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Picturepark

Profile Index

    The DAM Playbook

    This vendor appears in the in the DAM Playbook.

    DAM 10 Core Accreditation

    This vendor is 10 Core accredited.

    Vendor Details

    Contact Name
    David Diamond
    Company Profile
    Picturepark digital asset management software is browser-based and runs on the Cloud or on-premise. The Picturepark UI is based on Swiss design principles that make it easy to use and view for extended sessions.

    Entirely custom interfaces based on HTML5/CSS can be easily built for Picturepark using Picturepark Ports. In-page portals can be added to website sidebars and other areas to offer live download lists, featured files and more.

    Integrations are available for SharePoint, Dropbox, Typo3, WoodWing and more. Desktop connectors are available for Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. The Picturepark Web services API enables developers to build additional integrations.

    Rich, high-resolution previews are provided for bit-mapped and vector image formats. Multi-page previews are available for PDFs, PowerPoint and even Microsoft Word docs.

    Support for any number of metadata fields is included. Picturepark's Adaptive Metadata makes it possible to define metadata schema for various asset classes, rather than being locked into a single schema across the system. Support for multiple taxonomies and controlled vocabularies is standard.

    Granular permissions is standard with Picturepark. Permissions are assigned via templates that maintain live links to their assets, so global updates are easy.

    Asset sharing links enable users to share files with anyone. Links are "live" so the shared files can be changed or removed, and new files can be added at any time. Users can see who has downloaded a shared file, and when.

    Assets can be requested by users who lack permissions to download them. The responsible party is notified via an email that permits approval or rejection, with comment.

    Interactive reports based on detailed statistics cover individual assets, user groups or Picturepark as a whole. See which assets are popular, which users are generating the most traffic or using the most storage space.

    All Picturepark systems support true multi-tenancy and multi-instance deployment.

    SOA-based Picturepark supports clustering for load-balancing and failover. Offload video processing or image rendering to a separate cluster, add dedicated servers for the search service, and more. All Picturepark services can also be run on a single server for smaller onsite installations.

    Picturepark Regional Clouds enable qualified partners to offer SaaS-based DAM services that remain in compliance with data storage regulations. The first Regional Cloud was launched in 2013 for the Oceania region.

    A live demo instance of Picturepark is available at http://picturepark.com/now

    Read a selection of Picturepark customer testimonials.

    Contact Telephone
    +1 415 830 3119
    Contact Email
    info@picturepark.com
    Company Website
    http://picturepark.com
    Years Trading
    13
    Company Turnover
    This is the actual turnover of the vendor in US Dollars.
    Revenue not disclosed - privately held
    Office Locations
    • Aarau, Switzerland (Headquarters/R&D/Services)
    • San Francisco, USA (Sales/Support)
    • Vienna, Austria (Sales/Support)
    • Hyderabad, India (Sales)
    Product Name
    Picturepark DAM
    Latest Version Number
    8.6
    Date Of Last Release
    11/02/2014
    Documentation URL
    https://picturepark.com/help
    Online trial link
    http://picturepark.com/now
    Trial download or sandbox link
    http://picturepark.com/now
    Company RSS Feed URL
    http://picturepark.com/feed/
    Company LinkedIn URL
    http://picturepark.com/linkedin
    Company Facebook URL
    http://picturepark.com/facebook
    Clients & Customers
    • Calvin Klein
    • Burberry
    • Swatch
    • Las Vegas Sands
    • Goodyear
    • Belden
    • Vertu
    • Breitling
    • British Land
    • Tissot
    • De Beers Diamond Jewellers
    • The Swiss Postal Service
    • E-ON Energy
    • Federal-Mogul
    • Bertelsmann Stiftung
    • Gudel
    • Hamilton International Ltd
    • Harry Winston
    • Hilti Corporation
    • Infineon Technologies
    • Infront Sports & Media
    • Jura
    • Audemars Piguet
    • Raiffeisen
    • Rieter
    • RUAG
    • Kaiser
    • Siemens
    • SKINS International
    • Swiss Olympic Association
    Partner Network
    If the vendor operates through a sales channel they may use intermediaries who have regional focus or additional specialisms in a given vertical market.
    • Yes
    Partner Network Notes
    Picturepark added 10 additional partners in 2012, four in 2013, and more will be announced throughout 2014. All Picturepark-certified partners have been trained in the installation and configuration of Picturepark systems for the Cloud and on-premise.

