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Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) is the largest heavy-duty truck manufacturer in North America and a leading producer of medium-duty trucks and specialized commercial vehicles.

Headquartered in Portland, Oregon, DTNA manufactures, sells and services several renowned commercial vehicle brands including Freightliner Trucks,Western Star and Thomas Built Buses. Through the company’s affiliates, DTNA is also a leading provider of heavy and medium-duty diesel engines and other components.The company’s strategic partners in the North American commercial vehicles market include Daimler Truck Financial and TravelCenters of America.

Selecting a Digital Asset Management Solution

Until 2008, the Corporate Communications and Marketing groups at DTNA managed an archive of digital files in a DAM solution shared with Chrysler. This archive consisted primarily of product photos, but also included logos and line art. After the DaimlerChrysler split, they were left without a DAM solution, and needed to find one of their own.

Tasked with managing the digital assets for over 14,000 employees at DTNA, the Communications and Marketing groups began their search for a new solution. Before they began evaluating solutions they spent a considerable amount of time gathering information about what was needed in a DAM. They put together a requirements document that ranked desired features in order of importance.

Among the highest priority requirements were the following:

• Secure, controlled web access for all staff members

• Easy access for a large number of users (e.g. Single Sign-On capability)

• Excellent search capability • Intuitive / user friendly interface for non-technical users • Support for a range of critical formats • Good zoom capability for images

After an exhaustive search and evaluation of several options, Daimler Trucks North America settled on NetXposure’s enterprise Digital Asset Management solution with the Single Sign-On module option.

“NetXposure was one of several vendors that we consulted with in seeking a new digital asset management system. Not only was the application that they offered, technology-wise, superior to the others that we previewed, we were also impressed by the entire team, particularly in their depth of knowledge in the latest technologies.

NetXposure was incredible to work with. Our project manager stated several times over that he had never had a project go as smoothly as this one. I attribute a large part of this to NetXposure’s willingness to work with us, troubleshoot issues (even when they were outside of their control), and technical expertise.

Within days of our application’s launch, I had more than 2,000 new users successfully logged in using the Single Sign-On solution they provided without a single problem or negative response and several very positive comments. I was very impressed with NetXposure’s ability to deliver exemplary results.”

Molly Lee, Interactive Communications Coordinator. Daimler Trucks North America

Single Sign-On Technology

Single Sign-On (SSO) is a mechanism whereby a single action of user authentication and authorization can permit a user to access all computers and systems throughout an organization (where there is access permission) without the need to enter multiple usernames / passwords.

NetXposure’s Single Sign-On technology allows users in a large organization like Daimler Trucks North America to bypass the traditional login screen each time they access the DAM, yet still guarantees secure user authentication.

The main underlying system for Single Sign-On is the CAS or “Central Authentication Service” server. This is an open source, Java-based Single Sign-On solution developed at Yale University that is widely adopted by many universities and companies world-wide. It is compatible with Active Directory and supports both LDAP and Kerberos protocols. It also supports SAML protocol for ticket authentication. All Web applications are configured to talk to CAS server via SSL. CAS server is responsible for authentication of the user, and decides whether or not to re-route the user to the target Web application.

The following are the main steps in the authentication protocol:

1)The user attempts to access an application using its URL.The user is redirected to the CAS login URL over an HTTPS connection, passing the name of the requested service as a parameter.The user is presented with a username/password dialog box.

2) The user enters ID and password details and CAS attempts to authenticate the user. If authentication fails, the target application never hears about it — the user remains at the CAS server.

3) If authentication succeeds, then CAS redirects the user back to the target application, appending a parameter called a ticket to the URL. CAS then attempts to create an in-memory cookie called a ticket-granting cookie.This is done to allow for automatic re-authentication later — if present, then it indicates that the user has already successfully logged in and the user avoids having to re-enter his username and password.

4) The application then validates that this is a correct ticket and represents a valid user by calling the CAS ServiceValidate URL by opening an HTTPS connection and passing the ticket and service name as parameters. CAS checks that the supplied ticket is valid and is associated with the requested service. If validation is successful, CAS returns the username to the application.

