Customer success story Australia

GOAL

A solution that enables efficient tracking and searching of assets while ensuring meticulous management with respect to privacy and copyright compliance.

RESULTS

Centralised asset management provides easy asset search and retrieval, along with all metadata, consent and copyright information at your fingertips.

Wesley Mission is a Christian organisation , with a long history of faith and pioneering care. Helping people is what inspires Wesley Mission staff every day. From the emergency and crisis support a person needs to survive, to the hope and encouragement that will help them thrive, Wesley Mission is there for individuals, families and communities as they face life’s challenges.

Shelley Kirkwood, who has a long-standing background in production within creative services, currently holds a position in the Marketing & Fundraising department at Wesley Mission. In her role, she focuses on producing marketing collateral and managing digital assets, which include images, videos, and PDFs crucial for sharing the stories of those supported by Wesley Mission.

The Challenge

“The stories of Wesley Mission are more effectively told through word and image, with image being stills or video. These assets are critical to our ability to share the stories of those we’ve supported. A picture is worth a thousand words, as they say,” explains Shelley.

Before Canto, Wesley Mission assets were filed primarily within folders related to specific deliverables. These assets weren’t searchable, and information on filed assets was lost when a staff member left the organisation.

As the asset library continued to grow, a more viable long-term solution was necessary. “We needed a solution not only to ensure we could track and search the assets we had, but also to ensure we manage assets with the utmost care for privacy and copyright,” said Shelley.

It was agreed that they needed a central location for their digital assets that would make images, videos and pdfs easy to find and retrieve. Shelley was tasked to research suitable digital asset management solutions.

The Solution

“I first researched which solutions would fit our needs. An off-the-shelf product can’t be customised, so this was important,” Shelley said. “After we selected Canto, I drafted a user manual ready to support the implementation.”

Before implementation, Wesley Mission worked with databasics to anticipate issues that could arise in the transition and address then in advance. databasics played a crucial role in this process by promptly addressing any questions that arose, thereby facilitating a seamless integration of the system.

The biggest time-saver with Canto? - Finding assets! We can easily search keywords to locate the assets we need and can see instantly what permissions are assigned before we use an asset.

Shelley Kirkwood
Marketing & Production

Investing in Canto was a sound business decision and has yielded many benefits.

Shelley Kirkwood
Marketing & Production

The Results

Easy asset discovery with Canto

Wesley Mission now stores its images, videos, and related pdfs in Canto. It is simple to use and navigate for everyone. All metadata and asset versions are managed in Canto. The ability to perform visual search within their digital asset management system streamlines Wesley Mission's ability to manage their extensive library of digital content, which is very helpful when reviewing a photo shoot compilation or searching for a historical asset.

Streamlined workflow

When asked to send images for review, Shelley is now able to share a collection of images, both internally and externally, instead of having to download and attach each asset individually. This makes the process faster, more streamlined and more professional. Once assets are provided for upload to Canto, the metadata is added and related assets are grouped together, along with appropriate consent forms or copyright information. “Most of our assets require talent consent or have copyright assigned. Being able to upload the relevant documentation with the asset is a big plus,” adds Shelley.

Greatest wins

Image and video assets to be repurposed now reside within Canto and are easily searchable and found, along with all the metadata, consent, and copyright information. Each asset also contains the information on whether it is approved for use, and those terms of use.

Canto is easy to navigate not only for the solution administrators but also for others on the team that search and use the assets.

“The biggest time-saver with Canto? – Finding assets! We can easily search keywords to locate the assets we need and can see instantly what permissions are assigned before we use an asset.” – Shelley Kirkwood.

Powerful features

Relate assets

Being able to relate assets in Canto is highly useful for Wesley Mission because it allows them to easily link associated content, such as different versions of the same asset, related images from the same photoshoot, or supplementary files. This capability enhances organisation and accessibility, enabling team members to quickly find not just a single asset but also its contextual or supporting materials. This feature is particularly beneficial in streamlining projects that involve complex media components, such as marketing campaigns or fundraising initiatives, where consistency and easy retrieval of related assets are crucial.

Portals

Canto Portals are a great way for Wesley Mission to create customised access points for different types of content based on specific permissions. By setting up separate portals such as the Main library, Download portal, View portal, and Property Plans portal, Wesley Mission can tailor what certain areas of the organisation can access. This structure not only enhances security by controlling who can see and download certain assets but also improves efficiency by ensuring that team members have easy access to the specific resources they need for their tasks.

AI-driven features

Canto’s AI-driven features, particularly Facial Recognition, are highly useful for Wesley Mission due to the people-focused nature of their assets. By utilising facial recognition, Wesley Mission can significantly streamline the tagging process. Once a person's image is tagged, the system automatically tags other assets featuring the same individual, saving considerable time and effort. This automation ensures consistency in asset tagging and enhances the accessibility and searchability of media files across the organisation's digital libraries. Additionally, Shelley performs regular spot checks on the auto-tagging to maintain accuracy and reliability in the system, ensuring that the automated processes are functioning correctly and effectively supporting Wesley Mission's various activities and projects.

Dedicated customer support

Wesley Mission’s team are never on their own when they need help, databasics team is always there to answer all the questions quickly and simply.

“Any clarity needed of the Canto solution was largely sorted prior to implementation and migration, with questions along the way answered promptly by databasics,” says Shelley. “It’s great to work with databasics.”

It's also nice to be able to offer Canto direct suggestions for system improvements and know you're being listened to," Shelley adds.

Result: more time to focus on giving a voice to people Wesley Mission supports

Although Canto has not altered the nature of their work, it has significantly improved the efficiency with which the Marketing and Fundraising are able to manage assets. Centralising their assets in Canto means Wesley Mission can effectively file and retrieve assets that help tell the story of people and communities they support.

Wesley Mission continues to advance its strategic goals and fulfil its vision of "Doing all the good we can because every life matters". The organisation values the efficiency that Canto brings to its operations to support this work.

And one thing to add for other organisations that are considering implementing a DAM solution: “Do your homework! The proof is in being able to test multiple alternatives to find what best suits your needs,” says Shelley, who did the research first to determine how best the Canto solution would fit Wesley Mission’s needs.