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<hr /> <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Battle_After_Another">One Battle After Another</a> is already garnering buzz as an Oscar contender. But there’s another battle brewing for the top spots in the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards">14th Annual CMS Critic Awards</a> – and you get to nominate the contenders!As usual, we’re not the Academy. During this contest, we put you in the judge’s seat, so you can tell us what CMS and related tools really blew your mind in 2025.Keep scrolling for more background and the house rules, but here's how it works in a nutshell: Make your nominations at <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/nominate">www.cmscritic.com/nominate.</a> We take the top five contenders across a range of categories, open that up to general voting, and announce the victors in late February.DiCaprio might steal the show on screen, but he doesn’t hold a candle to agentic workflows. Content is the real star of this action flick, and the CMS Critic Awards are an opportunity for you to sing the praises of the platforms that power your digital experiences.<h3 id="celebrating-the-content-community">Celebrating the content community</h3>If you’re not familiar, the CMS Critic Awards are an institution in the content management and digital experience industries. It unites rabid fans across the globe to rally around the tools they love – no small feat in today’s fleeting technology landscape. With well-established enterprise vendors and a plethora of open source platforms, CMS enjoys some of the most loyal user communities in the tech pantheon. That’s why we’ve had such incredible participation over the past 13 years, making ours one of the longest-running awards programs in our industry (you can check out<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards"> all the previous winners here</a>).While CMS is our North Star, we also make space for the expanded ecosystem of products. Over the last decade, we've seen the rapid rise of digital experience technologies, from pure-play to fully integrated. To that end, we include categories for e-commerce, digital asset management, and even product information management. If it's a system that manages content, we want to celebrate it.In a world where using technology can feel like fighting one battle after another, the CMS Critic Awards is proof that loyalty still lives – and people make all the difference.<h3 id="2025:-the-agents-cometh…">2025: The agents cometh…</h3>…and they’re still coming. Without a doubt, this was the year when AI shifted to an agentic gear, with nearly every CMS, DXP, and adjacent platform touting its advancements with agents (and in some cases, “super agents”). It was a rapid-fire news cycle infused with innovative announcements – and we covered some of the biggest shifts throughout the year.We traversed the world in 2025, from San Francisco to Hamburg, connecting with communities and following the rattle and hum of the content world. With hundreds of articles published over the last 12 months, there’s too much to cover – but here are a few highlights:<ul><li>Platforms made big moves this year, from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/">Contentstack’s acquisition of Lytics</a> to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/seasons-of-love-sitecore-symposium-2025-sings-putting-ai-and-marketers-in-the-spotlight">Sitecore’s launch of its new Sitecore AI.</a> We attended both conferences, reporting from the ground with exclusive interviews. </li><li>At every event – from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/joy-to-the-content-world-storyblok-brings-ai-innovation-and-human-connection-to-joyconf-2025">Storyblok’s inaugural JoyConf</a> to the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-deep-dish-on-composable-6-tasty-takeaways-from-the-mach-alliances-2025-conference">MACH Alliance’s “The Composable Conference” </a>– agentic AI was a constant undercurrent, manifesting in a wide range of applications, use cases, features, and partnerships. </li><li>Analyst grids were rife with change as enterprise vendors like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/optimizely-opal-fuels-marketers-with-powerful-ai-agents-via-googles-gemini-enterprise">Optimizely made headlines</a> with AI advancements and GEO-ready CMS capabilities. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/rush-to-geo-adobe-to-acquire-semrush-for-19b-to-enhance-ai-search">Adobe’s acquisition of SEO darling Semrush</a> was big news, Progress shook things up with its new <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/progress-powers-its-vision-for-generative-cms-with-agentic-rag-and-a-legacy-of-innovation">Progress Agentic RAG offering</a>, and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/fight-the-cognitive-overload-brightspot-lights-the-way-to-productivity-with-its-evolutionary-cms-release">Brightspot launched</a> a game-changing release of its CMS.</li><li>Meanwhile, headless CMS players continued to drive innovation, from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-headless-holodeck-joel-varty-of-agility-cms-on-warp-speed-demos-ai-and-the-next-generation-of-cms">Agility</a> to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/agentic-cms-why-kontentais-vision-for-the-future-of-content-management-is-inspiring">Kontent.ai</a> to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/hygraph-studio-sets-sail-with-increased-content-velocity-and-new-asset-management-capabilities">Hygraph</a>, leveraging their native composability to accelerate new AI and agentic capabilities and a host of dynamite enhancements.</li><li>Open source was also a big part of the conversation. In the wake of last year’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/wp-engine-wins-an-injunction-against-automattic-is-the-wordpress-scorched-earth-campaign-over">“WordPress Debacle,”</a> we broke the news about the new <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/alls-fair-in-love-and-war-new-fair-package-manager-aims-to-bring-peace-to-the-wordpress-ecosystem">FAIR Package introduced at Alt Ctrl Org,</a> helping to shape a healing path forward. During our coverage of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/sowing-the-seeds-of-love-umbracos-codegarden-2025-celebrates-20-years-of-community-and-innovation">Umbraco’s Codegarden event,</a> we saw notable traction in areas like orchestration, MCP, and more. And we were honored to help judge <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://t3con.typo3.com/awards">the TYPO3 Awards,</a> which featured some inspiring and ambitious entries.    </li><li>Along with our coverage of pure play DAM platforms like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/cloudinary">Cloudinary</a>, customer data was on our radar. From <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/hightouch-launches-high-performance-agents-to-help-marketers-move-10x-faster">Hightouch</a> to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/treasure-data-brings-ai-marketing-cloud-and-super-agent-capabilities-to-aws-marketplace">Treasure Data</a>, we saw incredible use cases for AI and evolving roadmaps for agents at scale. More to come on that in 2026. </li><li>We featured lots of great research on a range of topics, from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/agentic-panic-new-study-finds-ai-agents-in-production-face-infrastructure-and-reliability-challenges">agent system performance</a> to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/put-on-a-happy-cms-face-storybloks-facial-coding-experiment-reveals-how-ai-is-sparking-joy">facial coding experiments.</a> We also tracked some innovative new tools in areas like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/one-ux-to-rule-them-all-auxia-powers-customer-journeys-with-ai-agents-in-new-unified-experience">customer journey orchestration</a> while continuing to <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/the-complete-wordpress-accessibility-checklist-for-2026">shine a light on accessibility</a> and more exotic topics like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-i-mean-to-say-a-practitioner-perspective-on-ai-semantics-and-content-evolution">semantics and content evolution.</a>  </li></ul>Much like last year, traditional category lines are blurring, and new monikers are entering the lexicon. Platforms now offer a wide range of tools and capabilities, particularly in the case of DXPs. But we're focusing on clear, well-established lanes – and as always, if you feel a single vendor can live in more than one category, it’s your choice to nominate it. <h3 id="be-kind-–-your-mother-might-be-watching">Be kind – your mother might be watching</h3>The CMS Critic Awards are intended to be fun and friendly. But they do, at times, get a little intense. Every year, we receive thousands of ballots. Users come together like wolfpacks, championing the platforms they love. We also intercept a number of, shall we say, “passionate” pleas, demanding to know why certain platforms were in a specific category, or why their tool wasn’t in the running. As always, we try to operate in a space of respect and integrity. Obviously, if a platform isn’t truly open source, it won’t be considered for “Best Open Source CMS.” But now more than ever, we're blurring the proverbial lines – and let’s face it, the analysts are also compounding the problem. So, our editorial team endeavors to stay out of the nominating process. As a reminder, we only take the top five in each category by nomination count, so anything below that won’t be featured in the final voting in February.To the victors go the spoils! Winners receive official badging, shout-outs on social media, and one month of upgraded status in our highly-trafficked <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products">Product Directory.</a> <h3 id="how-to-make-your-nominations-">How to make your nominations </h3>The good news is that it’s easy – and fun. Here’s how you can participate:<ul><li>Visit <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.cmscritic.com/nominate">www.cmscritic.com/nominate</a></li><li>Fill out the required fields and enter the names of your nominees in each category. You don't have to include a nomination for every category – only complete the fields that you care about, and your ballot will be counted. Remember that you can nominate the same vendor in multiple categories.</li><li>Once completed, click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the form. </li><li>You can only nominate once, and companies or brands that offer incentives of any kind will be disqualified.</li><li>Spread the word! Remember to share and encourage others to participate, especially across your social channels.</li><li>Nominations close on January 25, 2026, so get out there and rally your communities! Once we tabulate the results, we’ll announce the top five for general voting in early February via email and social. </li></ul>We might call this a battle, but it’s really a lovefest for CMS – and you call the shots. So make your nominations today! <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.44%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/cms-kickoff-2026-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">CMS Kickoff 2026</a></h4>January 13-14, 2026 – St. Petersburg, FLMeet industry leaders at our fourth annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS 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" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">so secure your tickets today.</a> <img style="width:30.13%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/12/image-1765546475634.png" /><h4 id="umbraco-codegarden-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Umbraco Codegarden 2026</a></h4>June 10–11, 2026 – Copenhagen, DKJoin us in Copenhagen (or online) for the biggest Umbraco conference in the world – two full days of learning, genuine conversations, and the kind of inspiration that brings business leaders, developers, and digital creators together. Codegarden 2026 is packed with both business and tech content, from deep-dive workshops and advanced sessions to real-world case studies and strategy talks. You’ll leave with ideas, strategies, and knowledge you can put into practice immediately. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://codegarden.umbraco.com/">Book your tickets today.</a>