Benefits of DAM + Single Sign-On at DTNA

While it’s difficult to determine how much time is saved at DTNA due to the installation of NetXposure’s Digital Asset Management solution + Single Sign-On technology, clearly it has made a difference. Employees can now find their own approved image assets without having to request help from busy marketing managers or from expensive agency resources.

One shortcoming of the previous DAM used by DTNA was the lack of helpful metadata associated with each asset.While there were a great many images available on the system, they were sometimes hard to retrieve using a keyword search. Before the launch of the current system, every asset was fully vetted to ensure that proper tags and descriptions were associated with each image.

Easy access to the system was considered critical from the start. If employees and dealers had to memorize yet another login and password, the DAM would never find widespread acceptance. Since its implementation, the single sign on component has allowed thousands access to the system seamlessly, greatly contributing to widespread acceptance.

About NetXposure

NetXposure delivers software solutions that reduce the time and cost of content production, maximize ROI from media assets, and streamline the workflows of managing large libraries of digital files.With a history as an industry pioneer in developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), NetXposure has become a leader in delivering Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions to organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries.

Founded in 1995, NetXposure is headquartered in Portland, Oregon with offices in London, England and Tokyo, Japan. For more information visit www.netx.net or call 503.499.4342.

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The Museum of Modern Art in New York City increases productivity, saves time and money, and extends the value of their legacy collections management system through automated integration of NetXposure’s enterprise DAM solution with Gallery System’s TMS Art Database.

The Museum of Modern Art in mid-town Manhattan is a place that fuels creativity, ignites minds, and provides inspiration. With extraordinary exhibitions and the world’s finest collection of modern and contemporary art, MoMA is dedicated to the conversation between the past and the present, the established and the experimental. MoMA’s mission is for us to understand and enjoy the art of our time.

MoMA’s collection includes more than 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, architectural models and drawings, and design objects. The museum also owns over 22,000 films, videos, and media works, as well as film stills, scripts, posters and historical documents. Maintaining an organized digital record of these assets, along with all the data associated with them, is paramount to maintaining MoMA’s standing as one of the world’s most reputable education and research centers for modern and contemporary art.

Selecting a Digital Asset Management Solution

Until 2005, most of the digital records of MoMA’s collection had traditionally been stored in a legacy collections management system called TMS (short for The Museum System). Additionally, there were approximately two terabytes of historical and legal documentation on various CDs and hard drives, as well as a digital archive of tens of thousands of photographs, including installation views of exhibitions and images of the Museum’s building and grounds.

With a rapidly growing collection, MoMA’s realized it had outgrown its collections management system and needed a more robust and sophisticated tool for handling digital images, documents and rich media files. Among the most immediate needs for the system were the following:

• Secure, controlled web access for all staff members • Easy to use interface for non-technical users • Ability to repurpose files for different uses • Multi-platform support (Mac, PC, all major web browsers) • Scalability

• Ability to seamlessly integrate with other applications After an exhaustive search and evaluation of several options, MoMA settled on NetXposure’s enterprise Digital Asset Management solution.

“The bottom line is that our technology strategy is to grow our digital asset collection and to leverage it to better achieve the Museum’s mission. With digital assets core to this strategy, we rely heavily on the technology that manages these assets. Our DAM solution is a fundamental piece to this. NetXposure delivers excellent value for the price. In fact, you’d have to pay four times as much for similar capabilities in other products. It’s powerful enough to meet our growing image management needs yet isn’t frontloaded with unnecessary bells and whistles. Further, NetXposure’s willingness to customize the solution to meet our unique workflow was unmatched.”

Steve Peltzman, Chief Information Officer, MoMA

NetXposure Web Services API

Included in NetXposure’s Developer Tool Kit module is a full Web Services API, so you can essentially remote-control the application from any external system.The API itself is built on Apache’s Axis Web Service framework, meaning that it is entirely standards-compliant and interoperates with Java and .NET. The Web Services API provides SOAP-RPC over HTTP access to NetXposure, and includes documentation, sample code, and Java-wrapper code.

This provides for remote usage of NetXposure from any system that can communicate with standard Web Service protocols, such as SOAP and WSDL — allowing any such system to integrate directly with the repository. Most operations you can manually access through the Web User-Interface can be automated through the Web Services.

