Articles

DAM Article

<hr /> Seems like we’ve been talking a lot about DAMs these days. Why? Because there’s so much DAM stuff to deal with.It’s true. Many large enterprises have thousands – even millions – of digital assets spread across a myriad of systems and databases. At the same time, marketing teams are under increasing pressure to work faster while maintaining control and governance.Over the last two years, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-digital-asset-management-dam-system">digital asset management systems</a> have been stepping up to meet this challenge, enhancing their product capabilities with an abundance of AI capabilities. This evolution in functionality, driven largely by AI, is impacting productivity for teams and driving greater value for brands. In that same stretch, I've seen numerous demos from pure-play DAM platforms and DXPs with dedicated DAM features, many of which were on display at <a target="_blank" href="https://www.henrystewartconferences.com/events/dam-new-york-2024">DAM New York 2024</a> just a few weeks ago. While there are many horizontal plays within the DAM market landscape, there are certainly niche products that understand the unique needs and challenges of the markets they serve, providing a more immersive UX that’s discretely geared toward those requirements. These tend to be pure-play solutions with a penchant for integration. Such is the case with <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/cloudinary">Cloudinary</a>, an image and video platform that enables some of the world’s most engaging brands to deliver transformative visual experiences at an enterprise scale. With more than two million users and 10,000 customers (including Adidas, Etsy, Fiverr, Rivian, and more), Cloudinary helps organizations manage huge asset volumes, improve collaboration, save thousands of hours on repetitive tasks, and increase conversions.During DAM New York, Cloudinary announced some new and interesting capabilities to <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/blog/the-intelligent-dam">Cloudinary Assets</a>, the company’s intelligent, API-first digital asset management platform. These innovative features are designed to streamline every stage of the asset lifecycle, including customizable creative review and approval workflows, portals for controlling asset sharing, and intuitive AI solutions that automate manual tasks. If you're not familiar with Assets, here's a quick video overview: <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM3UmmT_oB0"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iM3UmmT_oB0" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> As an ecosystem, Cloudinary Assets complements the company's other nifty resources. This includes a programmable media feature for automating video and image lifecycles and a <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/video_api">robust video API</a> that allows developers to programmatically access and manipulate video content on the web with uploading, storage, encoding, and delivery optimizations.Cloudinary has long embraced the promise of composable architectures, which has guided its innovation path and strategy (more on that in a minute). As such, its new features are purpose-built to deliver greater flexibility for customers within their martech stacks – one of the many reasons why it was recently named a <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Flp.cloudinary.com%2Farp.lp.idc_marketscape.html%3Futm_campaign%3D4007-%26utm_medium%3Dpress_releases%26utm_source%3Dbusinesswire%23form_section&amp;esheet=54140182&amp;newsitemid=20241022561325&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=Leader+in+the+IDC+MarketScape%3A+Worldwide+Intelligent+Digital+Asset+Management&amp;index=3&amp;md5=843ea3470f82578e4adb9f69ff135925">Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Intelligent Digital Asset Management</a>“Today’s visual economy demands that brands harness the full power of their images and videos to engage and connect with consumers, and these modern experiences require a modern DAM,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-daynes-1456173a/">Rob Daynes</a>, Managing Director of Digital Asset Management at Cloudinary. “When powerful martech tools work together in harmony, the professionals that rely on them can too. This raises the bar for the kinds of experiences they can build to truly distinguish themselves in their market.”Will these new features pay off for Cloudinary customers? According to the company, they will – big time. They project that a brand's launch cycles could accelerate profoundly, dropping from weeks or days to minutes. Asset costs could be reduced by up to 60%. And here's the clincher: users could save up to 75% of their time toiling in asset management, driving a significant ROI through enhanced productivity. These are some sweet value props. Can Assets deliver the goods?I'm sure Cloudinary would say (resoundingly): “You bet your assets.” But let’s dig in a little deeper. <h3 id="an-api-first-dam-for-composable-architectures">An API-first DAM for composable architectures</h3>Recently, Cloudinary commissioned an <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudinary.com%2Fproducts%2Fdigital_asset_management%2Fsurvey%3Futm_campaign%3D4007-%26utm_medium%3Dpress_releases%26utm_source%3Dbusinesswire&amp;esheet=54140182&amp;newsitemid=20241022561325&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=independent+DAM+survey&amp;index=11&amp;md5=0092398e234b7db65818807e845a90ae">independent DAM survey</a>, revealing that 86% of respondents consider a highly integratable DAM to be extremely or very important. That makes sense based on all the dynamics I’ve already outlined.“Highly integratable” is a kind of synonym for composable, which is indeed reflected in Cloudinary’s grounding API-first posture. This architectural approach has long been the company’s guiding light, and is codified by its early membership in the <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/new-logo-new-leaders-mach-alliance-announces-key-appointments-and-brand-refresh">MACH Alliance</a>. The platform offers a robust ecosystem of more than 300 partners, integrations, and plug-ins with many of the marketing ecosystem’s most popular tools.Cloudinary sees its DAM as a “single source of truth” for all visual assets, consolidating the often disparate visual asset technologies managed across teams in one highly connected and intelligent platform. With its rich focus on the image and video asset category, its composable capabilities give it an edge when fitting into a diverse martech stack with distributed data.<h3 id="powerful-and-practical-ai-capabilities">Powerful and practical AI capabilities</h3>There are several places where AI is augmenting Cloudinary’s DAM features to improve efficiency while delivering greater control and confidence for marketing teams. First, Cloudinary’s embedded AI automates the creative review and approval workflows by enabling auto-tagging and visual search for simpler asset classification and discovery. Its AI-powered content moderation and credentialing – with <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudinary.com%2Fblog%2Fc2pa-standard-implementation%3Futm_campaign%3D4007-%26utm_medium%3Dpress_releases%26utm_source%3Dbusinesswire&amp;esheet=54140182&amp;newsitemid=20241022561325&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=C2PA+compliance&amp;index=10&amp;md5=1895ae4da0c24b994d0060e4969a27a1">C2PA compliance</a> – helps ensure brand compliance and customer confidence in every asset, even as library volumes increase and <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/documentation/user_generated_content">user-generated content</a> (UGC) and AI content proliferate.Its DAM also has a deep bench of practical AI capabilities that accelerate time to market for visual storytellers. These include automating manual tasks at scale, such as cropping, resizing, and delivering assets in the ideal file format and quality.With Cloudinary’s cutting-edge generative AI capabilities – available within its visual workspace, Studio – any DAM user can create unlimited on-brand customizations of a single asset or collection of assets for any use case. Accurate previews eliminate publishing risk and ensure that assets transformed by generative AI automation (such as background removal and fill, object removal and replacement, product recoloring, or image quality enhancement) will look flawless once delivered to the consumer.<h3 id="what-are-the-new-features-in-assets?">What are the new features in Assets?</h3>Here’s a quick rundown, starting with robust <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/products/digital_asset_management/moderate-review">creative review and approval</a> capabilities. Marketing teams will benefit from a more centralized and collaborative workflow automation solution, allowing them to customize and match their own review and approval processes for images, videos, PDFs, and other content and file types – and even include both internal and external stakeholders. It also sports enterprise-grade security and auditing, so brands in highly regulated industries can maintain strict governance.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:65.02%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cloudinary-metadata-screenshot.png" alt="" /></figure>Managing metadata and adding AI-generated captioning are powerful tools in Cloudinary Assets Content moderation is critical for marketing teams, particularly as assets grow exponentially. As such, Cloudinary has juiced its platform with <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/solutions/user-generated-content">AI-powered moderation tools</a>, helping brands meet compliance by automating things like credentialing and compliance checks. Teams can also maintain higher standards while coping with the challenging realities of UGC and other assets entering the ecosystem.Powered by Cloudinary’s proprietary MediaFlows solution, the enhanced <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/products/digital_asset_management/asset-workflow-templates">asset workflow automation</a> is a no-code solution that sets up actions when uploading assets – or times actions to occur by specific criteria such as expiration date, changes to metadata, and other details. Asset workflow automation can also be customized with more complex workflows and integrations by upgrading to the full suite of MediaFlows capabilities.  <img style="width:46.3%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cloudinary-asset-worfklow-screen.png" alt="" />Asset workflow automation offers granular control of specific asset actions and details On the frontend, there’s also something called <a target="_blank" href="https://cloudinary.com/products/digital_asset_management/portals">Cloudinary Portals</a>, which makes it easy to securely curate and share assets with everyone on your team or specified stakeholders. Portals enables business users to create fully branded digital experiences across media sharing, brand guideline portals, press portals, partner and sales enablement centers, and more.On the video side, there are some cool GenAI video editing features. These advancements are intended to support the <a target="_blank" href="https://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudinary.com%2Fsolutions%2Fvideo%2Fsurvey%3Futm_campaign%3D4007-%26utm_medium%3Dpress_releases%26utm_source%3Dbusinesswire&amp;esheet=54140182&amp;newsitemid=20241022561325&amp;lan=en-US&amp;anchor=80%25+of+brands+that+plan+to+expand+their+use+of+video&amp;index=12&amp;md5=098c47b4c8e32efbf3635f928c3fdd05">80% of brands planning to expand their use of video</a>. This includes incredibly handy tools for generating smart previews, transcriptions, captioning, and auto-translations – so brands can reach everyone on any device with more accessible experiences. Cloudinary also supports multiple video file formats, including short-form, long-form, e-commerce, information and how-to, and other applications. <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>“DAM done differently.” That’s how Cloudinary visualizes its platform promise. It’s catchy, and it certainly reflects the company's culture of innovation.AI is the name of the game when it comes to the DAM roadmap and horizon. As the competitive field continues to expand, pure-play providers, DXPs, and PaaS solutions will continue to leverage high-utility AI features to provide differentiated value to customers. Most of that value will be derived from enhancements in speed, productivity, and governance. But platforms like Cloudinary might have an advantage relative to their decade-long focus on digital imagery and video, and its persistent posture of composability. Being API-first is a key determiner for buyers and evaluators looking for MACH-centric solutions that fit the bill within composable stacks, and Cloudinary has long been a champion of composability.Still, the DAM market is getting thicker. <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/slam-dam-dunk-canto-acquires-image-relay-plans-to-align-dam-and-pim-features">With Canto’s acquisition of Image Relay</a>, there’s a motion towards consolidating power at the pure-play enterprise level. Meanwhile, DXPs and Content Marketing Platforms (CMPs) like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/acquia">Acquia</a> continue to roll out more high-utility AI-driven features like native video editing – making it less cumbersome for brands to simply add and access these features. Downstream, PaaS players like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/directus">Directus</a> are offering built-in choice with their own integrated DAM, just as other legacy CMS platforms continue to improve their own capabilities. The good news: demand is growing, and innovation will pay off for marketing teams and brands.If you’re evaluating platforms, consider your goals relative to composability. Cloudinary's API-first posture puts them squarely in that league, but they're also enhancing the key features that really add up in a good DAM: asset lifecycle management, customizable workflows, roles-based permissions, and of course, AI and machine learning capabilities. In terms of trust, it's hard to find a more best-of-breed, pure-play DAM provider than Cloudinary. They clearly understand the value of image and video assets at the enterprise level, and they're striving to lead the way with emerging technologies in the DAM field. Bottom line: It’s a safe bet for covering your assets.  <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-cloudinary?--talk-to-us.-">Looking for guidance on Cloudinary?  <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to us. </a></h4><hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:30.46%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/cms-summit-25.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-summit-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">CMS Summit 25</a></h4>May 13-14, 2025 – Frankfurt, GermanyDon't miss the first European edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community! CMS Summit 25 will bring together top-notch speakers, our renowned learning format, and engaging social events. Hear from leading practitioners like Deutsche Bahn, Dr. Oetker, and more – and join customers, agencies, and CMS vendors as we discuss current trends and what's ahead for the content and digital experience fields. Connect and network at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference focused on CMS. Space is limited for this exclusive event, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmssummit25">so book your seats today.</a>

