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

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

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

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

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. 

The incompatibility with the 3G network has been a black mark on the iPhone ever since it was introduced nearly a year ago.  Users expect the fastest data network available for use on their high end gadgets, with phones no longer being an exception.  Computer processers that exceed most users’ needs, more megapixels than the average shooter would ever know what to do with and even shoes with wireless connections to monitor exercise.  Bigger, better and faster are all expectations that are regularly associated with consumer goods, but what about enterprise applications?

It seems like individuals are more content to sit back and not explore other options even if they know their workflow or  software is outdated and not allowing them to function efficiently.  There are obvious pitfalls to seeking new technology such as budget approvals, lethargic system users or even outdated hardware not being able to accommodate for new, large applications that are going to eat up memory and processing capabilities.  What if in the future that wasn’t a worry?  What if new solutions was available and essentially laughed in the face of these problems?  Well the future is now.

Hosted applications required an internet connection.  That’s it.  No hardware upgrades or increased bandwidth, nothing.  Just internet.  And as far as user adoption goes, anyone competent in consumer search engines or sites such as Google or Amazon have already been trained as users.  How convenient!  And the feared budget discussion…not even an issue.  Every single client has been shown an ROI inside of one year with Widen. 

Is it really Bigger?  Better?  Faster?!?!  Yes, yes and yes.  Our Media Collective application provides you with an online portal for as many users as you wish with absolutely NO size limitations to what you can place in the collective.  And faster is easy with conversions on the fly and immediate delivery of assets to users.  We will help you through the set up and any questions or concerns you may have along the way, but there is one thing we can’t do…tell you what to do with all of the spare time you’re going to have.

You know who you are… You’re in the trenches just trying to put in a fair day’s work and make an honest living.  You’re trying to keep up with the status quo.  In tough economic times, you don’t need to do anything to stand out.  You don’t want to ask for the money or waste the time looking for some empty software box with no clear-cut ROI.  You’re okay with the small battles, occasional fires and tedious, redundant processes… why change if that’s the way it’s always been – right?  

I didn’t think so - that’s not good enough.

You’re the ambassador of your digital media embassy and you deserve better.

Where do you keep all that stuff?  Your images and videos (and the rest of the materials that are the lifeblood of your sales and marketing efforts).

Are they easily accessible?
Are they scattered?
Are you in control? 
Are your field reps using the most recent version?
Is time on your side or is the current process winning?
Are marketing and sales on separate islands?
Are you recreating lost files that you know are out on some server?
Are the emails in your inbox asking for a photo of that one image from last season’s whatever taking focus off the projects you really want to work on?

If so, you’re grappling… you’re battling the status quo and change is essential. 

Experience an ROI and live an ROE – return on expectations.  When was the last time you made a business decision that you were 100% satisfied with?

You know what Dr. DAM would prescribe.  A recent testimonial from a DAM user basically says it all:  "Wow, I really like this. I just go out there and bing, bing, bing, I'm done."

Need more?  Check out the St. Mary’s "Ease of Use" video interview with Steve Sparks, Director of Public Relations and Marketing, for St. Mary's Hospital.

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.  

Sometimes it’s difficult for people to see how their business or industry could use digital asset management.  Others are ahead of the curve and ‘get’ how something like digital asset management (DAM) can help them get ahead of their competition.  Someone doing this already is Raquel Repka, owner of The Rock Agency – a model/talent agency based in Madison, Wisconsin.  She’s been using Widen’s DAM application for several years to organize and distribute model and talent portfolios.  Not only does the agency use it internally, but clients interested in booking models and/or talent can login, search, and browse through portfolios. 

No more mailing portfolios or image attachments getting caught up in spam filters.  Clients can see all models and multiple images of each model and they can view video clips and listen to audio files of talent prospects.  Plus, with this increased internet presence and exposure, the agency is getting more bookings!  How DAM hot is that?

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. 

Last week I had an interesting meeting in which I demoed Widen’s digital asset management application for a large manufacturing company.  Earlier, I had spoken with one of the company’s sales reps who expressed frustration in getting product shots from the marketing department in a timely fashion.  Weeks, even months it would take to get images found, sorted, and sent to potential buyers.  She asked, “How can I be expected to sell their product if I don’t have images to show prospects?”  The company had so many images that it took someone days, weeks, even months to find select product shots.  The sales rep got it.  The marketing department didn’t.