The advantages a Web Serivices API brings to the NetXposure DAM are numerous. For example, external applications such as ecommerce sites, catalogue workflow software, remote kiosks, or content management systems can “talk to the DAM”, resulting in a seamless “push” of content such as images and data from the DAM to the external application upon request.

Or in the cases where the DAM needs to be continually populated with new information from external sources, the Web Services API can set up to automatically “pull” files and data into the DAM from sources external sources such as a legacy collections management system in a museum.

The Web Services API provides a standard WSDL interface for auto-discover, as well as a Java wrapper that allows the developer to avoid having to learn anything aboutWeb Services protocols.The Java wrapper provides access to Web Services with the IPClient class; each method handles all the SOAP messaging and authentication for you.

Making the DAM and TMS Database Talk to Each Other

With an existing art database (TMS) full of 130,000 art object records, and a NetXposure DAM equiped with a Web Services API, the challenge for MoMA was to make these two systems “talk to each other”. More specifically, the systems needed to access and share information on both the metadata associated with each object record (artist, date, medium, title, etc.), and the media for each record (images of front, back, both sides, black and white, color, on display, etc.).

The key to making the systems “talk” was the link mandate, because without a common link, data in two systems can not be connected. The the Web Services API was programmatically set up to exchange information between the two systems based on the common link. This presented two options for MoMA, one system for legacy data, and another for new data moving forward:

A) Tag and Match:

In this scenatio the systems operate independently and you use naming conventions and / or data entry to assign IDs. For example, each asset in the TMS art database has an accension number. This number is “tagged” to the high resolution artwork in the DAM in either the file name, custom metadata fields, or embedded metadata fields such as Dublin Core.

B) Place and Fill:

In this scenario internal IDs and automation are used to link the systems. When new artwork is added to the TMS database, a placeholder is automaticaly created in the DAM. High reolution images are then loaded into the DAM placeholder.

About NetXposure

NetXposure delivers software solutions that reduce the time and cost of content production, maximize ROI from media assets, and streamline the workflows of managing large libraries of digital files.With a history as an industry pioneer in developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), NetXposure has become a leader in delivering Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions to organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries.

Founded in 1995, NetXposure is headquartered in Portland, Oregon with an offices in London, England and Tokyo, Japan. For more information visit www.netx.net or call 503.499.4342.

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Mercy Corps International utilizes NetXposure’s Public Display CMS technology to remotely distribute image and video presentations from a centralized, web-based Digital Asset Management system to display monitors in the lobby of their new Portland, Oregon headquarters.

As visitors enter the lobby at Mercy Corps International’s brand new global headquarters building in Portland, Oregon — a LEED-Platinum rated architectural gem in the city’s Old Town District — they are first greeted by a receptionist, and then by striking images from crisis hot spots around the globe from high definition Samsung monitors mounted to the walls.

While the main television tuned to CNN shows news coverage of recent natural disasters around the globe, additional monitors show Mercy Corps relief efforts taking place in those vary regions. One monitor shows images of rebuilding efforts for recent tsunami victims in the Pacific Islands. Another focuses on relief for victims of an Indonesian earthquake that occurred only the day before.

The proverb, “a picture is worth a thousand words” rings true for Mercy Corps, one of the world’s leading global humanitarian organizations with over 3,700 professionals working amid disasters, conflict and chronic poverty. Complex stories of suffering and oppression, as well as progress and hope are often described with an image or short video, making them powerful means to inspire, educate and raise awareness of the agency’s mission and global relief efforts. These images have been instrumental in telling Mercy Corps’ story, and the stories of those it helps.

Mercy Corps’ creative services team utilizes NetXposure’s Public Display CMS technology in conjunction with NetXposure’s Digital Asset Management (“DAM”) solution to program content shown on the lobby monitors from a remote, web-based administrative console. The content is primarily image slideshows and video presentations that are drawn from the organization’s DAM, a web-based repository of over 50,000 digital images, documents and video organized with an extensive taxonomy system that allows for quick search and retrieval of specific files.