The ‘Battle Royale’ Begins: Nominations are OPEN for the 14th Annual CMS Critic Awards!

cms-critic-staff

<hr /> There’s just no way to soften the blow: we’re drowning in digital stuff. It’s a colossal problem of our own creation – and AI is making it worse by the day.But hang on. It’s not all bad, right? With the advent of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/generative-ai/">generative AI,</a> brands can arm their marketing channels faster than ever with more assets and variants. It’s enabling greater scale and hyper-personalized experiences across more touchpoints.The problem? Maintaining governance is still a bit like “The Wild West.” With so much stuff in so many places, it's brewing a stampede of digital asset chaos – and that’s creating a huge problem for enterprises as they try to wrangle control and consistency while meeting breathtaking expectations. And this is, without question, an important consideration for large brands and enterprises as they wrestle with the realities of exploding content. According to research in <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.canto.com/blog/state-of-digital-content/">The State of Digital Content in 2025</a>, only 19% of teams increased their content ROI in the past year. Meanwhile, content professionals currently waste over three hours a week searching for digital assets while managing four or more disconnected tools.Like many of its DAM peers, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/canto">Canto</a> has been helping teams throw a lasso around the spreading herd. The pure-play <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-digital-asset-management-dam-system">digital asset management</a> provider – which was founded in 1990, making it a true pioneer in the field – has shaped the landscape of DAMs and PIMs, which have provided control and confidence around digital assets and product information at enterprise scale.  But no one expected just how dramatically AI would impact the game. Now, brands are adding assets exponentially in multiple media dimensions. That control and confidence is being tested like never before, and we need new ways – new thinking – to meet the demands of managing it all. Canto is doing just that. With its latest release, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.canto.com/product/">Canto XI</a>, the company is launching the boldest reinvention of its platform yet, transforming its DAM into a true intelligent content hub that’s purpose-built for the AI era.Canto XI consolidates content-lifecycle workflows while adding unique and powerful new products, all designed to address the evolving challenges brands face with managing assets across disconnected tools. It provides an intuitive, single source of truth for all creative and product content, enabling brands to launch campaigns faster with tighter coordination between creative assets and product data.“The content landscape has fundamentally changed,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellum/">Wain Kellum,</a> Canto's CEO. “Brands are creating exponentially more digital assets while facing pressure to move faster and maintain consistency across every touchpoint. Our customers told us they need more than traditional DAM; they need agile systems that keep pace with today’s and tomorrow’s content demands. Canto XI now delivers exactly that. We’re excited to release a transformational platform where AI doesn’t just organize content, it accelerates every decision teams make.”The robust, AI-powered features of Canto XI reflect the company’s fierce pace of innovation, buoyed by smart acquisitions. Last year, Canto <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/canto-pim-unites-dam-and-product-information-management-streamlining-asset-and-data-workflows">united its DAM and PIM capabilities</a> to streamline asset and data workflows, following the strategic purchase of industry rival <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.imagerelay.com/">Image Relay</a> in mid-September of 2024.Those moves were amplified along the AI vector with Canto’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.canto.com/press-releases/canto-merlinone/">acquisition of another competitor, MerlinOne,</a> making way for some fairly impressive AI capabilities that provided an early foundation for its path into enhanced automation. <h3 id="automating-key-workflows-and-eliminating-‘tool-sprawl’">Automating key workflows and eliminating ‘tool sprawl’</h3>Canto XI helps make assets instantly discoverable and ensures brand consistency across all touchpoints. Alongside a modernized UI and embedded AI capabilities, the new release introduces four purpose-built products. Together, these work to unify brand and product content into one platform where AI powers every stage of the content lifecycle. First, the new <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.canto.com/product/brand-studio/">Brand Studio</a> empowers field teams and partners with on-brand templates while keeping design in control. Users also have access to an <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.canto.com/product/approval-hub/">Approval Hub</a>, which centralizes review and approval processes with annotations, version history, and audit trails so that teams ship faster and more confidently.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:80.86%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1760035965821.png" alt="A screenshot of a computer

AI-generated content may be incorrect." /></figure>Canto XI’s AI Library Assistant. Source: Canto Canto XI’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.canto.com/product/ai-library-assistant/">AI Library Assistant</a> keeps content libraries instantly searchable with AI-powered organization, tagging, and enrichment. Easy to use and navigate, it makes the entire search process easier and more streamlined for users. <figure class="image image_resized" style="width:67.17%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1760035964699.png" alt="A screenshot of a computer

