Overview
J2S earned expertise in “content to print” over the past 20 years. Indeed, J2S successfully managed numerous projects with advertisers, agencies, studios, and book publishers. One of J2S’s cloud software products, Simple Workspace, embodies this expertise. Simple Workspace is versatile and powerful, used daily to produce a wide range of materials such as books, posters, labels, newspapers, magazines, creative catalogs, fully automated catalogs, sales offers, and even catalogs in Excel format. If you have a publishing project, feel free to contact us! Simple Workspace is constantly evolving. Yet, in 2018 Simple DAM was introduced. Previously, Simple Workspace provided folders to store images used by publications. However, to better serve its purpose as a production tool, Simple DAM was developed. It was designed by team members who were authors of two prominent DAMs, Phraséa and Perigee, ensuring that Simple DAM was simple and solid from the start.
Simple DAM
Simple DAM is a web application created for managing files, including images, within document production applications. Simple DAM is a “multi” application, meaning customers can access multiple DAM instances. The Simple DAM user interface consists of: A folder tree on the left; The contents of the selected folder in the center, with various views; Details of the selected file on the right; Controls at the top, including the search tool. To add files, drag them into the central area to upload and store them in the selected folder. To move files or folders, select them and drag them to another folder. Right-click to rename a folder or image, download files or a folder, as a zip archive… All these actions are designed, with the appropriate rights control. In short, it’s a simple, straightforward interface that users can easily navigate. Under the hood, Simple DAM has a thumbnail engine that works with most known image formats. If a file is not an image, Simple DAM presents an icon according to its nature. Based on this, Simple DAM offers the required services for collaborative working.
File-related Data
An image contains more than just pixels. That’s why we have EXIF-IPTC 1 2 metadata. Simple DAM includes metadatas, such as the date the image was taken or the photographer’s name. You can also add other properties to each image, like the “Dimensions” field in the screen above. This data is used by the search tool to quickly find all images, using stacked criteria as shown in the screen below.
Workflows
We have discussed the workflow engine in Simple Workspace, which is also available in Simple DAM. Each image can be associated with one or more processes by adding workflow properties. Similarly, the workflow engine can trigger actions, such as moving images from one folder to another based on their status. For instance, you can set up a folder to organize unprocessed images, approved images, pending approvals, external source images, and more.
Albums
The Digital Asset Management system organizes images in its main tree. However, it can also be helpful to place them in parallel in other folders, which is where albums come in. Some albums are shared, while others are personal. Albums can also be used to store a selection of images.
Drop Zone
The information we’ve covered is about giving access to known users. It can be helpful to authorize access to external users by providing them with a URL link. With Simple DAM, you can invite your suppliers or any other external organization to upload files, either manually or through automated processes. This capability is called drop zones. You can create them as needed and connect them to a workflow so you can receive notifications about incoming files via email, for example.
URL link
You can share an image, folder, or album with others by providing a URL link for read-only access. Instead of downloading and attaching large pictures to emails, you can send the URL link, allowing the recipient to access the image. URL links also allow other applications to use Simple DAM, which features APIs like all other Simple Workspace applications.
Simple MOM & Simple DAM
Each Simple MOM offer can be linked to Simple DAM images manually (drag & drop) or automatically (naming rules, for example). While Simple DAM can be reorganized (moving files, renaming folders), the links with Simple MOM remain. As a result, thanks to the image “replacement” function, there is no break of the association the old one had with Simple MOM offers. With these mechanisms, Simple DAM and Simple MOM can manage a succession of states. A good example is the notion of an intentional image ordered from a photographer, only to be replaced by the image chosen at the end of the cycle.
Searching images through product features
Using Simple MOM to associate with images allows for searching by product features. For example, you can use product reference data to search for images. This enables you to adjust the distribution of data between the offer stage and the image stage to better fine-tune it.
Web exports
Simple DAM can export images to your website or any other output while applying processing, such as exporting 3 images in PNG or JPEG of different sizes from native images and naming rules. Many of our key account customers provide their e-commerce platforms in this way.
Simple DAM
To sum up, most of our established and new customers use Simple DAM. J2S has chosen a subscription model, which means it doesn’t divide functionality into pricing elements. What does this mean? J2S customers benefit from Simple DAM without worrying about their subscriptions!
Would you like to know more, or would you like a live demonstration? Get in touch with us . We’d be delighted to hear from you.
David Lantier
Business Developer