We came across this helpful article in Marketnology(SM) that outlines some key questions to help you determine whether your organization should be considering a DAMS, including:

• Does my company have thousands of brand assets managed by many departments and/or vendors across different geographies?
• Is it a challenge to verify whether we have the rights to use assets in our existing library?
• Could other organizations benefit from reusing our digital assets across multiple communications channels?
• Is the process/workflow for getting access to digital assets confusing, convoluted, confusing and frustrating?

The MediaValet™ team was delightfully surprised to find delicious treats on their desks when they arrived at work this morning. Little did they know that this happens every year for their friends at VRX Studios. On their desks they found beautifully decorated baskets filled with goodies and throughout the offices tables full of holiday treats. What an amazing way to start the day! But the question on everyone’s mind was – where could all of these yummy sweets possibly have come from? Together with a few VRXians, they were determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and…with some heavy duty investigating they found hidden footage of a special visitor. Click on the image below to check it out, as our friends at VRX say, “Seeing is Believing”…

MediaValet™ was featured in this month’s edition of Profit Magazine. The article, entitled ‘Tech’s Renewable Resource’, focuses on de-mystifying cloud computing. It discusses the many benefits of the cloud and the factors that companies should consider before moving toward cloud-based solutions. The article referenced MediaValet™’s parent company, VRX Studios, the world’s leading full-service photography and content management company, and the formidable challenge they faced in finding a digital asset management solution that was massively scalable and could be deployed globally both quickly and cost effectively. It describes VRX's decision to launch MediaValet™ as a separate entity to meet their considerable digital asset management needs – archiving, organizing and accessing 30 terabytes of data for over 10,000 hotel clients around the world – and those of all companies, no matter how large or small, or where they're located.

Click here to read the entire article in Profit Magazine.

Tuesday, April 12

MediaValet™’s Founder and CEO participates in the Align IT Roundtable in Vancouver, BC.

David MacLaren, MediaValet™’s Founder and CEO, participated in the Align IT Roundtable in Vancouver, BC this past Tuesday. Align IT Vancouver, the last in a series of events held across Canada, was organized by Ruth Morton, Technology Platform Advisor at Microsoft Canada, and Damir Bersinic, Senior Platform Advisor at Microsoft Canada. The event was centered on how to effectively align business objectives with solid strategies for a flexible, cost-effective and secure IT environment – from the desktop to the cloud.

David was selected to be part of the panel based on his experience bringing to market the first 100% cloud-based, enterprise class, SaaS, digital asset management solution, MediaValet™. The two additional panellists, Dave Kawula, the CEO of TriCon Technical Services and Bruce Johnston of Ideaca, both from Calgary, AB, were selected based on their extensive real-world experience of implementing cloud-based solutions. The panel discussed a wide variety of issues, including access speeds, security and legal issues surrounding storing and accessing data in the cloud.

As part of the panel, David talked about the team’s exciting journey building MediaValet™ - on the cloud - from the ground up. MediaValet™ was originally conceived as a tool to help VRX Studios manage over 20 terabytes of data but it quickly evolved into a standalone product that it now offers to all companies, no matter how large or small, where they’re located or how much content they have to manage. From the beginning, VRX Studios needed a highly scalable and flexible solution that could be quickly and cost effectively deployed globally. When the company was unable to find an existing solution that met these basic needs, VRX looked to Microsoft and it’s new Windows Azure cloud platform as it promised the scalability, flexibility and global IT infrastructure that VRX Studios needed.

The event reinforced how serious Microsoft is about the cloud and it’s future impact on technology, both for the company itself and the business world in general. When asked about the event, David said, “Ruth and Damir put on a great event and delivered a ton of helpful information. My co-panellists, Dave and Bruce, brought a tremendous amount of experience to the panel and shared some great stories. On my side, I thoroughly enjoyed sharing the story of MediaValet and our experience building a SaaS application in the cloud. I’m already looking forward to TechDays in the fall.”

MediaValet™ was featured in this month’s edition of Backbone Magazine. The article chronicles the history behind the launch of MediaValet™ by its parent company, VRX Studios Inc., the world’s leading full service photography and content management company. It describes the challenge that VRX Studios faced in storing, organizing and accessing 30 terabytes of media assets for it’s 10,000 plus hotel clients and the exciting decision to launch MediaValet™ as an entirely separate product for all companies to benefit from.

Click here to read the entire article in Backbone Magazine.

We came across these helpful naming convention tips from our friend Henrik de Gyor at Another DAM blog. Note: We’ve made a few changes to Henrik’s post - we couldn’t resist adding a little bit of our own MediaValet flavour.

In order to maximize the value of your digital asset management system, it’s important to create and maintain a clear file naming convention. These simple tips will help you get started:

1. Create a clear naming convention: When you’re creating the convention, think about your company’s current needs, but also keep in mind how your company will evolve and change. Your convention will need to scale alongside it.
2. Distribute your naming convention: Create guidelines and samples for your employees – make sure that there’s only one version of the guidelines and that everyone is informed of changes.
3. Train employees: It’s important that your employees understand and appreciate the role that they’ll play in the new naming convention. Training is a great way to answer employees’ questions and to make sure that everyone is clear on how to use the guidelines. Remember – training should be fun as well as educational!
4. Evaluate employees: An informal evaluation at the end will help you ensure that your training was effective.
5. Follow the convention after you’ve trained and evaluated employees.
6. Monitor progress: Monitor employees’ use of the convention. There are bound to be a few mistakes, and when this happens, you can simply follow up with the employee to clarify the importance of the guidelines, and answer any questions they might have.