Best Friends Animal Society is an animal welfare organization that finds homes for rescued pets across America. They use their digital asset management (DAM) system, the Widen Collective^®, to store, organize, and distribute all of their digital assets — which includes a lot of images of ridiculously cute dogs and cats. 

Sarah Kichas is Best Friends’ Photography Manager, and DAM administration is just a small part of her job. However, it entails managing a constant stream of new content from a diverse group of photographers — including staff, freelancers, and volunteers — many of whom take pictures at just a single event. Giving them all access to the Collective with the appropriate login credentials, permissions, and upload instructions could be a part-time job in itself. 

At the 2019 Widen Summit, Sarah shared how they use the Widen Dropbox integration to turn this onerous upload process into a simple, streamlined workflow. “I love it,” she said, “because it saves me time and energy, and most importantly, my sanity.”

Keeping pace with today’s demand for marketing content is no small task. This collaborative process involves multiple phases, stakeholders, and approvals, making it continually vulnerable to delays and inconsistency. 

Brand experience is the sum of all the sensations, thoughts, feelings, and reactions that individuals have in response to a brand. Brand experience is not specific to channel or media type. Rather, it’s the result — or the lasting impression that remains after someone encounters or engages with a brand in any environment.

The execution of digital asset management (DAM) software is dynamic — it’s constantly being modified with the goal of meeting, or even anticipating, evolving user needs. User feedback can provide valuable insights into what these updates should be, and why. 

At the 2019 Widen Summit, Sara Fix, Brand Project Manager at Pega, shared how her team uses surveys to gather feedback that informs improvements to their Widen Collective^® site. 

Selling is hard. The roller coaster of wins and rejections alone is enough to make the most seasoned sales professional consider running for the door. But ups and downs aside, there’s a lot of “stuff” standing between a salesperson and their sale. Competition is fierce. There’s internal dynamics to navigate. And with zillions of channels and touchpoints, sales has to work extra hard to shape positive and consistent buyer experiences. Plus, they have to communicate really well. They must tell their brand’s story using content that’s compelling, convincing, and relevant to buyers at each and every stage in the customer’s journey. It’s no easy feat, especially if marketing and sales teams aren’t totally aligned.

It’s great when hard work, a commitment to excellence, and a passion for people all pay off. Especially when you’re having fun doing it! As we look back over the past year, we can see all the ways that our company, our customers, and the Widen Collective^Ⓡ community have grown. What an exceptional year we had in 2019!

Selling is a lot more complex than it used to be. Gone are the days when a little wit, a few product samples, and a firm handshake would close the deal. Sellers today need more. They need marketing materials and content to help them communicate and win the attention and trust of buyers. They need to “make the sale,” but do it in a way that upholds the integrity and image of the brand they represent. And they need to move fast. They need 24/7, on-demand access to the latest marketing brochures, demo videos, one pagers, sales decks, and more. 

Whether you’ve been using the Widen Collective^® for months or years, you might wonder: How are we doing?

For over fifty years the Boston Ballet has brought internationally-acclaimed performances, world-class education programs, and valuable community initiatives to the Boston area. Their rich and interesting history is reflected across photographs, posters, brochures, news articles, and other artifacts. 

As the webmaster at the Boston Ballet, Michaela Donnelly manages this archive and administers their digital asset management (DAM) system. At the 2019 Widen Summit, she shared how she uses the Widen Collective^® to preserve and protect the Boston Ballet’s long-standing history.

Empathy is central to Widen’s values and culture. It is reflected in our respect for teammates, our exceptional customer service, and our commitment to employing people with developmental disabilities. Our CEO, Matthew Gonnering, speaks about the importance of empathy in business, in his TEDx talk.

So our interest in building software that’s accessible to all users is a natural extension of our mindset around empathy and inclusion. We’d like to share where we are in our effort to meet accessibility standards across our digital asset management (DAM) platform, the Widen Collective^®.