AI-generated content may be incorrect." /></figure>Canto XI’s AI Media Publisher. Source: Canto Finally, Canto XI’s <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.canto.com/product/media-publisher/">Media Publisher</a> delivers optimized assets – including video – directly to websites, apps, and channels, eliminating the need for separate publishing tools. A huge timesaver that lightens the load.<h3 id="canto-ai:-powering-every-stage-of-the-content-lifecycle">Canto AI: Powering every stage of the content lifecycle</h3>Many CMS and DXP platforms have introduced intelligent AI assistants and co-pilots across their composable products and ecosystems, which have been well-received by users.Canto is doing the same with its Canto AI Engine, which is woven throughout its platform to power workflows from creation to analysis. Canto’s AI Visual Search, for example, now includes visual similarity detection, while AI Library Assistant introduces smart organization and categorization capabilities. AI also enhances Brand Studio’s template-based creation tools. As a whole, these AI-powered features automate tagging, suggest metadata, and provide content recommendations to keep libraries structured and instantly searchable. Combined with advanced integration capabilities that connect with existing martech stacks, its AI engine learns from usage patterns to help improve recommendations over time, giving users and teams the ability to move faster with greater control and confidence.“Marketing teams are drowning in disparate tools from too many vendors that create more work instead of reducing it,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/abeiagi/">Alan Beiagi,</a> Chief Product and Technology Officer at Canto. “Canto XI gives them one platform where AI handles the heavy lifting and connects content to business outcomes. While many platforms layer AI on top of existing systems, we’ve built intelligence directly into the foundation of the Canto platform, so every action benefits from AI without teams having to think about it.”<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>Canto’s latest release is an evolutionary one, promising to help brands escape the yoke of content chaos with intelligent solutions. The pace of asset creation isn’t slowing down, and Canto XI is endeavoring to transform how organizations address the content management dilemma. By approaching all brand and product content as interconnected assets – rather than isolated files – Canto is rethinking the foundation of digital asset management. When evaluating DAM options for your use case, Canto continues to demonstrate that its wisdom is matched by its innovation, and its strong roadmap for its AI makes it worthy of consideration. Ending the digital asset chaos starts with a “can do” attitude. But it also requires some bold rethinking of our technology and practices. If you're ready for it, Canto could be your “can do” partner. <hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.61%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/storyblok-joyconf-2025-logo.jpg" /><h4 id="storyblok-joyconf-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://joyconf.storyblok.com/">Storyblok JoyConf 2025</a></h4>October 14-15, 2025 – Amsterdam, Netherlands November 4, 2025 – New York, NY November 6, 2025 – Los Angeles, CAJoin us at JoyConf 2025, where the future of content meets the people shaping it. Built for developers, marketers, and digital innovators, this free conference goes way beyond product updates or yet another strategy playbook. It’s where you’ll get inspired, get real, and get connected – to ideas, to the community, and to what’s possible when you build joyfully. Whether you're building lightning-fast frontends or launching cross-channel campaigns, this is where content becomes connection and collaboration becomes second nature. Come for the talks. Stay for the community. Leave with joy. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://joyconf.storyblok.com/">Save your spot.</a> <img style="width:28.9%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/sitecore-symposium-2025.jpg" /><h4 id="sitecore-symposium-2025"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Sitecore Symposium 2025</a></h4>November 3-5, 2025 – Orlando, FLAt Sitecore Symposium, you’ll learn how to meet your customers where they are – across channels, moments, and touchpoints that didn’t exist a year ago. You’ll hear how the boldest brands in the world are transforming content into outcomes and creating experiences that are fast, relevant, and human. Join 1,500 marketers, digital leaders, and technologists in Orlando to see what’s possible when personalization scales, AI accelerates creativity, and trust becomes your competitive edge. This is the Third Wave of the Internet. And this is your moment to lead in it. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Get your tickets today.</a> <figure class="image image-style-block-align-left image_resized" style="width:28.08%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/10/image-1759840698475.png" /></figure><h4 id="raise:-lifting-content-into-the-future-with-agentic-cms"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise/">RAISE: Lifting Content into the Future with Agentic CMS</a></h4>November 11, 2025 – London, UKJoin Kontent.ai at RAISE: Lifting Content into the Future with Agentic CMS, a premier free event for forward-thinking marketing and technology leaders shaping the way today’s most ambitious brands create and deliver content. Expect bold ideas, discover innovative strategies, engage with industry leaders, and gain insights that will lift your content strategy to new heights. At RAISE, you'll learn how to deliver faster, more engaging content experiences while AI does the busywork of audits, compliance, and localization with Agentic CMS, built to give you and your teams more time on creativity that matters. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://kontent.ai/events-and-webinars/raise/">Reserve your seat today.</a> <img style="width:31.44%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/cms-kickoff-2026-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-kickoff-2026"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">CMS Kickoff 2026</a></h4>January 13-14, 2026 – St. Petersburg, FLMeet industry leaders at our fourth annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS 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" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmskickoff26">so secure your tickets today.</a>

Can we end the digital asset chaos? Canto says ‘can do’ with its latest AI-powered release