Cloudinary Assets Brings New AI-Powered Features to its API-First ‘Intelligent DAM’ 

matt-garrepy

<hr /> In the pantheon of DAM solutions, AI has been an undeniable game changer. Along with enhancing search and impacting overall productivity, it’s also proving valuable from a generative content perspective. The latest example of AI innovation in the “DAMsphere” is from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a>, which has been steadily infusing artificial intelligence into its platform, with a keen focus on its <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-dam">Acquia DAM</a> solution.At <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/from-accessibility-to-ai-and-beyond-five-key-takeaways-from-acquia-engage-boston">last year’s Engage conference</a> in Boston, I saw first-hand how AI was force-multiplying the potential for Acquia DAM and taking its core Widen capabilities – <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities">which it purchased in 2021</a> – to the next level. Since then, there have been continual improvements, reinforcing Acquia’s best-of-breed posture in a competitive market of DAM and PIM products. This includes other DXPs and even headless CMS or PaaS platforms with built-in offerings. Acquia’s new AI enhancements, announced just last month, are focused on video and images – and they're pretty slick. By all accounts, they should boost the productivity of creatives and marketers while enabling them to extract greater value from their digital content. Here’s a quick breakdown (there's even some video to watch):<h3 id="acquia-video-creator">Acquia Video Creator</h3>Video is already a full-time resident in the house of the DAMs, particularly as brands increase their reliance on interactive and immersive content. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.wyzowl.com/video-marketing-statistics/">Nearly 90% of consumers</a> say that they want more video, and social platforms like TikTok and Instagram have become the go-to channels for reaching new customers.Additionally, <a target="_blank" href="https://offers.hubspot.com/consumer-trends?hubs_signup-url=blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-video-consumption-is-changing&amp;hubs_signup-cta=Consumer%20Trends%20Report&amp;hubs_post=blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-video-consumption-is-changing&amp;hubs_post-cta=Consumer%20Trends%20Report&amp;_gl=1*iyn9mk*_gcl_au*MTAyMzg3NDcxOC4xNzMwOTA3MTk4*_ga*MTUzNjQ3OTAzNi4xNjg1OTEyNTQ3*_ga_LXTM6CQ0XK*MTczMDkwNzE5OC4yLjAuMTczMDkwNzE5OC42MC4wLjA.&amp;_ga=2.165247679.1431422928.1730907198-1536479036.1685912547">almost 40% of buyers</a> have cited a preference for product discovery through short-form video. Consequently, brands are ramping up their production, publication, and management resources to serve up video-centric content and campaigns at scale – and looking for platforms that provide greater automation. With the new <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-dam/video-creator">Acquia Video Creator</a>, marketers have a dynamite tool for meeting these demands. Powered by AI, the Video Creator allows users to easily produce professional-quality, brand-compliant videos via a simple drag-and-drop interface. Videos are composed of existing content in a company's digital asset library, and users can access features like customizable templates and a vast cache of graphics, animations, and video clips. Here's a quick overview of the features: <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://youtu.be/aq7v00IH64E"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aq7v00IH64E" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> It’s worth reinforcing that this isn’t just a video editor. It is, indeed, a creator, giving professional video editors a canvas for generating templates with customizable zones for things like product promos. The UX is fairly robust, delivering a complete video interface with scene layers and timelines. The functionality evokes the familiarity of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe After Effects</a>, or even some elements of <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/webflow">Webflow</a> relative to the granular styling capabilities – but without feeling too overwhelming. Bottom line: it’s enough tooling to assemble a solid experience.   <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:83.01%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/acquia-video-creator.png" alt="" /></figure>Composing a video with customizable zones in the Acquia Video Creator From here, marketing team members (or almost anyone for that matter) can use the simple drag-and-drop editor to add content, transitions, and animations – as well as audio tracks or music from your library or other integrated sources. You can also pop in a transcript with ease.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:82.81%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/11/acquia-video-creator-templates-screen.png" alt="" /></figure>Selecting templates in the Acquia Video Creator One of the big benefits is the presence of “guardrails” to help keep content on brand. We’ve seen this in other CMS and DXP platforms with restricted learning pipelines or knowledge bases that train only on a company’s content or licensed IP. This AI governance helps democratize video creation across an organization while ensuring that large, distributed teams stay on brand.The other key value is acceleration. In minutes, you can create entirely new projects, edit existing videos, and use the Video Creator’s AI features to generate scripts, voiceovers, subtitles, and even translations. There are also collaboration tools for internal sharing and review, so organizations can rapidly create, approve, and deliver videos across websites, e-commerce channels, social media, events, and more.Acquia Video Creator is powered by <a target="_blank" href="https://www.moovly.com/">Moovly</a>, and is currently available as an add-on module to both the Acquia DAM and PIM solutions.<h3 id="ai-video-transcription-and-automated-color-filtering">AI Video Transcription and Automated Color Filtering</h3>Along with the Video Creator, Acquia also introduced a new AI Video Transcription feature directly within its DAM, making it easier to manage, find, and share video and image assets. This is a super-handy resource and one that should complement every DAM. It enables users to add an AI-generated video transcript that is stored on the video’s asset digest page, eliminating the need to send videos to a separate transcription service (this can be a real hassle factor). What’s cool is that the transcripts are all time-stamped and available via general and advanced searches within the DAM. They can also be downloaded – another perk that can prove to be invaluable when utilizing transcripts in multiple places.Acquia’s new Automated Color Filtering is also a new AI-powered boon to productivity. It removes human error that can arise in manual tagging by using AI to analyze an image's color profile. It then provides filtering and search of specific HEX (hexadecimal) color values without any administrator work required.<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>When it comes to harnessing AI in CMS, DXP, and other digital experience tools, the value quotient has been all over the spectrum. I’ve watched AI features blossom from the end of 2022 as vendors scrambled to remain in parity, and there have been hits and misses. In my opinion, DAMs have been a shining example of where AI has paid dividends and brought order to the data chaos. They synthesize AI's tangible benefits, applying them to high-utility services like search and filtering. They also enable automation that delivers a more scalable and uniform experience for marketers. Within the landscape of platform choices, Acquia has been pushing the innovation edge – and making Acquia DAM a jewel in its expanding digital crown. It offers an elegant, team-oriented solution that elevates collaboration. Their streamlined approach and drag-and-drop interfaces also enable marketers to be more responsive, productive, and prolific while staying on brand.Video is a key part of the content ecosystem, and Acquia’s new features are enhancing both creation and access in profound ways. AI has been essential to the amplification, but the DXP has clearly put its ear to the ground and listened to both customers and community – particularly at the enterprise level. This is where the growth of Content Marketing Platforms (CMPs) is accelerating, which assembles the assets and digital tools for managing large-scale integrated campaigns. It’s worth noting that Acquia participated in <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/optimizely-leads-gartners-2024-mq-for-content-marketing-platforms-as-more-dxps-join-the-game">Gartner’s 2024 Magic Quadrant for CMPs</a>, presenting as a Challenger. Of course, there's also the net benefit of having the Acquia <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/drupal">Drupal</a> community as part of the testing and feedback loop. As with previous AI ventures within the Acquia DXP, much of the early gains came from Drupal community engagement and nascent plugins for ChatGPT that accelerated the marketable innovation. As <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/buytaert/">Dries Buytaert</a> shared during our Keynote at the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect Conference</a> last August, Drupal and Acquia were at the forefront of AI in the CMS realm, well before the generative explosion.According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakeathey/">Jake Athey</a>, Vice President of Go-To-Market and Sales for Acquia DAM &amp; PIM, this is just the beginning of the innovation cycle.“AI creates new opportunities for creatives, content authors, and marketers to drive efficiency and create immersive digital experiences that drive greater customer engagement,” he said. “Our latest innovations accelerate campaign delivery by empowering teams to create content more easily, organize assets more accurately, and find relevant assets more quickly. They are just the start of a steady stream of forthcoming innovations that distinguish Acquia DAM for its ability to consistently increase business value.”<hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-acquia-or-acquia-dam?--talk-to-us.-">Looking for guidance on Acquia or Acquia DAM?  <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to us. </a></h4><hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a href=" https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Acquia Introduces New AI-Powered Video and Image Features for Acquia DAM