“Using NetXposure’s Public Display CMS to beam images of current relief efforts from the DAM to our lobby monitors is a great example of how were using technology to get the most out of our creative media assets. The ability to make changes or updates to presentations from the web interface, from wherever and whenever we want, gives us the flexibility to get the most out of time-sensitive content when delivering our message.”

Jennifer Dillan, Creative Services Director, Mercy Corps International

Digital Asset Management at Mercy Corps

Phil Ottum, a Photo Library Specialist at Mercy Corps, respectfully acknowledges the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 as the moment when it became apparent the organization needed a new approach to managing their digital archive.

“Managing the enormous amount of photographs coming in from the tsunami zone in Sri Lanka — both from field operatives and a large number of contracted photographers — became a big issue.”

At that time, Mercy Corps used a legacy image management system that served well as a file repository but lagged in management capabilities or editing and repurposing features.

DAM at Mercy Corps (continued) With search and retrieval topping the priority list, Mercy Corps began the search for a DAM system with robust and flexible metadata management capabilities, including customization and automation. The DAM also had to be cost effective, easy to maintain, and able to scale to meet the expected growth of digital content.

After careful consideration of other DAM offerings, Mercy Corps selected NetXposure, the first enterprise class Digital Asset Management solution builtwithanAdobeFlexuserinterface. Asidefromthevisuallycompelling and easy to use interface, Mercy Corps was drawn to NetXposure’s use of Adobe AIR technology to combine the flexibility of the Web with the responsiveness of the desktop.

In addition, NetXposure’s adherance to open standards technology , flexible Web Services API, and roundtrip-support for XMP metadata enabled Mercy Corps to improve workflow efficiencies and team collaboration, both of which contribute to lower costs and improved productivity for the organization.

Public Display CMS Technology

The purpose of NetXposure’s Public Display CMS technology is to provide a seamless and simplistic content management system to program digital content (e.g. image slideshows, video, live content, dynamic software applications) that will be remotely delivered to publicly viewable clients such as display monitors and interactive kiosks.

Technically, Public Display CMS relies on NetXposure’s Syndication technology, which provides standard XML feeds including RSS and Atom. The Public Display CMS module makes remote URL calls to the DAM, reading the XML configuration files so that it can authenticate against the DAM. Once registered it will communicate with the DAM periodically, looking for syndication updates such as the URL and name of the feed to pull from the DAM, so that it can display the associated content on the client monitor.

The Public Display CMS module is built with Adobe AIR technology, so it’s easy to install and runs on all major platforms (Windows, Mac, and even Linux). The only requirements are a client PC or Mac with the following: Adobe AIR, a network connection, and the Display CMS application. The client is a double-click install, and takes seconds to configure and deploy. All content selection is done from the main Digital Asset Management application, making administration a breeze — you can change your content from anywhere!

About NetXposure

NetXposure delivers software solutions that reduce the time and cost of content production, maximize ROI from media assets, and streamline the workflows of managing large libraries of digital files.With a history as an industry pioneer in developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), NetXposure has become a leader in delivering Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions to organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries.

Founded in 1995, NetXposure is headquartered in Portland, Oregon with an offices in London, England and Tokyo, Japan. For more information visit www.netx.net or call 503.499.4342.

“When we released the fifth version last year we added a ton of new features to take advantage of the new platform afforded to us by the Adobe Flex interface,” said Jason Wehling, NetXposure’s President.  “With this release we focused solely on rebuilding the underlying technology to improve performance.  Our goal was speed and efficiency, and we’re happy with the results.”

NETXPOSURE 5.5 is a next generation Rich Internet Application (RIA) that has been re-coded to be even more efficient and stable when handling large volumes of files than 5.0, the original Flex version of the product.  Recent QA metric tests on version 5.5 compared to 5.0 produced the following results:

• 40% faster screen load times
• 50% – 80% faster file import speeds

In addition, customers will experience an intuitively expressive user experience, and new built-in tools that take advantage of technologies like Adobe AIR to help merge the Web and desktop experience. NETXPOSURE 5.5 also offers seamless interactivity with digital assets from virtually any application, including integration with Adobe Creative Suite, and runs identically in all major browsers and operating systems. 