matt-garrepy

<hr /> In March of last year, we told you about <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/ci-hub">CI HUB’s</a> seven-figure investment from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.scalecapital.com/">Scale Capital</a> to revolutionize how creative professionals access their digital assets and data.Since then, a lot has happened in the DAM space, particularly with the advent of AI. Not only have generative technologies transformed automation, but many <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-digital-asset-management-dam-system">digital asset management</a> systems have introduced mindboggling features to help enhance the design experience at a DAM level.Take <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/cloudinary">Cloudinary’s</a> immersive <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cloudinary.com/products/3d">3D capabilities</a>, which enable users to render their product’s multi-dimensional models into configurators, AR experiences, or even photorealistic images and videos – with no 3D expertise required. It’s just one example of how the tools are being enriched with new capabilities.Connectors have long been a key part of the integration landscape, enabling a more seamless journey to new features and enhanced stacks. CI HUB has built a strong reputation around its connector ecosystem for creative platforms, offering an easy-to-use integration with tools like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/adobe-experience-manager">Adobe Creative Cloud</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/cut-paste-delete-why-adobes-canceled-merger-with-figma-is-good-for-innovation">Figma</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sketch">Sketch</a>, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wordpress">WordPress</a>, and others. Now, it’s unveiling a new integration with <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/canva-button-gives-cms-users-integrated-graphic-design-tools-for-visual-content">Canva</a>, the incredibly popular graphic design platform for creating visual content – and it's definitely a move in the right direction. Here's why.<h3 id="powering-canva-creators-with-the-right-assets">Powering Canva creators with the right assets</h3>If you don't use Canva, you probably know someone who does. It's a powerhouse platform that effectively integrates everything a designer needs in one place. You can create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents, and other marketing materials in one place. With over <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.canva.com/newsroom/news/canva-2024-wrap/">220 million monthly users,</a> the AI-infused unicorn has become a fixture in SOHO and enterprise marketing departments. Why has it become so successful? Because Canva is the epitome of a user-friendly tool, offering a stable drag-and-drop interface, built-in templates, stock photos, videos, and production elements that simplify the design process for users at any level – turning a graphic-design novice into a full-blown content creator.Let's talk enterprise, which has been a growing segment for Canva. One of the biggest challenges for large organizations is providing governance around brand-specific content and assets. DAMs help assure that layer of control, and having access to approved assets within a company’s Canva ecosystem is where the <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.canva.com/apps/AAGCGSDkBdg/ci-hub-connector">CI HUB Connector for Canva</a> really shines – integrating all relevant DAM and cloud storage systems with the creativity platform. <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:94.29%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/08/image-1754155433281.png" /></figure>"Our new integration with Canva is a game-changer for content creation,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreasmichalski/">Andreas Michalski</a>, CEO and Founder of CI HUB.  “Companies can now maximize the ROI of creative assets by ensuring they are right at the user’s fingertips. This new integration demonstrates the confidence and trust Canva places in CI HUB to bring their world-famous content platform to the next level, for every user, team, and organization.”  According to CI HUB, the connector strengthens Canva’s position as the “go-to” tool for content creation across an enterprise. It supports creative workflows and gives everyone secure access to the company’s pre-approved assets in one simple panel.<h3 id="key-features-of-the-ci-hub-canva-integration--">Key Features of the CI HUB Canva Integration  </h3>We all know the rigors of finding stuff in our digital detritus. This is where the structure of a well-organized DAM can make all the difference, especially for large enterprises with distributed teams. By combining digital asset libraries and Canva designs, the CI HUB Connector enables creators to stay aligned, on-brand, and moving fast. The company says that individual users can typically save up to 40% of their time normally lost to searching, downloading, and other redundant manual tasks. That could translate into huge productivity gains.From a feature perspective, the connector provides comprehensive asset access to images, graphics, and more. This isn’t limited to DAMs – you can also tap PIM, MAM, cloud storage, and even stock image providers, all within Canva.  Ease of use is key, and CI HUB has consistently delivered in this department. The UX offers drag-and-drop functionality that allows you to effortlessly apply assets to your designs, making content creation intuitive and efficient. Finished designs can be saved back into your asset storage solution with a simple export and upload feature.There’s also native in-app file management that makes navigating folders, searching for assets, uploading new content, and updating existing files super easy within the Canva platform. You can also view your asset metadata, which gives you the right context for using assets appropriately. <h3 id="pricing">Pricing</h3>Like most of CI Hub’s plans, the new Canva connector is reasonably priced, clocking in at $9.00 per month. This includes all updates and a full year of support. Each plan in its model is available for individual designers or teams, and there’s a general 30-day free trial. <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://ci-hub.com/pricing">You can learn more here.</a> The connector license is valid for one user on up to three devices. The list prices were last verified in 2023, so it’s worth contacting their sales department for confirmation and to explore any enterprise options.  <h3 id="the-verdict">The verdict</h3>DAMs are securing a bigger space within the enterprise stack, either as pure-play solutions or integrated DXP product components. Enterprises are drinking from an asset firehose, struggling to manage and control the breadth of digital “stuff” in their collective ecosystem. In response, DAMs are enriching their offerings to meet the scaling demand and deliver greater value.Connectors like CI HUB help smooth out the rough patches by surfacing the power of digital assets in an intuitive and meaningful way. Its latest integration with Canva reflects just how profound an impact the design platform is having at the enterprise level, and where a deeper alignment with brand-specific digital assets and content can enhance and accelerate productivity and speed to market. Understanding how creators think and use assets is the key. CI HUB has clearly listened to its base and enabled its connector superpowers up and downstream – from its innovative CI HUB Drive, which provides an instant “DAM on Desktop” experience, to its Professional and Corporate solutions.If you’re a Canva user (or Adobe, Salesforce, or Microsoft 365), CI HUB is a slick way to connect your DAM to the tools you depend on – and take performance to the next level.  <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-ci-hub?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on CI HUB? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to an expert.</a></h4><hr /> <h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.83%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/01/cms-connect-2025-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-connect-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect 25</a></h4>August 5-6, 2025 – Montreal, CanadaSee Agility CMS at the second annual summer edition of our signature global conference dedicated to the content management community! CMS Connect will be held again in beautiful Montreal, Canada, and feature a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. Join vendors, agencies, and customers from across our industry as we engage and collaborate around the future of content management – and hear from the top thought leaders at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference exclusively focused on CMS. Space is limited for this event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

