Just as the DAM conference season kicked off last week in New York, we released an update of our Digital & Media Asset Management evaluation research. In this update, we take a close look at the latest releases from Canto, WoodWing, and North Plains.

Since the major investment by Accel-KKR in 2011 and the acquisition spree that followed, North Plains’ focus on product development waned while its focus on sales and marketing kicked into overdrive. Founding CTO Steve Sauder left in 2013, and recently more major changes were made at the top of the organization: the formerly service-focused CEO, James Christopher, was replaced by Mimi Thigpen (whose focus historically has been on corporate growth and strategic consulting). What does this mean for product development and customer service?  In the report we share some thoughts on the current situation, as North Plains customers ask where Telescope is headed next.

In this update we also look at the latest release of On Brand (which North Plains took on as part of the VYRE acquisition). On Brand progressed more as a product in the last two years than has Telescope; we see this as a response to the general trend of buyers looking for rapidly-deployable DAM products.

Canto is shaking its reputation as a tired DAM granddaddy with major upgrades to its user interface (finally fully web-enabled), a video cloud offering, and improved plug-ins to the Adobe Creative Suite. We’re also seeing Canto up their game in recent DAM selection projects, turning out to be stronger players than they were a year to 18 months ago.

WoodWing, the parent company of Elvis DAM, has expanded its support team and services offering, but there’s still not much to boast beyond western Europe. We weigh in on the latest with this update.

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