Widen Release Smartimage 3.5
One of our featured DAM Vendors, Widen, have released version 3.5 of their “DAM Lite” platform, Smartimage. The major new features include:
- REST API for developers to access Smartimage capabilities
- Batch apply metadata
- Tag based searching and sorting
- Create “sections” upon upload*
- Large previews for admin users
- Download batches of assets
*I think “sections” are like collections, favourites or lightboxes in other DAM systems.
There is some more info on the press release:
“The updates allow organizations to quickly centralize and organize their digital media files. Auto-mapping keywords as tags is one example of how Smartimage saves users time organizing image files. With the new tags widget, users can easily search and filter files to find exactly what is needed at a moment’s notice. Smartimage also boasts high-quality graphics support, custom brand spaces, public and private collections, quick sharing, in-depth analytics and Google Analytics integration to deliver a comprehensive brand asset management solution at extremely affordable prices.” [Read More]
The Smartimage blog has more details.
I have not used Smartimage myself, but all of us at DAM News have seen increasing numbers of these “DAM Lite” offerings emerging in the last couple of years. Several are now starting to rival the functionality provided by “DAM Heavy” products from a number of vendors, especially legacy on-site DAM systems which were deployed a number of years ago. The majority are SaaS based and while they might score points on price and having more modern interfaces, the lack of support for enterprise IT (such as Active Directory integration) and ability to take your own backups independent of the vendor still makes them only suitable for departments or small teams. Whether that will change, or just simply no longer be an issue any longer, is hard to say, but demand for this type of DAM solution will probably increase. A problem for vendors in this market who have more expensive “DAM Heavy” alternatives of their own is that they might start competing with themselves!
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