CI HUB Powers Creators with New DAM Integration for Canva

<hr /> It's been an active year for DAMs, particularly as AI capabilities juice the value and performance of both pure-play and DXP platform offerings. As brands look for new ways to enhance and streamline their digital assets across global teams, having a reliable and scalable DAM has become an essential part of the enterprise stack.We've tracked multiple announcements (and even an acquisition or two) in the recent past. Most have focused on addressing key gaps in delivering a complete vision for a modern digital asset management platform.That was clearly the goal for <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/mediavalet">MediaValet</a>, which just announced its acquisition of <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="http://www.gotbeam.com/">Beam</a>. Beam, which describes itself as the “heartbeat of your brand,” is a SaaS platform that enables brands to accurately and effectively represent themselves anywhere and everywhere they appear. Under the hood, Beam's unique Brand Center and Experience Portal capabilities provide a suite of enablement solutions designed to help organizations optimize their brand management and curate content experiences.This acquisition extends the functionality of MediaValet’s AI-powered <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-digital-asset-management-dam-system">digital asset management platform</a> with Beam’s brand governance and enablement capabilities. The offering aims to help marketing organizations achieve brand consistency at scale by empowering and educating every team to deliver on-brand content across every channel through engaging, interactive experiences.<h3 id="building-the-best-dam-with-a-focus-on-brand-and-portals">Building the best DAM with a focus on brand and portals</h3>Modern DAMs have a lot of responsibility in the stack, helping to manage the content chaos that many large enterprises are wrestling with. This requires best-of-breed features like search, asset proofing, and multi-media capabilities like video management.  But DAMs need work beyond organizational facets, giving creative teams more freedom and productivity while providing broad distribution capabilities that connect content to critical stakeholders, audiences, channels, and pipelines. Additionally, successful DAMs are concerned with delivering brand governance, enablement, and education – areas where marketing teams face significant challenges. To meet this need, MediaValet and Beam are providing a pathway to scaling brand consistency and control.One of the key distribution elements of DAM is portals: webpages tied to DAM content for rapid and broad sharing with key stakeholders. Portals accelerate idea-sharing and storytelling, and help securely build brand consistency – and Beam's Experience Portals make this feature even more streamlined for enterprise content teams.“With Beam’s Brand Centers and Experience Portals, we are taking this Portal capability to new heights – unmatched in the DAM and Brand industries,” said <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-chase-b0845645/">Rob Chase</a>, President and CEO of MediaValet. “The combination creates a best-in-class solution for our clients to unlock the power of their content at scale, and to build engaging and experiential Brand Centers. Once integrated, it will also enable us to deliver Experience Portals for a multitude of use cases such as sales enablement portals, partner portals, and events management, with high brand fidelity and interactive experiences.”Beam was acquired from <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.monigle.com/">Monigle</a>, a U.S.-based brand consultancy with offices in New York and Denver. Monigle originally built the solution to help secure brand assets for their own customers, and ended up creating a curated, interactive, and engaging platform for brand enablement.“The Beam platform and their team’s expert brand-building knowledge is a formidable combination that is proven to deliver high-fidelity Brand Centers that are truly interactive, engaging, and experiential – the result of which is a platform that brings brands to life and helps clients to win in their markets,” Chase said. "That is why they are trusted by powerful brands like WTW and others. In addition, like us, they are known for their best-in-class support, aligning with a key pillar of our culture.”<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>MediaValet continues to execute its mission to empower creatives and democratize content. Now, with the addition of Beam's Brand Centers and Experience Portals, it has expanded its core DAM capabilities to provide a more integrated and expansive solution – one that elevates brand enablement and governance. While many pure-play solutions exist on the market, MediaValet has acquired a strong position as a top content management solution in the G2 review-driven ecosystem, validated by global enterprise customers like SONOS and Experian. The company also has its fingers on the industry pulse, authoring and publishing a research index on DAM industry trends that <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.mediavalet.com/resources/dam-trends-report">you can read here. </a>From an AI perspective, DAMs are running hot and heavy – and MediaValet is definitely in the game. The platform's automation offers precision tagging of content with relevant keywords, as well as color recognition, smart image search, and even facial recognition. MediaValet also offers an open API for building custom solutions and a library of pre-built integrations with platforms like <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/contentful">Contentful</a> and <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/salesforce">Salesforce</a>. If you're evaluating pure-play DAMs for your stack, this is definitely worth exploring.  <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-mediavalet?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on MediaValet? <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to an expert.</a></h4><hr /> <h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <img style="width:31.83%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/01/cms-connect-2025-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-connect-25"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect 25</a></h4>August 5-6, 2025 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present the second annual summer edition of our signature global conference dedicated to the content management community! CMS Connect will be held again in beautiful Montreal, Canada, and feature a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. Join vendors, agencies, and customers from across our industry as we engage and collaborate around the future of content management – and hear from the top thought leaders at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference exclusively focused on CMS. Space is limited for this event, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

MediaValet Acquires Beam, Aims to Evolve DAM with Brand Enablement and Governance