<hr /> DAM is hot. Red hot. Like <a target="_blank" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDUDPCttfc">Steph Curry</a> from the three-point line.The reason is clear: we’ve got too much stuff dribbling on our digital courts. Handling the “brand ball” across distributed global teams, remote workers, and diverse channels is getting increasingly complex. As such, many organizations are often one foul away from using the wrong asset or publishing outdated product details – and that's a ticket to a losing game. Digital Asset Management (DAM) and its co-captain, Product Information Management (PIM), have been winning solutions to this problem of scaling content. While neither category is new to the roster, they’re continuing to prove their relevance as digital content grows. And grows. DAMs and PIMs are like different players on the same team. Both perform well in their respective positions and are quite closely aligned, stoking collaboration and ensuring consistency (you know, picking and rolling in the paint). If you’re not familiar with the distinctions, DAMs manage things like images, videos, and documents; PIMs are used to maintain stores of product information. As one might guess, they indeed overlap in discrete areas, but they miss a shot or two based on their focus. Typically, an organization combines brand assets from a DAM and product details from its PIM, relying on integrations to compile and print on various frontends like websites or apps. One thing they do have in common is rapid transformation with AI. The last two years have seen the addition of AI-driven tools and features like automated workflows, tagging, and more, all designed to help users and organizations streamline their digital operations.Having both DAM and PIM features more closely aligned – along with AI's force-multiplying effects – would certainly benefit large enterprises with vast digital caches of assets and product data. Now, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canto.com/">Canto</a>, a preeminent DAM software provider, is expanding its footprint to do just that.Yesterday, the company announced that it has acquired industry rival <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imagerelay.com/">Image Relay</a>, a Vermont-based SaaS company that’s been doing novel work to unify digital asset management and product information management. The combination could be a game changer as Canto executes its vision to revolutionize the way businesses mine value from their digital content. Canto has been on its own shooting streak: just last year, the company <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canto.com/press-releases/canto-merlinone/">acquired another competitor, MerlinOne,</a> as it looked to inorganically scale its AI capabilities. For a company with three decades of experience in the DAM game, Canto is certainly looking to grow its fan base aggressively. Let's unpack it a little further. <h3 id="betting-big-on-the-digital-content-explosion">Betting big on the digital content explosion</h3>When I say DAM is worthy of a Steph Curry allusion, then the swish should be audible from the stands – and by all accounts, it is. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/digital-asset-management-market">According to Grand View Research</a>, the global Digital Asset Management market size was valued at over $4.2 billion in 2023, with a projected CAGR of 16.2% from 2024 to 2030.As I previously stated, this is primarily attributed to the proliferation of remote work and distributed teams – thanks in part to a little bug called COVID – which has accelerated the adoption of DAM technology. With more employees working from various locations, cloud-based DAM solutions swept in as a secure pipeline for accessing digital assets from anywhere. The benefits are exceedingly clear. With a DAM, disparate users and teams can collaborate seamlessly and respond faster to shifting dynamics, specifically in fields like marketing, media, and e-commerce – industries where immediate access to up-to-date assets can impact campaign effectiveness and customer engagement.Driving most of the attention and focus on DAMs is the rapid expansion of digital platforms and the rise of omnichannel marketing. As consumers move more fluidly across interconnected screens and devices, brands are seeking just-in-time solutions to meet buyers at every doorstep with cohesive messaging. This has resulted in swollen silos of digital content, packed with images, videos, PDFs, rich media, and more – and an onslaught of AI-generated substance to supply personalization and experimentation goals. To meet this surge, enterprises are now straddled with immense digital content creation needs, which require efficient structural, storage, and retrieval solutions. DAMs and PIMs provide a centralized resource for maintaining these assets in a unified system, helping content creators work together more effectively by streamlining workflows and ensuring consistency across their brand’s ecosystem of assets and product information.Many practical factors involved with digital asset management exceed the charter of marketing and broach the realm of a brand’s sustainability, liability, and reputation. For example, images might have specified copyright or licensing associated with their usage or compliance requirements for assets in different global regions. Content may need to be authenticated in a sea of AI-generated knock-offs. There might even be sensitive cultural considerations that require specific temperature controls. In all of these use cases, a DAM can provide a layer of governance that enables businesses to maintain control over their asset usage, reduce redundancy or errors, and achieve a higher TCO via cost savings from lawsuits or brand damage. This translates into greater efficiency that can be realized at multiple levels within an organization.<h3 id="canto’s-cantata-is-dam-good-music">Canto’s cantata is DAM good music</h3>The acquisition of Image Relay is a critical step in Canto's plan to revolutionize the way businesses extract value from their digital content. The company already boasts over 3,400 customers worldwide and is, by all accounts, in a growth mode. That said, certain industries – such as retail, manufacturing, and CPG – have traditionally relied on separate platforms and complex integrations to manage product data associated with specific digital assets. This can result in latency and errors relative to the unique structure of each independent system. I’ve followed Image Relay for several years, and it’s clear why Canto has chosen this technology to harmonize the orbits of DAM and PIM. Image Relay has made notable strides in uniting the hemispheres with its unified <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imagerelay.com/marketing-delivery">Marketing Delivery</a> platform, allowing customers to efficiently store, access, and share brand-approved, up-to-date product information alongside digital assets. Image Relay's Marketing Delivery system is purpose-built to enable things like omnichannel strategies. It's also designed to reduce product-to-market time and thus amplify revenue. Now, with Canto’s added reach, it could result in a comprehensive solution that fully aligns the two dominions.Image Relay’s founder and CEO <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/skye-chalmers-19273043/">Skye Chalmers</a> will join Canto to help lead the integration of the two technologies and their teams. As he noted in the press release, he’s spent 20 years at Image Relay focusing on the creation of seamless unified solutions that combine these systems. By joining forces with Canto, he sees the delivery of even greater value and efficiency for its customers.As more enterprises embrace composable technology stacks, Canto’s unification of DAM and PIM might reduce the surface area for stacks that require greater access to both resources while selecting best-of-breed tools that perform outside of composed DXPs – many of which offer their own DAMs as part of their offerings. Canto clearly brings key benefits to the coupling, namely in the way of AI innovation. After the acquisition of MerlinOne, the company launched its <a target="_blank" href="https://info.canto.com/digital-asset-management/mam">AI Visual Search</a>, a slick solution that enables users to find assets quickly across vast content libraries based solely on a visual description prompt. A novel approach in a growing field of generative AI applications, Visual Search effectively bridged the gap between visual content and metadata-based searches, delivering a more user-friendly experience for managing and utilizing digital assets. <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>According to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellum/">Wain Kellum</a>, Canto’s CEO, the acquisition of Image Relay will enable the company to offer a leading-edge solution to help businesses streamline their digital operations, enhance data accuracy, and deliver exceptional customer experiences.It all sounds fantastic, but we know there’s no easy layup in the software stadium. Along with the growth of the general DAM market comes a slate of competitive platforms, from <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe</a> to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.bynder.com/">Bynder</a>. At the same time, vendors like Widen have been eaten by DXPs like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/acquia">Acquia, </a>which provide integrated offerings out-of-the-box. These are appealing to large enterprises looking for scalable, reliable solutions designed to work with a broader ecosystem of purpose-built technologies.Go across the market, and you see macro platforms like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/optimizely">Optimizely</a> tethering their DAM technologies with broader <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/optimizely-leads-gartners-2024-mq-for-content-marketing-platforms-as-more-dxps-join-the-game">Content Marketing Platform (CMP)</a> capabilities, reflecting the enterprise's focus on truly integrated solutions that accelerate and scale their marketing initiatives. Go downstream and<a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms"> headless CMS</a> platforms like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/directus">Directus</a> are tacking on their own DAM solution with bring-your-own storage capabilities. All this choice is great, but confusion is a blocker to greatness. In the analysis and evaluation, brands have to be concerned with the ease of use, accuracy, reliability, and ultimately the control that comes with the selection of a DAM or PIM – or both. The need is compelling, but organizations require a clear vision and roadmap to truly unlock the value of such a critical decision.There's also the question of industry scale. Right now, the largest portion of DAM adoption is in media, with the addressable U.S. market leading the revenue share. But factor in the rising potential in vectors like healthcare and manufacturing, and the possibilities for more targeted DAM and PIM solution sets could further balloon. This is where having an ambitious market vision will be a rallying point. As I touched on previously, AI is literally reshaping the definition of a DAM, automating everything from metadata tagging to content recognition. These AI features are evolving every DAM’s searchability, scalability, and usability, making them indispensable tools for enterprises managing vast volumes of digital assets. But the meaningful combination of DAM and PIM – and the focus on AI solutions that can unify, personalize, and ease the digital chaos – could be a key differentiator for Canto.As Steph Curry once observed, “<a target="_blank" href="https://247sports.com/player/65374/quotes/basketball-isnt-just-a-sport-it-is-an-art-one-that-must-be-45275228/">Basketball isn’t just a sport. It is an art, one that must be mastered to succeed.</a>” Similarly, Digital Asset Management isn’t just a technology, but an activator for brands to power creativity and master their game. In that sense, Canto’s vision with Image Relay might just be a slam DAM dunk.  <hr /> <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2025"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 2025</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Slam DAM Dunk: Canto Acquires Image Relay, Plans to Align DAM and PIM Features

