How to manage your digital content seamlessly with media asset management 

Fueling Efficiency, Fostering Collaboration: The Ultimate Approach for Effortless Digital Asset Consumption

Businesses today must be able to efficiently and securely handle a veritable flood of digital content. Digital asset management solutions are certainly a first step, but what is needed is an ecosystem for managing and consuming digital assets. This is easier and more cost-effective than you might think.

There’s no doubt that we’ve arrived in the Age of Content. More than ever, digital content influences how we communicate, collaborate, inform, learn, socialize, engage, and generally interact with people. In marketing and publishing, this means how we reach and attract current and potential customers.

To do this, we use a variety of channels, from print media to websites and blogs via a plethora of social media platforms to the emerging Metaverse. In addition to the channels, we use presentations, sales collateral, user manuals and much more.

Creating such diverse types of media requires gathering enormous amounts of text, images, graphics, video and audio. These digital assets can be sourced from storage solutions such as Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and SharePoint, as well as from digital asset management (DAM) systems and image agencies including Adobe Stock and Shutterstock, among others.

This presents companies with a major challenge: How can they efficiently and securely manage such an unprecedented amount of content and deliver it to everyone in the organization in a controlled manner?

Digital assets are of high value

It should not be forgotten that these are high-value files. That’s why they are called “digital assets.” Think of the time and the licensing costs invested in creating them. And if the files can no longer be found, the costs of re-creating or retrieving them can be enormous.

In addition – few things are less productive or more frustrating than wasting time searching for the files needed, even though these high costs usually remain hidden.

Files should be accessible from anywhere and at any time and must be effortlessly usable across various applications.

To minimize digital distraction, authorized personnel – whether internal or external – must be able to access the right files in the environment that they are working in. This means direct access to the correct media in Adobe Creative Cloud, WordPress, brand management tools, project management solutions, content management platforms, and Microsoft Office applications, among others.

Data silos are one of the biggest drags on process efficiency. It’s not without reason that “no silo” has become a mantra in modern IT. All too often, departments implement their own individual solutions, which they consider to be suitable for their requirements. As a rule, however, only they have direct access to the files created with these applications.

On the wish list: a digital content ecosystem

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all digital assets could be available and used in all applications, regardless of where they come from or where they are physically stored? Wouldn't it be great to build an enterprise-wide, holistic ecosystem to create, manage and consume digital content? Digital content management should be as easy to use and transparent as possible. And it should be available in the background so that users don’t have to deal with it from a technical perspective.

Software must be open and flexible

The magic word for building such a system is “integration.” Individual applications must be able to communicate and exchange data. The programs must be introduced to one another, so to speak, and a technical connection must be created. Even though this has become much easier in recent years, thanks to standardized interfaces such as the so-called REST API, the reality often remains different.

The effort required for these integrations can be daunting and it cannot be done without a skilled IT department or a powerful external integrator. This is especially true if the applications in question are not yet “state-of-the-art” in terms of interfaces or if they do not offer the desired technical openness.

CI HUB Connector is open for everything

With CI HUB Connector, we have created a solution to this challenge. The connector virtually centralizes all digital assets so that users feel that they are working with a single central pool.

In this context, the CI HUB Connector acts as the “integration ministry” and already brings a large number of well-known standard integrations, along with some specialized ones. The following software categories are currently covered:

• Digital Asset Management (DAM)
• Cloud File Sharing
• Stock agencies
• Work Management
• Brand Management
• Customer Experience Management
• Content Management
• Automation
• Rights Management
• Product Information Management (PIM)

And the journey continues

The range of supported programs is constantly being expanded. After all, the credo in the development was and is:

• No matter where your data is coming from
• No matter which data type you need
• No matter how you want to use it

Digital asset consumption is a snap

Access to the virtual central digital content pool is very simple. The CI HUB Connector is available in the supported applications as a palette, which has the same basic structure in all applications.

It offers comprehensive functions, which makes the consumption of digital assets convenient and efficient. The scope of these functions depends on what the respective source application technically allows. We have divided them accordingly into four levels: Basic, Extended, Premium, and Custom. Information about them can be found here.

The standard for all applications – the Basic Level – are filter and search options, as well as the possibility of downloading or transferring digital assets in documents in the target program simply by dragging and dropping. These basic functions alone make working with digital content much easier.

One-Click-Integration

The integration of the individual programs is accomplished with a single click. This is also done via the CI HUB palette. Users simply click on the plus sign and select the application they want to connect with from a list. They might have to log into the desired application with their credentials. In other words, technical understanding is not required to set up this digital content ecosystem.

Immediate efficiency boost

Due to the easy implementation and use of CI HUB Connector, the system delivers an immediate efficiency gain. Employees save an enormous amount of time that was previously wasted searching for files.

In addition, users can continue to work in their preferred applications, as these can be seamlessly integrated into the company’s software environment and content workflows via CI Hub. This saves time-consuming training that is often necessary to be able to tap the benefits of software.

Costs are factored into operating costs

Also good to know: No upfront investment is required to implement CI HUB. The usage is billed in a subscription model via monthly costs per user. The amount depends on the integrated applications. This means that the costs are included in the operating costs, which is another economic advantage.

In a nutshell

From marketing and sales to internal communications, product development, and beyond, digital content is the lifeblood of nearly every business process today. Consequently, the volume of this content is continuously increasing, making its provision and consumption across all departments and applications a real challenge. Businesses should be able to handle digital content in the most straightforward way at all times and in all places.
The CI HUB Connector allows them to do that in an easy and affordable manner.