Asset Tracking, Video Hosting Service, Media Asset Storage.

Widen is seeing increased interest in Video Asset Management solutions to store, manage, access and deliver digital video for online video marketing purposes.

As Sean Callahan recently reported in the Marketers Make Move to Online Video article in BtoB’s Best 2009 special issue for Marketers and Creative, the “Internet has accelerated the creative use of video in b-to-b marketing, which is one key trend we saw in the submissions for this year’s BtoB’s Best.” 

Online video has become an affluent medium for both b-to-b and b-to-c marketers alike. Online video is a key method of delivering and consuming information that educates, entertains, and/or inspires in ways that touch emotions static text on a page cannot achieve. Best of all, online video isn’t just for big companies. An abundance of devices and software for video capture and editing are becoming popular additions for many marketing departments. Furthermore, Web-based DAM technologies are making the management and distribution easier and cheaper for organizations of all sizes.

In terms of viewership, the Nielsen Company recently reported viewers have substantially increased the time they spend watching online videos with YouTube being by far the single largest provider of streaming video. Nielsen's time-per-viewer metric rose to 195.2 minutes per month in September, a 25% year-over-year increase.  Read Time Spent Viewing Video Online Up 25% per Viewer to learn more.

While the popularity of creating and consuming online video continues to skyrocket, the problems with video asset management are still there for nearly all marketers. The downside is video files are exponentially larger than text documents. Multiple copies of a file in multiple locations use even more storage. It also makes version control nearly impossible, since someone has to remember each file's location and update or renew it when a new one becomes available or when it expires. Plus, there isn’t always an easy way to search for the right video based on the content.

When you add all those factors, it makes a compelling argument for software-as-a-service that simplifies the tasks associated with managing, finding and distributing video content across the Web. The problem is that a lot of organizations that can benefit from distributing their content in the form of video; they just don’t have the internal infrastructure to support it. Like most projects that are challenging to do on your own, digital asset management can benefit from a software-as-a-service model that allows customers to focus more on what they want to accomplish than figuring out how to go about building and maintaining it.

In Widen’s recent article, RAM: Bandwidth on the Run, the increased demand for video content creates four issues that require more efficiency in how we manage video assets:

• Not enough bandwidth to meet demand.
• Difficulty moving video files from one user to another.
• Multiple copies in multiple locations.
• Lack of searchability.

However, digital media asset management technologies provide much more than simple file management or a video hosting service. Digital media files become assets of value through the attachment of metadata because they can be indexed, versioned, secured, stored and assigned a lifecycle state, a unique ID and an owner. Digital Asset Management systems serve as the keeper for both the files and metadata.

Benefits of digital asset solutions summarized from the Bandwidth on the Run article, include:

• All users watch the same file from the same source.
• Easier distribution.
• Greater control over what is being viewed.
• Simpler, more effective organization.
• Simplifies backup.

For an expanded explanation, read the article titled RAM: Bandwidth on the Run by Matthew Gonnering, CEO of Widen Enterprises.

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.

My blogs have by called “fluffy” by co-workers … ironically by those who aren’t expected to blog.  Anyway be prepared for another fluffy blog … this time about throwing snow balls, the Polar Bear Plunge, and digital asset management. 

Chris Norris, Lead Developer at Widen Enterprises, is our resident renaissance man.  Developer.  Photographer.  Videographer.  Charity Supporter.  DAM user.  When he’s not slaving away on JAVA code at Widen, he’s shooting cool photographs around town and making the occasional video.  But he never truly escapes his job at Widen as he uses the Widen Media Collective for his personal photography and videos.  Take for example the latest video he shot detailing the extensive training he underwent preparing for the Polar Bear Plunge.  In case you haven’t heard of it, the Polar Bear Plunge involves hardy souls like Chris – jumping into the ridiculously icy waters of Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin to raise money for Special Olympics.  (for those of you in more temperate climates – it was minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit on my drive to work today)  To really show people what it takes to prepare for an event like this, Chris created this “training” video (and this is where many, many snowballs come into play). 
 