The marketing department thought their internal workflow ‘was just fine’ and didn’t see the need for a hosted digital asset management application.  Soft cost just doesn’t register for many people.  What is soft cost?  These are often silent costs that companies cannot visibly see.  For the person who spent 2 days searching for images – what other more productive activities could she have been doing during that time period?  For the sales rep – how many sales are lost because she could not provide images to her prospects in a timely manner?  These indirect, uncovered costs matter!  Soft costs should not be overlooked as they contribute to inefficient workflows, unproductive employees, and ultimately, the bottom line.

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.

Widen was recently ranked among the Top 10 Premedia Leaders of America as the 8th largest provider of premedia services by sales volume, according to a 2008 study by Graphic Arts Monthly and The Association of Graphic Solutions Providers (IPA).

Widen made the list of firms whose premedia sales are greater than 50% of total sales.  Within the >50% categorization, the market size is $1,340,276,000, primarily dominated by the top 3 providers.  Widen’s share of this market is 1.2% using data reported in this list.  However, isolating just prepress service providers whose primary market is the Corporate space, Widen owns 42.6% market share.

Premedia services are defined to include: preflighting, proofing, color retouching, color separations, image assembly, platemaking, photography, data management, workflow and other media production.

For the full list, visit:  http://www.graphicartsonline.com/article/CA6549650.html

For more info about the IPA, visit: http://www.ipa.org/

Take the Color Challenge

Do you think you have an eye for color?

I don't mean the ability to pick out the right color shirt (blouse) to go with the pants (slacks) that you have on. Or which color soap dish best coordinates with your new shower curtain... You know, the shower curtain in the master bath, with the abstract pattern of sea foam green penguins... Oh, come on... You know, the shower curtain you just bought last month at Bed, Bath and Beyond when you stopped in for a new bottle opener because your neighbor broke your old one on that bottle of home brewed beer he brought over? You know the beer that tasted like hand sanitizer?...Right, right, THAT shower curtain...

Anyway, I'm talking abut the ability to distinguish different colors that look VERY similar to each other. And the ability to go right around the color wheel, placing different colors in the correct order.

Less than .05% of the female population has any problem with color discrimination. With men, that figure shoots up to 8% that have some problem with color perception. It has been said that the other 92% of men just dress that way. But I didn't say that... Okay, technically speaking, I just wrote that. Suffice to say, humans do have different ways of experiencing color. It is for this reason, and because we don't want to create images of orange flesh tones or green meat, that we test everybody at Widen involved with making critical color decisions. We want to be sure they have an eye for color. We do this by administering the Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue Test (I'll discuss Munsell and Farnsworth in a future blog. I'll bet you can't wait.). We let our competitors hire anyone that does not pass the test.

The Farnsworth Munsell 100 Hue Test

The FM100 Hue Test consists of four trays (each represents one fourth of the color wheel) containing a total of 85 removable color reference caps (incremental hue variation) spanning the visible spectrum. Color vision abnormalities and aptitude are detected by the ability of the test subject to place the color caps in order of hue. It is a challenging test that most people have fun taking. This test is used in many industries and is very effective at identifying anyone that has issues with color.

X-Rite, which owns the Munsell product line, now has an online version of this test that you can take for free! You may have came across this test if you went to the ColorMunki site from my last blog entry.

Go to:  http://www.colormunki.com/article/hue_test


The free online version of the FM100 Hue Test

You will need to enter your email to register before you can take the test. After you think you have all the colors in order, click on Score Test, and it will tell you how well you did, where within the color spectrum you have any color deficiencies, and how well you did compared to others in your demographics. Go ahead, it's fun.

What's your score?

Mark

Swinging with the X-Rite Munki

If you are a designer or photographer that is forced to "monkey" around with color on a regular basis then you may want to check out X-Rite's new product, ColorMunki...  http://www.colormunki.com/

ColorMunki is a device about the size and shape of a tape measure that is capable of calibrating monitors or projectors, creating ICC profiles for printers, and capturing and communicating color. The user selects the device function by rotating a dial on the side of the unit.

