Category Archives: asset management
Webcast Recording: Learn how the National Trust for Scotland uses Portfolio Server to Preserve Digital Objects
January 31st, 2013 by Alexandra Barltrop
In case you missed it, we have posted a recording of the Webcast we hosted with the National Trust for Scotland where you can learn how the Trust uses Portfolio Server 10 to conserve and promote the nation’s cultural heritage.
Listen to John Sinclair, Photo Librarian at the National Trust for Scotland, discuss:
- Their previous challenge of manually servicing requests from Curatorial, Conservation and all other departments
- Linking object metadata in the collection management systems with Portfolio Server 10
- How they implemented and managed Portfolio Server 10
- How Portfolio Server 10 saves time, avoids unnecessary duplication, and enables easy self-service access to files
He also addressed several questions from webcast attendees including how to link Portfolio with Customer Relationship Management and Collections Management Systems
Portrait of ‘Gen. The Hon. William Gordon of Fyvie’ by Pompeo Batoni Copyright National Trust for Scotland
Check out our Presentations on Web Fonts and DAM from the TFMA Event in London!
March 14th, 2012 by Alexandra Barltrop
We had an amazing time at the Technology for Marketing & Advertising event in London a couple of weeks ago. It was our third year attending and we were happy to meet many of you who are as mad about fonts and DAM as we are!
Davin Kluttz, our Senior Product Manager came all the way from Extensis HQ in the US to present two amazingly well received seminars (seriously, they were queuing out the door!) for us.
The first one was “Classy, Clowny or Crude? How your site’s typography affects your brand”, which illustrates how web typography affects your website, and how you can select and implement web typography that is just right for the job. So many people these days think it’s OK to use Comic Sans on their websites. This may come as a shock, but it just doesn’t cut the mustard! Davin illustrated this by showing how some iconic brands would look if their logos were in this font (Chanel, Coca-Cola, Star Wars) which got several laughs from the crowd. To drive the point home, he also showed us several examples of “classy”, “clowny” and “crude” web typography, which gave the audience a feel for the direction in which they should be taking their sites.
The second one was entitled “What does this DAM thing do?” Ever find yourself pulling your hair out trying to locate an image in a sea of thousands? Don’t you think it would be nice to preview a video on your iPad without a special plug-in? Or even just have access to all your digital content on the go, so you are able to act fast if a client unexpectedly throws a “let’s see it now” lasso around your neck? Well Extensis has a solution for all of these problems and it was all nicely wrapped up in this presentation, which not only explained what an ”asset” is, but also demonstrated how to leverage digital asset management solutions to find, locate, archive and access files, regardless of location.
If you couldn’t make it to the show, couldn’t get in to the theatre or would simply like to see what we had to say on web typography and digital asset management, we have very kindly provided the slides from both presentations below!
Enjoy! If you have any feedback, please let us know – we’d love to hear from you.
Portfolio Server helps Kew Gardens, Nation Museum of Ireland and other Cultual Organizations
March 31st, 2011 by Alexandra Barltrop
At last week’s digital asset management (DAM) solutions seminar in London, leading British Isles cultural heritage organizations, The National Museum of Ireland, The Welsh Assembly Government, Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and JISC Digital Media shared their successes in using Extensis Portfolio Server to create a centralized web-based repository for efficient finding and sharing of assets, thereby ensuring history is preserved for decades to come. Attendees of the one day seminar learned how Portfolio Server can help their organizations preserve cultural heritage, increase efficiencies by leveraging collections management system (CMS) metadata, and seamlessly share digital assets.
A Sample Master Keyword List for Digital Asset Management in Creative Workflows
August 25th, 2010 by Jim Kidwell
A keyword list is a series of words or phrases used in a digital asset management (DAM) system to organize metadata tags and simplify file searches. Extensis has created a keyword list of terms inspired from our experience with graphic design and marketing communications workflows. The list could also be used for PR, advertising, print and publishing, retail, and media workflows.
A master keyword list includes a predefined list and taxonomy of search terms. This provides users with the convenience and consistency of choosing from an existing list of tags when applying keywords or other metadata to images, photos of people or products, videos, marketing collateral, and sales literature. With keyword lists users can quickly choose from a menu of available keywords instead of manually typing in search terms.
Our sample keyword list for creative workflows can be used as is, or as a starting point. The list can be edited using any text editor or within many DAM systems after import. We recommend reviewing the list with stakeholders, especially those who will be searching or tagging assets. Remove any terms that do not apply, add any relevant terms that were not included, and rename terms as needed to fit your organizational vocabulary. For example, “Customer Story” could be called “Customer Profile” in your organization.
Download the sample master keyword list here.
New Camera Raw formats, Adobe DNG, and more in Portfolio Server 9.1.2
June 11th, 2010 by Edward Smith
This week we released a v9.1.2 update for our Portfolio Server digital asset management software and NetMediaMAX image processing engine.
