Judith Lamont is a research analyst and a KMWorld Senior Writer
The market for digital asset management (DAM) solutions remains robust, driven by increasing demand for rich media on Web sites, for marketing materials and in technical documentation. Ideally, assets for those purposes are managed centrally and published as needed to different destinations.
"DAM solutions are extending both upstream and downstream," says Melissa Webster, program VP for content and digital media technologies at IDC. "It’s less and less about the repository and more about the workflow."
The annual market stands at about $600 million, and historically has posted double-digit growth. GSD&M Idea City is a full-service advertising agency with such high-profile clients such as AARP, American Red Cross, BMW, John Deere and L.L. Bean. Based in Austin, Texas, the company’s staff of 450 includes a large creative and studio art department.
The company used a cumbersome, paper-based photography tracking system listing the photographer, customer and other information about the asset. Employees had to leave their desks to retrieve the CD or other medium on which the archived working file was stored. If a piece of artwork could not be found, it might have to be recreated, adding more agency costs and time to the project.
After deciding to move to a digital asset management system, GSD&M Idea City formed a search team consisting of heads of several departments, including creative services departments and IT. "This was not an IT initiative," says Lisa McIntyre, digital asset management librarian at GSD&M Idea City. "We wanted buy-in from other potential users of the system." The company then narrowed down the choices to three vendors that included both pure-play DAM products and enterprise content management (ECM) systems.
Site visits
Each of the finalists made on-site visits as the last stage of the search process. "We worked through several scenarios to make sure the software could do what we wanted," McIntyre says. "We did not want to change our work processes, just the means through which we accomplished the work." At the completion of the evaluation, GSD&M Idea City chose EMC Documentum Digital Asset Management solution from EMC.
Attractive features
An important capability was EMC’s extensibility. "We were able to put DAM into play right away, but we can also broaden into content management and records management if we want," McIntyre explains.
Integration with other products was also a major consideration. "The software has tools that allow users to work in their native environment, which for our studio artists is generally Adobe Creative Suite," McIntyre explains. "The DAM system shows as a file share on the desktop, and users can continue working as they always have." Business users can search for assets from a browser interface.
Now that the system is in place, users can find their assets much more quickly, and search criteria can
be used to locate files instantly. "Archiving used to take two days and now has been reduced to just one afternoon," McIntyre adds.
GSD&M Idea City is also working on an integration with SharePoint to allow a job jacket to be created in the DAM system when a JobSite collaborative workspace is created. "Eventually we hope for a seamless environment that draws from multiple repositories through a single interface," McIntyre adds.
For companies that anticipate needing an ECM system along with their DAM repository, a platform such as EMC’s offers a good path. "We can provide a unified system from day one," says David Mennie, senior product marketing manager at EMC. "Customers can have one system for the rich media, Web content management and enterprise content management, rather than silos."
In addition, EMC’s platform has some unique capabilities, adds Mennie. For example, a 3-D image solution provided by an EMC partner and incorporated into the platform can unlock computer-aided design (CAD) files in 80 different formats. That ability is helpful for creating marketing collateral, technical publications and maintenance manuals that need to include 3-D interactive models, animations or views of consumer products, as well as more complex structures such as airplane landing gear.
Rich media assets
UNICEF was founded by the United Nations in 1946 to help save, protect and improve the lives of children through immunization, education, healthcare, nutrition, clean water and sanitation. It delivers those services and material resources on a regular basis, and responds to emergencies throughout the world.
The UNICEF Web site is the primary means of conveying information about activities in which the organization is involved. With nearly 200 offices operating in 156 countries, and fundraising partner organizations in 36 industrialized countries, UNICEF has deployed a Web content management (WCM) system that allows distributed editing and publishing of content, and localization of field office Web sites.
As rich media, particularly video, became more prevalent, UNICEF also saw a need for a DAM system that could help staff members deal more effectively with the increasing number of digital assets.
"We drop professional UNICEF journalists and photographers into all sorts of places where children are affected by crisis, as well as serious ongoing challenges," says Alexander Struminger, executive project manager in UNICEF’s Internet, broadcast and image section. "Video is a good format for quickly telling complex stories and effectively feeding into news cycles, but we needed to be able to store, retrieve and distribute the files more easily."
SaaS delivery model
UNICEF had tried several approaches to DAM, including developing its own software, but usage of the systems had been limited. "One of the lessons we learned in our early attempts was that the way in which we rolled out the system was critical," says Struminger. "We knew we needed a good software product, but better software alone is never the answer. We also needed to facilitate adoption by involving stakeholders." After researching the available options and requesting proposals from best-in-class vendors, UNICEF selected the DAM platform from Widen Enterprises.
The software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model of Widen’s DAM platform removed the burden of installing and maintaining the software. UNICEF also took note of the company’s long history of high-quality service. "Widen helped us start out with a pilot project so we could introduce the product to a small group of beta testers," Struminger explains. "We made sure we had a group of motivated UNICEF stakeholders involved. This ensured early adoption and a sense of ownership by key stakeholders."
