Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, and even DropBox are all fashionable alternate options to Field’s storage answer, however we don’t suggest switching to those instruments as a result of: 1) they don’t provide any further options, so that you don’t acquire something from the swap, and a couple of) customers expertise loads of the identical issues with these instruments as they do with Field, so that they ultimately have to maneuver away from these instruments, too.

These cloud storage options let customers retailer and collaborate on belongings, however that’s about it. As “storage drives,” they aren’t constructed with many options to handle, distribute, and use belongings after they’re uploaded. And although these instruments now have integrations to sync with different software program, organising all of those integrations takes time and the expertise post-setup is a bit clunky.

When you’ve outgrown Field’s storage drive, you’re higher off switching to a extra superior asset storage answer — particularly, digital asset administration (DAM) software program — as a substitute of making an attempt to create a makeshift DAM with these instruments utilizing integrations.

To place it merely, DAM software program does every thing storage instruments do plus far more: they’ve options to assist your entire totally different groups, allow you to get way more granular with permissioning and sharing, and have instruments to provide you higher management over your complete content material lifecycle.

On this put up, we discuss Brandfolder and 4 different digital asset administration options for groups who’re able to take the subsequent step and swap to a DAM system.

Inquisitive about digital asset administration software program? Our customer support staff is right here to stroll you thru the method, from answering your questions on DAMs to aiding with the setup of your asset library. Get in contact with our staff for a free demo of Brandfolder!

Brandfolder’s digital asset administration system helps you to neatly retailer your entire branded content material in a single place — not solely photos, paperwork, gross sales decks and advertising and marketing collateral, but in addition wealthy media like movies and audio recordsdata, InDesign templates and Photoshop recordsdata, fonts, colours and HEX codes, and different file sorts.

As we talked about above, file storage is just one part of digital asset administration — “digital asset administration” naturally encompasses issues like digital rights administration; model administration; advertising and marketing and social media asset administration; picture, video, and doc administration; and so forth. Brandfolder’s options provide you with extra skill to make use of, distribute, and maintain monitor of belongings.

Let’s speak extra about what you may accomplish in Brandfolder.

Retailer Your Belongings in a Approach that Makes Sense for Your Groups

In Brandfolder, you may manage your belongings in:

• Brandfolders: Folders of belongings for particular manufacturers — most companies have one Brandfolder, however firms who handle belongings for multiple model make a number of Brandfolders.
• Collections: Teams of comparable or associated belongings (i.e., Collections for various providers, merchandise or product strains, promotional or advertising and marketing supplies, gross sales collateral, and so on.).
• Model Portals: Subsets of related belongings for particular finish customers; these are helpful for international firms who’ve teams of belongings for every of their regional groups, or for manufacturers who work with totally different retailers and distributors and must usually share product photos/data.

Earlier than importing your belongings to Brandfolder, our staff will sit down with you to find out one of the simplest ways to map out your belongings and stroll via how ingestion works. Then, when it comes time to maneuver your entire belongings to Branfolder, our platform will auto-organize your asset library so your entire recordsdata dwell in the correct spot.

Word: Brandfolder even automates metadata and tagging to hurry up ingestion and enhance the searchability of your belongings.

After the preliminary onboarding is full, you may 1) management who can add belongings, 2) management the place belongings are uploaded, and three) put a evaluation/approval course of in place for all new asset uploads so you may maintain your library clear as you purchase extra content material.

Should you obtain belongings from exterior collaborators, you should utilize our platform to ship them visitor add hyperlinks. When visitor customers add with these hyperlinks, their recordsdata mechanically seem in Brandfolder for evaluation and approval. (Don’t fear, they gained’t be accessible for different customers to view or obtain till they’re permitted by somebody in your staff.) You’ll be able to even management the place these recordsdata are uploaded when producing the add hyperlink, so that you don’t need to do any additional group after approving the asset.

Make Positive All of Your Customers Have Entry to the Belongings They Want

As soon as your belongings are in Brandfolder, you may management who has entry to which belongings with permissions and consumer roles.