<hr /> <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/ci-hub">CI HUB</a> has been a persistent explorer of in-app connections. The company’s software enables users to access and manage content from various key sources, including DAM (Digital Asset Management), PIM (Product Information Management), cloud storage, stock sources, and even work management systems. Connectors like this have become critical to productivity as brands wrestle with an increasingly complex and disjointed landscape of data sources. This is a big reason why <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/ci-hub-announces-major-investment-plans-to-scale-content-integration-solutions">CI HUB announced</a> a major investment from Scale Capital in March of this year, with plans to further advance its ecosystem of connector capabilities. Currently, it provides two core offerings: CI HUB Connector Professional and Connector Corporate.A big focus for CI HUB has been the burgeoning <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe Creative Cloud</a>, but they’ve also been blazing trails with other large-scale enterprise systems, including <a target="_blank" href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365">Microsoft Office 365</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/salesforce">Salesforce’s Marketing Cloud</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/google-cloud-platform">Google Workspace</a>. CI HUB also offers solutions for content, experience, and prototyping platforms like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/microsoft-sharepoint">SharePoint</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/figma">Figma</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sketch">Sketch</a>. One of the biggest deterrents to DAM and PIM utilization is complexity. With distributed teams having to leverage multiple platforms with different access credentials – and unwieldy systems stymieing the ability to locate assets – content creators can become frustrated and productivity can be significantly impacted. This can result in users getting “creative" with outside tools and unauthorized assets, which can impact brand consistency and integrity. In some cases, it can even open up Pandora's Box around things like stock image licensing and copyright infringement.CI HUB is once again easing the DAM burden with its new <a target="_blank" href="https://ci-hub.com/download/drive/">CI HUB Drive</a>, which enables users to access assets stored in DAMs, PIMs, and other systems directly from their desktops via MacOS or Windows machines. By bringing these systems into a local environment, CI HUB reduces the friction of finding and utilizing key assets, syncs components fluidly, and accelerates productivity and time to market. This translates into greater value around a DAM or PIM investment. “Most companies don’t get the most from their DAMs because employees find it difficult or inconvenient to log in and access what they need,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasmichalski/">Andreas Michalski</a>, CI HUB Founder and CEO. “But with CI HUB Drive, DAM assets and data are available right on their desktop. By integrating CI HUB Drive into the most commonly used tools, MacOS Finder and Windows Explorer, there is zero training needed. This will significantly improve the adoption rate and company-wide use of DAM assets and data, making them a go-to hub for content, rather than simply an asset repository.” <h3 id="enhancing-the-value-of-dams,-pims,-and-other-sources">Enhancing the value of DAMs, PIMs, and other sources</h3>CI HUB Drive is capable of connecting multiple data sources simultaneously, providing a single desktop connector interface for DAMs, PIMs, MAMs, and stock image providers – as well as common cloud storage services such as SharePoint, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.dropbox.com/home">Dropbox</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/google-cloud-platform">Google Drive</a>, and many more. Here's how it works: CI HUB Drive virtually mounts an asset management system in a MacOS Finder or Microsoft Explorer. This enables users to seamlessly locate, use, and synchronize files without ever having to leave their desktops.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:86.86%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/07/ci-hub-drive-product-image-3.png" alt="" /></figure>CI HUB Drive on MacOS The beautiful thing about CI HUB Drive is its familiarity. From a visual perspective, the file structure is simple, clear, and highly navigable – which reduces the surface area of complexity for users. And with a multitude of connections available (anything from Adobe AEM to Bynder to more exotic systems), users have much more control over their asset domain. In MacOS, for example, being able to preview a stock image in a desktop window makes the entire experience second nature. It's intuitive and requires no training whatsoever. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:85.13%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/07/ci_hub_drive.png" alt="" /></figure>Viewing a stock image file in MacOS via CI HUB Drive The app also enables real-time multi-threaded file synchronization, meaning that edits made to assets locally on the desktop will be updated on demand in the original DAM or drive where they are stored. CI HUB Drive also replicates any permission-based access to folders within the DAM system, ensuring that users can access the correct files based on existing roles and rights within the connected system. “Everyone within a company is a potential content creator, and employees are accessing files from multiple sources every day,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerd-glaser-89b22a9b/">Gerd Glaser</a>, CI HUB CSO. “However, each system has a different log-in, interface and search function. Using CI HUB Drive eliminates the time-consuming processes of accessing and transferring assets between drives, tools and work management platforms. Now, users can access the company assets they need as easily as a personal drive folder linked to their desktop.” The new CI HUB Drive complements the existing CI HUB Connector plugin, which already enables users to seamlessly access their digital asset libraries within the most popular work apps such as Microsoft 365, Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, SharePoint, Google Workspace, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and dozens more. <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>As brands and organizations struggle with the expanding ecosystem of assets – and the apps that house them – CI HUB Drive provides ease, fluidity, and familiarity that maximizes the value of a DAM or asset system. By reducing complexity and streamlining access, users can successfully locate what they need at a local level faster and more efficiently. Having a native UI in MacOS or Windows makes the entire journey of locating assets much easier. The process becomes more intuitive, eliminating much of the friction around the grunt work associated with simply browsing, picking, and finding stuff in the morass. Having a solid DAM makes it even easier, but bringing the assets closer to home makes the entire process feel more natural. One of the key benefits of CI HUB Drive is its first-class respect for permissions. This ensures that any mounted desktop access inherits the same roles for users and groups from the source DAM or PIM, so organizations can maintain governance across their teams – wherever they might be accessing resources. Additionally, the real-time multi-threaded syncing is a slick function, making it even easier to maintain consistency when users make edits at a local level. All in all, CI HUB Drive is a solid addition to the company’s portfolio of products. To sign up for access, you can <a target="_blank" href="https://ci-hub.com/products#drive">visit the company's website</a> for details.  <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

New CI HUB Drive Enables Desktop Access to DAMs, PIMs, and More

<hr /> A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is a comprehensive solution designed to efficiently store, organize, manage, retrieve, and distribute an organization's digital assets. It combines software and business processes to centralize and streamline asset management, offering a more structured approach to handling media and content.DAM encompasses both a business strategy and a technology platform. Its primary function is to create a centralized repository where organizations can access, update, and distribute their digital assets efficiently. These assets include any digital file that holds value and is searchable through metadata. Some examples of digital assets include:<ul><li>Documents</li><li>Images</li><li>Audio and video files</li><li>Animations</li><li>Graphics</li><li>Presentations</li><li>Media files with usage rights</li></ul><h3 id="the-strategic-value-of-a-dam">The Strategic Value of a DAM</h3>Modern organizations leverage DAMs to repurpose creative assets, reducing production costs and avoiding duplication of effort. The search and retrieval capabilities of DAM systems are also crucial for optimizing workflows. In the context of digital transformation, where brand visibility and messaging consistency across platforms like social media are vital, DAM platforms play an essential role in maintaining brand integrity and fostering growth.By centralizing asset management, DAM systems provide a single source of truth, supporting a unified approach to content deployment and audience engagement. As such, they have become indispensable tools in the digital era, empowering businesses to adapt and thrive in competitive markets.<h3 id="key-benefits-of-a-dam">Key Benefits of a DAM</h3>A DAM system supports various organizational goals by improving asset management. It enhances operational efficiency, particularly for marketing and sales teams, by facilitating the production and distribution of rich media. This leads to better brand consistency, as assets are automatically updated and aligned with brand guidelines, ensuring a cohesive experience for both internal stakeholders and external audiences.Implementing a DAM system offers several advantages that improve operational efficiency, brand consistency, and customer engagement.<ul><li>Lower Production Costs and Optimized Resource Use: By centralizing assets, DAM systems help organizations quickly locate and reuse existing files, reducing the need for redundant production. This cuts costs and allows resources to be redirected to other strategic areas. The increased efficiency speeds up time-to-market for new content and solutions.</li><li>Enhanced Transparency: DAM provides a clear view of all digital assets, improving project management and content planning. It fosters better collaboration by eliminating redundant projects and creating more efficient workflows. Stakeholders can easily track asset usage and status, ensuring alignment across teams.</li><li>Elevated Conversion Rates and Customer Retention: Proper organization of content based on the customer journey allows businesses to deliver personalized, on-brand materials at the right time. DAM helps nurture stronger customer relationships by tailoring the user experience, accelerating movement through the sales funnel, and improving retention.</li><li>Consistent Branding: DAM ensures brand consistency by providing a single source of truth for all messaging, visuals, and creative assets. Teams across different departments can access and reuse approved assets, maintaining uniformity in market communications.</li><li>Governance and Compliance: DAM systems support regulatory compliance by organizing critical assets like licenses, contracts, and legal documents. This capability not only simplifies audits but also minimizes disruptions to business processes, saving time and reducing risk.</li></ul><h3 id="industry-use-cases">Industry Use Cases</h3>Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems offer versatile solutions across industries by enabling efficient storage, organization, and distribution of digital content. Here are some diverse use cases for DAM beyond the traditional marketing and branding contexts:Media and Entertainment<ul><li>Streamlined Production Workflow: DAM simplifies access to scripts, storyboards, and production notes. By centralizing assets like video clips, graphics, and promotional materials, teams can collaborate seamlessly across various locations.</li><li>Content Monetization: Media companies can organize and license content more effectively, enabling quick distribution to multiple platforms.</li></ul>Healthcare<ul><li>Patient Education and Training: DAM stores and categorizes multimedia resources, such as instructional videos or brochures, which healthcare providers can use to educate patients.</li><li>Regulatory Compliance: It ensures secure access and version control of sensitive documents like patient records, medical imaging, and compliance reports, streamlining audits and adherence to privacy laws.</li></ul>Retail and eCommerce<ul><li>Product Information Management (PIM): Retailers use DAM to store high-quality images, videos, and descriptions of products, ensuring consistent branding across eCommerce platforms.</li><li>Dynamic Content Delivery: Retailers can personalize customer experiences by delivering tailored content based on user behavior and preferences.</li></ul>Higher Education<ul><li>Course Material Management: DAM allows institutions to store and distribute digital textbooks, lecture recordings, and other educational resources, improving access for students and faculty.</li><li>Alumni and Fundraising Campaigns: Universities can manage and reuse promotional content, maintaining consistency in messaging across campaigns.</li></ul>Manufacturing<ul><li>Technical Documentation: Manufacturers utilize DAM for storing and sharing product manuals, CAD designs, and maintenance videos, aiding field technicians and partners.</li><li>Training Resources: Training modules for workforce development can be centrally managed and distributed.</li></ul>Public Sector<ul><li>Public Records Management: Governments can organize and provide access to historical records, legal documents, and public notices.</li><li>Crisis Communication: DAM systems help maintain up-to-date materials for public announcements, ensuring timely and accurate communication during emergencies.</li></ul>These varied applications highlight DAM's adaptability, enabling organizations to manage their digital content efficiently while supporting specific business goals<h3 id="what-to-consider-when-evaluating-a-dam">What to consider when evaluating a DAM</h3>Most modern DAM solutions are cloud-based SaaS (software as a service) platforms, making them easier to deploy and integrate. A DAM can be procured as a pure-play, stand-alone product, or as part of a Digital Experience Platform (DXP), and selecting a DAM is highly dependent on your existing product stack and architecture – as well as your market and business goals. When selecting a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution, organizations should ensure it meets their current operational requirements and future growth needs. A robust DAM system should offer the following essential capabilities. By focusing on these attributes, organizations can ensure their DAM solution supports seamless content management and drives operational efficiency.<ul><li>Comprehensive Asset Lifecycle Management: A DAM platform should support the entire lifecycle of digital assets, from initial creation to archiving. This includes tools for version control, updates, and expiration management. </li><li>Strong Governance: Security and compliance are essential, and any good DAM system should provide role-based permissions, ensuring that access to assets is tightly controlled to preserve integrity. For organizations requiring high benchmarks for regulatory compliance, governance can include auditability and compliance tooling at the DAM level.</li><li>Seamless Integration and API Access: The DAM system should integrate with existing tools, such as content creation, distribution platforms, and project management systems. It should also be compatible with future technologies to ensure the organization can scale and adapt its digital ecosystem without significant overhauls. Best-of-breed solutions often include marketplaces of pre-existing connectors and integrations with third-party tools and plug-ins. </li><li>Rich Search Capabilities: An agile DAM solution allows for both metadata-to-asset and asset-to-metadata searches. This bidirectional search capability supports efficient asset discovery and reuse, empowering different functional teams to locate and repurpose content quickly.</li><li>Extensible Sharing Features: To avoid data silos, a DAM platform should facilitate the sharing of digital assets and related data across the organization. This includes exporting search results, metadata, or entire asset collections for use in other systems or for external collaboration.</li><li>Speed: Fast and reliable file transfer is critical for maintaining business agility. A DAM system should enable rapid sharing and deployment of assets to ensure they are available where and when needed, minimizing delays and enhancing productivity.</li><li>Cloud Storage and Infrastructure: The storage infrastructure – whether on-premises, cloud-based, or hybrid – should be stable and secure. Key considerations include flexibility, scalability, performance, and data recoverability to protect valuable assets and support business continuity. Modern cloud-based systems provide the most scalable solutions.</li><li>High-Utility AI Tools and Capabilities: Modern DAMs are embracing AI and matching learning, providing both complex and practical applications that are accelerating productivity, enhancing control, and improving governance. DAMs that feature AI prominently to impact functions like search and workflows are typically more performant. To that end, AI is an essential ingredient when considering a DAM.</li></ul><h3 id="need-help-evaluating-a-dam-solution?">Need help evaluating a DAM solution?</h3>If you're currently considering a DAM – either as a pure-play solution or part of a DXP – you can explore the best-of-breed solutions in our CMS Critic <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/digital-asset-management">Product Directory for Digital Asset Management systems</a>.  Looking for assistance with your evaluation? <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Contact us.</a>

