How to Save Time and Work Efficiently with CI HUB and CELUM

In a recent webinar, CI HUB CSO Gerd Glaser joined with CELUM Product Manager Melanie Schedl to showcase how DAM users can save time and work more efficiently using the CI HUB Connector.

Watch the whole webinar above, or read the summary beneath to understand why CELUM say: “CI HUB has turned out to be the perfect partner here for integrating with our solutions, especially with the Adobe Creative Cloud and the Microsoft Office Suite.”  

Here is a brief summary of everything discussed in the webinar.

Introduction to CI HUB Connector

The CI HUB connector was designed to provide seamless in-app access to digital assets, centralizing them as a single source of truth. This is particularly valuable given the complexity of asset management today, with many companies using multiple storages systems and providers, and having many different creative processes.

The Growing Ecosystem of Applications

Digital assets are no longer confined to a few applications. With CI HUB, you can easily manage assets across various Adobe Creative Cloud applications like InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator, as well as Office 365 and Google Workspace. This ensures that every department, from sales to web designers, can access the necessary assets without hassle.

How to Enhance Collaboration with Figma and Sketch

For design teams, CI HUB’s integration with tools like Figma and Sketch eliminates the need for downloading and re-uploading assets, streamlining the entire design and acceptance process.

Streamlined Content Management for CMS

CI HUB also supports plugins for content management systems like WordPress, reducing the time and resources wasted on downloading and uploading assets repeatedly. This keeps the principle of a single source of truth intact throughout the process.

Universal Access and Connectivity

The CI HUB integration offers access to multiple data domains and user experiences, supporting credentials for various systems such as PIM, work management tools, digital rights management systems, cloud storage systems like Box and Dropbox, and stock providers like Getty Images and Adobe Stock. This unified user experience across different systems simplifies the workflow significantly.

Advanced Features for Automation

Using tools like InDesign's Data Merge, the CI HUB connector can export metadata as CSV files, enabling automated, dynamic placement of content. This feature is invaluable for creating templated designs efficiently, ensuring that all formatting and layout adjustments are applied uniformly.

Seamless Integration with Photoshop

The webinar highlights how seamlessly CELUM integrates with Adobe Photoshop using CI HUB. Users can directly open and edit images from the CELUM system within Photoshop application. For instance, if you need to replace a background in an image, you can make the changes, create a new version, and update it in CELUM without ever leaving Photoshop. This ensures that you always work with the latest version of your assets, maintaining full control and organization within your application.

Efficient Version Control in InDesign

Similarly, in Adobe InDesign, the CI HUB integration notifies you of any updates to linked files, ensuring you always have the latest version. With just a few clicks, you can update and relink files, maintaining a streamlined workflow. This feature is particularly beneficial in managing multiple versions and keeping track of changes effortlessly.

Powerful Automation Features

One of the standout features discussed was automation. By leveraging data merge capabilities in InDesign, combined with CI HUB and CELUM, users can automate the creation of documents. This includes using CSV files to populate text, images, and other metadata, ensuring everything is perfectly formatted and dynamically adjustable. This automation is a massive time-saver for tasks like creating product catalogs, where each entry needs consistent formatting and up-to-date information.

Multi-format Export for Social Media and Advertising

Creating multiple formats for different platforms can be tedious, but with CI HUB, it becomes straightforward. The webinar demonstrates how to set up templates in InDesign for various ad formats and then dynamically populate these templates with content from CELUM. This feature ensures that whether you’re creating content for social media, banners, or other advertisements, everything is consistently formatted and efficiently produced.

Handling Multiple Languages and Metadata

Switching between languages and managing metadata is also discussed. The CI HUB integration allows you to export content in different languages effortlessly. For instance, you can switch to German metadata fields and generate documents accordingly. This feature is particularly useful for international businesses that need to produce content in multiple languages while maintaining consistency and accuracy.

Real-time Collaboration and Asset Management

CI HUB includes multiple collaboration features, enabling multiple users towork on the same document without creating duplicates or losing track of versions. By saving files directly into the CELUM system, all changes are tracked, and the latest versions are always available, making collaboration more efficient and reducing the risk of errors.

Conclusion

The integration of CI HUB and CELUM offers a comprehensive solution to streamline your workflow, automate repetitive tasks, and ensure efficient version control and collaboration. To get the full benefits and see these features in action, we encourage you to watch the entire webinar. You'll gain deeper insights and practical tips to save time and work more efficiently with your digital assets!