User Reviews
Widen Collective by Widen
USER REVIEWS - All reviews
Purchased Date: N/A
Design Management Consultant, Roche Diagnostics
December 07, 2011
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Pros
- Saves time
- Frees up space on our servers
- Cost-effective
- User-friendly
- Control over company assets with usage restrictions
- Good customer service
- Central place for asset storage
Cons
- Takes time to initially upload assets to be stored
Overall
Widen Enterprises has made life so much easier for our company. We no longer need to FedEx large files to vendors and/or colleagues. Widen???s DAM system provides a central site for storing and quickly and easily sharing assets. I believe that everyone within our company feels the benefits gained through our shared assets site. The service has been great and quite cost effective, as well.
Purchased Date: N/A
Senior Designer, Ottawa University
December 07, 2011
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Pros
A solid solution for the University's asset needs made by a team of industry experts.
Cons
None to speak.
Overall
For the solution they offer, Widen is an even competitor on price and features. Even better is that they don't sit around waiting for the next new thing to happen. They make it happen.
Purchased Date: August 01, 2008
Network Engineer, Sport Graphics
August 23, 2011
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Pros
- Software as a Service model
- Cost is based on utilization
- Unlimited users
- Ability to convert a wide range of file types
- Metadata is customizable and easily searchable
- Widen staff worked closely with us during the initial setup period to skin our Collective site to our specifications and even customize some of the lower-level dialogs, buttons, etc.
- Easy to administer
- Support is usually very helpful and quick to respond
Cons
- Report generation can be slow at times
- Change requests can take a while to implement, depending on their developers' schedules
Overall
Recommended for anyone in the market for an enterprise-class DAM with a SaaS model.
Purchased Date: N/A
Marketing Communications, CNH
June 02, 2011
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Pros
Widen is a great place to store our digital assets. The customer service is great--we get questions answered very quickly!
Cons
The site is very slow.
Overall
I would recommend Widen. I would recommend setting up a category structure with assets placed in their correct categories so that users don't have to scroll through tons and tons of assets to find what they are looking for.
Purchased Date: N/A
Web Specialist, Amcor
May 31, 2011
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Pros
The new UI (currently on BETA) looks like a big improvement, giving better web usability and speed up the browsing experience.
Cons
Faster download time will deliver a better user experience.
Overall
It is the effective way of centrally storing, sharing, retrieving and sending artwork with minimal effort.
SSO with your intranet and AD is also possible. Widen helped us in implementing this.
Purchased Date: July 01, 2010
IS Manager, Walk in the Word
January 09, 2011
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Pros
Excellent customer service provided a seamless and smooth implementation. Widen has been very responsive to feature enhancment suggestions and the implementaion of the new text phrase search option.
Using the Widen Collective has allowed us to organize and share our digital media to our ministry partners with ease without the use of FTP sites, constant management of requests and saves time transfering content to multiple partners.
Cons
Would like the user interface to be more dynamic and intuetive. Speed is sometimes slower than expected.
Overall
Excellent product with good up time. Easy to implement in your organization.
Purchased Date: September 01, 2008
Graphic Designer, 5.11 Tactical
December 16, 2010
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Pros
Ease of use, cost effective, time saver, web-based for portability.
Cons
Would like more custom options available in the user interface. Would like to have an iphone ap designed specifically for managing users, and metadata on the collective.
Overall
The Widen collective system probably saves me 800-1000 hours a year. That allows me to focus more on creative work, planning for new photography. For the most part the system is easy enough to use for the end user with a fairly low level of computer literacy. Every time the cost for the system comes up we simply create a graph showing the number of users, the number of assets downloaded, and then explain what the time savings is for our department. Once it becomes clear how much work is done, and done easier as a result of the ease our clients have in getting proper images the worth is absolutely clear.