What is a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system?

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<hr /> At its core, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/ci-hub">CI HUB</a> is enabling users to work smarter – and more efficiently – without hopping between windows. The Potsdam-based company gained early success by focusing on connectors within creative platforms, offering an easy-to-use integration that's made it something of a “must-have" with tools like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe Creative Cloud</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365">Microsoft Office365</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/google-cloud-platform">Google Workspace</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/cut-paste-delete-why-adobes-canceled-merger-with-figma-is-good-for-innovation">Figma</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sketch">Sketch</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a>. It also connects to stock providers and cloud storage services.But CI HUB is endeavoring to be even more meaningful, acting as a single source of access to centralized data and assets in a marketing ecosystem. This broadens the landscape for its digital aggregation capabilities across CMS, DAM, PIM, MAM, and MDM platforms. That's a lot of acronyms, to be sure – but it demonstrates the potential reach across a myriad of content repositories.Just how handy is CI HUB? Enough to warrant a seed round from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.scalecapital.com/">Scale Capital</a>, a Danish early-stage technology investor with a focus on helping companies accelerate growth in the US market. CI HUB's press release indicated that the investment was a “significant seven-figure amount” compiled from new and existing investors – representing a major step in the company's journey towards revolutionizing the way corporates and creatives access digital assets and data.  "We are delighted to welcome Scale Capital as a financial and strategic partner, alongside our existing investors, as we embark on the next phase of our journey," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasmichalski/">Andreas Michalski</a>, founder and CEO of CI HUB GmbH. "This collective support validates the strength of our vision and technology and provides us with the resources and expertise to drive innovation and deliver even greater value to our customers."  The announcement coincides with CI HUB's attendance at the <a target="_blank" href="https://summit.adobe.com/na/">Adobe Summit 2024</a> in Las Vegas, which lasts from March 25 - 28. CI HUB is attending the event as a sponsor, highlighting the importance of the Adobe partnership to its continued growth.<h3 id="building-inroads-to-cms,-dam,-and-other-content-platforms">Building inroads to CMS, DAM, and other content platforms</h3>CI HUB specializes in developing innovative solutions that seamlessly connect leading <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management systems (CMS)</a> and digital asset management (DAM) platforms. Their suite of products makes it simple to access, manage, and distribute digital assets across various channels and platforms, streamlining workflows for businesses of all sizes. This has clear advantages for content management and digital experience platforms, which typically offer some level of digital asset management – and in some cases like <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/acquia">Acquia</a> and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/optimizely">Optimizely</a>, very robust DAM solutions. CI HUB views these channels as accelerators for growth. “We see the role of CMS, DXP, DAM, and other content platform partners as being strong pillars of growth for us going forward,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickwstein/">Nick Stein</a>, CMO at CI HUB. “Of course, this is mutually beneficial for both CI HUB and our partners. Integrating our software not only improves the user experience of these platforms, but in the case of DAMs, it widens the potential user base within their client organizations.”CI HUB is used by clients such as Ford, Zurich, T-Mobile, FedEx, and hundreds more as an integral part of their creative workflows.    <h3 id="investing-in-the-future-of-content-integration">Investing in the future of content integration</h3>With Scale Capital's investment, CI HUB is poised to accelerate its growth trajectory and expand its market reach globally. This is laser-focused on the U.S., where the company is already seeing significant traction – and a bulk of its existing business currently resides. In addition to Scale Capital, CI HUB's existing investors including HTGF, Brandenburg Kapital, the Berlin Angel Fund, and Urban AM have extended their financial engagement. The capital infusion will help CI HUB to further enhance its product offering, scale its operations, and strengthen its position as a leader in the content integration space.  Along with broader innovation, the investment will also be concentrated on the growth of the company's CI HUB Drive, or “DAM for Desktop” functionality. With this tool, the DAM is virtually mounted and displayed as an external server or external hard disk in the MacOS Finder or in Windows Explorer – making it incredibly seamless, like Dropbox. "We are very excited to partner with the CI HUB team to fuel their growth and market expansion," said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/joachimschelde/">Joachim Schelde</a>, Senior Associate at Scale Capital. "Together, we will continue to push the boundaries of content integration, enabling businesses to unlock new efficiencies and opportunities in digital content management."  <h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>Connectors have become critical parts of the integration landscape, enabling new tools and platforms to be quickly activated and leveraged for a range of use cases. With less friction, users have more control over the tools they wish to curate, allowing for a more customized and composed stack of solutions. Content Integration is a key area in the DX mix, addressing the challenges that exist with siloed data and assets. By accelerating the connections to content in various repositories, creators and teams are able to enhance their access to a broad range of resources to help support their brand initiatives. However, with the rampant scale and complexity of different sources, users are having to take multiple steps to find, select, and utilize content assets from different sources – like DAMs.CI HUB reflects a continued motion towards optimization, providing an elegant solution that augments the value of content management, digital experience, and digital asset management platforms. It represents a new breed of connector that streamlines the flow and improves productivity around an ever-growing cache of content resources. Given the number of assets and legacy systems that enterprises are wrestling with, these types of solutions are helping build bridges across the last miles of user experience.  <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

CI Hub Announces Major Investment, Plans to Scale Content Integration Solutions

<hr /> As content goes global, the need for reliable and accurate translation is exploding. While a multitude of tools exist to automate the translation function – everything from <a target="_blank" href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> to <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/weglot">Weglot</a> – they sometimes lack the foundation of an experienced services arm that reinforces the quality and nuance.This is where <a target="_blank" href="https://www.argotrans.com/">Argo Translation</a>, a Chicago-based language services company, is breaking the language barrier. The company recently announced the launch of its new <a target="_blank" href="https://www.argotrans.com/technology/cmsconnect">CMSConnect solution</a> for digital platforms, which marks another milestone in its strategy to build innovative technology solutions that enhance the translation experience.Argo Translation provides tailored professional translation services in more than 80 languages to a range of industries including legal, healthcare, manufacturing, and financial. It also provides guaranteed certified translation quality.CMSConnect is the firm's cross-platform multilingual suite. It seamlessly pipes in source content from numerous PIM, CMS, CRM, and DAM platforms and translates it into nearly any language. This enables companies to accelerate the delivery of digital content with less friction, providing a more streamlined approach to reaching international markets or a diverse workforce that speaks multiple languages. “We are very excited about the release of CMSConnect,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/argondizzo/">Peter Argondizzo</a>, Co-Founder of Argo Translation. "It allows us to deliver peace of mind through a care-free implementation that becomes part of our customer's process – not an additional process that takes time to train and requires additional resources for implementation."<h3 id="making-translation-easier-across-multiple-dx-platforms">Making translation easier across multiple DX platforms</h3>As its name indicates, CMSConnect delivers its translation capabilities to content management systems. But it's more than a CMS solution – and powers several PIM, DAM, and CRM systems.This currently includes a bench of industry-leading platforms, including <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/akeneo">Akeneo</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/inriver">InRiver</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/microsoft-sharepoint">SharePoint</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sitecore">Sitecore</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/kentico">Kentico</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/umbraco">Umbraco</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe Experience Manager</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/hubspot">HubSpot</a>, SFDC, and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a>. In each case, CMSConnect makes the process easy by translating content into nearly any language using a platform's native features. One of the key benefits is reduced overhead. With CMSConnect's plug-and-play implementation, there's no reliance on developer resources to get up to speed quickly. The submission process is simple, requiring only a few clicks. CMSConnect also reduces the cost of translation by lowering the setup and maintenance costs.<h3 id="ideal-for-e-commerce,-product-management,-and-more">Ideal for e-Commerce, product management, and more</h3>Argo Translation's solution has a strong focus on e-commerce and product management professionals who have domain over an extensive product catalog. It's also a good fit for HR professionals who need to publish timely communications to non-native English-speaking employees via their employee website, or marketing professionals who need to connect with international audiences at the speed of their market.The CMSConnect option for Akeneo – a product information management (PIM) system – crystallizes the value of the platform, helping users manage accurate and complete information for their product catalogs and dealing with the complexities this can create when translating content into different languages.The Akeneo connector makes the whole process easier by translating numerous catalogs into different languages with ease. It eliminates the need for manual file transfer, management, and tracking of changes, in addition to removing any cutting and pasting of translations. CMSConnect also provides built-in security, integration, and features that fit within your existing processes.Learn more about CMSConnect at <a href="argotrans.com/technology/cmsconnect">argotrans.com/technology/cmsconnect </a>

