Asset Bank Add New Features

One of our featured DAM Vendors, Asset Bank, presented some new features they added to their DAM solution during December 2013  on their blog.  The upgrades are:

• Zoom feature.
• Bulk update from search results.
• Additional reporting (new users plus asset usage requests).
• Email functionality to send lightboxes from within their system plus expiry dates and permissions controls.
• Support for MTS files (an HD video format).
• Enhanced validation.

More information is here: http://www.assetbank.co.uk/features/latest.html

I couldn’t find the generic boiler plate press copy that usually accompanies these things, nor the ‘boss quote’ with all the usual stuff about ‘revolutionising the DAM software landscape’ or ‘disruptive technological innovations’ etc.  We hope Asset Bank don’t start to copy other vendors in that respect, either.  Tip for those other vendors: when you put out press about new releases which you intend to be picked up by trade publications, we prefer to know what is actually new first and foremost – i.e. what it is the user will get that has changed from the last version.  We also like it in a public location that anyone can get to, so we can point readers towards it (not on an ‘exclusive’ journalist PDF etc).  Your own website or blog might not be a bad option- as these people have done.  Asset Bank also include some screen shots so you can see the new features, which helps get a better idea of what they are.

In terms of their updates, none of them look like major changes, they are all essentially spit and polish type enhancements, in the wider scheme of things (the individual developers involved in coding them might want to take issue with my description, however!)  This seems to be the theme currently with many DAM developers preferring to fine-tune their solutions as opposed to making radical alterations.

How many are currently making major architectural changes to their products (and if that is more to allow them to catch up rather than get ahead) remains to be seen.  I would expect that scaling up is probably becoming more of a challenge to those who don’t have a fully Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) yet.  Probably less so with simple storage and search, more with ancillary tasks like generating proxies, zipping downloads and batch imports/exports.

Of the DAM systems I have looked at in the last 12-18 months, there seems to be a clearer dividing line emerging between those that have the architectural issues largely resolved already and others that look the part, but still have to address them once you probe about a bit.  Distinguishing between the two is not always easy from product demos and datasheets alone (and obviously no vendor will tell you that their app doesn’t scale very well).  Currently there are still huge differences in price between products and no real correlation between the charges applied and value delivered – especially in respect of the scalability features provided.  It should go without saying, but I still have to remind some prospective DAM users that just because the people selling the system have put ‘enterprise’ in the title, doesn’t necessarily mean that it is suitable for your enterprise.

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