Purchased Date: July 01, 2007
Sr. Marketing Operations Manager, KnaackLLC
December 09, 2010
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Pros
Extremely easy to use with little to no training needed
Handles all types of digital assets and conversion types
Admin and reporting are first rate
Cons
Sometimes page loading can be slow, which is also due to internal network capacity
Overall
Excellent SaaS offering for handling all of our digital media
Purchased Date: N/A
International Marketing Director, InSinkErator
December 06, 2010
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Pros
Spending less time helping customers search digtal assest;
Widen helpful with all questions;
Created for us a list of search terms;
Good value
Cons
All of our users do not use English as primary language;
Some of our search terms are less than ideal;
not top of mind for the users;
It's taken time to get full company buyin
Overall
Remain committed and continue to push the tool with all users and staff
Purchased Date: N/A
Graphic Designer, Howard Miller
December 02, 2010
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Pros
Access for our customers for all our digital assets
Cons
Not completely intuitive
Overall
I would recommend
Purchased Date: July 01, 2009
Manager of E-Commerce, Oceania Cruises
December 02, 2010
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Pros
Widen's solution provided the three components we wanted in a digital asset management systemscalability, flexibility and user-friendliness. Furthermore, their customer and implementation team was exceptional in providing the information and support we needed to fluidly understand and integrate the technology into our website.
Cons
I don't think there are any negatives with the collective solution.
Overall
Highly Recommended!
Purchased Date: N/A
Graphic Specialist, Howard Miller
December 02, 2010
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Pros
I like the capability of adding categories of images to any of several Company profiles that I work with. The tools for image review are intuitive and allow me to maintain and update our image library very efficiently. I know there are additional features that I have not yet accessed, such as using templates, but I anticipate using these in the near future.
Cons
I don't understand all of the functions for assigning Roles for different groups.
Overall
I highly recommend the Widen application for managing a digital library.
Purchased Date: December 01, 2007
eMarketing Manager, Kimball Office
December 01, 2010
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Pros
Ability to store our movies, documents, and forms...as well as images.
Widen dynamically converts images to various sizes, based on the needs of the user.
Can mass upload images at once.
Search capabilities for assets.
Cons
Cumbersome to find things at times. Not overly user friendly for uploading assets.
Shopping cart is somewhat confusing, as people get the misperception that they must purchase and we do not charge for asset downloads.
Overall
Nice tool. Definitely assists with managing large quantities of digital assets that would otherwise require additional resources on the staff.
Purchased Date: N/A
Marketing Manager, Kerry Ingredients & Flavours
December 01, 2010
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Pros
One large database w/ access to all uploaded content
Cons
Extremely slow to navigate page to page, and even slower to download content
Overall
If there was a way to speed up the site, that would be very beneficial and usage would absolutely increase for uploading and pulling down content.
Purchased Date: January 01, 2007
Creative Director , Woolrich
December 01, 2010
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Pros
Ease of use for our sales team
24 hour access for our team
spead of response
Cons
Access needed for our retailers
lack of k owledge for our endusers
Overall
As the system is used by our team it works great and has been very valuable. We as a company do not take advantage of it as we should
Purchased Date: October 01, 2009
Sales Support Manager, Messer
November 30, 2010
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Pros
Searchability is far improved versus old network file-folder storage method
Large file transfer is easier and less of a burden on e-mail
Uploads and tagging are very useful
Cons
Stemming leads to assets being returned that I don't want
Downloads take longer than I'd like
Uploads and tagging are very tedious
Overall
I would recommend Widen's Media Collective to organizations with large media asset collections.
Purchased Date: August 01, 2010
President, Graphcom, Inc.
November 30, 2010
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Pros
Great features, no question
Cons
None immediately come to mind.
Overall
Certainly the most robust, cost-effective solution that we've found. We're pleased thus far.
Purchased Date: July 01, 2009
Photography Services Manager, Grand Valley State University
November 30, 2010
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Pros
The Widen system is easy to implement and maintain.Widen streamlines the storage and retrieval of our photo files. With the Widen system more people are able to access our digital assets than ever before. Now our photography archive is being used to its full potential.
Cons
The system is occasionally slow. Some days I wish it would process the images a bit faster.
Overall
I would highly recommend Widen to companies or organizations that have large visual archives to manage. Widen makes storing and retrieving our files easier than ever. It is a great product for the investment!
Purchased Date: N/A
Graphics Manager, Greenlee Textron Inc
November 30, 2010
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Pros
This software has reduced my daily maintenance workload tremendously and has given me additional time in my work day to be proactive in my job function.
Cons
The initial set up can be tedious based on volume off assets, but certainly worth the undertaking.
Overall
I would highly recommend this software suite.
Purchased Date: N/A
Senior Project Coordinator, Kohler
November 30, 2010
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Pros
We use the software so that editors can search and download thier own images, which frees up our time to work on other PR stuff
Cons
I really like the service and don't have any cons
Overall
I would recommend other companies on the services
Purchased Date: N/A
Market Communications, kimball office
November 30, 2010
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Pros
I think that the site is great for users that need various file sizes. It's easy for me to "order" images and send them directly, with just a link so that neither my mailbox or theirs is maxed out because of the size of the images.
