Widen Extends the Power of Digital Asset Management With 7.1 Upgrade

MADISON, Wis. - March 25, 2014 - PRLog -- Widen Enterprises has released a new version of the Widen Media Collective, the company's digital asset management (DAM) solution, featuring asset-level analytics, stylized collections, video clipping, and updates to the mobile app and REST API. Version 7.1 continues to add useful new features to Widen's flagship DAM solution based on customer-driven ideas that allow marketing and creative teams the ability to extend their digital assets to greater audiences and better understand the value of their digital library.

As a 66-year-old company that strives to provide enjoyable customer experiences based on service and innovation, Widen's latest upgrade has again raised the bar for cloud-based DAM solutions. The Media Collective is seen as a critical resource to a customer's marketing technology stack.

"We made this happen because we have great people," said Matthew Gonnering, Widen CEO. "Our velocity and customer responsiveness is at an all-time high because of Deanna, Lanita, Andy, Ben, Bob, Chris, the other Chris, Craig, Dan, Dave, Anna, Jason, Sam, Josh, Libby, Karla, Nathan, Kara, Josey, Ray, Erika, Uriah, Emily, Jake, Cyrus, Christine, Griff, Julie, Ashley, Mike, the other Mike, Amanda, Mark, the other Mark, and even the other Mark," said Gonnering. "Additional resources were also contributing but this core group delivered for our customers in 7.1. The most exciting part of this is that we that we have considerable momentum and we are translating that into new customers and product advancements."

Collectively, the updates make the Widen DAM solution more strategically imperative to marketing communications teams, creative groups and other business units. The most remarkable additions include:

•  Asset-level Analytics - This new feature allows users to see an asset's popularity relative to other assets in the library, along with at-a-glance statistics showing number of library views, embed views and downloads in the last 30 days and during the entire asset's lifetime. Analytic data helps content owners understand an asset's performance and aids decision makers with marketing fulfillment plans.

•  Stylized Collections - This new feature allows approved users to quickly create branded collections to serve as embeddable image galleries or front-end brand portals to digital asset libraries. Users simply point and click to configure stylized collections, including layouts, background and text colors, logos, header images and download options. The feature extends asset collections directly to public audiences within the context of a branded experience to be used in conjunction with campaigns, events, product launches, promotions, brand identity packages, media kits, training centers and more.

•  Video Clipping - This new feature allows permissioned users to quickly edit longer video assets into shorter clips. Users simply click and drag a selection of the video to generate a clip. More savvy video editors can use keyboard shortcuts for more accurate frame selection. Clips can be saved and downloaded instantly.

•  iOS Application and Mobile Site Updates - The mobile application for iOS devices and mobile site for Android users has been updated to allow users to select assets and share them with others on the fly. Additionally, users can create new and manage existing personal and global collections of assets.

•  Updated REST API - Integration capabilities have been improved with the updated REST API. Widen has long had a SOAP API, and now with a more robust REST API, customers have two options for integrations. All asset data can be extracted, as well as the preview URLs, original file URL and embed codes. Assets may also be uploaded to the central library from third-party websites or applications. More details are available about the Widen Web Services API at widen.com/api.

Additional updates were made throughout the application to both aid in the workflow of admin and end users, and to visually enhance the overall application.

"For 7.1, we've been listening to our user base at the User Summit and through more involved focus groups to solve a range of problems. The two problems we tackled were to give more insight into asset usage and allow easier distribution of assets in a way that holds true to our customers' brand," said Deanna Ballew, manager of development and infrastructure. "We've worked to produce useful tools to help customers improve the efficiency and effectiveness with their marketing and creative operations."

The previous version 7.0 release (Fall 2013) of the Media Collective featured notable new features, enhancements and integrations, including a new, low-cost archiving solution, global infrastructure updates with Amazon CloudFront, WordPress plugin, Drupal module, improved web-to-print capabilities, new iOS application, a mobile site and more.

To see the latest updates with Media Collective version 7.1 release, request a live demo at www.widen.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.