Widen Media Collective Version 6.4 Released

One of our featured DAM Vendors, Widen, have released version 6.4 of their Media Collective DAM solution.  The new features are:

• Dropbox integration
• Support for writing embedded metadata in IPTC and XMP format
• InDesign file previews
• HTML5 browser upload (to replace the previous Java based upload feature)
• Search for deleted users and assets

There are some other UI enhancements and shortcuts etc too:

“Widen is all about creating enjoyable customer experiences! We continually work to improve in all areas of the customer experience, from developing new and innovative product offerings and services to technical support and community-building events. In the latest release of the Widen Media Collective, our version 6.4 release, we’ve made a number of improvements to the overall user experience that we’re especially proud to highlight for customers.” [Read More]

I understand that this is just a point release, but the list of upgrades is fairly average.  A lot of this looks like Widen bringing themselves into alignment with features that many competing products have already had for a some time anyway, especially writing IPTC and XMP embedded metadata back to assets which should really have been included years ago.

This also supports a lot of what we have talked about in relation to the business aspect of the DAM industry this year, where numerous competing operators spend a major proportion of their valuable development budget re-inventing the wheel so they can tick boxes on RFPs.  SaaS vendors like Widen especially should be leading the way, not following the crowd as they don’t have the same deployment and upgrade challenges that the on-premise vendors have to contend with.

The DAM market is currently exceptionally slow moving and lacking in direction.  Vendors might delude themselves into thinking they are in an industry of major change, but the reality is very insipid and depends on their customers making all the running and trying to tell them what they want through a long, drawn out process of implementation trial and error.

Very few within the DAM provider market seem capable of coming up original ideas at present.  I think that needs to change – and quickly – or they may find a new generation of nimbler and more imaginative competitors who originate from outside the current DAM sector come in and eat their lunch.

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