Cons
Still frustrating when i want to use the back button on my browser, due to habit, and it errors out. I know that the site has its own back button, but out of habit I use the browser back button and my search is then errored out and i have to start over.
Overall
For the most part, it's meeting our needs and our customers/dealers needs as well.
Purchased Date: N/A
Graphic Designer, James Hardie
November 29, 2010
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Pros
-Roles and Permissions abilities
-Category menu is clean and easy to understand
-Like how you can quick view the keywords and description of the thumbnails
-options for viewing the files
Cons
- pretty slow
- often times the page come up blank when I click an option so I am constantly refreshing, sometimes I even need to log out to get the site to work again
-In batch editing I want to be able to add a keyword to multiple pictures without losing what tags I already have
-When there is a conflict I want a quick option to delete the new file. There only seems to be a replace option to get rid of the old.
Overall
It took me awhile to get use to Widen/ figure out how to use it. I wouldn't exactly call it the most user friendly, but once you start to figure it out there are a lot of options. Sadly it took me loading a lot of images and many hours to finally understand all the possibilities. I really like the search ability and the different viewing options. I like how you can set up the option to approve what images people download and create different roles. That gives us much more control as a company over the branding and imagery that is released.
Purchased Date: N/A
Trek Marketing Builder Administrator, Trek Bicycle Corporation
November 29, 2010
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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
Overall
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.
'
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.
Purchased Date: N/A
Asst Marketing Manager - Creative Services, Sub-Zero and Wolf
November 29, 2010
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Pros
I like the fact that the software continues to be customizable and is frequently updated to accommodate advanced technologies.
Cons
Sometimes, the cost, has prohibited purchase of a program.
Overall
Would have no problem in recommending. Great customer support.
Purchased Date: February 01, 2010
Marketing Communications Specialist, Carl Zeiss MicroImaging, LLC
November 29, 2010
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Pros
The support is fantastic from Widen, both on helping to use the site, as well as helping to release it to and market it to your employees.
The portfolios are a great tool for INDD files and will help streamline global marketing efforts
Powerful search tool
Cons
Quick search function does not have a auto-suggest feature
No automatic preview for Adobe files (INDD, AI, SWF, etc)
Overall
Excellent program and Extremely helpful company
Purchased Date: N/A
Sales & Marketing Administrator, Hekman Furniture
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Easy to use
Geared even for the most basic computer user
registration process quick
User Administration simple to understand.
Cons
Option of "order a CD" should not be available.
Overall
I think it is great like it is. I use it continuously during my day. It makes my job so much easier when working with images for presentations etc.
Purchased Date: N/A
Marketing Assistant, taylor
November 29, 2010
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Pros
The people that work at Widen are GREAT! They walk me through things and find answers to any and all questions that I have. (Even when I ask the same ones over and over again!)
Cons
There are so many options that I confuse myself at times. Some of the titles are a bit confusing in the admin tools - but now that I have been using it for over a year - I am getting more familier with the in and out of the program.
Overall
I would recommend you to anyone! It is just what our company needs!
Purchased Date: N/A
Senior Manager Product & Design, Scott's Fundraising
November 29, 2010
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Pros
-Easy to keep assets organized, up to date and accessible
-Simple as shopping on the internet
-Immediate delivery for clients requesting images
-Email link to download assets eliminates shipping costs
-Accessible from anywhere you have internet, travel or office!
-Updates annually improve features
Cons
-Collective doesn't work with all versions of internet browsers (must be current release to work efficiently)
Overall
I highly recommend the Widen Collective and have been a user for over 6 years. The Collective improves asset organization while being accessible anywhere and to anyone you allow.
Purchased Date: N/A
Marketing Graphics Specialist, Datamax-O'Neil
November 29, 2010
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Pros
easy to learn interface, good support, like how we can customize almost every feature for our purposes
Cons
none at this time
Overall
good product
Purchased Date: January 01, 2007
Manager, Graphic Design, Hollister Incorporated
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Easy-to-use search and download tools
Good, intuitive interface
Excellent Customer Service and Administrative Support
Simple to upload new assets and resolve asset conflicts
Strong administrative capabilities and options (custom categories, user options, etc)
Excellent site and user reporting capabilities
Cons
Prefer more graphical interface (mac-like, not pc)
Admins can easily get lost in some options - seems a little overwhelming at first
Overall
Overall an excellent system, the cons are more personal preferences than system faults. After viewing other DAM sites in the past couple of years, the limitations are more the user vs the system itself. We have had very few major issues that Customer Service or Admins could not resolve.
