Articles

Digital Asset Management Article

<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

matt-garrepy

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

Acquia DAM Adds New Integrations to Enhance Brand Management 

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

Acquia DAM Bolsters Search, Share, and Analytics Capabilities

cms-critic-staff

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

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

paris-tuzun

Talk about welcome news.
Earlier in December, <a href="https://www.optimizely.com/" target="_blank">Optimizely</a> – a leading digital experience platform (DXP) – announced a definitive agreement to purchase <a href="https://welcomesoftware.com/" target="_blank">Welcome</a>, a content marketing (CMP), marketing resource management (MRM), and digital asset management (DAM) platform.
Yes, that's a lot of three-lettered acronyms for one sentence...
While the DXP juggernaut is no stranger to acquisitions (they were, in fact, <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/episerver-rebrands-as-optimizely-following-acquisition/">purchased by Episerver in 2020</a> but rebranded under the Optimizely name), this one provides a glimpse of the company's ambition to win the minds and hearts of internal marketers.
According to Welcome's press release, the combination will empower marketing teams at brands across the globe to drive real business value through better customer experiences.
“We believe a world-class customer experience starts with an outstanding marketer experience,” said Alex Atzberger, CEO of Optimizely. “By combining Welcome’s campaign planning, content production, and asset management capabilities with Optimizely’s existing breadth of digital experience solutions, we empower marketers to rapidly launch campaigns and control the optimization of every digital touchpoint which results in growth for the business.”
As the deal is set to close before the New Year, it's clear that Optimizely is making a 2022 resolution to focus more on the discrete needs of marketers, who are chiefly responsible for driving customer experience. With the rise of digital tools and hybrid work environments, marketers are becoming the "engines" of business growth by shaping consumer engagement. At the same time, they are being forced to adapt and respond to a fluid digital landscape, where a fragmented stack is arresting their ability to deliver personalized, relevant content and experiences at scale.
Bottom line: Optimizely aims to improve the marketer experience by adding Welcome's CMP, MRM, and DAM capabilities to their expanding ecosystem.
<h2>Combining marketing, content management, digital commerce, and personalization</h2>
As a four-time <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210325005585/en/Welcome-a-NewsCred-Brand-Named-a-Leader-Now-4-Years-Running-in-the-2021-Gartner-Magic-Quadrant-for-Content-Marketing-Platforms" target="_blank">Leader on the Gartner Magic Quadrant</a>, Welcome has carved a strong niche in the small but growing cadre of Content Marketing Platforms (CMP).
As Gartner noted in their most recent report, "Welcome’s vision as a marketing orchestration software, combining the capabilities of a CMP, MWM, DAM, offers promise." This positioning certainly made the platform a more attractive target for Optimizely.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/12/gartner_mq_cmp-971x1024.png" alt="Gartner Magic Quadrant, 2021 for CMP" />
By combining Welcome's capabilities with Optimizely's suite of content management and digital commerce solutions, marketers will now have enhanced tools for a wide range of applications – all in a unified platform. This includes the "Holy Grail" of experimentation, personalization, and recommendations that have often remained elusive for marketing professionals and teams.
Under the Optimizely banner, marketers will be able to leverage Welcome's features on an evolutionary scale, allowing them to accelerate the end-to-end marketing lifecycle from concept to execution. This will allow users and teams to plan, create, and collaborate on campaigns and publish across multiple channels to reach the right audiences. They will also have unprecedented control and transparency to manage content delivery without relying on the support of IT or development.
The combined set of capabilities should be a force multiplier for Optimizely, enabling marketers to grow revenue by scaling best-in-class data-driven tools such as A/B testing and content recommendations, augmented by Welcome's content marketing processes. Marketers will also be able to easily share results across their organization, providing greater insight into the impact of their marketing investment.
“We could not be more excited to be joining the Optimizely family,” said Shafqat Islam, CEO and co-founder of Welcome. “We’ve made it our mission to transform the way marketers work, by delivering a purpose-built solution to orchestrate all of marketing. Now, together with Optimizely, we believe we are unifying two category-leading solutions to see that mission through.”
<h2>A string of strategic acquisitions</h2>
As the DXP category becomes more crowded, enterprise vendors are clawing their way to the top of the mountain. In Gartner's <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3995917/magic-quadrant-for-digital-experience-platforms" target="_blank">2021 Magic Quadrant for Digital Experience Platforms</a>, Optimizely found itself chasing the heels of both <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/acquia-upgrades-open-dxp-capabilities-to-expand-composable-enterprise-features/">Acquia</a> and <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/adobe-acquires-video-collaboration-platform-frame-io/">Adobe</a> in pursuit of the crown.
To enhance their DXP completeness of vision and gain competitive ground, all three platforms have been scooping up strategic technologies – including Optimizely's 2021 <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/optimizely-acquires-customer-data-platform-zaius/">purchase of Zauis</a>, a leading customer data platform (CDP).
Adding this all-important data layer gave Optimizely a needed edge, but the purchase of Welcome is key. Not only does it signal a renewed focus on the role of the marketer, but it repositions the power of the platform on the marketer's experience. Providing an integrated, end-to-end lifecycle solution for managing content, assets, and resources – and amplifying it with the commerce and optimization features of a proven DXP – could be a real gamechanger for Optimizely. We'll be watching as the next steps unfold.
<h2>About Optimizely</h2>
Optimizely is a leading digital experience platform (DXP), equipping teams with the tools and insights they need to create and optimize in new and novel ways. Now, companies can operate with data-driven confidence to create hyper-personalized experiences. Building sophisticated solutions has never been simpler. Optimizely’s 900+ partners and 1100+ employees in offices around the globe are proud to help more than 9,000 brands, including Toyota, Santander, eBay, KLM and Mazda, enrich their customer lifetime value, increase revenue and grow their brands.
<h2>About Welcome</h2>
Welcome transforms how marketers run marketing. It is the leading marketing orchestration platform used by the world’s most successful brands to strategically align teams, take the friction out of execution, and demonstrate meaningful results. Only Welcome offers a platform purpose-built for the complexities of modern marketing that can scale to support the largest teams in the world. It is a new layer of the marketing technology stack where marketers can work better together, connect other martech tools, and measure performance. Welcome unleashes the potential of marketing.

Optimizely's Acquisition of Welcome Signals Expanded Focus on Marketers

Notre-DAM is an open-source Digital Asset Management platform targeted to the mid-market segment (digital libraries, micro-stock agencies, editorial teams, etc.).
The key features of Notre-DAM are:
<ul>
<li>multi-user, web-based application accessible from the most popular browsers</li>
<li>can manage images, video, audio and text</li>
<li>provides a customizable catalogue based on taxonomies and collections</li>
<li>full metadata support (EXIF, IPTC, XMP, Creative Commons, PLUS)</li>
<li>geo referencing and search, directly on a map</li>
<li>fully scalable, relies on a cluster of PCs for resource storage, processing, and delivery</li>
<li>provides a REST API for integration with other applications (e.g. CMSs)</li>
<li>distributed under the GPL v.3 licenseScreenshot: 
<img style="max-width:580px" title="notre-dam" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2021/07/notre-dam-580x306_zhohfp.png" /></li>
</ul>
More information (and an on-line demo) is available on the project's web site <a href="http://www.notre-dam.org">Notre-DAM.org</a>. A short <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMehvlhOPFY">video presentation is available too</a>.

Notre-DAM Beta released - an open source Digital Asset Management Platform

mike-johnston

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