Now to bring all this together ... snowballs, Polar Bear Plunge, and DAM … After he finished his raw video, he uploaded it into Widen’s hosted digital asset management software.  What makes software as service sweet is the ability to access it wherever you may be … all you need is an internet connection.  So you don’t need to be tied to your desk at work hooking up with your company network  … you can be sitting on your couch at home watching Star Trek and uploading your raw video (showing people pelting you with snow balls) and your still shots to the media asset storage system any time day or night.  Once the uncut video footage was uploaded, Chris sent an order to his video editor in Portland, Oregon.  He didn’t have to worry about a huge file like this getting caught up in spam filters because his editor receives an email with a link (no attachment!) that goes to a pickup page where she can download the file.  Once the video is edited and complete, Chris gave his editor upload privileges and the finished video was uploaded to Widen’s video asset management application.  Chris (or anyone Chris decides to give privileges to) can login and view the video within our video hosting provider service without even having to download it.  And the other cool part is how Chris used embed links to transfer the video to different websites.  Instead of manually putting that video on 5 different websites, he used an embed link on those pages so every time a page loads that contains the video embed link the data is transferred from the Widen DAM to the various websites.  If Chris decides to update the video – all he has to do is upload the new video into DAM and – viola – all the websites that have that video via embed links are automatically updated with new video!  One change versus five!

So, one more fluffy blog post.  How many more left to go?

Do you want to do more with video this year?  Are you equipped to manage and repurpose video content quickly and easily?

If the results of this study are similar to your situation, Widen video and media asset management solutions can help you (and your channel partners / clients) be more effective online marketers in 2009. 

Here’s what PermissionTV’s online survey of 400 senior marketing and media execs found:  

67% identified online video as a primary focus of their 2009 digital marketing campaigns.

Brand awareness was cited by 71% of respondents as the foremost value of online video, followed by lead generation (47%), customer retention (44%), and customer conversion (41%).

The survey also found that 33% of respondents expect their 2009 digital marketing efforts to be least affected by budget cuts, ahead of traditional marketing (24%), trade shows (21%) and guerrilla marketing (14%).

Do you agree?  What are you going to do about it?

DAM is of greater value as the backbone of digital marketing efforts.  Widen Digital Asset Management and Video Asset Management solutions help marketing organizations centralize, transform and distribute digital assets, while minimizing added costs for implementation, training, upgrades, security, software usage and infrastructure scalability.  Widen video hosting services can provide marketing organizations with a clear ROI. 

Guest Blog Post from Tim Vial, Widen Sales Representative

It’s a word we can’t escape, and it won’t be going away for awhile.  Recession.  Our budgets have become tighter, and yes I will admit that I have converted into a coupon cutter…

In these times you need to push harder in your marketing efforts to reach the same result. Now is not the time to cut marketing, but to increase it and rather be more effective. Whether in times like these or a booming economy, having the tools to be the most efficient are evident but right now it’s painfully clear, you need Digital Asset Management.

Now the task begins of deciding which way to go.  Having a decreased budget is yet another reason to run away from the installed software realm into the stable arms of a Software as a Service (Saas) provider.  Let’s just focus on cost right now.  An installed provider will charge you and average of $90,000 just to set you up.  We will leave all the costly upgrades, training, and maintenance out of the mix for now and just take that number.  With a hosted solution from Widen Enterprises, $90,000 would get you an average of 3-5 years of digital asset management services.  Again, I will leave out that with a hosted solution all the training, upgrades, and maintenance are included.  Think of all the upgrades you have missed in 5 years!

Marketing has seen the digital shift.  In an online survey of 400 senior marketing and media executives, 67% identified online video as a primary focus of their 2009 digital marketing campaigns, with 52% planning the launch of an online video project by the second quarter. Manage it with the Widen Media Collective complete with tools like Embed Links, video asset management, project collaboration, and image approval applications.  Reallocate that budget now and propel your marketing in 2010!

DEAR DR. DAM:  I have a question for you and think it might be related to video hosting and DAM.  I see from your blogs that you give advice to people on what to do when they have issues managing their digital files.  Hopefully you will be able to help me out.  To start, you can call me “video dude” and I’m the owner of a small marketing and creative agency that specializes in short form video production focusing on building brand recognition for our clients.  Our current process involves taking the raw digital video footage from the client and editing it into several five minute segments for publishing to their websites.  We complete roughly 15-20 video clips a day.  After we cut up the raw files into short segments, we save the file to our hard drive in a high resolution format.  Then, depending on what client it is, we convert that file to the format requested.  After it is converted, we put that file on our FTP site and the client can then access it from there.  Now, is there a relatively low-cost “lite” video asset management solution that can help me streamline this workflow?  We probably spend 5-10 minutes per conversion and spend several more minutes on the phone with the client instructing them on how to download the correct file.  We’re pretty sure there’s a way to streamline the manual processes and communications.  Right?  Thanks, “Video Dude.”