<hr /> In the icy doldrums of winter in the Northern Hemisphere, February might not seem like a haven for holidays. But look a little closer, and you’ll realize it’s jam-packed with reasons to celebrate. Like… Groundhog’s Day. Mardi Gras. Valentine’s Day. National “Ice Cream for Breakfast” Day (for real). Forget those. This is the month when the NFL's <a target="_blank" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Bowl_LIX">Super Bowl</a> tackles our attention with its gridiron action, over-the-top commercials, and epic seven-layer dips. Isn't that a holiday?The Big Game might be behind us, but February was also touchdown-worthy for <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/sitecore">Sitecore</a>. After scoring a Visionary position in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/6101227">Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant for DXPs</a>, the company just announced more than 250 innovations for its intelligent digital experience platform and <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">content management system.</a>250. That’s a lot of yards to rush. But this already felt like the status quo for Sitecore even before it kicked off 2025, steamrolling ahead under <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/big-shift-at-sitecore-dave-oflanagan-takes-the-helm-as-interim-ceo">CEO Dave O’Flanagan.</a> I recently connected with <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/getting-loud-with-xm-cloud-sitecore-reports-100-growth-of-its-ai-powered-cloud-based-cms">Sitecore's Chief Product Officer, Roger Connolly</a>, about the remarkable growth of the company’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/xm-cloud">XM Cloud platform</a>. Global revenue for the SaaS CMS exploded by 100% in 2024, scaling 130% in the U.S. alone. The company also surpassed $500 million in ARR last October, putting even more power behind its passing game.Now, with the advent of these new innovations – including big advances in its <a target="_blank" href="https://eur02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sitecore.com%2Fproducts%2Fsitecore-stream&amp;data=05%7C02%7Cjessica.rampen%40sitecore.com%7C12e993bd996c44828a1308dd4b67bcb1%7C91700184c3144dc9bb7ea411df456a1e%7C0%7C0%7C638749631100552726%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&amp;sdata=gWaDk%2FpigHYjWCTHz0eVesfXtuwRpK29XvQK%2FygMM8Q%3D&amp;reserved=0">Sitecore Stream</a> AI capabilities – the company is giving marketers 250 more reasons to build and deploy their digital customer experiences on its platform.<h3 id="is-stream-is-a-dream-come-true?">Is Stream is a dream come true?</h3>According to Sitecore, it is. Originally Introduced at the company's <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/sitecore-rocks-and-rolls-in-music-city-the-top-5-tracks-from-symposium-2024">Symposium 2024</a> conference, Sitecore Stream embeds three powerful capabilities across its products, blending control and more progressive <a target="_blank" href="https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/ai-agents/">agentic AI</a> features into the mix. Previously the domain of edge applications, the use of AI agents has become mainstream, and Sitecore has been innovating heavily in its development to help automate a wide range of tasks and functions.The first embedded feature is Sitecore’s powerful brand-aware AI, which keeps AI-driven actions on target and renders them smarter over time – enabling more personalized and conversational experiences at scale.Second, Sitecore’s AI copilots and agents – now available for brand, campaign, content, experience, and optimization – give marketers more freedom to strategize, execute, and scale. Finally, agentic workflows help to “harmonize” human input with AI automation, achieving what Sitecore calls a “balance of automation with authenticity.” Sitecore provides degrees of tolerance with these agentic capabilities; users can select automation levels that include “chain of thought” prompting, “human in the loop”, and fully agentic.Together, these features are delivering new levels of AI performance for Sitecore users. <h3 id="250-business-boosting-innovations-for-marketers">250 business-boosting innovations for marketers</h3>So what’s on the scoreboard in this seasonal release? As stated, the company has released hundreds of new innovations targeted at marketers. They encompass specific tools and capabilities designed for creating, building, and optimizing digital experiences. With these features, users and brands will be better equipped to boost engagement and conversions and drive their business objectives across channels. There are too many to list them all, but here’s the highlight reel: <h4 id="brand-centric-ai-enhancements">Brand-centric AI enhancements</h4>Staying on-brand for large enterprises is challenging – especially with components and objects spread far and wide. Sitecore Stream is bringing order to the brand chaos with some dynamite enhancements, many of which were gleaned from customer feedback. Stream can digest and comprehend schemas in XM Cloud or XP, learn from previous campaigns, and even recommend actions that align with a customer’s brand and marketing strategy.Along with the brand-centric benefits, Stream’s content copilot is along for the ride to back things up. The tool is available in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/experience-platform">Sitecore XP</a>, allowing customers to leverage brand-aware AI. Stream orchestration capabilities are also available in XP, enabling users to manage projects, deliverables, and tasks.  <h4 id="cms-tools-focused-on-marketers-and-content-creators">CMS tools focused on marketers and content creators</h4><a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-content-management-system-cms">Content management</a> is still the foundation of the experience hub, and Sitecore is doubling down on enriching its CMS capabilities. Like its brand-savvy AI, a content copilot powered by Stream helps creators and editors generate on-brand content and personalized variants to tailor messaging, optimize performance, and maintain relevance across platforms and contexts. From an observability perspective, Site Collections gives marketers a visually intuitive way to view, manage, and maintain multiple sites with ease. Meanwhile, a new marketer dashboard provides a comprehensive view of website performance, workflow, and language version support.On the personalization front, A/B/n testing is now fully integrated into the XM Cloud authoring experience, empowering marketers to create and analyze up to six component variants to determine the most effective version. An A/B test insights feature also gives marketers access to critical performance data – and their winning variants – so they can optimize with confidence.From a composability standpoint, XM Cloud is becoming more flexible and providing greater choice. In addition to <a target="_blank" href="https://nextjs.org/">Next.js</a>, it now supports <a target="_blank" href="https://angular.dev/">Angular</a> and .<a target="_blank" href="https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/apps/aspnet">NET Core frameworks</a>. This means developers can use their preferred technologies while leveraging XM Cloud’s server-side rendering and editing capabilities. <h4 id="game-changing-dam-features">Game-changing DAM features</h4>DAM has been an active category over the last year, with many pure-play stand-alone products investing in AI-powered capabilities. As part of its DXP ecosystem, Sitecore has introduced more generative features to its DAM, helping users create and refine content and grammar with greater speed and efficacy.Search is still a key part of the experience, and an area with AI is having a profound impact. Sitecore’s DAM now includes enhanced visual search, helping users surface content assets even without exact keyword and taxonomy matches. New options include visual similarity, semantic, reverse-image, and search by color. Additionally, AI is being harnessed to enhance a new grounded image tagging feature, helping users find images faster, improve metadata accuracy, and perform bulk updates and easier reviews. Content and variant creation also help users tailor messaging for diverse audiences and languages to scale their content use.<hr />If you’re interested in the granular breakdown – specifically for Stream – you can check out <a target="_blank" href="https://developers.sitecore.com/changelog">Sitecore’s official changelog</a>. You can also learn more about these advancements (and some yet to be released) at <a target="_blank" href="https://symposium.sitecore.com/">Sitecore’s annual Symposium</a> conference, which will be held November 3 – 5 in Orlando, Florida.<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>The Super Bowl is, among other things, a spectacle. It brings the biggest players in American football to the field, hunting for glory, bragging rights, and a big payday. Sometimes, the battle is epic. This year, it was a blowout.In the DXP leagues, there isn’t a single game that decides the seasonal outcome for a team. Instead, we have analyst grids and reports that attempt to crystallize the state of the market. As such, we have to dig deeper and probe the broader optics before throwing our weight behind a franchise.This year’s Gartner MQ for DXPs revealed some surprising shifts, but Sitecore continues to drive its visionary status with key innovation. This includes its XM Cloud product, visual builder, Stream AI, and enhanced workflow capabilities. It has also made significant strides in developing a more composable posture, enabling more of its components to function in a stand-alone fashion.  <figure class="image image-style-align-center image_resized" style="width:59.62%"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/02/image-1740603215935.jpeg" alt="Gartner MQ diagram for 2025" /></figure> One big advantage has been Sitecore’s investment in governance. At last year’s Sitecore Symposium, the company announced that its core products – XM Cloud, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/content-hub">Content Hub</a>, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/customer-data-platform">CDP</a>, and <a target="_blank" href="https://www.sitecore.com/products/personalize">Personalize</a> – were now HIPAA compliant. This gives the company a strategic edge with large enterprises focused on regulatory challenges.While XM Cloud has certainly led Sitecore’s explosive growth over the last year, there are still headwinds relative to adoption. Customers and agencies felt a deep concern that legacy products would not be supported as the company looked ahead. But as I heard from many attendees at Symposium 2024, CEO Dave O’Flanagan’s presence at the company’s MVP and community sessions quelled some of the concern and provided a roadmap of confidence – particularly for marketers who rely on the stability of their tools. “We wanted to make sure that customers don't feel that they have to go to SaaS to deliver for their business,” O’Flanagan said. “That’s an important piece. The SaaS solution has great capabilities, and it will deliver in a more intuitive, innovative way. I think customers can do more with XM Cloud. However, with XM and XP, customers can achieve almost everything they need with that product if properly configured and understood.”There’s also the persistent challenge of navigating Sitecore’s complex ecosystem of products, which continues to grow with each acquisition. This often requires certified practitioners (vis-a-vis Sitecore partner agencies) to help implement and support the tools and customizations. But greater automation is entering the equation, and that’s where Sitecore’s continued investment in new innovations – and a keen focus on leveraging AI – is making an impact. “We've always thought about our DXP’s capabilities as being able to serve the full content life cycle, and that there's only a handful of vendors that truly deliver on that promise,” O’Flanagan shared. “That's everything from the ideation of a campaign right through to the creation of the assets and the content into the CMS to distribute and publish to the consumer.”One of Sitecore’s key strengths is its legacy of innovation, which is reinforced by its vast community of builders. While the company is at a point of transformation with XM Cloud, it seems to be telegraphing the right messages to its customers and the market – and bolstering its Visionary spirit. That said, this change is not without its bumps in the road, and continued engagement with users will be key to shaping the next wave of products. As evidenced by the Gartner MQ, enterprise DXPs face a challenging landscape. However, the pace of these new innovations is yet another demonstration of Sitecore’s resolve to win, underscored by its investment in AI and its grasp of the business considerations. Ultimately, it’s all about understanding what matters to customers. And if they can keep driving in that direction, they could be spiking the ball in the end zone next February. <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-sitecore?-talk-to-an-expert.">Looking for guidance on Sitecore? <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/contact">Talk to an expert.</a></h4><hr /><h3 id="upcoming-events">Upcoming Events</h3> <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> <img style="width:31.83%" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2025/01/cms-connect-2025-logo.png" alt="" /><h4 id="cms-connect-25"><a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">CMS Connect 25</a></h4>August 5-6, 2025 – Montreal, CanadaWe are delighted to present the second annual summer edition of our signature global conference dedicated to the content management community! CMS Connect will be held again in beautiful Montreal, Canada, and feature a unique blend of masterclasses, insightful talks, interactive discussions, impactful learning sessions, and authentic networking opportunities. Join vendors, agencies, and customers from across our industry as we engage and collaborate around the future of content management – and hear from the top thought leaders at the only vendor-neutral, in-person conference exclusively focused on CMS. Space is limited for this event, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.boye-co.com/conferences/cmsconnect25">so book your seats today.</a>