About NetXposure

NetXposure delivers software solutions that reduce the time and cost of content production, maximize ROI from media assets, and streamline the workflows of managing large libraries of digital files. With a history as an industry pioneer in developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), NetXposure has become a leader in delivering Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions to organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries.  To find out how NetXposure’s products and services can unlock the value of your digital assets please visit our website: http://www.netx.net or call (503) 499-4342.

Cornell University wins a 2009 CASE Circle of Excellence Award with NetXposure’s DAM + Ecommerce Technology.

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Cornell University wins a 2009 CASE Circle of Excellence Award by using NetXposure’s DAM + Ecommerce technology to promote the university, connect with the Cornell community, and provide a revenue generating service from previously under-utilized digital assets.

As one the largest Ivy League universities (19,800 enrollment, over 255,000 living alumni) Cornell University has an exceptionally diverse community of students, faculty, and alumni. Among the challenges for the Division of University Communications at Cornell is to maintain connections to this vast network of “Cornellians”. In addition, this division serves as the university’s link to national and international media organizations, as well as the campus resource for marketing, digital and print media, graphic design, video, and photography.

Housed in University Communications is Cornell University Photography, a commercial photography studio offering a full range of photographic services in support of the university’s communication efforts. University Photography produces original photography for the marketing needs of Cornell and shoots for the Cornell Chronicle, the university’s newspaper. Each year the department shoots about 45,000 high-resolution photos of academics and research, campus life, special exhibits and events, and maintains an extensive library of over 25,000 historical images.

With Cornell’s library of digital images growing at an astounding rate, University Photography realized the need for a cost effective, easy-to-use solution to create and manage a centralized, web-based photo library. Additionally, they needed a way to simplify the system for internal photo requests, create an efficient way for the Cornell community at large to access images, and reduce the costs and resources associated with fulfillment of those requests.

To meet these criteria, Cornell chose NetXposure’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution with the EC Kit option – a robust Ecommerce add on module that seamlessly syncs with the DAM. The result was the “Cornell University Image library”, a customized, publicly accessible website managed through an internally accessible DAM. It allows users to search a large (and rapidly growing) archive of images either by keyword search, or by navigating a well organized category structure. Once users find the image(s) they want they can order digital or print versions in a variety of sizes, and then pay online with a secure transaction. In essence, Cornell has used NetXposure technology to create a revenue generating service from previously under-utilized digital assets, which also serves as a tool for connecting with the university community.

“NetXposure’s solution has opened up our photo archives and day-to-day business in a way that wasn’t possible before. It allows us to take our digital assets and better promote and distribute them to the public, which in some cases before just languished in file cabinets.”

Corey Chimko, Digital Resources Coordinator, Cornell University Photography

The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) is an international professional association serving educational institutions and the advancement professionals who work on their behalf in alumni relations, communications, development, marketing and allied areas. With nearly 3,400 colleges and universities, primary and secondary schools, and independent schools, CASE has nearly 22,000 members in 59 different countries.

In 2009, CASE awarded Cornell University a “Circle of Excellence Award” for the Cornell University Image Library. This award program recognizes outstanding work in communications and marketing, alumni relations, advancement services, and fundraising as judged by peer professionals at schools, colleges and universities as well as by professionals from outside education. For more information on this organization and award program, visit the CASE website at www.case.org

DAM + EC Kit Technology

EC Kit is an optional add on module to NetXposure’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution. It is a stand alone solution, separate from the DAM, that provides all the necessary front-end and back-end systems for selling digital goods stored in the DAM.

EC Kit runs as a separate interface with an easy to use, custom branded look and feel that non-technical users will be comfortable using. The public facing front-end provides all the standard ecommerce basics: user registration, asset browsing, searching, listing, zooming, add to cart, and secure purchase transactions.

EC Kit relies on a Services Oriented Architecture to remotely access data contained within the DAM via a Web Services API that utilizes SOAP over HTTP. All the data accessible from the EC Kit front-end (category structure, assets, metadata, etc.) comes directly from the DAM, however user roles and access permissions are entirely separate from the DAM. Therefore, DAM administrators can control and limit the categories and assets that will be accessible from the EC Kit front-end.