Argo Translation's New CMSConnect Streamlines Digital Platform Translations

<hr /> DAM is having a moment right now. And it's not just the publication of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forrester.com/blogs/announcing-the-dam-wave-q1-2024/">Forrester's Q1 Wave Report for Digital Asset Management Systems</a>, which hit the streets today. That's certainly adding to the gravitas.No, “DAM” is overflowing for a number of reasons. For starters, brands are creating an epic deluge of content. It's undeniable, but it's also perfectly logical. We live in a world that thrives on digital detritus, and modern creative tools have made it easy to produce an unthinkable number of assets at lightning speed. But therein lies the problem: how do you manage it all? Add to that the very real phenomenon of generative AI, which is rippling across the functionality landscape with terrific force. As brands automate and scale the production of the assets they're producing – driven in part by personalized variants and test iterations – marketing departments are under increasing pressure to police the streets and maintain governance.As much as AI is part of the problem, it's also presenting itself as a solution. Such is the case with <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/acquia-dam-bolsters-search-share-and-analytics-capabilities">Acquia DAM</a> (formerly Widen), which has been piloting a new bench of AI capabilities – some of which were announced at Engage Boston, which I <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/from-accessibility-to-ai-and-beyond-five-key-takeaways-from-acquia-engage-boston">covered in detail here</a>. The company has been innovating on the edge with generative AI for quite some time, injecting its DAM with search and share features and a <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/acquia-dam-introduces-new-generative-ai-features-for-product-and-image-descriptions">product and image description generator</a> last year.Today, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/">Acquia</a> introduced a new set of integrations for its digital asset management solution, designed to expand its brand management capabilities. The company says the integrations with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-campaign-studio">Acquia Campaign Studio</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://stock.adobe.com/">Adobe Stock</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> will reduce the complexity of maintaining consistent brand experiences across digital channels – and help marketing and creative teams save time and squeeze more value from their content assets.As Acquia knows too well, brands aren't showing any signs of slowing their content hustle. In fact, it's quite the opposite: they need to differentiate with fresh and relevant content to power their marketing campaigns and drive more clicks and purchases. That includes harnessing an ever-growing landscape of visual product imagery, graphics, and more.I had a chance to connect with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/about-us/team/jake-athey">Jake Athey</a>, Vice President, Sales and Go-to-Market, DAM and PIM at Acquia. He's the muscle behind the ever-growing mountain of digital assets, helping to evangelize Acquia's solutions through the marketer's lens. As a DAM and PIM expert, he brings a deep understanding of the evolving landscape – a journey he began during his time at Widen.“Brand leaders today are looking to free up their teams to be more creative and to use digital content assets in new ways,” he said. “These new integrations help customers scale their use of digital content across digital channels and across regions to deliver a better brand experience in less time.”<h3 id="beef-up-marketing-automation-with-acquia-campaign-studio">Beef up marketing automation with Acquia Campaign Studio</h3>First and foremost, Acquia DAM is now integrated with Acquia Campaign Studio – the company’s full-scale marketing automation solution. The integration leverages Acquia’s instant search connector tool, so once a user is authenticated in the DAM connector within Campaign Studio, they can search, view, and select the asset of their choice within Campaign Studio’s email and landing page builders. Here's something really cool: by tapping this connection, any pictures in emails or landing page builders dynamically change when they're updated in Acquia DAM. This has a potentially huge benefit for marketing teams as it will not only save time but also reduce the chance of using off-brand or unapproved content. As you might imagine, this is super valuable for brands that have hundreds – or even thousands – of assets in various places to support decentralized users and brands (think franchises or distributors).<h3 id="access-images-with-ease-via-adobe-stock--">Access images with ease via Adobe Stock  </h3>The Adobe Stock integration offers what you might expect from a CMS or DXP stock image connector, reducing the friction of accessing images, video, or other digital assets in one place while piping in essential metadata. But Acquia DAM goes beyond the typical by providing a more enhanced UX with smoother workflows. Creative pros can choose which types of Adobe Stock assets to monitor and sync, and the integration handles file copying and categorization in Acquia DAM. “Our new Adobe Stock integration simplifies the creative workflow for our customers significantly by automating the syncing of newly licensed assets from Adobe Stock directly into Acquia DAM,” Jake said. “This means that as soon as a customer licenses a new asset on Adobe Stock, it’s automatically uploaded to DAM, along with important metadata like the asset’s ID, title, and keywords. Users can tailor this integration to their needs by choosing which types of assets they want to sync, such as photos, illustrations, and videos.”Jake also explained that the setup uses <a target="_blank" href="https://www.oauth.com/">OAuth Server-to-Server</a> credentials. Customers need only provide their Client ID and Client Secret specific to their Adobe Stock account to enable a secure connection. But once established, the rest should be cream cheese. It's worth noting that Acquia DAM also provides long-standing integrations with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/">Getty Images </a>and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/">Shutterstock</a>, both of which offer well-documented API recipes for integrations. The real magic is how a platform harnesses these capabilities and surfaces the value. “The Adobe Stock integration follows a similar automated approach to syncing assets,” Jake said. “Since this is a managed integration, there will be no need for a new user interface – everything is syncing in the background to make things easy for users.”<h3 id="interpret-more-accessibility-with-google-translate">Interpret more accessibility with Google Translate</h3>Language translation and localization is finally becoming table stakes for globally-aware brands (although it's a mystery why it's still missing on so many sites). Still, software UX is often overlooked. Acquia aims to mitigate that by adding Google Translate to its DAM, helping to ensure that branded content is accessible, searchable, and relevant to diverse users and groups. It's simple: customers can use Google Translate to automatically translate text from selected metadata fields. The DAM automatically repopulates these fields with translated content in up to 20 languages. For those of us who have integrated Google Translate at the web layer, we know there's been a palpable lack of control and customizability. I asked Jake how Acquia is enabling DAM users to “massage” translated content if the text requires any additional tweaks after a human review. There are certainly other tools that facilitate this, and it's a place where AI is also making a dent in the obstacles. “With Acquia’s flexible permissions and dynamic path notifications, customers can set up their desired governance and workflow processes, so they have an opportunity to check translations,” he said. “As with the use of generative AI, we believe incorporating human review into a translation workflow is a best practice. We also have an OpenAI Translate Native Integration on our product roadmap.”<h3 id="building-on-a-legacy-of-ai-innovation">Building on a legacy of AI innovation</h3>As previously noted, AI has long been a part of the Acquia roadmap. Last May, when I <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/acquia-taps-its-modular-open-source-legacy-to-drive-the-composable-future">spoke to Deanna Ballew</a>, SVP of Product at Acquia, she shared a bit about where the company's AI investment had started – and how the open source Drupal community was already innovating around ChatGPT connectors at the CMS level. I asked Jake about the recent AI announcements from Engage last November, and what we might expect on the horizon. He gave me a bit of what's in the rearview mirror, and a peek through the windshield. He started with Acquia DAM’s Workflow AI Assistant, which was launched in 2023, and supports the ability to more efficiently generate new creative and copy ideas and editing suggestions to streamline work-in-process cycles. It also helps to keep teams on brand, accelerating time to market with new brand assets.This was followed by the aforementioned AI-powered keywords and automated description, caption, and alt-text generation – which supports the ability to catalog, find, and use new assets more quickly. Automated alt-text generation also supports SEO and accessibility to optimize brand asset performance across digital channels.“Acquia DAM’s new search by color and color filters help users to quickly find and use available assets based on design color scheme and brand colors,” he shared. “The new integration with Adobe Stock and our existing integration with Shutterstock also tap into the generative AI capabilities of those platforms.”So what's next? Some pretty sophisticated stuff.“New AI capabilities to come include advancements to smart tags, facial recognition, focal point cropping, video transcription, and AI-based GPT video generation and editing,” Jake said. “With all of these and more, our intention is to enable marketers and creative pros to accelerate content velocity, while staying true to brand standards and supporting richer digital experiences for their own customers.”<h3 id="what's-ahead-in-2024-for-acquia-dam?">What's ahead in 2024 for Acquia DAM?</h3>As Jake pointed out, Acquia DAM supports a wide range of organizations across sizes and industries. Acquia proper continues to support Fortune 1000 organizations, including a majority who have – or are replacing – a DAM.  “With these innovations, Acquia is also focused heavily on serving the late-stage majority of first-time DAM buyers in the middle market, with an estimated 200,000 companies in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan,” he confirmed. “Acquia is focused on brands and agencies alike, and serves marketing communications, creative/design, digital/web, product, and e-commerce functions.”In terms of target industries, the company is focusing on manufacturing and engineering, supply chain and logistics, financial services, food and beverage (including manufacturers, distributors, grocery stores, and restaurants), consumer goods, healthcare, education, and more. Obviously, this list can become more granular, but it provides a high-level snapshot of where they see opportunities for DAM to make a difference.As I previously discussed with Deanna Ballew, the theme of composability remains key to Acquia (and just about every platform in the industry). As a legacy DXP with a more traditionally monolithic posture, Acquia has been making strides to decouple its products in the right places, so customers can leverage the efficiencies of a composed DXP while purchasing a specific product within the portfolio. To that end, it's worth reinforcing that Acquia DAM may be used as a standalone solution or with content management systems such as Drupal or other products in the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (Acquia DXP).You can learn more about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/acquia-dam/features/ai">Acquia DAM’s native AI features</a> and the new set of <a target="_blank" href="https://www.acquia.com/products/marketing-cloud/dam/integrations">DAM integrations </a>on its website. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-conferences">Upcoming conferences</h3> <img style="width:29.67%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-connect-2024-logo.png" alt="CMS Connect 24 logo" /><h4 id="cms-connect-24"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect24">CMS Connect 24</a></h4>August 6-7, 2024 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present our first annual summer edition of our prestigious international conference dedicated to the global content management community. Join us this August in Montreal, Canada, for a vendor-neutral conference focused on CMS. Tired of impersonal and overwhelming gatherings? Picture this event as a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. <img style="width:29.58%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/01/cms-kickoff-2025-logo.png" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff25/tickets">CMS Kickoff 25</a></h4>January 14-15, 2025 – Tampa Bay Area, FloridaJoin us next January in the Tampa Bay area of Florida for the third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global event. Similar to a traditional kickoff, we reflect on recent trends and share stories from the frontlines. Additionally, we will delve into the current happenings and shed light on the future. Prepare for an unparalleled in-person CMS conference experience that will equip you to move things forward. This is an exclusive event – space is limited, so secure your tickets today.