Besides, the 2 "Cons", my only thought is that maybe for beginning admins, more "default" options for common tasks may be good - almost too many options for some.
Purchased Date: N/A
Graphic Designer, James Hardie Building Products
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Able to get specific and granular to support our wide range of needs. Customizable for different users. Gave training on how to use the system one-on-one, this was incredibly helpful.
Cons
The site is really slow. It takes an insane amount of time sometimes to load a page. I am unable to edit the description for a batch of images, without replacing the existing descriptions. It would save me a ton of time if I could simply add to the existing descriptions in a batch edit. The previews are incorrect sometimes, it seems that the site can't refresh or gets confused and sometimes shows a preview for a different image. You have to click all the way into the asset detail page to see the correct image preview.
Overall
Find a way to speed up the site and it's ability to refresh itself and show recently upload images faster.
Purchased Date: July 01, 2009
Manager Sales Technology, Coty Inc
November 29, 2010
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Pros
From the time I spoke to the first salesperson until the implementation team got me up and running they kept us on track and on time. Their understanding of our needs enabled us to go into production in just a few month with minimal configuration post go live. The interface was simple and training our internal admins was short.Our external consumers were not trained at all and had no problem using the images. The Mass Transit Tool really faciliated getting images off our systems and out to our clients.
We were able to move responsibility for uploading and categoring images back to the source, creating great efficiencies. Finally, my IT dept was not burdened with additional tasks and responsibilities, and the cost has been affordable.
Cons
I would have to make something up. Working with Widen has been one of the best vendor experiences I have had to date.
Overall
If you are getting started in a DAM solution and SAAS is your preferred model, take the time to understand the Widen offering.
Purchased Date: January 01, 2007
Marketing Communications Program Manager, Johnson Controls
November 29, 2010
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Pros
- Great team to work with
- Competitive pricing to other similar tools
- Easy access to a variety of usability reports
Cons
Will not be compatible with IE6.
Overall
This is a great tool to allow your users the flexibility to create customized pieces but still maintain some amount of control regarding the overall creative look and feel.
Purchased Date: January 01, 2010
Associate Manager, Corporate Communications, PPD
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Great repository, easy to use for end user ordering assets
Cons
Setting up categories, sub categories and assigning profiles can be an issue for an administrator. Have also had issues with creating temporary accounts and requiring them to require approval with effecting other user profiles.
Overall
This product has great end-user features. Could be a little more user friendly for administrators.
Purchased Date: January 01, 2006
Advertising Coordinator, Howard Miller
November 29, 2010
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Pros
User friendly
Cons
Customer service can be a bit over-technical at times.
Overall
Would recommend
Purchased Date: N/A
Senior Manger, Global Creative Services, Life Fitness
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Implementation of the site was simple.
Cost was very affordable.
Space used/space left is noted on the monthly statement giving me a nice tool to manage the number of assets we have on the collective.
Communication about maintenance issues and update is outstanding.
Feedback from new users has been that the sight is easy to navigate and download.
Cons
Perhaps the only blip that we have had from Widen is in the image retouching that they have provided us has not met our standards. However, with that said, they have made every effort to rectify the image outlining and it looks like we will be satisfied with the final outcome.
Overall
I highly recommend Widen as a source for data/asset storage for any company. The combination of ease-of-use, customer support and reasonable cost has made our choice in Widen a smart and effective.
Purchased Date: N/A
Brand Manager, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
November 29, 2010
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Pros
- customizable
- user friendly
- easy access by internal and external team members
- versitile
- enhancements available
Cons
- additional training materials would be nice to have
Overall
I would certainly recommend the Widen DAM system to other companies.
Purchased Date: N/A
Senior Graphic Designer, La-Z-BOY
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Easy to use and navigate, lots of storage space for our images. Different ways to organize search results.
Cons
Only problem I have ever had is the time it takes to upload new images manually. Seems to take a long time, process is a little more complicated than I think it needs to be. A lot of steps to upload one image and add metadata.
