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MerlinX offers in-house AI technology which delivers major search advances to the Digital Asset Management world. NOMAD Visual search allows you to monetize previously undiscoverable objects, even if they have scarce or no textual metadata. MerlinX empowers teams to centralize, search and manage creative content, and is the long-term DAM vendor for hundreds of businesses with its reliability, flexibility, scalability, optimal performance, automation and world-class customer service.
Provider
Canto
Located In
United States
Foundation
1990
Open API
Unverified
Deployment
On-Premise Windows, Cloud, SaaS, Web-Based, On-Premise Linux
Training
Live Online, Videos, In Person, Documentation, Webinars
Support
Knowledge Base, Email/Help Desk, Phone Support, 24/7 (Live rep)
From news to corporate, government agencies, universities to non-profits, healthcare and all company types in between, many leading brands depend on their Merlin DAM every stage in the content cycle.
Content Source: MerlinX
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MerlinX Reviews
Pros
I enjoy the diversity of file supported file types and that they are all viewable in the software. It's great for being able to share large quantities high quality photos.
I love the ease of use and the ability to change image metadata on the fly. The ability to search wire and staff images in one place is also an added bonus.
I have found it to be indispensable. MerlinOne tech support was always happy to help us customize the server to our particular needs, and was always extremely responsive when we needed help.
Our users range from professional librarians and researchers to reporters and clerks, and every user level is addressed by MerlinOne. Support is proactive and outstanding.
Cons
I still find it difficult to deal with video. I simply can't remember how to output sub-clips.
While they do usually respond promptly and are helpful, I would much rather do it all myself to avoid errors in communication and delays.
Older version of the software had problem with performance. The user interface could be more explicit on some of the actions.
Some of the date features are frustrating. Primarily how the calendar is displayed as Monday through Sunday, which takes some time getting used to.
"Great product. Great service."
Pros: Merlin allows us to easily share photo assets with our network of Habitat affiliates in the U.S., and with our national organization offices in more than 70 countries. My favorite tool is the ability to share email previews of contact sheets containing links to directly download images. That gives us the ability to share collections of photos directly with our clients, without having to upload files to Dropbox. That’s a huge time saver for our team. I also can’t say enough about their amazing customer service. They quickly respond to our questions, and the available training helps us get the most out of the service.
Cons: The more I learn about Merlin, the less I see that I would consider a negative. You can credit the customer service team for helping us through anything we don't understand.
"A great tool for virtual working."
Overall: A very positive experience they have a great staff that helps problem solve they are innovative, and they are continually improving the quality of their products and the services they provide to their clients.
Pros: When searching for A DAM system, Shriners Childrens needed a system that was HIPAA-compliant and MerlinOne offered this service along with great customer service and efficient communication. The MerlinOne DAM system organizes our companies’ assets in a way that maximizes their value for our brand it allows us to set varying levels of user access for files and folders, and we can easily share files internally and externally with our vendors. A great tool to have on the cloud it has been very valuable during the pandemic as employees started to work remotely, this system allowed us to continue to do our work while having instant access to our assets from any location at any time our teams continued to be efficient while adapting to the virtual working conditions.
Cons: The content hubs are a great tool, but it’s still a work in progress and additional features are needed.
Vendor Response
"Take quite a bit of training to get comfortable. Missing some key functionality."
Pros: Once you figure it out, the system is very easy to use and retrieve content. Search features are great.
Cons: Does not generate permalinks to content/collections; they expire after 24 hours and thus cannot embed content collections on website.
"Merlin review"
Overall: Simply put, I can't imagine doing my job without Merlin.
Pros: It is easy to train people on Merlin's basic functions, and that's all most of our users need. It's also fairly easy to train power users on most of Merlin's more powerful features.
Cons: I still find it difficult to deal with video. I simply can't remember how to output sub-clips. That used to not be too much of a problem, but video is a growing part of my job.
"A highly customizable system with many great capabilities for use in digital asset management"
Pros: I like the many options available to the user when it comes to customizing the system. I work in the education space and some of the items that we like to tag when saving our digital assets can be very intimately related to our field i.e. students on campus, students in different buildings throughout the school, students wearing branded school gear or just the spaces around the campus to show the school. It's nice that we could build a taxonomy that is specific to us, this makes searching our files easier.
Cons: I least like the fact that it can be a bit cumbersome to navigate; sometimes I am uploading hundreds of photos and find that some of the files didn't upload properly - however I have received very good customer service support on this issue which I appreciate.
