TECH BRIEF Digital Asset Management. Build Better Applications. Why DAM is the right approach for building content-oriented applications Welcome to the Software-Defined Enterprise Major changes in IT and engineering are driven by the increasing demands of customers and the advancement of a digital services-based economy. Traditional models of infrastructure, application development, and deployment must adapt, moving toward a more dynamic and extensible operating model. The Evolution of Content in the Software-Defined Enterprise How Content-Centric Business Applications are Redefining Content, Big Data and Enterprise Content Management 1
One area of particular importance is Digital Asset Management (DAM). Developers have built applications to create and manage digital assets and content for a while now. Traditionally, the primary purpose of content management platforms was storage, lifecycle management, sharing of content, and retrieving assets. While those needs haven t gone away, organizations are beginning to recognize that the content they create and obtain through daily operations is a key driver of innovation and these organizations are building DAM based applications to manage this content. Web and mobile applications have forced us to rethink how applications can be built to take advantage of these assets. The way we use content and assets has also changed. No longer located in static, lifeless documents, content has become a living asset that can be separated and pieced together in different ways, depending on the business processes that use it. Building applications that repurpose content in fresh and creative ways is a strategic differentiator for any organization. A sustainable, competitive advantage can be achieved by developing applications that leverage new and existing digital assets. Organizations that implement innovative approaches to support and deliver business information, create the building blocks that they can reconfigure as needed in a short amount of time. We call this the software-defined enterprise and it s changing everything. The Proliferation of Content Based Applications Organizations are building new applications to create and share content. In many cases they are web-based or mobile - useful for remote employees who aren t tied to a desk, and for consumers who demand new ways to engage with them. Digital Asset Management platforms must support new ways to not only create and manage content, but make it easy to build applications that take advantage of digital assets currently being created and those that are already stored within your organization. 2
The New Role of Content Management Platforms as Development Platforms Flexible platforms are needed so that solutions can be built and adapted to the specific needs of each organization. The challenges of legacy ECMs have opened the door for agile content management providers to gain a foothold. Those that provide content services and content collaboration via the cloud, recognize new channels and devices with new ways to quickly build and change applications. They provide unique and innovative approaches to organize and deliver content in a more meaningful way. Content is added and created within these applications based on the business processes that define them. As the needs of the business change, IT must adapt and deliver the best solutions to meet those needs. Those changes must happen in hours and days, not weeks and years. Legacy ECM vendors are developing their own ready-made applications on top of their platforms for collaboration, as well as mobile and cloud access. Unfortunately many vendors build generic solutions that can t meet the needs of every organization, and the applications continue to create silos of static content. Organizations understand their processes better than any software vendor can. Tools and technologies (i.e. building blocks) that will help them develop business applications specific to their needs, are the future of content management. This includes Digital Asset Management Platforms that support content as living assets, enabling its use in a variety of applications depending on the business need. Today s Content Platforms: Systems of Empowerment Let s step back to beginning for a minute. When content was first managed, systems of record were created - a way to store and manage content. Next, systems of engagement - where organizations provided tools to enable collaboration between employees and customers. This collaboration will always needs to happen, but it s now more than just collaboration, it s about what can be done with the content itself. Today, content platforms are really systems of empowerment. Most organizations already realize the productivity gains from using technology, but technology has a finite limit. 3
Successful organizations don t silo their information; instead, everything is connected within their corporate ecosystem. They empower employees by providing them all the tools and information they need to do their job effectively. Across verticals, organizations gain a competitive advantage by developing solutions that deliver highly relevant, timely information. A content-services platform that can integrate living, active content directly with the business applications is required. Modern organizations use their digital assets in new ways - that s where content, and flexible business applications, play a big role. USE CASE: DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT EA builds video games. In response to a potential threat of information leaks about new games and updates, EA needed a solution to track and control its video game builds. They developed a DAM-based application using the Nuxeo Platform that manages all the information for each game, including who it s built for, what stage of the development process it s at, where the binaries are located, and more. The Nuxeo Platform enabled us to build an application to manage video game builds in 7 months vs. an estimated 12-13 months for a solution developed in-house. We accelerated our time to deployment by nearly 50%. - Steve Scivally, Technical Director, Release and Preservation Management at EA Electronic Arts Content and digital assets are provided through a tightly integrated set of content-services from a content management platform. New content can also be created directly within the business application and it s managed in the content management platform, making it available to others who may need it. In this approach, content is treated as a living asset that is mixed and molded in different ways, based on the user s needs. 4
Supporting Application Innovation with a Strong Content Foundation The recommended approach to start a content-based application project begins with a DAM platform. Developers then have a system that processes critical business content and adapts to their unique requirements. Using an extensible and flexible platform, such as Nuxeo, allows rapid creation of complex content models, internal and external workflows, integrations to other systems, and a custom UI. Content is ready for use in web and mobile applications and gives organizations a competitive advantage. It s not about building bigger, better content management platforms that act as silos of information. It s about building systems of empowerment - business applications that create and utilize content to support customers (both internal and external), and systems that are flexible and quick to adapt as things change. Organizations that bypass legacy systems develop applications at a greater scale and lower cost. These organizations succeed. ABOUT NUXEO Nuxeo provides an extensible and modular Open Source Content Management Platform enabling architects and developers to easily build and run business applications. Designed by developers for developers, the Nuxeo Platform offers modern technologies, a powerful plug-in model and extensive packaging capabilities. It comes with ready-to-use Document Management, Digital Asset Management and Case Management packages. 1000+ organizations rely on Nuxeo to run business-critical applications, including Verizon, Electronic Arts, Sharp, FICO, the U.S. Navy, and Jeppesen, a Boeing Company. Nuxeo is dual-headquartered in New York and Paris. For more information about Nuxeo, please visit www.nuxeo.com. 5