VitalSmarts Selects Widen DAM to Support Mobile Training Team

MADISON, Wis. - Feb. 25, 2014 - PRLog -- VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and leadership development, has selected the Widen Media Collective to provide its mobile training team with on-demand access to presentation assets. The web-based digital asset management (DAM) system will ensure trainers can quickly search and download the latest version of videos and other materials needed to deliver powerful training courses.

Over the past 50 years, VitalSmarts has helped more than 1 million people and 300 of the Fortune 500 companies become more vital by driving rapid, sustainable and measurable changes in individual behavior and corporate culture. Today, VitalSmarts training solutions are available in 36 countries.

For VitalSmarts’ creative services department, supplying the training delivery team with the latest training videos was an immense challenge. Almost constantly on the road, trainers often had to make last-minute requests for specific videos or clips, and VitalSmarts’ video team had little time to prepare and deliver the required assets. VitalSmarts needed a way to manage versions and provide trainers with instant access to all the videos they might need.

After exploring a number of DAM systems, Jeff Johnson, director of creative services at VitalSmarts, invited several trainers to test the Widen Media Collective.

“Our trainers remarked again and again at how fast and easy the system is,” said Johnson. “We also like that Widen is web-based. There is no server equipment to install and no hardware to buy, and we can provide access to anyone who needs it.”

The Widen Media Collective’s metadata capabilities were also a key factor for VitalSmarts. With a large selection of videos and often multiple versions of each, VitalSmarts wanted an efficient way to categorize and find assets.

“The metadata is highly customizable,” said Johnson. “We can search and find every element we need rapidly. We’re even uploading presentation scripts into the metadata so that trainers can search by speech.”

A small group from VitalSmarts’ creative services department, including the video team, will be in charge of overseeing the DAM system. The user base will also include VitalSmarts’ bestselling authors, master trainers and international associates, all of whom will be able to access the videos they need and share presentations they’re crafting. In addition, the DAM system will allow international associates to download videos in the format they need in order to localize assets for non-English speaking audiences. Overall, the DAM system will hold videos, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs of training manuals and eventually an image library.

“All too often digital asset management systems may be overlooked for robust video management,” said Craig Bollig, senior digital asset management advisor at Widen. “More than ever, we see creative teams like VitalSmarts’ using video, and they need a solution that is just as agile with video assets as it is with images. It will be great to look back a year from now and see how VitalSmarts has advanced using the Widen Media Collective.”

About VitalSmarts
An innovator in corporate training and leadership development, VitalSmarts combines three decades of original research with 50 years of the best social science thinking to help leaders and organizations change human behavior and achieve new levels of performance. VitalSmarts has identified four high-leverage skill sets that, when used in combination, create healthy corporate cultures. These skills are taught in the company’s award-winning training programs and New York Times bestselling books of the same titles: Crucial Conversations, Crucial Accountability, Influencer, and Change Anything. VitalSmarts has consulted with more than 300 of the Fortune 500 companies and trained more than one million people worldwide. For more information, visit: http://www.vitalsmarts.com

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.