Sitecore Scores with Hundreds of AI-Powered Innovations for its Intelligent DXP and CMS for Marketers

First Look: Cloudinary’s New AI Vision Brings Brand-Safe Gen AI Capabilities to its DAM

<hr /> There's no denying that 2024's Wicked is an Oscar-worthy flick. In fact, it's already been <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2024/12/17/oscars-shortlists-announced-emilia-prez-and-wicked-lead/">shortlisted for multiple categories.</a>But hey, we think CMS is pretty wicked, too. And there are a few platforms that might be spellbinding enough for a trophy or two. Of course, it’s not up to us – at least not during the annual <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards">CMS Critic Awards</a>. During this contest, we put you in the judge’s seat, so you can tell us what CMS and related DX tools really defied gravity in 2024.Keep scrolling for more background and the house rules, but here's how it works: Make your nominations at <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/nominate">www.cmscritic.com/nominate.</a> We take the top five contenders across a range of categories, open that up to general voting, and announce the victors in late February.Hollywood can have its glam and glitz, but it doesn’t hold a candle to schema and workflows. Content is the real star of this musical, and the CMS Critic Awards is an opportunity for you to sing the praises of the platforms that power your digital experiences. <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew02JL1FcZg"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ew02JL1FcZg" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure><h3 id="it's-all-about-community">It's all about community</h3>If you’re not familiar, the CMS Critic Awards is an institution in the content management industry. It unites rabid fans across the globe to rally around the tools they love – no small feat in today’s fleeting technology landscape. But CMS is its own sort of bewitching ecosystem. With well-established enterprise vendors and a plethora of open source platforms, CMS enjoys some of the most loyal user communities in the tech pantheon. That’s why we’ve had such incredible participation over the past 12 years, making ours one of the longest-running awards programs in our industry (you can check out<a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/cms-critic-awards"> all the previous winners here</a>).While CMS is our Emerald City, we also make space for the expanded ecosystem of products. Over the last decade, we've seen the tornadic rise of digital experience technologies, from pure-play to fully integrated. To that end, we include categories for e-commerce, digital asset management, and even product information management. If it's a system that manages content, we want to celebrate it.In a land where technology can feel like it’s riding a broomstick, the CMS Critic Awards is proof that loyalty still lives – and people make all the difference.<h3 id="what-to-expect-with-this-year’s-categories">What to expect with this year’s categories</h3>2024. Man, what a whirlwind. This was the year <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/wp-engine-wins-an-injunction-against-automattic-is-the-wordpress-scorched-earth-campaign-over">WordPress turned open source upside down</a>. The drama surrounding Matt Mullenweg’s contentious and public battle with <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/wp-engine">WP Engine</a> took the tech world by storm, and the future feels decidedly unsettled. That said, WordPress still represents a crucial part of the market, and we want to know what your favorite tools are in this category, from <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/drupal">Drupal</a> to proprietary platforms with free and open source versions of their software.This was also the year that many platforms “moved to the middle.” Traditionally headless players like Contentstack <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/seeing-in-a-headless-world-contentstack-introduces-new-visual-building-capabilities-for-marketers">introduced visual builders</a> and preview capabilities, evolving into composable CMSes and DXPs. Meanwhile, pre-composed DXPs continued adding <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/optimizely-introduces-new-saas-cms-with-visual-builder-for-marketers">headless capabilities and SaaS options</a> to become… well, more composable. From a category perspective, 2024 was a critical tipping point – and one that created more features and greater flexibility for buyers and customers. What does this mean for this year’s Awards categories? When nominating, the spectrum for “Best Headless CMS” can certainly be applied to more than just the pure play platforms – and likewise, a DXP can be inclusive of previous headless players that have advanced their feature sets. Tell us what you think.There were also a lot of moves in the DAM world, with <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/canto-pim-unites-dam-and-product-information-management-streamlining-asset-and-data-workflows">Canto gobbling up Image Relay</a> and Cloudinary adding <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/cloudinary-assets-brings-new-ai-powered-features-to-its-api-first-intelligent-dam">more AI-powered capabilities</a>. Still, there are DXPs with built-in DAMs that can hold their own – and now with greater composable flexibility (think <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/acquia-widens-its-dxp-stack-with-widen-acquires-dam-and-pim-capabilities">Acquia’s acquisition of Widen</a>). To that end, you can nominate your favorite pure play or composed solution. And we’ve even made space for your top PIM picks, whether they’re part of a combined DAM/PIM solution or a standalone product. CMS and DXP platforms offer multiple features and capabilities. As always, if you feel a single vendor can live in more than one category, it’s your choice to nominate it. During last year's CMS Critic Awards, we had a huge showing in our “Best Composable Solution” and “Best AI Solution” categories. They're back again, so feel free to nominate any vendor in our space that delivered the most innovative composable or generative AI experience. <h3 id="a-note-about-integrity">A note about integrity</h3>The CMS Critic Awards are intended to be fun and friendly. But they do, at times, get a little fiery. Every year, we receive thousands of ballots. Users come together like wolfpacks, championing the platforms they love. We also intercept a number of, shall we say, “passionate” pleas, demanding to know why certain platforms were in a specific category, or why their tool wasn’t in the running. As always, we try to operate in a space of respect and integrity. Obviously, if a platform isn’t truly open source, it won’t be considered for “Best Open Source CMS.” But now more than ever, we're blurring the proverbial lines – and let’s face it, the analysts are also compounding the problem. So, our editorial team endeavors to stay out of the nominating process. As a reminder, we only take the top five in each category by nomination count, so anything below that won’t be featured in the final voting. <h3 id="how-to-make-your-nominations-for-the-2024-cms-critic-awards-">How to make your nominations for the 2024 CMS Critic Awards </h3>Drum roll… nominations for the 2024 CMS Critic Awards are officially open! Here’s how you can participate:<ol><li>Visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.cmscritic.com/nominate">www.cmscritic.com/nominate</a></li><li>Fill out the required fields and enter the names of your nominees in each category. You don't have to include a nomination for every category – only complete the fields that you care about, and your ballot will be counted. Remember that you can nominate the same vendor in multiple categories.</li><li>Once completed, click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the form. </li><li>You can only nominate once, and companies or brands that offer incentives of any kind will be disqualified.</li><li>Spread the word! Remember to share and encourage others to participate, especially across your social channels.</li></ol>Nominations close on January 24, 2025, so get out there and rally your communities! Once we tabulate the results, we’ll announce the top five for general voting in early February via email and social. Don’t be green with envy. Show us how wicked your communities really are – and make your nominations today! <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 – St. Petersburg, FloridaJoin industry leaders at our third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS 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>

