Acquia DAM (Widen) Reviews

I don't know how we lived without Widen's DAM solution before!

Comments: This software completely changed our office workflow. Finding assets used to be very painful, but with all of our assets in one location and users connected to the DAM it makes finding things easy for our office, as well as external clients. By empowering our users to find their own assets it frees up our designer time, for things like DESIGN!

Pros:

Ease of use, ease of empowerment for the user. I LOVE being able to share collections with clients. And I LOVE when someone asks for an asset, I just add them as a user on Widen, and tell them to find it themselves!

Cons:

I'm still waiting for drag and drop functionality with Indesign. A small workflow addition that would make things easier!

Great Digital Asset Management system

Comments: Customer service is top notch and we love the software for every day use. Simple to train employees to use it.

Pros:

The searchable option and the ability to organize all of our thousands of assets. As well as the ability to download these assets in different file formats.

Cons:

If spelling isn’t accurate in the metadata or search bar, it will not be able to find what you are looking for.

Widen Collective

Comments: The Digital Asset System was put in place to provide easy access to assets owned by Trek Bicycle Corporation for those internally and externally. These assets can be ordered and downloaded at any time of day or night. It's an invaluable tool for our dealers, distributors, and international offices.
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The Media Template is an online ad, and media builder. It allows Trek to control brand consistency, while it allows our users to build media in minutes using pre-approved images and text without the need of expensive software programs. We use this portion of the site to provide promotional items and in store signage to our large dealer base. Overall, I think the Widen collective is a great product and I really enjoy working with Widen.

Pros:

Good customer support Robust reporting features Assets can be downloaded in a variety of file formats Various types of file formats are supported Permissions can be setup to protect assets Users can access the site through a standard web browser Media can be built in minutes without needing expensive software programs Assets/media can be ordered and downloaded at any time of day or night Software updates made throughout the year

Cons:

Pages can be slow to load at times Reporting tools can be confusing Custom enhancements to the site can be expensive Some education is needed for new users of the site The site is not setup for printing on demand Home page can be confusing if your site includes the DAM and the media builder

Widen Media Collective (DAM) Review

Pros:

Its searchable content. As long as metadata is used, searching for assets is relatively easy.

Cons:

Upload process. The Drag/Drop feature was nice! Now I'm forced to go through a wizard. Too time consuming for my liking.

Great hub for storing and sharing content

Comments: We are using it as a one stop shop for our field team to have access to training, resources, selling collateral, company news and other helpful things. We also love that we can quickly update the versions when needed. The team has been less frustrated now that they have 1 place to go.

Pros:

I love that I can easily store all of my content in the system, then make a website like portal to share and organize my content in a neat way.

Cons:

I wish there was a way to add hyperlinks to Asset Collections so that I can link out to other internal websites within my company or to an eCourse within Workday.

My Widen DAM Review

Comments: Using Widen’s DAM to organize our assets has greatly reduced our marketing teams time spent hunting for images.

Pros:

My favorite things about Widen’s DAM software include an easy to navigate interface, very intuitive searching capabilities, customizable metadata fields for great detail to be attributed to assets, the ability to download files in multiple files types (fairly quick conversion depending on size of original file), the ability to customize your login screen and home screen (keeping everything on-brand is important!), and their customer support team is amazing.

Cons:

I feel that the asset sharing options could be expanded upon. Currently, you can type an email in and send a set of assets. I would like to see additional options implemented because it feels fairly limited currently.

Wix Goods and Bads

Comments: My overall experience with Widen Collective is that it is very much a good website, and I will continue to use it and show my friends and family about it. It is very helpful when you are first starting off your business

Pros:

Wixs simplified proofreader makes it very simple to make an expert site without having to know a codel with many layouts and with very great instructions on how to do so. It is very beginner friendly and help with a lot of small business websites to get started.

Cons:

A con is that you cannot change templates once your website is live which i believe you should be able to. Also, it has storage limit on all plans.

DAM Great Product and The BEST Tech TEAM!

Comments: The tech team is THE BEST!!!

Pros:

It is a great tool for finding all of our products in one place, easily!

Cons:

honestly, cannot say yet and I have been using it for almost 2years

Easy to Use

Comments: Overall, I've found Widen to be easy to use and a good option for asset management.

Pros:

Widen was already easy to use, but their improved upload feature has made updating asset metadata much more efficient.

Cons:

Sometimes when updating individual metadata can be finnicky or time consuming

Great and easy to use

Comments: Great

Pros:

I like being able to search for multuiple product skus

Cons:

I would like WIDEN to tell which product MID's are not showing results in a group search

Widen Collective is the best Digital Asset Management system I have ever worked with.

Comments: My team has to manage over 15 different categories of assets. Most of those categories are individual brands within our company. Some are segments of the brands. All of that to say that we have sliced up our asset offering in many ways to best serve our customers. By being able to segment those brands, we are able to get the right asset served up quickly in a variety of formats to fit most every need. In addition to that, we can make it so only certain assets can be served to certain customers. All through the use of Widen's "role" and "asset group" functions. We have well over 1000 end-users that we can easily manage.

