Twelve brands chose Widen digital asset management solution, Media Collective, in Q1 2012

April 24, 2012 - PRLog -- Coming off of a milestone year, Widen Enterprises continues to grow the diverse community of Media Collective users. The company’s software-as-a-service digital asset management (DAM) solution is now being used to meet the marketing workflow needs of twelve more organizations, including a community college, an academic medical center, a top-ranked liberal arts college and a film production company.

“After months of deliberation, we chose Widen for our digital asset management service because in comparison to the other services we looked at, it was the easiest and most intuitive to use as well as the most affordable. We're in the process of implementation now, and the Widen team is both responsive and efficient,” said Julia Van Develder, editorial director at Vassar College

Widen’s responsiveness and efficiency are a big part of what leads brands to trust the Wisconsin-based DAM software provider to help streamline their marketing asset management.

“We take pride in setting the standard for service in the DAM industry,” said Lanita Haag, Widen’s director of project services. “We thoroughly enjoy focusing on the customer experience and building long-term relationships with our customers. Whether it’s the Project Service team, the Help Desk team or the Customer Development team, we strive to provide best-in-class service."

New Widen clients include:

Cryovac – A global leader in fresh food packaging technologies, Cryovac has been keeping food fresh, better tasting and more accessible for more than half a century.

Pure Flix Entertainment – This Christian movie studio produces, distributes and acquires Christ-centered movies.

Vassar College –  Founded in 1861, Vassar College is a highly selective liberal arts college. Consistently ranked among the top liberal arts colleges in the country, Vassar is renowned for pioneering achievements in education and for the beauty of its scenic Hudson Valley campus.

Teach For America – This high-growth, outcome-oriented nonprofit recruits committed recent college graduates of all backgrounds to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools. In 2011, TFA was named one of Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.”

Sloan – Sloan is the world’s leading manufacturer of commercial plumbing systems and has been in operation since 1906. Headquartered in Franklin Park, Illinois, the company is at the forefront of the green building movement and provides sustainable restroom solutions by manufacturing water- and energy-efficient products such as flush valves, electronic faucets and soap dispensing systems, sink systems, and vitreous china fixtures for commercial, industrial and institutional markets worldwide.

“We chose Widen for management of all our digital assets based on the simplicity of the system, the support they offer during implementation, and to reduce our overall costs of digital asset management,” said Tim Schiffbauer, marketing communications manager at Sloan.

Widen DAM will also be adopted by a college preparatory school; a manufacturer of water conservation and plumbing products; a provider of medical devices and procedure solutions that improve health care delivery to women; a provider of solutions and support for the life sciences industry; a world-class academic medical center; a well-known headwear and apparel brand; and a community college in Michigan.

“The main reasons we chose Widen were Media Collective’s ease of use and the team’s customer service. We didn’t just need DAM software; we needed true partners that could provide guidance and insights on how to best manage our digital assets,” said Ken Velazquez, senior managing director of creative services at Teach For America. “In addition, we’re confident our assets are secure in the Amazon Web Services cloud.”

The Media Collective®, the hosted DAM system from Widen Enterprises, is now in version 6.0 and supports creative and marketing workflows for over 180 diverse customers. The Media Collective’s scalability allows organizations of all sizes to support their user groups with a centralized digital media library and marketing resources for improved performance. Version 6.1 is slated for release in May 2012, and will include new ingestion tools, slideshow and viewing improvements to collections & sharing, data exports, and revamped versions of the ad and brochure building tools.

About Widen Enterprises, Inc.

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Widen has honed its more than 60 years of experience in premedia services and color management specifically for assisting customers with building brand equity and supporting consistent brand representation across print and Web communications. Through its inventive suite of Web-based digital asset management applications, Widen software services provide marketing networks with real-time, Web-based access to clients' digital asset libraries, subsequently eliminating manual search and file preparation time, costs related to replacing images and videos that cannot be located, and added costs for hardware, software and upgrades. For more information, visit: http://www.widen.com.