Acquia DAM (Widen) Reviews

It's the one place for all content to live and get shared out across multiple platforms. Support for project management (through Workflow) and creative implementation (through Adobe CC Connector) enhances our productivity and helps us get our jobs done faster.

The software seems sluggish and lags when you want it to go fast. File processing and scrolling through assets is where I've noticed this the most. The uploading process also needs to be cleaned up and more inviting to users.

Assets are served up quickly around the world and it is a very stable platform. When technical issues do arise, they are very communicative about their progress of solving the issue. I like the dedicated customer rep as well as access to new features and feedback through their Trello boards. I also like the ability to extract metadata from image IPTC metadata and map it to our custom fields.

I like the ability to create portals in order to highlight and add info to curated groups of assets, but there are some weaknesses in portal functionality and portal creation capabilities. It would be ideal to be able to create custom dashboards/homepage without extensive use of html. The current wysiwyg is extremely limited in design/layout capability. We'd like a better way for our users to be able to search for portals.

Widen is a great receptical to all of our imagery for our products. Downloading images from the portal is easy as well

Finding documentation seems to be difficult. Not sure if it the actual software or if it is the manner is which our company set it up.

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.

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.

Speed.
Since the beginning we've upload thousands of images and added hundreds of users across our company and partners. It has not slowed down with all of the added weight and burden. It's still as snappy and responsive searching for assets in the beginning. Narrowing the search results and downloading images is very quick.

Support.
The support could be better. There has been times, not in a while, when it goes down, just like any cloud service. But it seems the first line of support are the on-site admins. It's a problem when they are not in the office. There's not an easy way to contact support when needed. There should be a chat feature to let them know when we are experiencing outages and get the issues solved.

It's so easy and intuitive to use. The metadata search boxes on the side help narrow and refine the search. And the customer service can't be beat!

I don't like how the collections can't be edited between users. We have had to figure out a workaround to be able to share and edit the same collections.

The user interface is so simply we can add new users quickly and easily and they can find assets with a minimal amount of training.

Some of the role permissions arent explained ver well. There were a few settings we needed to have turned on in order for users to be able to use the system effectively.

The tag and search functionality. We no longer have the chief marketing officer instant-messaging our team to find awards, accolades, images, and illustrations. Other departments can self-serve as their needs dictate, and we can track usage of key assets with Insights.

The Insites analytics are not intuitive to use. I would like deep practice, usability, and best practice webinars and or forums to better understand the power this feature.

Customer Support, website functionality, ease of uploading new assets and then finding them later, user control, sharing capabilities including the file type selection. Love the zoom feature!

Honestly, it's not with Widen itself. My biggest complaint is with my own team because I keep having to reset people's passwords for the site because they forget them. Luckily, it's really easy to do in the Admin functions!

I like being able to search for multuiple product skus

I would like WIDEN to tell which product MID's are not showing results in a group search

The DAM interface is quick and easy to use, the reporting capabilities are robust, and the security allows a lot of flexibility. In addition - we love the Portals - which allows us to provide assets to our non users.

Knowing that a DAM is customized to your company’s needs, I'm not going to lie – implementing a DAM system can be grueling and a lot of work. But that’s the beauty of a DAM – as your company grows, your DAM can also grow and be customized to reflect changes and future needs.

It makes keeping things organized (which is a complicated job) super easy.

It works really, really well, but as with any asset management tool, there is ongoing maintenance and auditing that has to take place. That can get tedious at times, but we realize that it has to be done to keep things current, delete outdated/redundant assets, or just to check things that might have been uploaded with incorrect metadata, for instance.

The biggest business problem that it has solved for my company is it allows multiple people to do what once was a one person task. It saves time when being able to have multiple people have access to the same files and being able to send, upload and manage it all. Being able to easily send outside organizations images and documents has saved us so much time and has left very little room for error when sending. With Widen's recent website advancement's, it's given me an opportunity to create a creative brief for projects I'm working on. All within 1 website. It's great.

This doesn't happen all the time, but sometimes I will be uploading files and Widen will time out or freeze during my upload and I'll have to start the process all over. This could be a problem with my internet connection as well.