Pros:

I've used quite a few DAM solutions in the past and Widen is by far the best one I have worked with. The thing that I like the best is the ability to manage the metadata just as easy as it is to manage the assets themselves. On top of that, the ability to assign permissions to access and administer assets by role has proven to be very valuable. We have assets that are only applicable to certain customers, so I can easily manage that through the admin tool. The time that we spent managing assets went from a full-time person's job before implementing Widen to only an hour or so a week once it is up and running. My team has to manage over 15 different categories of assets. Most of those categories are individual brands within our company. Some are segments of the brands. All of that to say that we have sliced up our asset offering in many ways to best serve our customers. By being able to segment those brands, we are able to get the right asset served up quickly in a variety of formats to fit most every need. In addition to that, we can make it so only certain assets can be served to certain customers. All through the use of Widen's "role" and "asset group" functions. We have well over 1000 end-users that we can easily manage.

Cons:

The only thing I have an issue with is my inability to customize the home page. From what I can tell, you have to be pretty savvy at HTML to do it right. But, I can say that there are some basic things that you can customize that will make your page on brand by adding logos and customizing the colors of fonts, buttons, etc.

Great DAM solution!

Comments: One of the best things about Widen is their customer support. Every team member I've interacted with has been incredibly knowledgable and genuinely wants to help me. For example, I had a vision for our Dashboard page, and I wasn't sure how to achieve it myself because it involved a fair amount of coding. One of the customer support staff worked (very patiently) with me to literally build my vision. I even hand drew a picture and emailed it to him so he could see what I wanted. Thank you Tyson Purcell! So whether it's through the vast information on the Support Page, the direct chat, or emailing or talking with very responsive Widen staff, I have found a solution to just about all of the problems I have encountered. It's not just admin who love Widen, our users have told us how easy it is to use to search and share assets.

Pros:

I love that it is cloud-based and you can access it from any computer, phone or tablet. It's super easy to create collections and share media with internal and external clients.

Cons:

Some of the features need updating in my opinion. I have asked several times for certain changes that I'm sure I'm not the only one to encounter.

Great DAM solution with plenty of features

Comments: Our company uses Widen as our Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution. Our employees and reps can easily find the media content they want using a very nice search feature and it allows them to download the content in various formats and sizes. The application is very intuitive, fast, and easy to use. Widen offers flexible integration which easily allows our applications and websites to pull media from the Widen DAM so all our companies digital media needs can come from a single repository which makes maintaining data an easy process. I've used Widen's technical support in the past for questions with integration and learning more about what their solution offers and the support team has always very helpful, knowledgeable, and quick to respond.

Pros:

I like the ability and flexibility Widen offers to integrate the digital media content with our applications and websites. It also offers nice tools and functionality to add, maintain, organize, and secure content.

Finally! A system that is low-maintenance and works.

Comments: We've been on Widen for about two years so far and it has been great! Back before we were with Widen, we could make due with what we had...barely. Our team sat down with all the stake holders who would be using it on a regular basis and mapped out our needs, wants, etc., and then started doing some research. We went through three or four DAM system and had representatives from these companies explain what their systems could do, but they always seemed lacking, especially with the price tag they were quoting. Some of them we did like, but there would have to be equipment that was brought in to hold the assets and such, which would be ok, but then we would have to maintain the equipment. And then if there is an equipment issue we would likely have to wait for a representative to come fix it and hope it works. Just too much hassle for something we basically wanted to put assets on and keep them there for distribution. Then enter Widen. From the first demonstration of what their system can do, and the abilities we would have with setting permissions and distributing all the image, audio, and video assets, we were giving each other high-fives. Literally, we had the phone on mute and were high-fiving each other over and over again! The on-phone rep from Widen had no idea. We LOVED that we could upload assets onto Widen's cloud and our trainers all over the world could easily search, preview, and download any files we allowed them to. And there is zero maintenance on our end, other than uploading the assets, setting permissions, and making sure the proper metadata is typed in. And any time we have had an issue, Widen has been great about making sure a representative is there to help walk us through it. So, now we're into Widen about two years and I almost forget it's there sometimes. Whenever there was a video request, we had to manually get a video out to a trainer or someone, which takes time that we don't seem to have. Now, they can just log onto Widen, search for an asset, and download it. Seriously, get a Widen representative on the phone see what they can do for you.

This program truly has made getting work done easier for all of our users.

Pros:

Using Widen software has allowed our creative teams to manage content more effectively. With it, we are able to track asset revisions and popularity. This has made it easier for us to be more strategic in the creation and placement of our content. Additionally, with the Workflow management tool, digital proofing interface and Digital Asset Management library, our users only have to visit one site to enter jobs, proof and collaborate on new content, and access current assets and media.

Cons:

Sometimes we experience "glitches" or "bugs" within the software after a major update is rolled out, but that's to be expected and they are always quick to respond when this happens.

Great Media Management

Comments: We now have ONE place everyone in the company can go to for assets to add to presentations, advertisements, blogs, websites, collateral and more. The Marketing team can work more efficiently and employees within the company are embracing the brand more consistently.