    Licensing

    Licensing Model
    This refers to the type of licence the DAM system software is supplied under. Proprietary means that the developer restricts access to the source code (the instructions used to generate the software). Open source means that the developer provides full access to the code so you can modify it yourself. Split model is hybrid and means they may offer both options with some restrictions removed (or added) depending on the model chosen. If split is selected, it is advisable to verify the differences with the vendor.
    • Proprietary
    Use of Open Source Components
    Many DAM systems use freely available open source components to deliver key functionality. The products themselves may not be open source, however. This question will help to identify to what extent they are open source.
    • Some open source components used, but core product is not open source

    Hosting

    Software Delivery Methods
    • Installed (On-Premise)
    • Cloud/SaaS
    • Hybrid

    Technology

    Client
    Client refers to the type of hardware or software device that can be used to access or control the DAM system.
    • Web client
    Client Notes
    HTML5-based to work reliably across all modern Web browsers, including those on mobile devices.

    Server Operating Systems supported
    This only applies for installed or hybrid DAM systems and refers to what types of OS they can be run on. This question is less relevant for DAM systems where a third party will be hosting it for you.
    • Windows
    Server Operating System Notes
    Picturepark Cloud/SaaS customers do not perform any system maintenance, so they are completely isolated from the server. Picturepark on-premise customers must run Picturepark on Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012.

    Web Server
    The type of web server software that the DAM system can operate with. Not all DAM systems use a web server and for pure SaaS products the question is irrelevant. If you either want SaaS or non-web DAM systems, do not choose an option.
    • IIS
    Software Development Technologies Used
    This means the programming language or development technology used to implement the DAM system. This question is more important for open source software or if you have IT policy restrictions that require you to use (or not use) some technologies. It may not be relevant if you require a hosted DAM and never intend to host the system in-house.
    • .NET
    Server Technology Notes
    Picturepark is based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA).

    Database Technology
    The Database that the DAM system uses. All DAM systems require some kind of storage for asset metadata and they are usually based on an existing technology - but that may not always be a conventional database. If the DAM will be hosted by someone else (e.g. SaaS/Cloud) this question may not be relevant.
    • SQL Server
    Search Technologies
    This refers to third party search components that the vendor uses to provide the text search features (and sometimes other related search functions).
    • Lucene
    • SQL Server
    Search Technologies Notes
    As of Picturepark 8.6, the product now includes a NoSQL search index layer above its SQL Server database. The index is used for search in addition to browse operations, such as category clicks and type-ahead.

    Service Oriented Architecture
    Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) means the vendor's product uses a modular architecture where each core DAM function is delivered as a service which can be separated out independently from other functions. It is important for large-scale Digital Asset Management implementations or more complex integration requirements.
    • Yes
    Unique SOA Services
    If the vendor uses a Service Oriented Architecture, they should be able to identify a number of unique services that are isolated from each other. Note there is overlap between with question and the one about scalable asset processing. Some vendors do not have an SOA but do offer large scale asset processing capabilities.
    • Metadata
    • Storage
    • Asset Media Processing
    • User Authentication
    • Workflow
    • Other
    SOA Other Services
    • Zipping/archiving
    Service Oriented Architecture Notes
    Picturepark is itself a set of services that work together and in conjunction with the Windows Server OS to provide DAM services. All sub-components of Picturepark, such as rendering, Zipping, processing libraries, workflows, etc., are based on independent services. This, in part, enables the system to remain horizontally scalable across multiple nodes for load-balancing, hot-standby failover and computer clustering.

    Search

    Search Features
    This describes the search strategies that can be used to find assets. If you do not understand any of them, leave the options de-selected. Most DAM systems should support at least keyword search at a minimum.
    • Keyword
    • Folders
    • Filters
    • Faceted Search
    Search Notes
    Picturepark can find assets based on their associations with other assets.

    Index/Search Text Content Of Documents
    Some DAM systems can search the text content of document assets and that might be important for your DAM solution.
    • Yes
    Document Text Indexing Notes
    Text found in PDF, Creative Suite and Microsoft Office files can be indexed.

    Metadata

    Embedded metadata support (reading)
    Embedded metadata refers to information stored within asset files which can be searched from the DAM system. There are different standards for this type of metadata. Some image cataloguing software like Adobe Lightroom will write this data to asset files and a device like a camera may capture details also such as GPRS coordinates where an photo was shot. XMP metadata is often used with other types of files such as InDesign or PDF. If you are unsure whether this applied to you, do not check any options.
    • IPTC
    • IPTC Core
    • XMP
    • EXIF
    • PLUS
    • Dublin Core
    • Other
    Embedded metadata support (writing)
    See the reading question above for more details on what embedded metadata is. This question refers to whether embedded metadata can be written back to files if edited within the DAM system.
    • IPTC
    • IPTC Core
    • XMP
    • EXIF
    • PLUS
    • Dublin Core
    Controlled Vocabularies
    Controlled Vocabularies are predefined lists of search terms. They can be realised in many different ways but the common factor is the user picks from a restricted selection rather than enters a keyword. Most DAM systems will usually support both controlled vocabularies and keywords.
    • Yes
    Controlled Vocabulary Notes
    Controlled vocabularies are maintained via category tree nodes. In other words, users build their vocabularies based on category hierarchies. A category is attached to a field as the root of its CV, and allowed values are the names of all categories beneath that root in the tree. This makes editing and import-updates easy.

