igus

The Client

Based in Germany, igus is a global manufacturer and distributor of engineered plastics and polymer-based products ranging from ball bearings to 3D printing materials, industrial cables, smart plastics, and more.

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The Situation

With locations in 35 countries, partners in another 80, and nearly 3,000 employees, igus is a truly global operation. And all of their large, dispersed teams need marketing and brand content to serve customers.

The Challenge

igus implemented a digital asset management (DAM) solution to support content sharing and distribution across teams and time zones. However, it was only accessible to people connected to the company server, making it inconvenient for anyone outside the office to retrieve assets. As a result, teams continued to store content on various devices and tools.

“Every asset was somewhere on a local computer or maybe on an internal server,” recalled Armin Gellweiler, the Digital Asset Manager at igus. And without a single, centralized, cloud-based solution to store and manage their digital assets, nobody within the organization could find the images, marketing materials, and creative files they needed. There was no single source of truth — and therefore no way for igus to ensure teams were using the right digital assets for the right purposes.   

The Solution

The marketing team at igus knew there had to be a better way to manage their brand’s digital assets. “We decided to switch to a system which is browser-based, so that everybody could use it,” shared Armin about their move to Acquia DAM. 

Centralized, cloud-based library

Now, igus teams around the globe have 24/7, on-demand access to the content they need — no more digging through files or disparate storage solutions looking for a photograph or marketing material. Any user with an internet connection can simply log into the DAM system and search for assets that best meet their needs. Further, they’ve provided their users with training on uploading files and applying essential metadata to ensure content is easy to find. Talk about cloud nine. 

Content delivery built on speed  

With teams located around the globe, igus needs to get their content to a lot of different people, partners, channels, and systems — fast. To facilitate their need for speed, igus connected all of their go-to marketing tools to Acquia DAM. This creates efficiencies by allowing teams to access content stored in Acquia DAM directly from the tool they’re using, whether that’s WordPress, Salesforce, HubSpot, or even the internal server they use for producing print catalogs. Plus, Acquia DAM utilizes Amazon Web Services, which leverages servers and data centers around the world to ensure that content in the DAM system is instantly available to igus users, no matter where they’re located. 

Distribution center for accuracy

Acquia DAM provides igus with a single source of truth for their content and significantly simplifies asset distribution. “If someone is going to update a datasheet or something like that, we just upload the new versions [in Acquia DAM] and on all those download pages around the world, you get the right version,” Armin said. 

Using Portals, igus also curates very specific subsets of assets to share with partners and teams around the world. This streamlines distribution and gives igus the assurance they need that both internal and external teams are using approved, accurate digital assets.

Tools to connect and collaborate

To get their project management and marketing teams working together better, igus utilizes Workflow in Acquia DAM to streamline content creation, review, and approval. In addition to leveraging tools like this, igus also embraces the community, support, and training resources that Acquia offers, to talk through issues and solutions. “We are not alone in the world with our problems,” shared Armin. “It’s nice to have an exchange [with other DAM users].”

The Results

Empowered teams 

Having a cloud-based DAM solution means that igus teams around the world can access the content they need, when they need it. “The amount of users coming regularly to the DAM system increased,” reported Armin. People now know where to go if they need to find a particular asset or to discover the best content for a specific purpose. People are freed from the time-consuming process of tracking assets down. Plus, they can do more on their own. 

Using the Acquia DAM API, igus built a custom integration that connects their WordPress site to Acquia DAM. Now marketers can upload content, such as press releases, directly from Acquia DAM to the igus website — all without the help of their web team. “We’ve given the responsibility to deploy the press release back to the people who are producing it. Before, they had to ask other people,” explained Armin about enabling the marketing team to do more. 

Control of customer experience

Since moving to Acquia DAM, igus has better control over the quality of customer experiences they deliver. All of their images, videos, and other digital content are published from the DAM system via a share link or embed code. They simply update the asset’s master file in the DAM system and just like that, it’s automatically updated across all of their digital channels. This creates tremendous efficiencies for the igus team, and also reduces the chance of customers experiencing outdated, inconsistent, or inaccurate content. 

The igus team also uses embed codes to keep customers in digital environments that they can control, such as their website. Rather than using YouTube for video embeds on their website, igus uses embed codes from the DAM system. This keeps visitors in the controlled environment of their website and free from the distraction of other YouTube videos that could take visitors’ attention away from igus and their products. 

Return on investment (ROI)

Acquia DAM is a strategic investment for igus. Acquia’s team and the resources they provide have helped igus improve their global content management practices. Furthermore, igus uses Insights in Acquia DAM to gather data on how teams use assets and to inform future business decisions. “It’s also one point of return of investment for us because of time [savings] and having the right [content] in the right place,” explained Armin.

Efficiency, time savings, and confidence that customers are receiving the experience they demand are important to ROI. But when the unexpected hit and the world was faced with a global pandemic, Acquia DAM gave igus assurance that their brand was protected and represented consistently across channels. Remote teams could quickly access the content they needed and igus most certainly saw the return on their investment in ways they never could have predicted.