The new version adds support for additional Camera Raw formats, enhanced Adobe DNG thumbnail and rendering support, and several performance and stability improvements for the Server, Web Client, and NetMediaMAX.
If you’re using Portfolio Server 9, you will want to get this update. Note that this update is for the Server and Media Engine only, requires OpenOffice.org v3.2 on the Server and Media Engine(s), and that Desktop Clients should all be running the existing 9.1.1 version.
If you don’t own Portfolio Server 9 you can try it out for free. If you’re a Portfolio standalone user, check out the updated camera raw and DNG support in the recent 8.5.5 update.
Portfolio Server update downloads and release notes available here:
http://www.extensis.com/en/support/updates/PS-9-1-2.jsp
DAM Best Practices Workshop at Museums and the Web 2010
April 12th, 2010 by Jim Kidwell
If you’re in Denver this week, join us at the Museums and the Web 2010 conference. We’re holding a digital asset management (DAM) best practices workshop from 1:30-3:30 pm on Friday, April 16th. During the workshop you’ll learn best practices to help you successfully implement DAM in your organization. You’ll also be able to participate in roundtable discussions where you and your peers can share insights about the challenges and successes you’ve experienced with DAM.
If you can’t make the workshop stop by table #52 in the exhibitor hall where we’ll be happy to answer any questions not addressed in the workshop.
DAM Client Case Study at TFM&A
February 10th, 2010 by Claire Taylor
Later this month, we’ll be attending this year’s Technology for Marketing & Advertising show, where we’ll be joined by our client, Dalziel and Pow, who will be presenting a session on their experiences of digital asset management and Portfolio Server. If you’d like to learn more about Dalziel and Pow’s DAM journey and pick up some DAM best practices, please join us:
23rd February 2010: 13.30 – 14.00
eCommerce & Content Management Theatre
We’ll also be presenting our font and digital asset management solutions on stand H22 throughout the show.
Technology for Marketing & Advertising is the UK’s only integrated marketing event. For more information please click here.
Happy Birthday Adobe Photoshop!
February 9th, 2010 by Amanda Paull
I just became aware of what a momentous day this is- the 20th birthday of Adobe Photoshop- and decided the day could not go by unrecognized. After all, were it not for Photoshop it is very likely Extensis as a company would never have come to be. Our initial software offerings 15 years ago were plug-ins for Photoshop and QuarkXPress (PhotoTools and QX-Tools ring any bells?).
We are a very different company today, and yet we still build products for people who use Photoshop and Adobe apps everyday. So from all of us here at Extensis- a big “Happy Birthday to you”.
20-year-old Photoshop 1.0 box
BTW- yes, this is a box shot from our archive. Located via Extensis Portfolio. So, I have to ask- how quickly could YOU find a 20-year-old image?
What your biggest DAM challenge?
February 8th, 2010 by Jim Kidwell
We’re a fan of the folks over at CMS Wire. They have developed a good amount of digital asset management content that is frequently quite interesting. Of note, recently they published a survey to their readers that asked “What is your biggest Digital Asset Management challenge?”
The survey results are actually quite revealing, and if you’re considering implementing a solution soon, worth exploring. Leading the pack at this time is “Taxonomy/Metadata development.”
If you’re not familiar with metadata, it’s all of the information that can describe your digital asset. As an example, for a photograph, you have the EXIF data such as shutter speed, aperture, flash metadata that is automatically embedded by digital cameras. Yet in addition there are quite a few other pieces of data that you might want to capture that describe the image’s content, use in projects and so forth. When you have thousands of images to catalog, the process of tracking this type of metadata can become overwhelming if you don’t have established procedures.
To help you determine your own internal procedures, we’ve developed a list of 5 Tips for Advanced Metadata Management. Hopefully they’ll help you establish procedures that make your DAM workflow smooth and efficient.
Things to consider when selecting a digital asset management solution
January 19th, 2010 by Jim Kidwell
There are many things to consider when selecting a digital asset manager. Selecting a piece of software that will potentially touch many, if not all members of your organization can be a daunting task.
The folks over at CMS Wire have been publishing some very fine content lately on their blog. Recently, they posted a guide of Six Things to Consider When Selecting a DAM solution. If you’re in the market for a digital asset manager for your office, the article mentions a number of concerns that we’ve been sharing with customers over the years. These include:
- Setting project goals, expectations and responsibility
- Evaluating the digital asset management solution on site, before purchase
- Establishing an effective workflow
In addition to reading this post, I highly recommend checking out our Digital Asset Management Best Practices Guide. This guide covers all of these concerns and more in detail.
If you’ve already thought through what you need, and are ready to bring a proposal to your boss, a while back we published a handy list of Top 10 Ways to Sell Digital Asset Management to your Boss. Hopefully this will help arm you with good arguments for your DAM solution (we hope that it’s Portfolio Server!).