    User Defined Metadata Fields
    The ability to configure metadata your own metadata fields is important for DAM systems so you can assign a dedicated field for certain items of information rather than using a generic classification method or one of the vendor's own standard fields.
    • Yes
    Cataloguing Interface Options
    When cataloguing assets with custom fields, some metadata will be controlled selections, others will be free text. There are further choices like date fields, file attachments etc.
    • Text field
    • Text area (narrative)
    • Radio
    • Checkbox
    • Date
    • Numbers
    • Other
    Cataloguing Interface Notes
    Verify how the vendor has implemented a given cataloguing interface control. It is preferable if they can demonstrate with examples of how they have implemented interface options for cataloguing and metadata entry.
    Picturepark additionally supports "Tag Box" fields, which are used to store one or more values from a controlled vocabulary. Each Tag Box field is linked to a node in the Picturepark Tree. The categories/tags below that node are the allowable values for the vocabulary.

    Business Intelligence & Reporting

    Asset Usage Records
    To enable reports to be generated, DAM solutions must retain records of asset usage, including searching, download and editing of records. The reporting should include the user who carried out the activity and the date/time it occurred.
    • Yes
    Asset Usage Notes
    Picturepark collects usage statistics that include previews, edits, and downloads for each derivative. Statistics can be shown for specific time periods and they can be segmented based on user groups or tenants, for multi-tenant systems.

    Audit Trail
    A detailed audit trail that logs every user action in a central record is useful to gain insight into user behaviour. Comprehensive audit trails allow DAM system users to produce reports that address their unique needs.
    • Yes
    Audit Trail Notes
    User activities can be seen on a per-asset level or on a per-user level. Picturepark tracks just under 50 different user actions that are viewable in the user record to permitted administrators. There are just under 20 per-asset stats tracked. These stats are viewable to permitted users from within the asset record window.

    When stats are viewed in "journal" format, they are effectively an audit trail. (They can also be viewed as charts.)

    Built-In Reports
    A range of built-in reports that you can quickly generate is useful to answer common questions such as the "what is our most popular asset?".
    • Most popular assets by download
    • Most active users by uploads
    • Most active users by downloads
    • Download activity over a given period
    • Login activity over a given period
    Reporting Notes
    In order to facilitate the product's multi-tenant and "Regional Cloud" capabilities, Picturepark additionally provides reports about storage use and traffic that can be segmented based on user group or tenant. Storage reports can further segmented by asset format.

    Asset Processing

    Dedicated/Scalable Proxy or Derivative Asset Generation
    Nearly all DAM systems will generate thumbnails and previews of media, including more dynamic types like video or audio. Some products use a separate server to do this which usually makes them more suitable for large scale asset ingestion and processing.
    • Yes
    Dedicated/Scalable Proxy or Derivative Asset Generation Notes
    Picturepark's support for hot-standby failover, load-balancing and computer clustering enables it to offload more than just rendering to other nodes or clusters.

    Multi-Page Document Asset Previews
    If you deal with document oriented assets, having a solution which can generate multi-page previews (and also zoom in on them) can save the hassle of downloading a file only to discover it is not the one you need. For assets with very similar content, this can be a useful feature.
    • Yes
    Multi-Page Document Asset Preview Notes
    Picturepark natively offers multi-page previews for PDF, Word, PowerPoint and Excel files. (Print regions in Excel define the "pages" seen.) InDesign multi-page previews are available with the addition of the Creative Connector.

    Asset Manipulation

    Image Manipulation
    Many DAM systems allow users to manipulate images by resizing, cropping etc. Choose any features which are important to your users.
    • Image re-sizing
    • Image cropping
    • Format conversion
    • Flip images
    • Rotate image
    • Change colorspace
    • Effects & filters
    Image Manipulation Notes
    Output parameters can be specified in advance, making it possible to quickly build AdWords ads or other Web files that must conform to set specifications.

    Video Manipulation
    Some DAM systems may allow video assets to be converted or modified. If that is a potential requirement for you, specify those features which are likely to be needed. EDL = Edit Decision List and refers to providing in/out points when editing video footage.
    • Format conversion
    Video Manipulation Notes
    H.264 video derivatives are created automatically upon upload to ensure videos can be previewed via browsers.

    Integration

    API
    API means Application Programming Interface and allows third party software to control a DAM system. If you intend to integrate your DAM with another existing solution then you need to choose the API protocol that is compatible with that.
    • SOAP
    API Notes
    Picturepark UI is built using the same API that's available to developers.

    The Picturepark SDK includes code examples for .NET/C#, PHP and Java, all of which can be used to extend the core functionality of the product though add-ons, integrations or completely custom user interfaces.

