PRLog (Press Release)–May 06, 2009– Widen Enterprises, a Madison, Wisconsin-based premedia and software services provider, today announced the release of its spring update (Version 5.3) of the company’s Digital Asset Management (DAM) application.

Widen’s spring release incorporates important modifications designed to generate efficiencies in the company’s primary hosted software service—the Widen Media Collective®—which supports creative and marketing workflows for creating, managing and distributing digital media assets. The release also includes significant changes to the Widen® Appliance, the on-site hardware/software configuration integrating the company’s hosted DAM with the client’s desktop.

“Four times a year, we do our very best to advance digital asset management systems and technologies to better serve our client’s current needs as well as the next generation of media management,”said Widen CEO Matthew Gonnering. “Our software-as-a-service application has been proven to increase return on marketing investments, protect brand consistency, leverage the power of the web and capitalize on the demand for online video.”

Gonnering said web-based and hosted DAM software is the new standard for organizations on a tight budget that need to increase marketing efficiency and effectiveness. These latest enhancements to the Widen Collective came about through ongoing market research and customer feedback:

Enhanced asset versioning, metadata administration and preservation
Advanced performance and ease of use with Admin Tools
Strengthened security and tracking on ordered assets after leaving the system
Improved help/support within the application and through online chat

Gonnering said Version 5.3 also contains improvements to the Dynamic Media Building tool for brand controlled ad & brochure creation and document collaboration using Adobe® PDF Shared Review.

The Widen Appliance has also received significant upgrades with the 5.3 release, including a new browser-based user interface and integration direct to the desktop. This is a server that Widen places and controls at a client location when a client’s creative/design/production departments regularly work with very large digital files. The Widen Appliance enables access and modification of these files at local area network speeds by internal staff working in creative applications. File management and synchronization between the Widen Appliance and Widen Collective hosted service are automatic.

“The Widen Appliance helps many of our clients meet the cross-functional demand to globally distribute digital assets to the sales channels without impeding internal creative workflows,” Gonnering said. “At the same time, we maintain it and our infrastructure and security shelters organizations from external threats. The Widen Appliance extension of the hosted DAM easily accommodates the expected exponential growth requirements due to the explosion of digital content, particularly high-resolution images and video.”

About Widen Enterprises, Inc:
Based in Madison, WI, Widen has honed its more than 60 years of experience in premedia and color management specifically for assisting customers with building brand equity and supporting consistent brand representation across print and web communications. Through its inventive suite of web-based digital asset management applications, Widen software services provides marketing networks with real-time web-based access to the clients’ digital asset libraries that subsequently eliminates manual search and file preparation time, costs related to replacing images and videos that cannot be located, and the added cost for hardware, software and upgrades.