At only $500, the ColorMunki is a low-cost, entry-level spectrophotometer aimed at the photography and design markets. It will quickly calibrate and profile a computer display or projector used for presentations or slide shows. It creates ICC profiles for desktop or large-format printers using only 50 -100 color patches, which it is able to quickly scan in about one minute. Painless monitor to printer agreement is promised by telling the ColorMunki to “match my printer to my display” as the user is guided through the profiling process for both the display and printer.

Designers will go "ape" over the color sampling and communication functions of ColorMunki. The user can grab color from almost any reflective surface and build a color library that can be shared with others or used in many popular applications like the Adobe Creative Suite. With ColorMunki's PrintSafe checking capabilities, you can preview your color palettes under different lighting conditions. You can even extract a color palette from any image.

The ColorMunki is not a device that serious color professionals will likely want to use, as it does not do things like interface with RIPS for calibration or linearization. Color geeks will want to stay with devices like X-Rite's Eye-One Photo/Print ($1600) or the iSis ($5000) along with ProfileMaker or Monaco software for creating very accurate ICC profiles and maintaining calibration on output devices.

But if your goal is swinging through the jungle of pleasing color without getting your fur ruffled or spending a lot of money, then the ColorMunki is for you. With this product, X-Rite will no doubt get color management tools into the hands of many more people. And I think that is a good thing. Besides, who doesn't love monkeys?

Mark

When did modern conveniences and technology become so inconvenient?  Driving takes too long, so you fly right?  Well, how are you supposed to get anywhere when thousands of flights are being cancelled every day?  You need to be connected to your business associates at any given time; yet dropped cell phone calls, unreliable wireless internet connections and non-coverage areas for cell phone carriers all plague your essential communications.       

We’ve started to accept all of the inconveniences as being part of the cumbersome processes involved in business communications.  What if there was a solution that would allow you to not need to catch that flight and not require that phone call?

Software as a service (SaaS), along with Widen’s digital asset management (DAM), is propelling new opportunities in business workflow architecture.  Projects can now be routed and approved through a digital workflow, rather than tedious meetings.  Photography can be routed, approved and catalogued in a streamlined online portal.  Searching for your marketing and creative assets isn’t any harder than making a few clicks and choosing which file format best meets your current needs.  

Overall, business communications are in a current state of organized chaos.  Too many mobile devices, all working on different platforms and all having different capabilities.  There are too many questions driving the frustrations of marketing and creative personnel, but there is no reason to overlook an intuitive solution to some of the most tedious tasks you’re faced with regularly.  Widen’s DAM will help you save time, money and most importantly, your sanity.

The Widen Appliance continues to evolve as the hybrid between installed and hosted software platforms in the digital asset management market.  There still remains an uncertainty in the marketplace about how to categorize such a hybrid device, so we explained the following points about the Widen Appliance to third party experts, such as Mukul Krishna, global manager of digital media practice for the research firm Frost & Sullivan.

• Owned, operated, and maintained by Widen Enterprises, Inc.
• Resides within the customer infrastructure
• Internal users interact at network speeds
• Integration with Widen data center

The consensus is that the definition of software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the most appropriate categorization because the device is owned, operated, and maintained by Widen.  Even though the Appliance exists within the customer infrastructure, it is still managed by the service provider and therefore, most appropriately defined as part of the SaaS model.
 
As a SaaS provider, we targeted two objectives for the initial release:

With the NCAA tournament in full swing, I thought it would only be appropriate to have the most common available methods of marketing asset management face off as well.  Although there are always upset victories, as this year has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt, I feel that Widen’s run through the finals is pretty much a sure thing.  Let me explain…

In the first round of the Content Management Final Four Widen was paired against Installed Software Solutions.  This would be comparable to the team with a rich history that just hasn’t really done much to update their recruiting or style of play.  Installed Software used to reign supreme, but their time has come and gone.  With Widen operating on the convenient hosted platform and also absorbing all of the IT load in regards to managing your marketing assets, the first game wasn’t much of a match up.  Widen seals the victory with pricing that is much more palatable to marketing and creative departments that doesn’t require regular software and hardware upgrades.