Overall
I would recommend this program to other companies for their image database solution, I have seen other companies pages and they usually are not as good as the one we are using.
Purchased Date: February 01, 2007
Account Supervisor, The Pampered Chef
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Mediacollective has greatly reduced the number of hours our design team has spent fulfilling image requests for coworkers in the US and abroad. It is a professional system for our users. The reports are very helpful from an administrator point of view. The customer service team answers our questions and forwards user questions in a short amount of time. Thank you!
Cons
> Currently, there isn's a way to view thumbnails of an order.
> Placing a cap on the number of assets someone can place in one order (no more than 20).
> Or deny part of an order without denying the entire order and and placing a new request for the approved assets.
Overall
Great tool for our organization!
> Vendor Responses
12/03/2010 by Widen
Purchased Date: N/A
Marketing Communications Specialist, KI
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Uploads are a breeze and it's great to have a single source for our image repository - no matter what format we're working with.
Cons
To view larger images, takes you out of the search results - perhaps some kind of "hover over" to get a larger view would be better.
Inconsistent speed - sometimes it works quickly and sometimes it's almost inoperable.
Overall
Although not perfect, this system has met our needs and hopefully will continue to evolve as needs change. Customer service has been quite responsive
Purchased Date: January 01, 2009
photographer , tna wrestling
November 29, 2010
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Pros
ease of use for users
simple gui
rare downtime
Cons
needs rss update feeds for users
Overall
great investment, would refer others to widen
> Vendor Responses
12/03/2010 by Widen
Purchased Date: January 01, 2008
Creative Services Production Specialist, Nationwide Children's Hospital
November 29, 2010
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Pros
The online asset site streamlines my work-flow. It is now much easier to get image files to my coworkers and also people who work outside of my company. The site is very user friendly and the customer service reps always answer my questions promptly.
Cons
I have no complaints.
Overall
I would highly recommend widen to anyone. It has made a positive impact on my work and how quickly and efficiently I'm able to handle day to day tasks.
Purchased Date: January 01, 2009
Digital Marketing Specialist, Oceania Cruises
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Up until this point, your application has met our needs and works really well for all of our users. It is user friendly and effective.
Cons
No cons at this time.
Overall
I recommend this application.
Purchased Date: September 01, 2009
Graphic Services Manager, Briggs & Stratton Corporation
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Easy to implement. Easy to use for administrators and users. Customer Service is attentive to our needs.
Cons
Costs when you want to customize.
Overall
Better integration or application for mobile devices.
Purchased Date: N/A
Interactive Design Coordinator, KI
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Easy to set up new categories & edit information. Love the new uploader tool.
Cons
Sometimes the site can be really slow.
Overall
it would be nice to be able to hover over the images and have them enlage automatically (not having to click into).
Purchased Date: N/A
Marketing Services Specialist, Broan-NuTone LLC
November 29, 2010
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Pros
Various search options a plus
Cons
Confusion periodically with customers selecting more than one file type.
Overall
Overall performance is great
Purchased Date: February 01, 2009
Internet Project Manager, Case IH
November 29, 2010
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Pros
The widen site allows brands to self-manage their assets quickly and easily. The system is faily easy to learn.
Cons
Our implementation was not structured properly from the start, so we have many challenges with the search feature. I would suggest Widen provide consulting services to help brands efficiently structure their system to avoid our mistakes. The system can be slow at times, but I understand that is changing with the new release.
Overall
I would recommend Widen to another firm looking for an asset management system.
Purchased Date: January 01, 2002
Marketing Editor / eBuilder Administrator, Roche
November 05, 2010
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Pros
Roche is about to begin its 9th year with Widen managing its online image collective. With a sales force of more than 300 along with an in-house marketing staff, agencies, and retail clients, having an easy-to-use central location for finding the latest product images has been a huge time saver and an efficient distribution solution.
* Ease of adding new accounts
* Ease of search and categorization
* Ease of releasing / retiring images
* Cost effectiveness
* Prompt support
Cons
Because of the huge amount of variables available to the admin user, setting up a site with correct user permissions, asset groups, etc. can be intimidating and challenging if there is not a natural bent toward site organization or if a user doesn't have a daily hands-on role.
To offset this, Widen offers tremendous support, reviewing site settings set by admins or walking an admin through the logic needed to set up the appropriate permissions.
Overall
Excellent company, excellent product.
Roche uses only a portion of what Widen offers for our image collective, but we are truly impressed with the site we have.