The system was introduced by UNICEF’s Geneva office at a gathering of UNICEF fundraising organizations, and several of the individuals involved in the pilot spoke enthusiastically about its merits. "This event changed the conversation," Struminger says, "and we realized it was the kind of advocacy we needed in order to get that vital adoption."
Other parts of the organization began to request the DAM system, and a global rollout is now in progress. Feedback has been very positive, and users are beginning to suggest new applications, like asset sharing between divisions, countries and partner organizations. Widen’s application for video Web streaming is also under consideration.
Users can quickly find video clips they need, along with scripts and shot lists. They can send those files directly to a journalist or news organization for review. UNICEF offices and partners can have access to up-to-date branding assets, as well as print publications files for localization, printing or electronic distribution.
"The robust search engine is really one of the keys to this system," explains Struminger, "and its ability to leverage metadata." Although the metadata and taxonomy needed to be sorted out as the system expanded, the Widen DAM system is now becoming the preferred distribution platform for digital assets.
Widen Enterprises draws its expertise from its own experience in pre-press workflow, so in addition to offering a software product it also has substantial subject matter expertise.
"Our emphasis is on service and being with customers throughout their process," says Matthew Gonnering, CEO of Widen. "For example, we staffed our own video production studio to make sure we understood the workflow. Our product handles every major video format as well." That ability provides support to social marketing efforts, allowing the distribution of video to many channels. "We don’t just get our customers set up with the software and then part company," Gonnering emphasizes. "We are available throughout the entire time of our relationship."
SaaS is growing faster in the DAM market than in other content management markets, according to IDC’s Webster. "In part, this is because the SaaS model lends itself to sharing information, which is often an important requirement for a DAM system," she says. Webster also points to the growing importance of video. "Video is definitely booming on Web sites right now," she continues. "But it needs a lot more management than WCM can offer—for example, on-demand transcoding might be needed to deliver the video in the right format for the user."
Broad KM vision
Zimmer Holdings manufactures medical products such as orthopedic implants, dental implants and artificial tissue. As a large organization with revenues of over $4 billion and 8,000 employees, Zimmer has extensive requirements for managing information of all kinds, but management of its technical information poses special challenges. All of Zimmer’s products are subject to regulation and are covered by 21 CFR Part 20, which defines how records about the products must be maintained. Changes in information relating to the medical devices need to be documented, for example, and carried into any related materials. Employees and customers also require training associated with the medical devices.
The company has developed a broad vision for a knowledge management system. Its long-term goals include migrating from a file share system for managing documents, establishing a hierarchy for regulated documents that includes inheritance of metadata for the different levels, automating the updating of rich media into regulated documents and developing an enterprise answer management system.
Goal: an answer management system
The rich media files play a role in many corporate activities, including compliance, training and marketing. "We recognized right away that we needed to have a DAM solution as part of our quality management system," says Daniel Duncan, senior instructional designer at Zimmer. The rich media might be images, technical drawings, video clips and e-learning objects. Zimmer selected TeleScope from North Plains as the best match for its requirements. "We viewed TeleScope as the best of breed," Duncan explains, "and found that its flexibility and search capability would meet or exceed what we needed."
Zimmer is now in the process of configuring the TeleScope DAM system. "We began by writing protocols to validate the software’s effectiveness in meeting the regulations," says Duncan. By the end of the year, Zimmer hopes to have corporate information available and cataloged in the system, as well as supporting information. Training materials such as tutorials will be stored as objects in the DAM system, which will interface with a learning management system (LMS) that delivers and tracks the training.
The ultimate goal is to develop an enterprise "answer management system" that allows a user to type in a question and obtain a specific answer. "This is what our users need and want," Duncan says. "Distributors might want to know about inventory management, salespeople need to know about new products, and medical practitioners might want to see a simulation of a surgical technique. We want a unified system with a strong set of metadata around the content, so we can bring all the relevant information together."
TeleScope will contain all the rich media assets and will also serve as a catalog for documents in other repositories. "Our plan is for TeleScope to serve as a bridge," explains Duncan, "by providing a consistent user interface as we migrate away from traditional document authoring and implement XML-based knowledge and content management."
Using the metadata management capability of TeleScope, Zimmer will be able to update its documents dynamically. As a digital asset that is a component in product specification is modified, for example, it will replace an older version shown in the document.
"We have a lot of documentation within our organization related to policies and procedures, training and marketing," Duncan says. "One of the most challenging tasks we have is change control and managing reusable content, the millions of complex pieces we have for all those documents." Convinced that Zimmer is on the right track in shifting to a KM paradigm, despite the long road ahead, Duncan concludes, "You have to start somewhere."
No matter where the customers start, DAM systems now allow them to go farther than ever. "We have an end-to-end capability now, says Steve Sauder, CTO of North Plains. "We can manage XML, produce printed books and distribute e-books based on a single source of content." With North Plains’ new Web 2.0 tools, publishers can support viral marketing with reviews and ratings. That scenario is a big step ahead of the static repository that characterized earlier generation DAM systems.
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