In the finals Widen has come up against the Shared Drive / Internal Network.  This is the relatively new team on the block that’s kind of scrappy and always seems to just barely get the job done.  While the teams may look similar to some, any experienced content manager fan will realize the difference is in the organization.  Widen’s search engine and conversion capabilities keep you on your toes, as any file format can be ingested, converted and delivered.  The Shared Drive / Internal Network seems to keep up for a little bit, but sloppy play ensues as soon as files are misplaced and re-work becomes a standard task.  Victory is ours!

While Widen has earned the 2008 Content Management Final Four Championship, they certainly won’t rest on their accomplishments, as they will continue to update and upgrade their services and application three times per year.  Be sure to tune in again next year as Widen defends their title against contenders and pretenders alike in the 2009 Content Management Final Four.

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.

It’s nice to attend a conference where you don’t have to explain what SaaS means or go into your pitch about the benefits of a SaaS model.  I am at the SaaS Summit in San Francisco coordinated by OpSource (www.opsource.net) which appears to be the largest gathering of SaaS providers to date.   A well organized event with representation from organizations including Salesforce.com, Omniture, Microsoft, Clickability, Vtrenz, MySQL, Oracle, and many more.

In a keynote address by Greg Urquhart, GM at Microsoft, he explained a term that Microsoft uses, S+S.  Not SaaS, ASP, Managed Service, On-Demand, or Hosted, but S+S, which means “software plus services.”  Greg explained the reasoning for the term; SaaS is the delivery aspect of a larger value.  Greg’s delivery was a good overview of how Microsoft is positioned to embrace SaaS.

Omniture’s CEO Josh James followed with the success story of his web analytics company.  Josh walked through some financials and sales/marketing approaches that Omniture used to establish market dominance.  One of which is QBSR’s – quarterly bearing sales representatives – with a high-powered service team in place to meet the customer demand after the sale.

The forecasts, research, trends, case studies, and success stories all point to a significant rise in SaaS popularity.  Speakers cited IDC data forecasting a 32% CAGR over the next 5 years, which amounts to the SaaS market growing by $11.2 billion.  William McNee with Saugatuck Research contributed statistics by communicating that 70% of business will have deployed at least 1 SaaS application by 2012. 

William also talked about customer satisfaction with SaaS providers is greater than that of installed software citing 84% of customers who deployed a SaaS application are satisfied.  In my opinion, the reason for this is because SaaS providers do not go away after the initial sale – which is when all the heavy lifting starts – implementation, training, and service & support.   Customers need to have a hand-holding experience. 

As the sole representative of the digital asset management industry, I was on an education mission.  It was clear that not everyone in this audience knew the term but everyone, as usual, liked saying the acronym over and over again (at least I could leave out the SaaS pitch).  In most of these cases, DAM fits as a component within these larger offerings acting as an enabler to other applications.

This weekend marked one of the least viewed Academy Awards in history according to Nielson media research.  Down millions of viewers in many key demographics, those at the Academy have been left asking themselves why there was so little interest.  Many reasons have surfaced as possibilities, such as the writers strike preventing proper advertising and also the overall dark nature of many of the movies turning off viewers.  I have a different opinion.

The awards themselves run slightly over four hours.  And that is just what’s televised!  I believe that the lack of viewers can be nailed down to just a few simple facts.  The awards are boring, don’t affect our daily lives and don’t really invoke any emotions in anyone whatsoever.  Just like with tasks at work similar to this, what do you do?  You quit doing things that way or find a better, more efficient way of completing the task at hand.

Think about your daily tasks at work, and compare them to this particular four-hour affair.  When you need to fulfill marketing or corporate branding needs, the fastest method possible is always the preferred method, right?  Digital asset management allows for instant ordering, conversion and delivery of any digital files.  Whether it’s for internal or external usage, the files will be made available immediately.  No more using the wrong logo by accident, or an outdated version of a file and no more struggling with video storage.

Widen’s digital asset management applications are your anti-Academy awards.  We waste no time in fulfilling your daily requests and update the entire system three times a year, so becoming obsolete is never an issue.  Once you’ve experienced Widen’s suite of media management applications, you’ll never want to change the marketing channel again.