Purchased Date: N/A
Marketing Coordinator, Mcomm Group
November 02, 2010
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Pros
Provide training on how to use features.
Knowledgeable and timely customer support.
Search-ability feature and linear cataloging available.
Cons
Asset management system only functions as well as the information inputted. Make sure you have complete and accurate data prior to uploading. Fixing the metadata for 1,000s of assets is quite time consuming and costly.
Overall
Good system for assets assuming metadata is complete and accurate.
Purchased Date: May 01, 2009
Marketing manager, Beazley
November 02, 2010
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Pros
Once the set-up is complete, the system is very easy to use. Allows marketing to monitor and control the brand.
Cons
It took a bit of time to set-up and create our templates, but once the process was in place it was very easy to add new templates.
Overall
I highly recommend this product. User friendly interface and responsive customer service.
Purchased Date: N/A
Product Management Specialist, Taylor Company
November 01, 2010
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Pros
Customer service is outstanding. The features of DAM save us innumerable calls & followup.
Cons
We would have liked to set up administrators at each of our distributors, but did not understand that during implementation. Ultimately, going back & setting that up would be nice, but not sure we have the time or resources to accomplish now.
Overall
Tremendous benefits to utilizing the DAM system for maintaining digital assets. Also look forward to using the Embed Links to manage our assets in web content.
Purchased Date: N/A
Channel Manager, Little Rapids Corporation
July 30, 2010
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Pros
-Responsive
-Friendly
-UI
-Willingness to work with you and customize DAM to individual needs
-Ease of use
Cons
Our experience has been extremely positive.
Overall
Higly recommend the Widen DAM media collective.
Purchased Date: N/A
Publications Coordinator, St. Mary's Hospital
June 11, 2010
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Pros
Great for storage, searching and sharing - no more clogged email accounts and lots of time and hassle saved in digging up images. Option to convert to various formats saves even more time and hassle for the end users.
Cons
To work most effectively, it requires consistent thinking and logical protocols -- elusive traits because we don't have the luxury of time or dedicated staff to devote to organizing our meta data in relation to how images will be used. We've found that many of our search terms yield too large of a pool because many of our photos include similar terms for very different images. Also, there's no compare feature to help select images or delete duplicates.
Overall
Very responsive customer service and very professional company with good communication about their product.
Purchased Date: January 01, 2009
Graphic Designer, Stens
June 11, 2010
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Pros
This is def. a learning curve, but opens so many doors for customers.
Great staff that is willing to work with you above and beyond!
Updates/upgrades occur regularly which continually helps to improve processes by making them more efficient and just better.
Cons
Takes time to learn!
Go to meetings for trainings can be rather confusing at times and hard to know what questions to ask if you haven't been exposed to it long enough.
Extra software may be required to access full function of parts of this database!!
Overall
Overall, this database opens many doors for your customers by allowing them the ability to customize marketing pieces, etc. It also works great to allow for images to be downloaded by your customers for use on their website, in mailers and marketing pieces to name just a few. For our particular business, it allows our customers more hands on and can help to save them valuable time!
Purchased Date: N/A
Creative Services Supervisor, Zebra Technologies
June 11, 2010
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Pros
Ease of search and ability to reformat images and video on the fly. You may have an asset in the collective in one format, but request it be delivered in another. Widen reformats for you.
Cons
Doesn't have the ability to assign keywords to more than one asset at a time.
Overall
We've been using it for well over a year and it haas been great. The feedback we've gotten has been positive and has allowed us to better share assets globally.
> Vendor Responses
11/08/2010 by Widen
Purchased Date: N/A
Graphic Desiger, Young Living Essential Oils
June 10, 2010
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Pros
Love the feature that I can view with the large thumbnail and add to the cart before I download the images.
Capability of tag the individual file and images, group them in the same event folder.
Love the searching engine.
Cons
Some of the menu tab is harder to find.
Overall
Overall the site function is easy to use and suites my need to uploading and downloading files
Purchased Date: October 01, 2009
Sr Associate, Innovation Focus/LIFEbytes Online
June 10, 2010
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Pros
Lightweight, flexible, well-supported. Very easy to implement for special uses.
Cons
Occaisional glitches, sometimes the complexity can be overwhelming
Overall
Great support, very flexible.
Purchased Date: June 01, 2009
Creative Services Manager, Great Wolf Resorts
June 10, 2010
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Pros
Customer service is excellent!
