Because of our visit to the Henry Stewart DAM event next week in New York, we were contacted by several customers and partners. They were wondering if we changed our strategy regarding our Digital Asset Management module. In the past, we have never profiled ourselves as a player on the DAM market. And not a lot has changed in this. But that doesn't mean that we (and even more important: our customers) do a lot of good business with projects that start out as DAM, but end as complete publishing workflows.
DMP FLO Suite scope for DAM
DMP FLO Suite is software made for printing companies and graphical service providers. And that is reflected in the embedded digital asset management solution. Rather than focusing on a single ideal DAM interface that can be used for global applications, we created a solution that is scalable for SaaS projects. A printing company gets a backoffice in which it is incredibly easy to manage and maintain large amounts of images. A marketing department may use this same interface to upload their assets. But at the same time we offer content management functionalities to put any interface on top of the asset management.
And these custom interfaces on top are the strength of DMP FLO Suite. Because they allow the printing company to develop not only their own branding, but also their own business logic. One digital asset management can thus be used to host brand sites, download centers, documentation libraries, and so on. A simple example of such an interface can be found in our own document center. We upload PDF files to the asset management module, attach some metadata to say who is allowed to view them, and they are published on http://docs.flo-suite.com. Another example is the Duvel DAM interface. This was developed by Artoos, one of our SaaS partners with a high degree of specialization in asset management and web2print applications.
Scope for printing companies
Our printing company customers use DIgital Asset Management for a variety of purposes. In some cases, DAM solutions are part of the standard offering. These applications are provided in a SaaS model, and are their own product. But in more cases, they are the start of larger or broader projects. Because an end customer looking for a DAM solution typically does not just need digital asset management. The customer often realizes that the assets need to be structured because he is experiencing certain bottlenecks in his marketing workflows. And a logical thing to look for at that point is a digital asset management solution.
The more intelligent printing company uses this initial request for information as a way to find out what the underlying problem is. The assets may need to be structured because publication of brochures or product catalogs is taking too much time. Or metadata needs to be attached to images so end users across the world can download the right image at the right time. Or a combination of other factors. And these can be used to convince the customer that it's not just DAM he's looking for. The customer can use much more, but has never been aware that the possibilities exist!
DAM and online marketing tools
These needs might lead to one or more marketing tools being developed for the end customer. The printing company might again choose to do this as a core business, or use it to promote their traditional printing.
The images might be put online in very simple interfaces for end users, for example. These users can easily browse or search through the files, and download them. And before downloading, they might choose an output format, to have the images resampled automatically. And for each customer, the printing company can not only change the look and feel, but also the entire logic of the application. A focus on images will require different applications than a focus on documentation. Or brand manuals. Or large ranges of product images.
But in just as many cases, the DAM configuration can be used to help the printing company offer better traditional services. The images can be used in web2print solutions, where end users (for example in a franchise organization) can use them to create print orders.
Production tools and database publishing
But the need for improvement is not always for external parties. Just as often, a marketing department needs help streamlining the internal processes. Easier ways to brief a creative design studio, for example. A printing company can provide tools where the marketing department makes rough outlines of brochures or catalogs (in their browser), and extracts InDesign documents for the studio.
Or these processes can be completely automated in database publishing workflows. The Digital Asset Management effort can be used to initiate the automation of the entire range of point of sales materials (posters, shelve cards, flyers, and so on). And at the same time, approval and correction workflows are built around this to reduce the amount of unnecessary emails going back and forth.
Continuous development
So in conclusion: we still don't profile ourselves as a major DAM player. But some of our SaaS partners do. And that's why we'll keep developing also on the Digital Asset Management part of our solution. As a matter of fact, we'll be introducing some exciting new features at Henry Stewart. New interfaces on the DAM module (for example a very sexy Flex application). Some new uses of the link between Enfocus Switch workflows and the digital asset management module with the DMP FLO Suite Configurator for Enfocus Switch. But also the possibility to add annotations in our Flash Viewer. This viewer (automatically created for each file in the DAM) can be used to gather comments much like you would in Acrobat. And using the content management system, you can build a host of Online Proofing workflows around the digital asset management module.