First, you may add customers to Brandfolders, Collections, and Portals. Once you add a consumer to a complete Brandfolder, they’ll view all the Collections and belongings inside. Should you simply add a consumer to a Assortment or Portal, they’ll be capable to see all new and current belongings saved there. You may also add customers on the asset stage; so you may share single belongings or teams of chosen belongings if you wish to get extra particular with sharing.

As well as, you should utilize role-based permissioning to share belongings with different customers and management how others in your workspace use belongings.

There are 4 forms of consumer roles in Brandfolder: Homeowners, Admins, Collaborators, and Friends. (For essentially the most half, you’ll simply be granting Admin, Collaborator, and Visitor entry.)

• Admins can management consumer customization and permissions, add and edit belongings, and look at and obtain belongings
• Collaborators can add, edit, view, and obtain belongings
• Friends can view and obtain belongings

For instance, say you need to share your entire model belongings together with your advertising and marketing director and provides them the flexibility to alter consumer permissions and handle asset updates: You’ll be able to add them to an Admin of your org’s Brandfolder. Then, they’ll entry all the Collections and belongings inside, management consumer permissions, and approve new or up to date belongings. You’ll be able to study extra about consumer roles and role-based permissioning right here.

Word: We provide free limitless visitor seats so our platform can assist limitless file sharing and the most important of enterprise companies. Take a look at our different put up to study extra about Brandfolder’s options for enterprise digital asset administration.

Simply Discover the Information You Want (With out Weeding By means of a Cluttered Asset Library)

We design our search performance to be easy but highly effective so you will discover the belongings you want shortly and simply. Brandfolder’s search works in a couple of distinct methods:

• Analyzes your complete asset library — not less than all the belongings you’ve got entry to — so that you don’t need to go digging via folders to seek out what you want
• Makes use of product and picture recognition to investigate the content material of your belongings and pull all the recordsdata which can be related to your search question; that means, you don’t have to recollect file names
• Helps you to slender down search outcomes with pin tags and filters
• Teams your belongings by kind and shows clear thumbnails so you may simply scroll to seek out the asset you want

Brandfolder additionally detects duplicate belongings throughout add and auto-updates your library after asset updates, so your customers aren’t scrolling via a ton of repeat belongings in your library and are at all times discovering and utilizing essentially the most present variations of your branded content material.

Handle Asset Updates & Hold Observe of File Variations

On that be aware, let’s cowl a few of our collaboration instruments that make updating belongings and managing asset variations simpler.

Each asset in Brandfolder has a devoted Asset Overview that opens once you click on to view an asset. Inside this overview is a Workflow tab the place groups have collaoration choices:

• Remark backwards and forwards with different staff members on asset updates in real-time
• View the asset’s remark thread
• Test belongings out for updates and push them again to their native enhancing app
• Push belongings again over to Brandfolder as soon as edits are full

When belongings are checked out for updating, Brandfolder shows a banner over the asset to inform different customers of updates. This additionally blocks downloading so no person by chance makes use of an asset whereas it’s present process edits.

As soon as edits are wrapped up and the asset is pushed again to Brandfolder, admins and collaborators are notified that the up to date asset is prepared for evaluation. Then, after it’s reviewed and permitted, the asset turns into accessible for obtain once more. (You may also nix the evaluations/approvals course of right here for those who don’t need to evaluation each replace. We provide you with complete management over how asset evaluations work.)

Brandfolder information all updates and asset variations within the Model Historical past. You’ll be able to simply see when belongings had been up to date, what modifications had been made, and who made the updates. Our DAM helps you to view and obtain earlier asset variations, and it additionally helps computerized versioning, so you may at all times revert again to older asset variations for those who want.

Preserve a Constant Model Picture & Achieve Higher Management Over Asset Utilization

Ensuring that your entire customers are accessing and utilizing the correct variations of your belongings is just one approach to higher keep model consistency. However you can even use Brandfolder to take higher management of your model picture by powering your entire digital content material immediately from our platform. How does this work?

Brandfolder is constructed with a content material supply community (CDN) system, and each asset is assigned a novel CDN hyperlink to make use of for publishing. By merely copying and pasting that hyperlink throughout web sites and electronic mail advertising and marketing campaigns, you may host your digital content material from Brandfolder. Any future updates you make updates on the Brandfolder stage can be mechanically mirrored each place the CDN hyperlink lives.

