2012 was an exciting year for the Widen Media Collective family of digital asset management solutions, services and user community! We saw tremendous growth among the user community as we added 12,000 users, taking the Widen cloud-based DAM service to over 147,000 users in 120 countries. Many of the Widen DAM system administrators have joined the online customer community on LinkedIn.
The main event of the year was the inaugural Widen User Summit, held in Madison in September for “A Collective Purpose”. Nearly eighty Widen customers made the trip to partake in two days of learning, networking, and sharing of DAM best practices to take back to their organizations.
On the product evolution front, Widen teams delivered four major upgrades to the Media Collective in 2012. Here’s a recap of what went down.
Winter version 6.0 release: We put the finishing touches on the new Media Collective user interface (UI), which was started in 2011 to include revamped asset versioning, PDF contact sheets, and collections advancements. New features added included: watched assets, application alerts, social publishing to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and embed code release and expiration controls. Admin tools updates featured a new “role creation wizard” and EULA administration. Read the release notes or watch the highlight reel to learn more.
Spring version 6.1 release: The big advancement featured an enhanced upload workflow with a new metadata wizard and universal drag-and-drop support, data export tools and collections share page redesign for public collection viewing. Order administration capped it off on the admin side and the Dynamic Media Building application was updated with the new UI. Catch the release notes or view the recorded webinar to learn more.
Summer version 6.2 release: Widen Analytics was released to give system administrators a new application to monitor storage, users, asset counts and usage to complement the Google Analytics profiles. Widen also announced the first of two major technology partnerships this year with Digimarc being the first to offer digital watermarking integration with Widen DAM. And, last but not least, we released a new web services API to enhance Collective’s interconnectivity with other systems and sites. Check out the release notes or watch the analytics video tutorial to learn more.
Fall version 6.2.1 release: With the second of two new integration partnerships, Widen and ConceptShare have teamed up to bring Widen customers greater creative review and collaboration capabilities. ConceptShare is a web-based Creative Operations Management (COM) platform that allows marketing and creative teams to route, review, collaborate on and approve creative work; images, documents, web pages, audio, interactive and video assets. Check out the webpage and watch the video to learn more.
Beyond the product advancements, Widen has made significant strides in driving home the value offered by digital asset management software-as-a-service (emphasis on “service”) in the areas of strategy consulting, admin services and user engagement programs. View the webpage to learn more about Widen consulting services.
On the support side, Widen has continued to add talented people in software development, project management, customer support, quality assurance and marketing. Since the start of 2011, Widen has hired 18 full-time employees who add to Widen’s principles of providing outstanding customer service and support. Read the press release or check out the support page to learn more.
On the premedia side, we photographed 1000's of new product styles for our apparel customers and, in-turn, created over 88,000 digital samples for these apparel customers. We color managed and/or manipulated over 93,500 digital images for our catalog clients which included footwear, fashion apparel, jewelry, homegoods, building products, construction and farm equipment along with sports apparel and kitchen & bath fixtures. The page production group processed nearly 50,000 InDesign and/or Quark pages and outputted countless numbers of Epson proofs of all sizes. Be sure to explore the Widen world of Premedia to see how we can help your image!
With you, we look forward to a prosperous 2013 as we continue to advance Widen digital asset management solutions and services to help organizations maximize the value of their digital media and brand assets. A few of the things we look forward to include a joint webinar with ConceptShare on Thursday, January 10, the much anticipated 6.3 release in February with comments & ratings, email notifications, collection upgrades and more, and the 2nd annual Widen User Summit October 14-16.
What do you look forward to most in 2013?
Contact us with questions or check out our demo options to learn more about Widen DAM SaaS.