Your Voice, Your Choice: Nominations are Open for the 2024 CMS Critic Awards

<hr /> A bit of translation trivia: the word “Canto” means “singing” in Spanish. Perhaps, then, it’s apropos that the company called <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/products/canto">Canto</a> – a leading <a target="_blank" href="https://cmscritic.com/what-is-a-digital-asset-management-dam-system">digital asset management</a> software platform – is crooning a sweet tune about its latest innovation. Is it Swift-worthy? Sure sounds that way.The song they’re spinning is the new <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canto.com/product/canto-pim">Canto PIM</a>, a comprehensive solution that “harmonizes” its industry-standard DAM with product information management capabilities.According to the company, Canto PIM has been purpose-built to overcome the burdens and blockers many brands face when managing, distributing, iterating, optimizing, and securing their digital assets and product data across an expansive ecosystem of channels, campaigns, and use cases.I’ve been expecting this news given that Canto acquired industry rival <a target="_blank" href="https://www.imagerelay.com/">Image Relay</a> in mid-September. The Vermont-based SaaS company had been blazing trails around its combined modeling of digital asset management and product information management, making it an attractive target in what is becoming a densely competitive race between pure-play DAMs and DXP ecosystem solutions.The revelation of Canto PIM certainly came faster than anticipated, likely a reflection of the pressure to drive differentiation and capture market share before the 2025 product announcement cycle. At the time, I predicted that the combo could be a game changer as Canto executes its vision to revolutionize the way businesses mine value from their digital content. This isn't Canto's first dance with M&amp;A. Just last year, the company <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canto.com/press-releases/canto-merlinone/">acquired another competitor, MerlinOne,</a> making way for some fairly impressive AI capabilities that are continuing to juice its feature set. Here’s a revealing stat: 85% of marketers say that their <a target="_blank" href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/consultancy/deloitte-uk-future-of-experience-time-to-market.pdf">content demands have doubled</a> in just the past two years. As you can imagine, siloed approaches to digital asset and product information management can’t keep up with this exponential growth – particularly as brands struggle to compete in a crowded, time-compressed market.“Within every industry, businesses are under unprecedented pressure to create and deliver more content than ever before,” said <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellum/">Wain Kellum</a>, Canto's CEO. “Canto PIM empowers organizations to reimagine their content and product information operations for the digital-first era, breaking down legacy roadblocks to deliver exceptional customer, partner, and employee experiences at scale.”Canto has been in the DAM game for three decades, so it understands this space with a deeper intimacy than most of its modern peers. The expanded ecosystem of choice is certainly providing more competition, but it’s also driving legacy platforms to rethink their strategies and invest in expanding their capabilities – like bridging the gap between digital asset and product information data. <h3 id="putting-pim-in-the-dam-symphony">Putting PIM in the DAM symphony</h3><a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewhall1979/">Andrew Hall</a>, Canto's VP of Global Demand Generation, recently shared some key DAM trends that the company is focusing on in 2025. In the video below, he talks about the benefits of streamlining workflows, scaling content lifecycles, and integrating a wider bench of tools to provide brands with greater efficiency.  <figure class="media"><div data-oembed-url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr0ZCUDHa1Y"><div style="position:relative;padding-bottom:100%;height:0;padding-bottom:56.2493%"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sr0ZCUDHa1Y" style="position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;top:0;left:0" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></div></figure> Reinforcing those transformative trends, Canto PIM builds on the company’s industry-leading legacy as a DAM innovator. The platform serves as a single source of truth for all product data and digital content, whether it’s product-specific or deployed for broader brand marketing and sales initiatives. By unifying traditionally fragmented capabilities, the solution enables organizations to streamline workflows across the entire content and product information lifecycle – from initial planning and creation to distribution and analysis. The platform enables brands to unify product data and assets by centralizing everything in a single repository and using AI search and intuitive tools to streamline workflows and maximize efficiency.Canto PIM also synchronizes omnichannel experiences by syncing product data and assets across e-commerce, social media, and partner content, ensuring a more cohesive and consistent brand experience for customers. It also streamlines product launches with its native scalability, providing a system that can handle unlimited products, versions, and attributes with zero friction – and without sacrificing performance. <figure class="image image-style-align-center"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2024/12/canto-screen.jpg" alt="" /></figure>Canto PIM provides fields for rich product metadata, as well as AI-powered search. Source: Canto website When it comes to tracking performance, Canto PIM is equipped with advanced analytics that deliver actionable insights. You can easily measure asset performance and ROI, so you can develop intelligent multichannel and omnichannel strategies.A big benefit of modern DAMs is the ability to protect brand assets. Canto PIM carries forward that same commitment from Canto’s digital asset management system for safeguarding brand assets and product IP. It delivers on this promise by providing SOC-2-certified, enterprise-grade security, as well as granular permissions and compliance measures for managing users and access. You can take a more <a target="_blank" href="https://www.canto.com/product/canto-pim/">in-depth product tour</a> on Canto's website.<h3 id="why-it-matters">Why it matters</h3>DAM, it’s getting loud in here. It’s true. As the digital asset management space packs in more players, it’s going to take a really sharp voice to sing over the crowd. This includes the chorus of digital experience platforms that offer integrated solutions as part of their ecosystem – an advantage on some levels, but less geared towards composable stacks, which are becoming more of a preference among large enterprise brands. As one of the most proven legacy brands in the market, Canto has consistently delivered on its DAM differentiators. Powered by the Image Relay acquisition, it now has an even stronger offering that meaningfully combines the capabilities of DAM and PIM. And that’s the lyrical hook: the marriage of these categories needs to yield real fruit for users, and the harmonies need to be on key. AI is certainly a force multiplier, and DAMs are applications where AI and machine learning enable high-utility outcomes. With the addition of more advanced AI features – specifically around search – Canto is delivering on its vision for truly unifying disjointed content assets and product information and making it actionable. With the increased volume around DAM and PIM solutions, evaluating these products can be more challenging – particularly with enterprise DXPs offering some compelling solutions. Many independent platforms are focusing on their composable posture as part of their value proposition. Based on your goals, it's essential to assess how a DAM's architecture is best suited for your stack and how AI and other features will enable your teams to manage data from a wide range of sources. In many composable use cases, having a layer of orchestration is becoming attractive for marketing teams and business leaders who are executing omnichannel strategies. At the end of the day, the song we’re all dying to hear is how a DAM and PIM “twofer” will enable marketing, creative, and product teams to be faster, leaner, more agile – and ultimately more efficient. <a target="_blank" href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/abeiagi/">Alan Beiagi</a>, Canto’s Chief Product and Technology Officer, reflected that it’s all about giving customers a place that finally brings everything together. And that's music to everyone's ears.“By breaking down the barriers between DAM and PIM technologies and workflows, we’re giving our customers the all-in-one agility and efficiency they need to thrive in their marketplace,” he said. It doesn’t take a Swiftie to see that Canto might have a hit on its hands.  <hr /><h4 style="text-align:center" id="looking-for-guidance-on-canto?--talk-to-us.-">Looking for guidance on Canto?  <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 – St. Petersburg, FloridaMeet industry leaders at our third annual CMS Kickoff – the industry's premier global CMS 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>

Canto PIM Unites DAM and Product Information Management, Streamlining Asset and Data Workflows

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<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’ 

<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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