You may also use Brandfolder to share model tips and asset data with different customers. This ensures that everyone who’s publishing and utilizing your belongings is aware of learn how to use them the correct means.

Our Brandguide function makes it straightforward to place collectively and retailer clear however detailed model data proper in Brandfolder. Your Brandguide could be referenced by your entire customers, or anyone you share your belongings with, at any time, so that you don’t need to at all times discover and share your model tips each time any individual wants them.

On the asset stage, you may embody extra particular utilization data inside the asset’s description, comparable to “dos and don’ts” for asset utilization. These sometimes embody: the place the asset can be utilized, how it may be used, who can use it, and some other related data wanted to publish the asset. The entire asset data is shared when the asset is shared.

Share Belongings With Anyone Exterior of Your Org

Brandfolder additionally has safe file sharing choices so you may ship belongings to individuals exterior of your group (or different non-Brandfolder customers). As a substitute of requiring you to obtain belongings from our platform and electronic mail giant recordsdata, you may share any asset(s) you want with a customized share hyperlink.

You’ve got a range sharing choices with customized share hyperlinks:

• Give the share hyperlink a reputation
• Set the share hyperlink to run out
• Restrict downloading or watermark belongings
• Require finish customers to submit an electronic mail handle to view belongings

Then, as soon as your hyperlink is able to share, you may ship it off!

After you’ve despatched a share hyperlink, you continue to have management in various methods:

• Add or take away belongings to the share hyperlink
• Arrange notifications when any individual views or downloads the belongings you’ve shared
• View and handle all current share hyperlink so you may see which belongings are presently shared and with whom

Once more, we offer free limitless visitor seats, so you may share digital belongings as a lot as you want with out worrying about additional expenses.

Assist All of Your Groups

Brandfolder is likely one of the most sturdy DAMs accessible: Along with options to handle asset group, sharing, and utilization, we offer extras like a suite of video enhancing and video administration instruments, a customizable templating function, and built-in send-to-print capabilities.

We additionally provide dozens of integrations and design Brandfolder with an open-source API for additional customization. This allows you to join our platform with all the instruments your groups use, so you may leverage Brandfolder to assist your entire groups’ workflows.

Among the different software program sorts the place we now have integrations:

• Content material administration programs like WordPress or Contentful
• Content material creation instruments like Adobe and Canva
• Mission administration instruments like Smartsheet and Trello
• Collaboration instruments and messengers like GSuite, Microsoft Workplace, and Slack
• CRM and advertising and marketing communications programs like Salesforce and HubSpot

To view the entire listing of Brandfolder integrations, click on over to our integrations web page.

Need to study extra about Brandfolders options and see how our DAM can assist your groups? Schedule a free demo with us to stroll via the Brandfolder platform and discuss learn how to make the swap.

4 Different Field Options to Contemplate

Nonetheless looking for different alternate options?

Should you’ve carried out any analysis on Field Options earlier than discovering this put up, you’ve most likely seen names like NextCloud and Citrix since they’re each fashionable file administration and content material collaboration instruments. Nevertheless, just like the alternate options we listed earlier — GDrive, OneDrive, DropBox — these instruments aren’t as highly effective as digital asset administration software program.

So on this subsequent part, we’ll talk about 4 different DAMs so that you can think about throughout your seek for one of the best Field various.

Or, you may learn our different put up on discovering the correct digital asset administration instrument to your staff.

Picture Relay

Picture Relay is a digital asset administration system constructed with time administration in thoughts: Its options are centered round organizing your belongings so the correct individuals can entry them after they want them. This makes it so that you (or your inventive staff) aren’t losing hours of your day responding to asset requests and sending recordsdata to different individuals.

Person evaluations of Picture Relay point out how straightforward the platform is to make use of, and this DAM is often really helpful for nonprofits and small companies due to its inexpensive pricing. That stated, Picture Relay isn’t constructed with as many additional options as different DAMs, so although it’s considerably simpler to make use of than extra complicated programs, it additionally has its limitations. Should you’re simply on the lookout for a storage system that permits you to enhance group and share recordsdata extra simply, Picture Relay could possibly be an excellent choice.