Acquia DAM Adds New Integrations to Enhance Brand Management 

Call Tracking + AI 

Call Tracking + AI that Turns Calls into Leads

#ffffff

<a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities/">Acquia</a> – the digital experience platform built with open source <a href="https://www.drupal.org/" target="_blank">Drupal</a> at its core – continues to innovate around its award-winning digital asset management (DAM) capabilities.
Yesterday, it announced new enhancements have been added to its <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-dam">Acquia DAM</a> (formerly <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities/">Widen</a>), empowering marketing and creative leaders to find and collaborate on digital assets faster.
The new capabilities – which revolve around search, sharing, and analytics – are slated to help marketing and creative teams maximize the value of their content investments across brands, regions, campaigns, and personas, even as budgets are squeezed. 
“Marketing and creative teams turn to DAM systems to rein in content chaos and gain insight into how their content performs, particularly across global brand portfolios,” said <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-and-the-art-of-the-possible-interview-with-chief-market-officer-jennifer-griffin-smith/">Jennifer Griffin Smith</a>, Chief Market Officer at Acquia. “The new Acquia DAM updates empower teams to create, find, and share assets faster, giving them better control over revenue-generating digital marketing campaigns and the ability to ensure better brand consistency.” 
<h2>Giving marketers and creatives more DAM power </h2>
As Acquia outlined in its press release, marketing and creative teams are responsible for building and maintaining increasingly larger and more complex catalogs of digital assets. They need to be able to find assets quickly so they can get campaigns and products to market faster, understand which content performs best so they can use it again (or create more content like it), and drive brand consistency.
The new updates to Acquia DAM help customers rise to these challenges with:
<ul>
<li>Enhanced search experience: A redesigned search experience presents teams with more relevant results and filtering capabilities, enabling them to find the assets they need faster so they can launch campaigns and products faster. Redesigned cards on the search page display file naming conventions, making asset identification simpler and clearer.</li>
<li>More options for sharing assets: Teams can now share results for common searches to support better cross-team collaboration, so colleagues can see asset options in real time, regardless of their location. Users can copy and paste a link to search results, which includes search terms, sort, pagination, and filters applied. Also, new asset share links give the recipient the choice to pick the size and format they need.</li>
<li>Keyword and tag improvements: Teams can leverage tags for improved keyword search, making assets simpler to find. Entry of keywords now uses a familiar tag UI, with clickable tags on each asset, directing users to a search results page with all assets sharing the same tag. Admins retain editing control over these tags. This feature can help teams more efficiently manage very large collections of content assets.</li>
<li>Increased analytical insights: Acquia DAM analytics enhancements give teams faster access to asset usage and performance insights via an improved backend data pipeline. New asset insight charts provide more options to filter and group asset data. Asset insights now has API endpoints to connect with other marketing data in a data warehouse or business intelligence tool. This directly supports marketers who want to understand how content is being used and how well it’s performing so they can focus on the best-performing assets.</li>
</ul>
<h2>A modular, composable platform</h2>
Acquia DAM is available standalone or within Acquia DXP, and supports composable strategies through integrations with other Acquia and third-party marketing products. It is foundational to the industry’s only open digital experience platform, which brings together content and data to create world-class customer experiences. 
You can learn more about <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-dam">Acquia DAM,</a> view the new <a href="https://www.acquia.com/blog/acquia-dam-search">Acquia DAM search experience</a>, and explore how customers are using Acquia DAM – including <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/crayola">Crayola</a>, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/livewire">LiveWire</a>, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/novavax">Novavax</a>, and <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/case-studies/san-francisco-international-airport">San Francisco International Airport</a> 
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
Acquia empowers the world’s most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that leverage their content and data assets to engage customers personally and at scale, enhance conversions, and help businesses stand out. Learn more at <a href="https://www.acquia.com/">https://acquia.com</a>.

Acquia DAM Bolsters Search, Share, and Analytics Capabilities

This week, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-taps-its-modular-open-source-legacy-to-drive-the-composable-future/">Acquia</a>, a leading digital experience platform, announced new features in its digital asset management software, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/acquia-dam" target="_blank">Acquia DAM</a> (Widen Collective). The main attraction: an artificial intelligence chatbot that can assist users in creative workflows.
Acquia's new AI Assistant is integrated into the comments functionality of its review and proofing tool, <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/marketing-cloud/dam/workflows" target="_blank">Workflow</a>. The feature allows users to collaborate on a piece of content or gather new ideas from the chatbot by asking questions in a conversational manner. The chatbot responds in seconds, helping users create and edit content faster, and receive feedback across the Workflow tool.
In the <a href="https://www.acquia.com/newsroom/press-releases/acquia-digital-asset-management-dam-drives-creative-collaboration-ai" target="_blank">news release</a> announcing the new features, Acquia provided several use cases for the new chatbot. These include copy suggestions for improving the written style of a project; ideas for visual design, imagery, or video; recommendations based on audience segmentation around interest or behavior; or even analyzing a competitor's content to help ensure differentiation.
“Great content is at the heart of every exceptional digital experience,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgonnering/" target="_blank">Matthew Gonnering</a>, SVP and GM, Acquia DAM. “Adding generative AI to the creative review process is an idea accelerator for marketers and designers. The new capabilities we’re introducing make it easier for content teams and marketing organizations to take full advantage of the amazing images, videos, copy, and more that they already have, to ensure consistency, and to spur creativity. We’re pleased to deliver these innovations, which are just the latest in a steady stream that distinguish Acquia DAM as the system of choice for creatives, content pros, and marketers across industries.”
<h2>What else is included?</h2>
Along with its AI assistant, Acquia announced several additional features and integrations for its DAM product:
<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/canva-button-gives-cms-users-integrated-graphic-design-tools-for-visual-content/">Canva</a>: Connects Canva's graphic design tools to Acquia DAM, allowing users to leverage thousands of designs and images – or create their own.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira" target="_blank">Jira</a>: Automatically syncs content and metadata from Jira to Acquia DAM to improve team workflow.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.dropbox.com/" target="_blank">Dropbox</a>: Integrates with cloud storage and sharing software to access content shared with colleagues or collaborators.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.marq.com/" target="_blank">Marq</a>: Enables organizations using brand asset management software to connect to Acquia DAM and keep all brand assets in one place.</li>
<li><a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/reviews/salesforce-cms-review-evolving-a-crm-powerhouse-into-a-dxp-challenger/">Salesforce</a>: A new two-way sync with Salesforce saves customers time by allowing them to stay within Acquia DAM while uploading new content from Salesforce and automatically syncs assets and metadata from the DAM system to Salesforce to ensure consistency.</li>
</ul>
<h2>AI continues to evolve </h2>
With the emergence of large language models that power generative AI like ChatGPT, it's clear that search and conversational AI have become the norm.
Earlier this month, one of our critics chatted with Acquia's SVP of Product, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/deannaballew/" target="_blank">Deanna Ballew</a>, and Director of Product, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/margaretschroeder94/" target="_blank">Maggie Schroeder</a>, and touched on the subject of AI. Both said the open source Drupal community had been working for months to create and improve AI functionality and design innovative solutions that are ahead of the curve. These new features in Acquia DAM clearly align with the company's goal of delivering high-utility applications that impact the user experience. 
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
Acquia empowers the world’s most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that leverage their content and data assets to engage customers personally and at scale, enhance conversions, and help businesses stand out. Learn more at <a href="https://www.acquia.com/" target="_blank">https://acquia.com</a>.

Acquia DAM Introduces AI Chatbot, New Features to Enhance Creative Workflows

Acquia AI chatbot - robot floating over light with laptops on the left and right side.

This week, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/?s=acquia"> Acquia</a> – a leading open source digital experience platform – rolled out an enhanced version of its digital asset management (DAM) platform, offering customers new integrations and API connectivity to further boost their digital experiences.
“Content is at the core of any exceptional digital experience,” said <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakeathey/" target="_blank">Jake Athey</a>, VP of Sales and Marketing for Acquia DAM and PIM. “Acquia DAM enables organizations of all sizes to maximize the value of their content by connecting to other software solutions, including a DXP, via built-in integrations or API. Our newest integrations with widely used tools as Shopify, Asana, and Monday.com make content more secure, extensible, accessible, and trackable across a brand’s digital properties.”
<a href="https://www.acquia.com/platform/digital-asset-management" target="_blank">Acquia DAM</a> works within the <a href="https://www.acquia.com/platform/acquia-dxp" target="_blank">Acquia DXP</a> (powered by the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-introduces-composable-enterprise-features-in-latest-version-of-dxp/">Drupal Cloud and Marketing Cloud</a> ecosystem) to push out content across many different channels. With many of today's marketers utilizing images, audio files, and video files for the majority of their content creation, housing those large file assets in the DAM makes searching and accessing them much easier, especially for marketing teams that might be located in different offices.
<h2>What to expect from Acquia DAM</h2>
With the new enhancements, Acquia DAM is now able to integrate with the following:
<ul>
<li>Airtable: Enables customers to use DAM assets to build collaborative applications in Airtable.</li>
<li>Asana: Adds finished assets to the DAM once projects are completed.</li>
<li>Google Sheets: Allows customers to connect their DAM with Google Sheets to capture and use metadata about content, such as when an asset was published and by whom.</li>
<li>HubSpot: New or updated assets in Acquia DAM can be copied into HubSpot. Customers may also choose to set security in HubSpot for all assets or groups of assets managed by the DAM.</li>
<li>Monday.com: Adds finished assets to Acquia DAM once projects are completed.</li>
<li>Optimizely: Connects the DAM to Optimizely content management systems (CMS).</li>
<li>Shopify: Syncs content assets and metadata from Acquia DAM, as well as all product details from Acquia’s product information management (PIM) system to Shopify to support e-commerce deployments.</li>
<li>Slack: Permits users to access Acquia DAM files from their Slack messaging platform.</li>
<li>Smartsheet: Connects Smartsheet and Acquia to automatically sync new or updated assets and metadata from Smartsheet to the DAM.</li>
<li>Templafy: Allows access to brand-approved assets from Acquia DAM within the Templafy document generation platform.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Built on the legacy Widen DAM</h2>
In September 2021, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities/">Acquia announced</a> it would acquire Widen, a DAM vendor. Widen had strong brand recognition among enterprise-level organizations and a well-established following, making it a great addition to Acquia's expanding digital experience platform.
After rebranding to Acquia DAM, Acquia has continued to make improvements and provide additional API connectivity for its DAM system.
<h2>Other enhancements to Acquia DXP</h2>
In late December 2022, <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221222005228/en/Acquia-Launches-Enhancements-to-Market-Leading-Customer-Data-Platform" target="_blank">Acquia also released enhancements</a> to its customer data platform, including a unified data layer, an integration with Acquia DAM, and direct SQL access. In that news release, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimidelson/" target="_blank">Jim Idelson</a> – vice president of product for Acquia CDP – promised additional integrations, which are now coming to fruition.
“A key tenet of any composable digital experience strategy is ability to work with data across systems,” said Idelson. “We look for every opportunity to expand integrations between Acquia CDP and other martech systems, and to make it easy for organizations to make full use of their data while respecting the privacy and preferences of their own customers. In 2023, you’ll see additional enhancements from Acquia designed to support customer self-service and broader integrations.”
Acquia’s updates in the last several years have brought its DXP into <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/report/gartner-dxp-magic-quadrant" target="_blank">the Leader category</a> of the Gartner Magic Quadrant, along with the likes of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-experience-cloud-adds-new-headless-cms-capabilities-updates-to-commerce-integration/">Adobe</a>, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-partners-with-google-cloud-to-take-experimentation-to-the-next-level/">Optimizely</a>, and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/sitecore-announces-updates-to-product-suite-enhances-composable-features-and-innovation-from-acquisitions/">Sitecore</a>.  
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
Acquia empowers the world’s most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers, and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that leverage their content and data assets to engage customers personally and at scale, enhance conversions, and help businesses stand out. Learn more at <a href="https://acquia.com" target="_blank">https://acquia.com</a>.