DEAR VIDEO DUDE:  Thanks for writing...  You are correct.  I can help you streamline your video production and distribution workflow with one simple recommendation.  Check out Widen’s digital asset management system and see how it will provide you with full storing, previewing, converting and downloading functions for your video files.  The Widen system is a low-cost “lite” video management solution that will replace the need for passing around videotapes, sending clips via email or messing with FTP sites.  After you upload the highest definition video formats available, your clients can log into the web based DAM, search for the correct video and download it in whatever format they need with transcoding on the fly .  You mentioned you spend 5-10 minutes per clip converting them, and you deal with 15-20 clips per day.  The Widen Media Collective will save roughly 25 hours a month that you currently spend just converting those files!  Plus, the built-in workflow and email features will foster more effective communication with your clients.  Hope this helps… If you have any more questions about DAM solutions, feel free to write back. Thanks, Dr. DAM.

Our theme for the Henry Stewart LA Digital Asset Management Conference in November provided a preview at our new branding coming in early ’09.  Our new tagline… “Empower Your Digital Media.”  What does that mean?  Quite simply, it’s Widen’s mantra of assisting marketing and creative groups in creating, managing and distributing digital media… without having to worry so much about the “technical stuff.”  Widen backs that mantra with 60 years of service supporting creative workflows and marketing operations.

To provide a little more background on the value a DAM SaaS provider brings to organizations of all sizes – Widen provides the implementation, training, help desk, user sessions, upgrades, maintenance, integrations and product roadmap.  What’s more, is the Widen difference of having a fully operational premedia division that beta tests our technology before it’s released.  The most important element to the SaaS model is a steady and reputable service level and culture for strong customer support.

I presented “What’s New in DAM SaaS,” which featured a look at two new bits of technology Widen has advanced in support of creative workflows and marketing operations – Appliance and Embed Links.

WIDEN APPLIANCE

The first technology piece revisited our theme from Henry Stewart NYC last spring with A New Twist on DAM featuring the Widen Appliance.  The concept of SaaS 2.0 bridges the gap between the web-based model and installed software to provide internal creative staff local access to digital assets. 

In the old way of providing digital media management systems, several organizations operated multiple DAM systems to accommodate the internal and external need for digital assets.  Installed software addressed the internal demand and was controlled by the I.T. department.  Hosted software was used to accommodate the external demand and was usually controlled by the marketing department.

Highlights of DAM as SaaS 2.0:

• Offers managed services on the client site
• Accommodates internal and external demand
• Differs from the traditional hosted, web-based only model
• Blurs the lines between hosted and installed solutions

Highlights of the Widen Appliance:

• On-site hardware/software managed by Widen in tandem with Widen Collective hosted model
• Fully replicated set of digital assets in different geographic locations support multiple creative operations and enforce business continuity
• Creative and marketing departments working at network speeds creates efficiencies upstream
• Web-based model supports global demand for digital media downstream

EMBED LINKS

The second technology unveiling at the DAM conference was a new concept to DAM, showcasing the marketing power of digital asset embed links.  The concept of One Internet – One File replaces the old “download model” of repurposing assets for use in online channels and fosters greater control of images and videos online.  Embed links are particularly focused on infrastructure scalability for online video consumption.

With digital asset embed links, all images and videos placed in the Widen DAM system are assigned a unique identifier – an embed code – to be used in virtually any online channel.  It’s really a quite simple feature, but with tremendous marketing benefits:

• Repurpose media to online channels on-demand without hassle
• Manage rights and release dates of media published online
• Control infrastructure needs and costs associated to demand

If you’re dealing with a large number of files and a widespread network of places these files are published (including channel partner sites) you can see how helpful it is to only maintain one master file in one location.

Highlights of Widen Digital Asset Embed Links:

• One master repository
• Dynamic updates to all online channels
• On-demand infrastructure scalability
• “Pay for what you use” services
• Consistent use of assets

To conclude the presentation, I talked about how Software as a Service organizations are responsible for the entire process of making sure your DAM experience is successful.  The software is only a component of the practice.  Implementation, training, integration, help desk, user sessions, maintenance, upgrades, and product planning are all part of the experience.  The underlying belief in SaaS organizations is that the service operates simultaneously with the technology.

