How CareerTrackers Saved $6,000+ Annually with Canto Digital Asset Management in Australia

At CareerTrackers, storytelling plays a vital role in their work, with videos, photos, graphics and print collateral helping to share student and partner success stories.

The Challenge: Managing Content Across Multiple Systems

For Penny Wittenbaker, CareerTrackers’ Digital Content Manager, and her team, the biggest challenge was working with creative assets stored in multiple places, which made it slow and frustrating to find the right files, support internal requests and collaborate with external editors.

The team relied on Google Drive and external hard drives to store assets. Files were inconsistently named and scattered across multiple locations, making it difficult to find or reuse content. Collaborating with external editors required large file transfers, often resulting in duplication and lost time.

There was also no single, centralised hub where university partners or internal staff could access approved materials for campaigns, events or ongoing communication needs.

Finding The Right DAM

CareerTrackers needed a better, centralised solution for managing, editing and distributing videos, photos, and promotional materials.

Penny Wittenbaker and her Communications Director began looking for a digital asset management (DAM) platform that could bring order to their creative workflow. Penny researched several options, using web research and insights from previous workplaces that had used DAM systems. She compared features and pricing, created a business case, and presented it to the CEO and board.

Canto stood out for its ability to handle multiple file types (not just video), strong integrations with Adobe, Canva and Google, and its support for privacy and security through facial recognition — a valuable feature for managing consent among students appearing in media.

Canto’s broad functionality, ease of use, and strong support stood out, and the ability to manage all creative assets in one place.

  It ticked off all the pain points we had — from disorganised content to the need for integration with tools like Adobe, Canva and Google.

DAM Implementation and Use

With the help of databasics, CareerTrackers introduced Canto as its central digital asset management system, creating a structured, scalable home for all creative assets.

CareerTrackers uses Canto for every stage of content management — from uploading footage from events to sharing finished assets across internal and external audiences. Penny uploads and tags videos and photos, organises them into albums by event and year, and uses the Adobe Connector to edit directly from Canto.

Canto Portals allow university partners to access pre-approved flyers, posters and digital materials on demand, reducing the need for manual distribution. Penny is also building an internal portal for staff to access marketing assets without needing her team’s help.

Workspaces and Upload Links make collaboration with photographers and editors simple — they can upload or access specific content safely and efficiently.

CareerTrackers now have:

• A single library for all media types, organised by year and event with clear naming and tagging conventions
• Direct access to assets via the Adobe Connector, saving time on file transfers and improving editing efficiency
• Seamless integrations with Canva and Google for faster collaboration
• Workspaces that allow external editors to securely access specific project footage
• Upload Links for photographers and videographers to deliver content directly to the right album
• Portals that let university partners and internal staff self-serve approved assets like posters, flyers, social tiles and email banners
• Collections for quick, one-off shares, plus versioning and duplicate detection to maintain order and consistency
• Facial recognition to help manage consent and ensure images of students who have opted out of publicity are not published

Key Features Driving Efficiency

AI Features
CareerTrackers currently uses facial recognition and is exploring Canto’s growing suite of AI tools, particularly those launched in version 11. These include the AI Library Assistant to automate organisation, as well as using video descriptions to generate suggested tags for faster retrieval.

Related files
Penny values the related files feature because it lets her link connected assets—such as audio and video—so everything she needs for editing is grouped and easy to find.

Searchable descriptions
She frequently relies on searchable descriptions, which allow her to quickly locate files even when she hasn’t had time to fully tag them.

Portals, Workspaces and Collections
Collections are a go-to when Penny needs to quickly curate and share a set of assets, making ad-hoc requests fast and effortless.

Version control and duplicate detection
Version control gives her confidence that the team is always using the latest file, while keeping a clear history of previous edits when needed.

Adobe Connector
Adobe Connector gives Penny and her team efficient way to access and edit images and videos.

  I love that you can search what’s written in the description. If I don’t have time to tag a video, I’ll write a short description, and that’s enough for me to find it later. 

The Results: $6,000+ in Annual Time Savings

Canto has significantly streamlined CareerTrackers’ content management. Penny estimates it saves her around three hours a week – that’s estimated over $6000 of savings annualy - from just one user. And that doesn’t even include the indirect benefits like faster campaign delivery, fewer reprint requests, or better brand consistency across teams.

The team now works from a structured, central library that’s easier to maintain and safer to use.

Facial recognition has enhanced compliance and helped the organisation ensure that sensitive content involving students is properly managed. Overall, Canto has become their “source of truth” for all digital assets.

The benefits:

• Around three hours saved each week through faster searching and direct editing access
• Safer, compliant publishing thanks to facial recognition and improved access control
• Partner self-service that reduces reprinting requests and back-and-forth communication
• Greater internal adoption as an internal portal for approved marketing materials is rolled out

Canto has also simplified external collaboration — editors can now retrieve and work with footage directly from within Adobe software, ensuring consistency and efficiency.

What's next

Looking ahead, CareerTrackers plans to extend its use of Canto even further.

“Digital transformations need champions,” says Penny, "The new Canto Ambassador group will turn everyday users into advocates, spreading best practice, inspiring confidence and helping colleagues discover the full power of Canto."

Penny believes that digital transformations succeed when users become advocates, not just participants. By empowering ambassadors to promote the value of Canto in their day-to-day work, the organisation aims to build deeper engagement, drive adoption and ensure Canto becomes part of everyday workflows.

CareerTrackers is focused on building on the strong foundation they’ve created with Canto. The organisation wants to take its digital asset management practices to the next level — moving from efficient storage and sharing to smarter collaboration, automation and engagement.

With new initiatives like the Canto Ambassador group, enhanced AI features and expanded use of Portals, CareerTrackers aims to make Canto an integral, organisation-wide platform that empowers every team to create, find and share content with ease.

• Expanding Portals – CareerTrackers plans to extend the use of Portals across departments, university partners and internal teams, giving each group tailored access to the content they need without being overwhelmed by the full library.
• Launching a Canto Ambassador group – A team of enthusiastic users will promote best practice, share tips and support their colleagues. Penny sees this as key to encouraging adoption and building a strong internal culture around digital storytelling.
• Embracing AI automation – The team is eager to explore new AI capabilities such as the AI Library Assistant to streamline tagging, organisation and discoverability across their growing library.
• Introducing workflows – CareerTrackers is looking to use Canto’s workflow features for approvals and publishing, reducing manual steps and improving collaboration between communications and content teams.

Why CareerTrackers Chose a Canto Partner in Australia

CareerTrackers continues to value the responsive and proactive support provided by databasics. From implementation to everyday use, the databasics team has delivered practical guidance on portals, collaboration and governance, helping CareerTrackers get the most out of its investment in Canto.

“We couldn’t be happier with databasics. The team is quick to respond, proactive and thorough — onboarding and day-to-day use have been smooth and stress-free.The only thing I wish they’d do is organise my files for me!”

  We couldn’t be happier with databasics. The team is quick to respond, proactive and thorough — onboarding and day-to-day use have been smooth and stress-free.The only thing I wish they’d do is organise my files for me!