    Storage Integration
    Many DAM solutions will now allow assets to be stored on the server of Cloud storage providers. This allows asset files to be distributed and/or integrated with other solutions. Some third party services use generic protocols like FTP, others are proprietary.
    • Dropbox
    Storage Integration Notes
    The 2014 Picturepark product road map includes the addition of other 3rd party storage options, but as of this writing (2013.12), only Dropbox is available.

    Scripting & Plug-Ins

    Scripting Capabilities
    Some advanced DAM solutions have a scripting capability that allows users or third parties to add functionality which the vendor did not originally envisage. Usually programming skills will be required to use this, but some tools have visual interfaces also.
    • Yes
    Scripting Capability Notes
    The Picturepark workflow engine supports .NET-based scripting and also includes a number of pre-configured "blocks" with which users can build more complex workflows.

    Plug-In Support
    In addition to scripting (or sometimes instead of), some DAM solutions will have a plug-in architecture that allows third party developers to extend the core platform.
    • No

    Authentication

    Authentication Support
    If you need to integrate with an existing corporate authentication service then this option will be important for you.
    • Active Directory
    • LDAP
    • SAML

    Multi-Lingual Options

    Multilingual Application Interface Support
    The interface means the controls to use the DAM system. This is different from the metadata support which is usually entered by end users when cataloguing assets.
    • English
    • French
    • German
    Multilingual Metadata Support
    See previous question. Most DAM systems with multi-lingual support will provide it for metadata.
    • Yes
    Multilingual Support Notes
    Any number of additional metadata languages can be added at anytime. Users decide which fields should be localized, so that the system isn't cluttered with File Format fields in 12 different languages that all show the same value. New localized values are added by permitted users via the Web browser. No back-end system configurations are required.

    Product Screenshots

    • A clean, Swiss-design inspired UI makes it easy to use Picturepark, and to work with it during extended sessions.
    • Microsoft Word documents can be previewed, page-by-page, in Picturepark.
    • Per-slide previews are available for PowerPoint files, making it easy to find specific content.
    • Picturepark sits right inside SharePoint as a Web Part that provides search, basket support and downloads.
    • Users can choose categories they'd like to monitor for notifications. Emails are sent as changes occur. Changes can also be triggered based on search queries for more specific notifications, such as "Notify me when an asset is assigned to me." Events can also trigger workflows and make external system calls to notify a CMS or PIM that they should pull a "fresh" version of the asset.
    • Users can easily share assets via emailed links. Links point to "live" collections that can be edited at any time, so "Current Documentation" and similar persistent links can be published on websites, in PDFs and via social media.
    • It's easy to build and share detailed search queries. Any metadata value can be considered, and Picturepark can even find assets based on their permissions (rights) settings.
    • Find assets that are assigned to two or more classes or categories using multi-select category searching.
    • By using nodes of the tree as the basis for controlled vocabularies, Picturepark makes it easy to define multiple vocabularies, edit vocabularies and import vocabularies from external sources.
    • To enhance user communication and collaboration, Picturepark offers a dashboard that offers widgets for user blogging, system activity (uploads, edits, etc.), and easy iFrame-based integration with external forms, lists and other Web content. All widgets honor user permissions, so users won't see the activities of other tenants or groups for which they shouldn't.
    • Picturepark gathers statistics on a vast array of system data. Interactive reports are available for each asset, each user group and the system as a whole.
    • For organizations that need detailed control over what users can do, Picturepark provides an advanced user rights mode. A simple mode is also available.
    • Specific points in video can be instantly recalled via cue points. Each cue point has an editable time marker and description. Descriptions become searchable metadata, which enables users to find video scenes in addition to entire videos.

    Product Videos

    Picturepark 8.4 - What's New

    Brief overview of what's new in Picturepark 8.4, which was released in February of 2013.

    Picturepark Online Demo Overview

    Learn what you can do in the live Picturepark online demo. Signup at http://picturepark.com/now

    Adaptive Metadata (Asset Classes)

    See how easy it is to create and maintain adaptive metadata schemas that reflect the life cycle of content.

    Mailing and Ordering Assets

    Sharing is easy through an email-like interface. People who don't have permission to download an asset can request it. If approved, the asset is delivered.

    Subscriptions for Workflow Notifications

    Picturepark can notify users when assets are added, changed or deleted. Notifications can be limited to trigger only when certain metadata conditions are met. The same notification system can be used to notify external applications via the API.

    Search options in Picturepark

    See the various search options that are available to Picturepark users. (Hint: Look for additional search functionality in late 2013!)

    Picturepark Demo Overview

    See an overview of what you can do in the live Picturepark demo, available at http://picturepark.com/now

    Profile Last Updated: 08/07/2019
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      All profile information has been provided by the vendors themselves and they are responsible for both its accuracy and validity.