We use Widen as an asset manager, giving our teams easy access to photos, videos, and illustrative elements. As the administrator, I can create different user accounts, letting some people have more access than others if they need it. I can also provide third-party contractors access to our resources too.

The admin side can be a little bit tricky to navigate, and it would be nice as the administrator to be able to change my view settings to spoof different levels of access, so I can quickly see what kinds of access my users have and make changes or alterations without needing to create multiple accounts for myself.

Using Widen software has allowed our creative teams to manage content more effectively. With it, we are able to track asset revisions and popularity. This has made it easier for us to be more strategic in the creation and placement of our content.

Additionally, with the Workflow management tool, digital proofing interface and Digital Asset Management library, our users only have to visit one site to enter jobs, proof and collaborate on new content, and access current assets and media.

Sometimes we experience "glitches" or "bugs" within the software after a major update is rolled out, but that's to be expected and they are always quick to respond when this happens.

What I like most about Widen is that they are very open to receiving feedback and improving the software based off of user comments. They host annual events to bring other clients together to share ideas and knowledge of how their users work in the software. All of the Widen staff is available for comments.

What I like least about Widen is that all of the connectors and API's that help integrate our DAM into other business platforms, such as Salesforce, Sharepoint, CreativeCloud come with an additional annual fee.

Intuitive, strong on basics, interesting road map for upcoming releases.

It would be nice for non-users to be able to approve digital assets for use when they are sent a collection. However, the road map for Widen Workflow shows promise as a solution for this.

I like that Widen is an easy way to find assets. It is helpful for a large company--because everyone knows where to find the assets that they need. It is easy for all employees to get to--IT does not have to come and install it--it is just an internet login.

I do not like how sometimes it is hard to find things with searches. I know that this has to do with the upload metadata and probably is related to user error. Perhaps if there was a more automated way to add search criteria when uploading, this wouldn't be an issue.

This software is incredibly helpful for storing our vast collection of assets. It allows for easy organization and I'm able to find anything I need easily through name or metadata searches. It also has a relatively quick download speed for when you need something off the cloud in a hurry. Their Portals have simplified the way that we can show clients current campaigns and it's given us the ability to send individual commercials to clients with ease, and as a bonus, it's all available on mobile.

Widen just updated with a new upload mode, which would be fine, however, they completely removed the drag and drop option on the Widen homepage.

Easy to use and getting easier every day..

So much to learn and so little time!

The cloud-based system is very convenient, as is the level of customization for our specific needs. Very easy to upload, access and share photos and video clips with anyone we want, all in a secure environment.

Properly tagging uploaded assets can take some time, and while it's not the software's fault, the time commitment to maximize our use of the DAM system is the biggest issue we have to manage on an ongoing basis.

Widen Collective is being used greatly by many individuals in similar roles in our company due to its many features that allow each of us to achieve our tasks with ease. I use this product for the sake of its archiving purposes, project and workflow management accessibility. The possibility to manage minor tasks, access controls and track employee milestones are important jobs I have to do which is made easy by Widen Collective.

Widen Collective is a broad software with multiple available features, with this is the difficulty to maneuver around this program at a first glance. It may take a few tutoring sessions and practice to be able to perform tasks with this software, especially if you are not that inclined with technology.

Easy to use and customizable. Very rarely goes down and is always reliable. Easy to teach people how to use

The only thing I do not like about the software is how hard it is to figure out what the most important insights are. I love that we have all the information but I would like to understand it better

It's an easy way to send high-resolution photos and video to our clients.

It's hard to find the 'order's I have previously done. Sometimes I like to put the orders back in my cart to re-send but I can't seem to find how to do that anymore.

You can find whatever you want in seconds, also you can filter as much as you need and the best thing that I love is the option to create your own collection. This function is so helpful!!
Another point is the possibility to share the files to everyone through the link, it helps a lot!

I miss, on the file type filter, the option to filter by GIF. and by file extension. It'll be incredibly helpful for my job. As I work with Paid Social Campaigns, I use a lot this kind of file.