Indiana University Selects Widen Media Collective to Manage Brand Media Assets

MADISON, WI--(Marketwired - April 07, 2016) - Indiana University, a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana with world-class contributions in research and the arts, has selected the Widen Media Collective for its digital asset management (DAM) needs. Indiana University (IU) will use Widen's DAM system to organize a variety of digital assets such as images, logos and video to improve collaboration with media relations and other university departments.

Before making the switch to Widen, IU was not using a cloud-based solution. Locally installed solutions for managing digital images can often have speed issues and reliability issues as the software and hardware need to be continually maintained by IT staff.

"We needed a dependable platform that we could manage, search and utilize our marketing and news images," said Eric Rudd, Producer, Art Director and Photographer at Indiana University Communications. "Our DAM solution needed to keep pace."

Rudd wanted to make the switch to a cloud-based DAM system that would allow the university to collaborate efficiently with other campus locations. This cross-state collaboration will assist the university communications office in maintaining a consistent brand image. He did some research on his own and ultimately received a recommendation about Widen and decided to try out the demo.

"After using the demo, Widen immediately seemed to fulfill our needs," said Rudd. "We needed an efficient way to sort catalogs and manage the university's branded imagery."

The IU communications department is composed of photographers, videographers, graphic designers, and project managers that need to be able to browse and search for images quickly and efficiently. Widen's image browser especially appealed to them since they can apply metadata to their images and use that data to sort effectively. They were also impressed with the Media Collective's many sharing options including dynamic embed links, and integrations with CMS platforms like Wordpress and Drupal. 

"We create a lot of content here that gets put on the web," said Rudd. "We're hoping the DAM will feed all of our online content including our website and online newsletter."

Rudd also mentioned they have a large amount of images to embed and many different people trying to access them, therefore the speed of the system is of critical importance. Additionally, IU's users will have varying amounts of experience, so the fact that Widen's DAM was extremely easy to use was another bonus.

"Ultimately our goal is to have Widen supply all of the imagery for all of our online products," said Rudd.

In addition to using Widen for their online products, there is a team of graphic designers that will be using the DAM to sort images that they will ultimately use for billboards, printed materials, presentations, digital signage, and other marketing materials. Collectively, Widen's DAM will help Indiana University work more efficiently in all aspects of marketing and maintaining the university's brand.

"The Hoosier's communication team was able to jump into a proof of concept site we developed for them after a short walk through," said Craig Bollig, senior advisor with Widen. "The group was able to work as global administrators in an enterprise-level solution. They were able to set up system branding, campus user roles, and event custom metadata without any formal training. This gave them confidence Media Collective was simple to adopt and administer, thus avoiding those bygone concerns from their previous DAM platform."

About Indiana University

Founded in 1820, Indiana University is a major multi-campus public research institution, grounded in the liberal arts and sciences, and a world leader in professional, medical, and technological education. Serving more than 100,000 students, Indiana University provides broad access to undergraduate, graduate, and continuing education for students throughout Indiana, the U.S., and the world, as well as outstanding academic and cultural programs and student services.

About Widen

Widen is a marketing technology company that powers the content that builds your brand. Leveraging cloud-based resources, Widen delivers configurable, scalable, and cost-effective digital asset management solutions to help you easily store, search and share your digital content. Organizations of all sizes use Widen's SaaS DAM solution, the Media Collective, to streamline their marketing and creative workflows and make their content work harder. Widen is trusted by hundreds of thousands of users around the world at organizations like LG, Roche, Trek, Cornell University, New Orleans Tourism Marketing, The Atlanta Falcons, Red Gold Tomatoes, Electrolux, and Yankee Candle. To learn more about Widen, go to http://www.widen.com.