Cons
Some of the features are not as customizable as we had hoped.
Overall
Widen has most definitely improved our company's organization with creative assets and routing of creative projects.
Purchased Date: July 01, 2009
Photographer, Grand Valley State University
June 10, 2010
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Pros
Widen is a fairly easy and efficient way to store, archive, and distribute photographic files. In the year that I have been using Widen, it has changed the way I work. Now when I receive a request for a specific photo, I don't have to resize it and make sure it is the appropriate size to fit into an email. I just choose the file I want, send it to the recipient and they download it directly from the site instead of through e-mail. This is especially helpful to those who are always battling an in-box size limit! It has also made it easier to work off-site. Say I am out of the office on assignment or home sick. If I see a request come in, I can log onto Widen from anywhere and send the requests files out at any time! The search features also work great for us. Users throughout the university can now directly search for whatever type of photo they are looking for instead of requesting it through our department by phone or email.
Cons
Though I love Widen there have been a few minor issues we have encountered. The first is that it is a little hard to understand at the beginning. The back end of the program seems complicated to a new user. However, we have now figured everything out and so this really is no longer an issue for us. The other issue I sometimes run into is that the processing can be a bit slow. There are times when I upload my files and then cannot see the previews of my files for quite some time. This can be a problem when I am trying to identify people in the photograph to add their names to the keywords. The only way around this currently is to be patient and go work on something else for a while.
Overall
Overall I would definitely recommend Widen to any company that has a large amount of photo files that they need to store and easily be able to send to others, either internally or externally.
Purchased Date: October 01, 2009
Graphic Designer, Avelle
June 10, 2010
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Pros
Fast
Organized
Efficient
Helpful Staff
Constant improvements
Ease of use
Easy to send files to others
Cons
Sometimes features are not activated unless you request but everything I've requested was activated very quickly.
Overall
The Widen Collective has made my day to day searches for high resolution images so much easier than it used to be when I was searching multiple servers in our company. Typing in a single style number and having all of the results for the product show up is great. I also like that it's so fast. One of my favorite features is that the collective allows me to send these files to people outside the company for PR use. It's much easier than sending multiple files or loading to FTP sites. I would definitely recommend the Widen Collective to anyone who deals with a large volume of high resolution images.
Purchased Date: N/A
Photography Coordinator, Grand Valley State University
June 10, 2010
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Pros
Widen has really helped us bring together our photo archive and creates one organized place for everything to be. We can be confident that our files are safe with this product, which is a concern we have had for many years. It is also very nice to be able to access our files from any location and send them easily through the internet. The customer service people are very helpful and are always available when we run into problems.
Cons
The backside of the program can be a bit tedious and hard to figure out. We have been using the software for about a year now and I am just beginning to really figure out the ins and outs of it.
Overall
Overall, this product has really helped us and we will continue to use it in the future. Many other departments have used our site and are now adding their photos as well.
Purchased Date: January 01, 2001
web content admin, HON
April 14, 2010
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Pros
I really like the ease of use once you get used to the admin tools - this was a challenge at first since there was no formal documentation - but the staff at Widen made this a cinch
Cons
Some of the reporting and bulk insert features that I would need are not available from the front end of the application
Overall
good stuff
Purchased Date: February 01, 2007
Sr. Marketing Comm Mgr, InSinkErator
March 30, 2009
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Pros
Great customer support. Reliable service. Easy access to support via phone or online chat.
Cons
System seems to move a little slow. This could be our internet line.
Overall
Solid company. Trained employees. Convenient service network. Great system for the non-techinical person. Nice tech support.
Purchased Date: February 01, 2008
Marketing Communications Project Manager, Brocade
August 26, 2008
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Pros
In a manner of a few short weeks, we were fully up and running on Widen. It was a seamless switch and we extended our user base instead of loosing users during this time.
Cons
There were very few issues if any. I only disliked the Shopping cart analogy as people wondered if they needed to pay.
Overall
Highly Recommend Widen! They are a feature rich, and wonderful service to work with. The account managers and Implementation consultants were awesome and we never skipped a beat.
Purchased Date: June 01, 2008
Marcomm manager, MTI
August 26, 2008
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Pros
Incredibly intuitive interface, easy to set up and administrate.
Cons
Shoppin cart model confusing to users who think they are going to be charged.
Overall
Highly recommended