Canto

Canto is one other DAM for small and mid-size companies due to its simplicity and affordability. (That stated, Canto does cost additional for visitor seats, so whereas it’s inexpensive for groups who don’t do loads of sharing, it may be pricey for enterprise and large companies to make use of.)

Canto’s recognition will also be attributed to its ease of use; groups who swap to Canto don’t have loads of bother with adoption. Its interface is just like Apple’s iPhoto software — a grid of photographs with folders on the aspect — so the transition to Canto is pure for Mac or iOS customers. Nevertheless, we’ve additionally heard some customers say that Canto’s interface is simply too cluttered to make use of simply, so it comes down to non-public choice.

Canto can be one of many solely DAM manufacturers to supply hybrid and on-premise variations of their software program, so it’s an incredible choice for groups who want a self-hosted DAM system.

To study extra about Canto, learn our Canto software program information.

Bynder

Bynder is a reasonably refined DAM that’s fashionable amongst enterprise companies (e.g., Puma, Spotify, TED, Klarna). Nevertheless, Bynder is constructed to be versatile and customizable so it could possibly additionally enchantment to smaller companies and work for manufacturers throughout all industries and verticals. As a substitute of providing a “one-size-fits-all” software program, they can help you choose your space for storing, add-on options, and management integrations.

Bynder’s superior platform offers groups loads of options and performance to work with, which is each a professional and a con: You are able to do loads with one software program, however the software program could be exhausting to make use of and coaching others to make use of Bynder can take a great deal of time and vitality. In case you have the sources to dedicate to adopting Bynder’s DAM, then this shouldn’t be an issue. However be warned, evaluations additionally say that it may be exhausting to get assist from Bynder’s staff, so it’s possible you’ll be left by yourself to navigate the transition.

Bynder is usually in comparison with Brandfolder as a result of it has a broad function set and permits customers to tailor their DAM to their wants. To study extra about Brandfolder vs. Bynder, try our put up on Bynder alternate options.

Widen

Should you additionally need a product data administration (PIM) system to enrich your DAM, try Widen’s DAM + PIM software program. Widen Collective is an enterprise DAM model that’s fashionable amongst eCommerce and retail companies who must retailer product photos and data collectively in a single place. Widen additionally integrates with over 50 different purposes, too, so it could possibly assist a wide range of industries, groups, and enterprise processes.

For essentially the most half, Widen receives good buyer evaluations: Widen has an excellent built-in function set, the platform is straightforward to make use of, and the Widen staff is useful. Nevertheless, some reviewers say that it could possibly take awhile to listen to again from Widen’s staff, the platform could be buggy, and Widen is dear.

So, for those who’re a big eCommerce enterprise with the finances and sources to benefit from Widen’s DAM, it could possibly be well worth the funding. Nevertheless, for those who’re a smaller enterprise or don’t want all the extras Widen offers, it can save you cash by selecting a distinct software program.

As at all times, we suggest studying buyer evaluations whereas researching digital asset administration software program so you may see suggestions from actual customers, weigh the professionals and cons of various DAMs, and establish which software program is true to your particular wants.

Get Began With Brandfolder for Higher Asset Administration & Workforce Collaboration

Field is a well-liked storage drive for each people and organizations, however as a storage drive, it could possibly solely assist you for thus lengthy. Should you really need to have the ability to use the belongings you’re storing away, you want a digital asset administration system with options that allow you to discover, obtain, share, replace, and publish your digital content material.

However we perceive that making the swap from one storage drive to a different can pose challenges, particularly when you’ve got tons of — if not hundreds — of belongings emigrate over. That’s why our staff takes on the overhaul with you: We help throughout your complete transition interval, from mapping out asset group to coaching your groups on the platform. (It’s the explanation we now have a 98% retention fee amongst our clients.) Plus, we designed your complete Brandfolder platform to be intuitive and easy, so studying learn how to use the software program takes near no time.

To study extra about making the transition to Brandfolder, attain out to our staff for a free demo!