Pros:

Customer and technical support are world-class. Widen is always looking to its customers for roadmap enhancements and give honest, helpful feedback to all inquiries.

Cons:

The Adobe CC Connector is still a little buggy and looses connection links to the DAM during updates or if shared with someone without a CC Connector license. I would like enhancements to make it more user friendly.

Widen Collective Support & Features

Comments: The storage capability that Widen offers has really benefitted our team since we heavily use the archiving feature. We are able to organize our multimedia files when obsolete, expired or updates have been made.

Pros:

The storage capability that Widen offers is awesome. Using this platform has helped our team manage our multimedia content in one single place and make it available for others when needed. Uploading assets and tagging the metadata is easy and can be done in batches for efficiency, which saves us a lot of time.

Cons:

If portals can be searched for on the collective site, it will really help our team communicate our newest products. Currently, portals are not able to be searched for and sharing individual portal links can be time consuming.

The Best Bang for your Buck

Comments: My overall experience with Widen has been great. The customer support is always responsive to my needs, and the tool has been a game changer for the marketing team. Widen continually improves the end-user experience, instilling confidence that the program will evolve and get even better with time.

Pros:

The marketing team loves the portals, collections, and asset version control.

Cons:

The search/filter functionality and the lack of styling on the standard portals.

Excellent! The application is SO easy to use :)

Pros:

Everything about this product is easy! We initially chose the software after closely reviewing more than 7 different solutions. Widen accommodates all of our needs where others came up short. Ultimately the deciding point came down to the out-of-the-box video streaming feature, this is what makes Widen different. The Widen team has the roll-out process down to a science. They worked with us to define a solid taxonomy which paved the way for an easy initial asset upload. Training and the on-boarding process was seamless. The application is easy to use but, when in doubt, they have a fully loaded training library (Widen University) which has video tutorials and easy to find articles. We are very pleased with Widen and would definitely choose it again!

Widen Makes My Job Easier

Pros:

In a business where we are writing proposals for nine regions across the midwest and southeast, it's so nice to have all of our assets- photos, logos, project information- all in one place. The DAM makes it easy to find our assets and share the content with our teams across the country. Winning work is much easier thanks to the Widen DAM!

Cons:

The only downside to this software comes from me not being here upon it's inception. Therefore, some of the conventions are not as intuitive as they could be. Also, many outdated files clog up our DAM...we are in major need of an overhaul.

A Valuable Product

Comments: Overall, Widen's digital asset management system is great! It is the perfect combination of OOTB design and customization opportunity such that any company can implement this product to fit their needs while not feeling overwhelmed. In general the product is really easy to use. My interns pick this product up with about 15 minutes of training. Now much of the usability of the system depends upon each company's ability to implement effective taxonomy on their site. In addition, Widen is a great company to work with. They are always looking for the next best feature to implement. And their support is immediate and effective. I love working with Widen as much as I love working with Widen's product. Two thumbs up!

Pros:

Easy to learn and easy to use. A great combination of OOTB design and customization that it can meet many companies' needs without being overwhelming OOTB. The new UI upgrade also came with a boost in performance that is felt in every step of using this product. The analytics tool is also much improved and now offers greater insight into my users' activity within the system.

Cons:

There are certainly a limited number of cons with the system. Perhaps the largest is really rather minor, and that is some of the taxonomy can be confusing. For example, deleting an asset from your cart is actually deleting the asset, not just removing it from the cart. While their taxonomy makes more sense, it conflicts with major sites like amazon.com and therefore offers some confusion.

Always willing to cater the software to your needs

Comments: Insights, ease of finding assets, ease of transferring files, ease of distributing information.

Pros:

Easy to use and customizable. Very rarely goes down and is always reliable. Easy to teach people how to use

Cons:

The only thing I do not like about the software is how hard it is to figure out what the most important insights are. I love that we have all the information but I would like to understand it better

Very User Friendly. Easy to upload and download files.

Pros:

I can upload my file and make sure that they are stored in a place that I can have access from anywhere that I want. I can upload files from past. I can search for files and see examples of what has been done years ago.

Cons:

Sometimes it gives corrupted error. I wished it could have given the corrupt error while I am uploading files.

Extremely easy to find what do you want in seconds.

Comments: Before I use this tool, I used to waste a lot of time to find the right asset. This tool improved a lot my productivity

Pros:

You can find whatever you want in seconds, also you can filter as much as you need and the best thing that I love is the option to create your own collection. This function is so helpful!! Another point is the possibility to share the files to everyone through the link, it helps a lot!

Cons:

I miss, on the file type filter, the option to filter by GIF. and by file extension. It'll be incredibly helpful for my job. As I work with Paid Social Campaigns, I use a lot this kind of file.

The company was the best and remains the best because they deliver a quality product

Pros:

Customer service is personal. People ask and care about your user experience and guide you from start to your entire use of the tool.

Cons:

I cannot say anything bad. But what I like least is that collections appear in categories. This only is problematic when batch editing. But it can be filtered.