Artesia Targets Brand Asset Management With New Release

Artesia Technologies

The developer is calling the latest release of its Teams digital asset management software, Teams 4.4, an "asset-centric workflow" application, rather than a project-centric application.

"Instead of the project being at the center of the workflow, it's the asset," said Sebastian Holtz, vice president of marketing at Artesia, Rockville, Md. "They are older and longer-lasting than any project."

The concept basically entails using XML-based metadata to include information about an asset's history, attributes and associated rights with the digital asset. "The basic life-cycle history is part of the asset," Holtz said.

The concept could appeal to enterprises deploying the software to manage brand assets, including videos, photos, text and other advertising materials. "For next two years, brand asset management is going to go through the roof," Holtz said.

In a prime example, Artesia also announced that the Worldwide Retail Exchange, a consortium of retailers and their suppliers, is using the Teams solution to help members share and manage digital assets online for various products, including private-label goods. The software will enable retailers know what rights they have to use a particular photograph or other materials, Holtz said.

"If they can't figure out what rights they have to an asset, they won't use it. They won't take the risk," he said.

Adobe Systems was also at Seybold to announce the latest version of its Adobe Graphics Server, version 2.0, which transforms graphic images for reuse in various mediums. Initially designed for Web applications, new features are targeted at print production, said Allister Lundberg, product manager for Graphics Server 2.0 at Adobe.

The new features include support for Encapsulated PostScript and PDF formats, the ability to convert SVG files to PDF files and support of the newspaper industry's metadata standard, among other things.

The software, scheduled for availability by the end of this year, will be priced at $7,500 per CPU, Lundberg said.