The EC Kit “Back Office” provides standard ecommerce functions including registered user management, order tracking, customer generated product specifications, and system activity statistics reporting. At any time administrators can use the Back Office to search for orders for critical information such as who placed the order, date and time order was placed, what product was ordered (e.g. SKU), and the purchase amount.

EC Kit can be configured to process payment transactions in real time. Common third party payment gateway technology (e.g. Paypal, etc.) is utilized to ensure that all financial transactions are secure.

About NetXposure

NetXposure delivers software solutions that reduce the time and cost of content production, maximize ROI from media assets, and streamline the workflows of managing large libraries of digital files.With a history as an industry pioneer in developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs), NetXposure has become a leader in delivering Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions to organizations of all sizes across a wide range of industries.

Founded in 1995, NetXposure is headquartered in Portland, Oregon with an offices in London, England and Tokyo, Japan. For more information visit www.netx.net or call 503.499.4342.

The Museum of Modern Art Makes Managing Digital Assets a Masterpiece

NetXposure’s Digital Asset Management solution helps MoMA create a centralized image repository, preserve its legacy database investment and increase productivity across departments.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Industry: Museum / Non-profit

Organizational Profile: Founded in 1929, MoMA in New York City is the foremost museum of modern and contemporary art in the world with a collection of more than 150,000 pieces and over 22,000 film and media works.

Challenges: As MoMA’s collection grew, it realized it had outgrown the image management capabilities of its legacy collections database, requiring a more sophisticated management tool for handling digital images, documents and rich media files.

Solution:

• NetXposure Digital Asset Management
• Mac OS X server
• Apple Xserve RAID

Benefits:

• Easy access to images
• Extends value of legacy system
• Saves about $200,000 annually in production costs

Founded in 1929, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City is the foremost museum of modern art in the world, establishing, presevering and documenting a permanent collection of modern and contemporary art.

MoMA’s collection includes more than 150,000 paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, architectural models and drawings, and design objects. MoMA also owns over 22,000 films, videos, and media works, as well as film stills, scripts, posters and historical documents. Maintaining an organized digital record of these assets is paramount to MoMA’s standing as one of the world’s most reputable education and research centers for modern and contemporary art.

Digital Assets – Fundamental to Achieving MoMA’s Mission

Information about MoMA’s collection has traditionally been archived in a Museum Collections Management System. The museum archives hold approximately two terabytes of historical and legal documentation on various CDs and hard drives, as well as a digital archive of tens of thousands of photographs, including installation views of exhibitions and images of the Museum’s building and grounds.

The archives, and specifically the digital images archives, have grown in numbers and significance over the years. Not only are the images critical to the documentation and preservation of the Museum’s collection, but they also play a fundamental role in helping MoMA promote the enjoyment, appreciation, study, and understanding of contemporary art to a wide and growing audience.

“Founded in 1929 as an educational institution, MoMA’s mission is to encourage a deep understanding and enjoyment of modern and contemporary art,” said Ramona Bronkar Bannayan, Director Collection Management and Exhibition Registration at MoMA. “The documentation and distribution of digital photographs and prints of original artwork to education, research and media partners, as well as for replication for posters, cards and other retail and educational offerings, is essential to this goal.”

Challenges – Outgrown Legacy System

As MoMA’s collection grew, it realized it had outgrown the image management capabilities of its legacy collections database. MoMA needed a more robust and sophisticated management tool for handling digital images, documents and rich media files. The lack of a modern and centralized image repository created several challenges:

• Difficulty Locating Assets. Staff members from all departments – from curators to marketing and PR to website development and merchandise support – need to access images and media files for projects. With files stored on CDs and hard drives in diverse locations, MoMA estimates that organization-wide their employees were spending upwards of ten percent of their time looking for images, causing noticeable productivity lags.
• Cumbersome, Manual Process for Managing Asset Creation and Delivery. Repurposing images within the legacy system and collaboration among staffers and partners was difficult at best. Many projects required high-resolution image formats that bogged down the system or simply were not supported. Further, the legacy system did not support the Macintosh platform, making it hard for many of MoMA’s Macbased staff members and designers to collaborate efficiently.
• Image Needs Growing at a Fast Rate. Since the completion of its $425 million renovation in 2004 which doubled the museum space, MoMA’s collection and exhibitions are growing rapidly. The Museum’s website has also experienced an increase in visitors and current projects are underway to deliver information and rich media to museum patrons through kiosks and podcasts.