Acquia Announces New Integrations as Part of Its Enhanced Digital Asset Management System

mk-patterson

If you just heard a loud noise echo across the digital marketplace, it might have been a sonic boom. But don't let your ears fool your eyes: this was a visual explosion, and it has us intrigued.
A few days ago, Milan-based start-up <a href="https://boom.co/" target="_blank">BOOM</a> acquired Berlin-based visual production start-up <a href="https://www.lemonone.com/" target="_blank">LemonOne</a> for an undisclosed sum. Now, that might not ordinarily catch your eye (or your ear), but what got our attention was the growth of a relatively new sub-category: visual asset management (VAM).
Not to be confused with the abundant plethora of TLAs (three-lettered acronyms), VAMs are evolving the <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities/">digital asset management (DAM)</a> charter by focusing more deliberately on the role of imagery within an ecosystem. Along with housing files like photography, VAMs go further by offering tools that enhance the management of creative files, brand elements, video components, and more. 
VAMs seem to have a number of different applications, but there's a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/visual-asset-management-what-why-you-need-kevin-bouffard-c-e-t-/" target="_blank">great overview</a> by Kevin Bouffard of 3SixtyEdge about a use case for construction. In it, a VAM provides a more immersive experience for integrating different image assets into a 360-degree tour of a building or property. Very cool stuff. 
As you might guess, VAMs are a perfect content management repository for agencies and marketing departments that are developing integrated visual solutions. As such, BOOM's acquisition of LemonOne further expands its content capacity to help creative teams build visual campaigns, organize imagery, collaborate on ideas, and publish visual content anywhere online.
<h2>BOOM makes waves by managing the full visual lifecycle</h2>
Founded by <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacopobenedettiai/" target="_blank">Jacopo Benedetti</a>, <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/federicomattiadolci/" target="_blank">Federico Mattia Dolci</a>, and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/giacomo-grattirola-1b8a58100/" target="_blank">Giacomo Grattirola</a>, BOOM has specialized in visual asset management. The company has raised over $18M in seed, Series A, and Venture funding in the last three years and has grown rapidly since its launch in 2018 – now serving clients in over 80 countries.
The acquisition of LemonOne strengthens BOOM’s presence in Europe, accelerating the delivery of its mission to create a scalable environment that empowers digital companies to effectively manage their full visual content lifecycle – from initial production to final distribution – from anywhere in the world in line with e-commerce growth and increased demand for visual content.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2022/06/boom-workspace-screen.png" alt="Boom Workspace Screen" />BOOM Workspace Screen
“This is a major leap forward in BOOM’s strategy to serve the whole of Europe and beyond through our ground-breaking digital platform," said Federico Mattia Dolci, CEO of BOOM. "We have been growing our team across Europe and the Americas, and we are now delighted to join forces with the team from LemonOne. They bring fresh energy, passion as well as a wealth of vertical expertise. We look forward to doing great things together!”
<h2>Squeezing the juice from LemonOne</h2>
Founded in 2017, <a href="https://www.lemonone.com/" target="_blank">LemonOne</a> has grown to serve online marketplaces, real estate agencies, and food delivery companies with on-demand, tailor-made visual content for their digital presence.
LemonOne’s clients will join BOOM’s network of customers – which includes major names such as Dolce &amp; Gabbana and Houzz – on the BOOM Worksite, a centralized platform that enables digital enterprises to organize, share, and collaborate on visual assets with internal and third parties.
LemonOne’s team will join BOOM’s workforce to boost service capacity for its growing customer base and enable the company to focus on its technology and product arms as it develops its new SaaS platform, Worksite. Meanwhile, LemonOne’s photographers will join BOOM’s community of visual content creators, enabling BOOM to serve a broader range of customers across mainland Europe.
“BOOM is breaking the ground to develop a revolutionary category leader in the space of visual asset management while LemonOne built a European market leader for digital photo production," said Maximilian Schwahn, Co-Founder at LemonOne. "By joining forces and being able to offer every company a one-stop-shop solution for booking, collaborating, and publishing visuals, we are able to reach our founding vision even faster. Therefore, we are super happy to partner up with BOOM and benefit from each other’s strength to make 1+1=3 for all our customers as well as our community.”
If you’re interested in checking out BOOM, you can <a href="https://boom.co/get-started/" target="_blank">get a free demo here</a>.
<h2>About Boom</h2>
<a href="https://boom.co/" target="_blank">BOOM</a> is a Saas company that powers smart solutions for visual asset collaboration, management, and production. Through a centralized end-to-end platform, BOOM allows creative and marketing companies to create, organize, collaborate on, and publish content anywhere online, making their workflow fast and frictionless from start to finish. BOOM’s client portfolio includes international players such as D&amp;G, Deliveroo, Glovo, and Westwing, all of whom have enjoyed BOOM’s visual production resources as well as the platform’s service as a single source of truth for all their visual assets.
<h2>About LemonOne</h2>
Lemon One provides businesses such as major online marketplaces, real estate agencies, and food delivery companies with on-demand photos within hours through algorithms that match them with a broad network of photographers. With Lemon One, businesses get tailor-made, high-quality visual content for their online presence, without extra effort.

Visual Content Management Platform BOOM Acquires Visual Production Company LemonOne

paris-tuzun

Acquia has every DAM reason to be running a victory lap right now – and its DAM has something to do with it.
Recently, the Drupal-powered DXP announced that its <a href="https://www.acquia.com/products/marketing-cloud/dam" target="_blank">Widen Digital Asset Management (DAM)</a> solution was named a "Leader" in <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/reports/forrester-wave-digital-asset-management" target="_blank">The Forrester Wave™: Digital Asset Management For Customer Experience, Q1 2022 Report</a>. The analyst firm's research evaluated the 14 most significant DAM vendors against 27 criteria grouped into three categories: current offering, strategy, and market presence.
While this news comes fresh off the Forrester presses, it's augmented by the recent publishing of the <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/report/gartner-dxp-magic-quadrant?utm_source=google&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=ppc_google_bof_mc_2022&amp;utm_content=7013a000002hl4dAAA&amp;utm_term=ppc_google_bof_mc_2022&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQiA95aRBhCsARIsAC2xvfwt8tHfpiJWirnXF0U4tNCgxIL4EoPamKncFewhJltgH7JITnH0kTUaAtQ7EALw_wcB" target="_blank">2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms (DXP)</a>, where Acquia continues to tighten the race for leadership with <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-acquires-video-collaboration-platform-frame-io/">Adobe</a> and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-partners-with-google-cloud-to-take-experimentation-to-the-next-level/">Optimizely</a>. 
<h2>Broadening DXP with DAM</h2>
Last year, Acquia <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities/" target="_blank">acquired Widen</a> in an effort to bring its best-of-breed DAM and PIM capabilities to its expanding ecosystem. As a platform, Widen has been focused on large organizations where marketing teams required a more comprehensive <a href="https://www.widen.com/blog/digital-asset-management" target="_blank">digital asset</a> strategy for managing rich media, product information, and marketing content into a single workflow – and all accessible via an intuitive user interface. 
With content being at the heart of digital experiences, acquiring Widen was a well-calculated move for Acquia. According to the Forrester report, Widen continues to lead the way with clear strengths around search and marketing features, rounding out Acquia's digital experience platform model and filling the critical gaps of workflow and asset management capabilities.
<h2>Scoring high marks across all Forrester criteria</h2>
Widen earned the highest possible scores across Forrester's nine DAM criteria, including AI metadata extraction, search, digital rights management, version control, content performance analytics, usability and user interface, creative toolset integration, planned enhancements, and commercial model.
The report also stated that Widen offers a "clear commercial model and transparent pricing," as well as "superior capabilities with its creative toolset integration" and "solid digital rights management capabilities including integrations into third-party DRM applications." It also concluded that Widen's roadmap of planned enhancements, which are influenced by customer feedback multiple times a year, is a key advantage. 
"We believe that Forrester's findings prove the strength of Widen's DAM technology when combined with the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP)," said Jake Athey, VP of Marketing at Widen. "The addition of Widen to Acquia DXP brings our customers enhanced capabilities around rich media and product information content, providing even more opportunities to build world-class digital experiences."
You can access a complimentary copy of the report here: <a href="https://www.acquia.com/resources/reports/forrester-wave-digital-asset-management" target="_blank">The Forrester Wave™: Digital Asset Management for Customer Experience, Q1, 2022</a>.
<h2>About Acquia</h2>
Acquia empowers the world's most ambitious brands to create digital customer experiences that matter. With open source Drupal at its core, the Acquia Digital Experience Platform (DXP) enables marketers, developers and IT operations teams at thousands of global organizations to rapidly compose and deploy digital products and services that engage customers, enhance conversions and help businesses stand out. Learn more at <a href="https://www.acquia.com/" target="_blank">https://acquia.com</a>.

Acquia's Widen Named a "Leader" in Forrester Wave Report for Digital Asset Management for Customer Experience

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