In the extraordinary circumstances of the coronavirus, many of the world’s businesses have pivoted to working remotely and are looking to trim operational costs. This heightened focus on efficiency means that teams need to have access to the right digital technology. 

The Portals app in the Widen Collective^® allows users to easily present and share curated sets of assets with specific audiences. 

They can be used to share all kinds of content...brand guidelines, media kits, training content, HR resources, sales materials, product information, you name it! Our customers even rely on portals to distribute content that changes quickly, such as COVID-19 resources. 

With Portals, your teams or partners are able to access content without logging into the digital asset management (DAM) system. All asset activity is tracked to capture who is using which files, and how. And every portal can be customized to provide a fully-branded experience. 

First off, if you’re researching digital asset management (DAM) for the first time, welcome to the world of DAM puns. You’ll have plenty of DAM meetings, DAM calls, and DAM work to do.

You’ve likely heard that DAM provides benefits like increased brand control, improved productivity when finding and sharing content, and an accelerated time to market. But is that just marketing speak? If not, how do you make that a reality for your organization?

In an earlier article, we walked through the key abilities of a successful DAM admin. In this article, we’ll explore five core concepts that build out the value of DAM. These foundations lay the groundwork for businesses to realize its benefits.

Quality content is a powerful market differentiator. It can help organizations resonate with consumers, strengthen their brand perception, and ultimately drive revenue.  It’s no wonder that demand for outstanding creative work — from photography and graphics to copy and video — is at an all-time high. Organizations seeking to bring velocity to their creative workflows are increasingly turning to digital asset management (DAM) solutions, to store, organize, and manage their content.

Try before you buy with a test run of Widen’s digital asset management software

Your organization should feel confident about the investments it makes. After all, you wouldn’t buy a new car without taking it for a test drive, right? So you shouldn’t buy a new software solution without testing it either. A trial site (also referred to as a sandbox or guest pass) helps build that confidence by allowing buyers to experience software usability, features, and potential before making a purchase decision. 

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

These days, you can do some pretty impressive things with content. However, you’re not the only one using content to win the attention and mindshare of consumers. Thanks to the success that content marketing has seen over the years, there’s a lot (and we mean a lot) of competition out there.

To break through the noise, you need to add some horsepower to your content marketing efforts by incorporating visual content. But, to do this effectively, you need to understand what visual content marketing is and how to create a winning strategy. 

In today’s modern workplace content creation is almost constant. New files like contracts, presentations, photography, and creative files are being added daily.

When these files are created, inherently, so is their metadata — or data about data. Metadata includes things like the document name, date, size, and creator. 

As a result, companies are awash with content and its related metadata. They need a system for keeping it all organized. That’s where metadata management comes in. 

Editor's note: This post was originally posted on May 13, 2011, and updated on October 26, 2018.

Back in 2011, referencing “the cloud” still felt fresh and cutting edge. At this point, the cloud seems to the be standard for collaboration, communication, project management, and many other business solutions. Digital asset management (DAM) is no exception.