evolphin Update Workflow Automation Features

One of our featured DAM vendors, evolphin, announced an update to their product, Zoom.  The new features are centred around workflow and automation in particular:

• “Auto task” feature (which sounds like what some might refer to as ‘triggers’ or ‘hooks’) where jobs like asset manipulation, email notifications can be initiated
• Process integration with third party applications
• Job or task-specific metadata
• Reporting and dashboards that can use the workflow metadata
• Project centric asset organisation and management capabilities

The ‘boss quote’ (delivered by the CTO, Rahul Bhargava, on this occasion) is:

“The introduction of new Zoom Workflow features demonstrates evolphin’s continued commitment to addressing the pain points of the creative workforce.  One of the major roadblocks our customers experience is managing a highly iterative workflow process. Zoom is the only solution that provides an iterative workflow engine that integrates traditional digital asset management, asset versioning, and business analytics — written specifically for the creative professional.” [Read More]

Zoom certainly isn’t the only product that offers these type of features, however, I will allow them this indulgence as most prospective users will either suspect already that this is unlikely, or find out within a few minutes of perusing the feature lists of competitor products anyway.  There are a few more dubious claims in the PR, such as:

“The features of Zoom Workflow increase efficiency and reduce costs: integrating Zoom Workflow with the Zoom DAM features can reduce project turnaround times by approximately 50 percent when compared with conventional DAM solutions.” [Read More]

That reminds me of the phrase, “86% of statistics are made up on the spot”.  The following sentence is more plausible:

“and can also cut the amount of time a creative employee spends on low-value tasks by several hours per week” [Read More]

My co-contributor, Ralph Windsor wrote an article for CMSWire last month where he discussed these fantasy ROI calculations that some in the DAM industry are fans of and I have noted this issue myself too in the past.  Anyone who uses this marketing tactic, takes on the risk that they might at some point get asked to really prove any statistics by sceptical finance managers eager to find an excuse to avoid spending any money.

I don’t believe there is any question that when DAM and workflow automation techniques are properly applied that they can generate significant productivity improvements which save organisations a lot of money.  Trying to ‘gild the lily’ by making up ROI numbers is unnecessary and reduces confidence in other more legitimate claims.  If you are a vendor marketing your wares, stick to the facts and the demonstrable benefits; if your product is really that good, it will be clear to everyone anyway.

Despite my critique of their press release, this looks like a good series of upgrades from evolphin and certainly is the direction that many end users I deal with are eager to see followed for all DAM solutions.

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