A month ago at the Widen Summit, we revealed how your feedback and aspirations have shaped the future of DAM. We also showed how the most important trends in content, creative operations, and data have informed our product roadmap. If you missed the Summit, don’t worry: below, you can find out how we’re evolving Widen’s Software-as-a-Service experience to help your brand reach its highest potential.

Organizations can achieve a lot with a digital asset management (DAM) system. But not all vendors will emphasize how critical a DAM admin is to making it all work.

There’s no tool that magically delivers brand consistency. A DAM admin is required to set up governance structures to make sure the right people are uploading, downloading, and accessing brand-approved assets in the DAM.

Editor’s note: Deb Berard has moved to a new organization but her experience with DAM is still relevant to other DAMsters. Enjoy!

We caught up with Deb Berard, Senior Business Analyst and DAM admin at New Teacher Center, which is headquartered in Santa Cruz, CA. Here’s her take on the value digital asset management (DAM) brings to their team and business.

Pioneer Balloon is a global company that offers balloons, promotional products, and partyware. In preparation for their 100th anniversary in 2017, they hired Teri Truesdell to research and implement a digital asset management (DAM) system to organize all of their historical assets and to offer a better distribution method for the thousands of products they sell globally.

Everything about the Widen Summit in 2016 will give you, our customers, an opportunity to Discover Your DAM Adventure! Over the last 5 years, we can’t believe how many discoveries we’ve made hosting the Widen Summit and we want you to feel the Widen Experience with us.

Sheridan has grown from a local college of 400 students in 1967 to one of Ontario’s leading postsecondary institutions, educating approximately 38,000 students every year on four campuses. They help shape the future of our society in the fields of arts, business, community service, health, technology, and the skilled trades. Class was recently in session and we had a chance to sit down with Stewart Dick, senior graphic designer and Britta Charbonneau, eMarketing Technologist with Sheridan College to talk about Digital Asset Management (DAM) in higher ed.

We recently caught up with Widen customer, Jennifer Neer, at the Henry Stewart digital asset management conference in Chicago. We we so impressed by her knowledge of information systems and integrations that we thought she would make an awesome DAMster interview.

Metadata: Do or do not. There is no try. 

Tim Goodman’s DAM administrator (admin) role came out of necessity. Managing assets for CNH Industrial once meant keeping boxes of old CDs and film in places that were not always known or accessible. A rudimentary process was created lacked remote access, lacked any type of automation and had no associated metadata with the assets. So CNH Industrial needed a better way to organize, find and distribute their vast library of logos, photos, videos, catalogs and marketing assets.

Leadership and training has always been Cody Lueck’s passion. He gained his experience serving two tours overseas with the Marine Corps and graduating with a BA in Digital Filmmaking and Multimedia Production. Cody now gets to create content for one of the top leaders in Security Technology Solutions, helping to improve the performance in their everyday work life. Tyco created the role specifically for Cody to bring best practices to their business. The Widen Media Collective has been the ultimate media tool for him and his clients.

When it comes to connecting marketing content, many people don’t realize that a digital asset management (DAM) system can be a key resource for their organization. DAM can help users make better decisions about their marketing strategy and also promote better market positioning. That’s why we hit the road to talk with Widen customers about the different ways they’re using the Media Collective to help leverage their digital content and improve marketing efficiencies.