LEARN MORE

Watch videos about how the Widen SaaS model has helped clients achieve their goals with implementation, training, upgrades, scalability and ROI at www.widen.com/videocasestudies. 

Contact jathey@widen.com to receive the slide deck from the presentation “What’s New in DAM SaaS.”

Visit www.damusers.com for more information about Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management Conferences.

DEAR DR. DAM:  I’m Donna, the marketing coordinator for a global sporting goods and recreational products manufacturer.  We’re currently using an installed digital asset management software solution to help us manage 20,000 assets, which are mostly images but also have videos, presentations and other documents.  You see, the problem with the DAM installed software is that we’ve missed three or four upgrades and the version we’re working with is out-of-date and doesn’t meet our requirements.  It’s very difficult for our external users to navigate, which is a constant problem.  The search functions aren’t intuitive and our users don’t have time to read the user manual.  Furthermore, I don’t have time to make a more reader-friendly help guide.  It would be nice to have some assistance.

Internally, we’ve learned to work with the installed DAM system and its limitations; however we’re not opposed to switching to a better alternative.  After our experience with a failing installed solution, we would like to move toward the software as a service model.  The employee who originally recommended the installed provider and oversaw the implementation is no longer with the company.   In the past 30 days, the top 100 downloads were as large as 85MB and 90% were at least 10MB, which chokes many digital asset solutions at our volume.

As for our upstream workflow, we have photographers overseas shooting a majority of our products.  However, we need a collaboration engine to review and approve photos before releasing them into the DAM system.  Last, we would like something with some more elegant reporting capabilities so we can know who the heavy users are and what assets are most popular (or unpopular for that matter). 

Here are our basic needs:  unlimited downloads, unlimited users, user friendly/intuitive interface that is easy to navigate and download, and the ability to download files in multiple formats.  If you can recommend something to meet that then you’ve covered 80% of our requirements.  Please help us get up to speed.  

DEAR DEMAND DAM SaaS Donna:  Don’t cry over spilled milk.  Have faith in a DAM SaaS vendor to get you out of the installed software dark ages.  Consider Widen.  It’s been said that their solution is user-friendly with emphasis on “you” and requires little user training.  Better yet, they can have you up and running within a few weeks.  Widen will walk you through the entire implementation, which is not something you have only one person be the custodian of throughout the life of the system like many installed solutions.  You’ll never have to worry about software or hardware upgrades again.  If you need help, Widen can provide user manuals and launch kits for deployment promotions.  Also, Widen provides you with help desk technical support via phone, email or instant chat. 

If needed, Widen can look at options to help you maintain the internal workflow.  Widen has done similar web services integrations where the installed software serves the internal demand and the Widen Collective hosted model serves the global external demand.  The two solutions are integrated to have the internal software feed the Widen system serving the external users.  In cases requiring on-site access, the Widen Appliance serves the internal demand supporting creative workflows and disaster recovery policies.  Your internal power users will have plenty of features for version control and the Widen Appliance can be an effective engine for their workflow.  In any case, the Widen Collective will accommodate your external volume demands without problems.
 
Backdrop by Widen, an extension of the photo asset management software, will help out on the collaboration end upstream.  During or after a shoot, your photographers can upload the captures for immediate online review.  Necessary creative staff can either approve the photos or request a reshoot.  Approved photos are seamlessly released into the Widen DAM system for general marketing administrators and global accessibility.  Need asset/user reporting and auditing?  The Media Collective has reporting and tracking to help your marketing team be better informed for strategic decisions.  Widen can do more than get you up to speed, they will propel you into the new wave of digital media management and marketing operations.  I think you know what you need to do.