To address these challenges, MoMA’s IT department recognized it needed a digital asset management system (DAM) that would enable it to improve the storage, retrieval and delivery of images and files, and also integrate with its Museum Collections Management System.

Solution – NetXposure

After careful evaluation of several different solutions, MoMA selected NetXposure, a web-based digital asset management solution for managing large libraries of images, documents and rich media files.

One of the most important factors in MoMA’s selection was NetXposure’s ability to seamlessly integrate with MoMA’s existing applications and workflow while delivering powerful workgroup collaboration through a single repository. NetXposure is based on open standard technologies. Its Web Services components and built-in integration with Adobe’s imaging technology ensure that the product can tie directly into almost any application. Additionally, features including auto-tasking, check in / check out, versioning, and saved searches enable NetXposure to operate with work-in-progress projects or other custom workflows.

While NetXposure offers solutions on all major platforms including Windows, Solaris, Mac OS X and Linux, one major factor to MoMA’s selection was NetXposure’s compatibility with the Macintosh platform. Leveraging core Apple Tiger technologies, It is optimized for Open LDAP, WebDAV, Apache Tomcat, and Apache Axis, making it the perfect fit for Mac OS X. Performance and storage capability can be enhanced by running the software on an Apple Xserve or an Xserve RAID.

NetXposure’s low cost was also significant to MoMA’s decision. According to Steve Peltzman, CIO at MoMA, NetXposure delivers similar functionality and features as other solutions on the market but is priced more competitively.

“NetXposure delivers excellent value for the price. In fact, you’d have to pay four times as much for similar capabilities in other products. It’s powerful enough to meet our growing image management needs yet isn’t front-loaded with unnecessary bells and whistles. Further, NetXposure’s willingness to customize the solution to meet our unique workflow was unmatched,” says Peltzman.

Benefits – Blending of Old and New Systems to Reduce Costs and Create Value

1. Easy Access to Images. The centralized repository links images, photos and rich media files with important data that is stored in the Museum Collections Management System, allowing museum staff to quickly and easily find valuable assets.
2. Extends Value of Legacy System. Linking NetXposure with the Collections Management System makes the legacy database more useful, preserving MoMA’s original investment.
3. Increased Productivity. Web-based collaboration allows departments to create, store, search, and share images more efficiently and effectively.
4. Cost and Time Savings. Automation of workflow and increased control of assets helps reduce costly re-creation of images and significantly reduce the amount of time departments spend looking for assets. MoMA estimates saving about $200,000 annually due to the reduction of search and retrieval time for unorganized assets stored in disparate locations.

Looking Ahead – MoMA Expands the Use of NetXposure

With NetXposure serving as the Museum’s centralized repository of images, photos and rich media files, MoMA is able to expand the use of its digital assets across multiple channels in the museum and online.

MoMA is in the processes of linking its online collection – an area of the organization’s website that receives the most visitors – to the central repository powered by NetXposure. In addition, website development and support teams leverage NetXposure for continual and easy access to images and files, enabling them to expand the use of its online collection and continue to attract users.

The Museum also plans to leverage NetXposure for its podcast and kiosk programs. The Museum is installing kiosks on the museum floor that will deliver content about exhibits to patrons. NetXposure will manage the organization and delivery of photos, audio and video to these applications.

“The bottom line is that our technology strategy is to grow our digital asset collection and to leverage it to better achieve the Museum’s mission,” said Steve Peltzman. “With digital assets core to this strategy, we rely heavily on the technology that manages these assets. NetXposure is a fundamental piece to this.”

NetXposure Featured in KMWorld Magazine Article: The Art of Digital Asset Management. The global market for digital asset management (DAM) solutions was more than $330 million in 2007, according to ABI Research and is predicted to reach $1 billion within the next five years.

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In a down economy it’s more important than ever for organizations to find ways to cut costs, improve operational efficiencies, and expand the reach of existing marketing initiatives. These are just a few of the immediate benefits of implementing a Digital Asset Management solution. NetXposure presents the top 10 reasons to purchase a DAM this year.

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