DEAR DR. DAM:  My team calls me Kramer and I’m with a marketing agency providing communications and branding services to B2B companies.  We’re in search of a digital media and brand asset management software solution to help manage clients’ photos, logos, videos, flash objects and other brand assets.  We prefer to have an on-demand/hosted DAM solution because it is not a core competency for us and would rather leave it up to the experts to manage all the hardware, implementation and support.  Also, I envision that we’ll pass most of the cost onto our clients for their asset downloads.  It’s something that will help us be more organized internally and automate a number of processes for fulfilling client requests.  I’m sure it will help us improve client communication and collaboration on projects.  We’re also interested in a collateral customization tool that would allow our clients to customize the marketing materials we create for them such as ads and brochures.  This would allow us to provide our client’s sales channels with the ability to personalize marketing pieces with simple modifications while we can control the messaging.  We work well with the marketing departments of our clients to get the master templates ready to go, but by the time they need to provide these branded materials to their sales channels, they almost always go off and create their own pieces that are more relevant and timely for their sales calls although the brand consistency element is usually NOT left in tact.  Our clients’ sales channels need to be able to upload their logos and add contact information to localize the promotional collateral for their market for simple co-branding controlled by our agency and client marketing administrators.  Please help us keep this simple and within reach.  With the difficult times and all, we got to do something to help our agency and clients save money.  Its the holiday shopping season and my daughters need new snow boots.

DEAR CREATIVE SOFTWARE KRAMER:  I can empathize with your situation.  You’re not alone; however I applaud you for wanting to be a hero for your agency and for your clients by trying to do something now.  You’ll be delighted to hear about Widen’s flexible agency billing options for digital asset management solutions.  Plus, with their rapid implementation schedule, you can still be up and running before the New Year.  The multiple branded user interface options will accommodate multiple clients with what looks like their own branded portal and “customer-ized” URL.  Plus, Widen will provide all the user and administrator training and ongoing help desk support.  No doubt, more efficient creative software technology will help you secure existing client relationships.  A smart DAM software implementation and internal automation will be a difference-maker for your agency in difficult economic times because your people will be able to concentrate on more creative and mission critical tasks.  As for the dynamic media building application, Widen's Communications team will provide you with training on how to create and administer the promotional templates.  Your staff won’t be bugged by repetitive, miniscule changes and you’ll still be able to empower your clients with brand approved marketing content.  The media builder allows for unlimited printable template options, so you have more opportunity for creative projects.  Hence, your team has more opportunity for larger billable projects.  The marketing software will help add value in addition to serving as an automated billing platform to giving clients the web-based access they’re already demanding of their assets.  The low total cost of ownership with a Widen DAM SaaS solution without any capital expenditures and an easy-to-budget for low monthly fee will keep you warm and cheery through the holiday season.  Cheers!

Guest blog post from Sean Banahan, Widen Area Sales Director

Coming back from the Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management Conference in LA I got to thinking about how complex a DAM implementation can become.  In many cases it just doesn’t need to be that big of a deal.  Really.  Most vendors make money off of the illusionary complexity of a DAM system.  I am not saying that managing and distributing your media files isn’t extremely important.  It is.  I just see a lot of vendors telling customers that they need to invest months and months in planning and preparation for a DAM solution.  You need to define very complex processes and then spend tens of thousands on RFP development, vendor shootouts and then risk analysis.  They partner with consultants who in turn make money on the preparation and afterwards, 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.
 
I believe there is a common theme within the industry of failed implementations and unhappy customers because people try to make DAM into something its not.  Your DAM system is not ever going to be a good Direct Mailing application or morph into the perfect tool to plan marketing budgets, no matter what the smiling guy in front of the PowerPoint says.  It should connect and feed the appropriate resources to those tools just like it should be sending images, graphics, videos, logos and marketing materials to your web portals.  Let vendors do what they do best and you will reap the benefits.  Don’t try to fit the square peg into the round hole. 

A hosted or on-demand model works well because it’s up and running relatively quickly and doesn’t support the waves of preparation and implementation happy consultants.  Up front costs tend to be much lower and monthly subscription fees give you room to grow as needed.  Best of all you can try it out without getting locked in.  Most hosted digital asset management software systems worth their weight should have some kind of mechanism for integrating into your existing or future application environments so fitting in at school shouldn’t be all that tough either.  Of course, the licensed software vendors and hosts of consultants are already hijacking the on-demand/ASP/SaaS model.  Software vendors that make killings off their professional services engagements and consultants that sell year long planning engagements see DAM SaaS offerings as an easy way in the door and a route to getting you on heavy licensed software products down the road.  Nowadays, with the economic turmoil you see on CNN each morning, everyone has to say they have a SaaS offering.  That’s great in that it helps justify the SaaS model but then they go and pitch you on excessively long term contracts and heavy customization again.  I have to wonder if those same consultants and software vendors would rent an economy car from Hertz and then take it down to the body shop to add a sunroof.  Are they selling you a service to fit your needs or are they building you a ladder into the monster truck of a software solution they are just dying to tie you to?