Canto: Repurposing Digital Assets for a Better Brand Experience

Every day while sipping his morning cup of coffee, Jack McGannon, CEO of Canto, ritually logs on to his personal e-mail, tracks online business orders, makes a brief stop at his Instagram account and also creates a quick blog post. Like McGannon, millions of internet users around the globe generate large terabytes of data each day, adding massively to the existing digital footprint. “We are a global society of visual storytellers, and our demand for images, videos, and marketing content is insatiable,” remarks McGannon. On the other hand, the burgeoning array of digital channels poses as a daunting challenge for most marketers, as now they are burdened with the task of not only developing content, but also effectively managing and sharing it. According to a study by MarketsandMarkets, a research and consulting firm, the Digital Asset Management (DAM) sector is growing from $1.16 billion in 2014 to $4.12 billion in 2019. With over two decades of expertise in DAM technology, today Canto is instrumental in effectively securing and repurposing digital assets amid the market volatility and rapid growth. The company streamlines digital content processes, leverages brand assets, and helps publish resources across all channels through its DAM software and services for an enhanced and meaningful brand experience.

Reinforcing Brands with Cumulus

Delivering next level of enterprise DAM, Canto’s Cumulus software is an open yet sophisticated tool that offers secure access to digital assets from any location and on any device. “Cumulus can store, search, and track sophisticated metadata information and enables clients to publish brand assets on multiple platforms and channels,” explains McGannon. Offering a variety of storage and deployment options, Cumulus can be tailored to fit to a company’s IT configuration requirement; whether private, on-premise or hybrid cloud DAM. The solution works from any browser with an HTML5 responsive design and can be configured in infinite ways to support a variety of installations.For optimum image and video publishing, Cumulus comes with an advanced distribution technology that allows users to preview, transcode, and transform data while on the go. Additionally, with Cumulus, a client can streamline content creation and asset handling, automate manual workflows, set up process steps, and assign status-based tasks.Governed by a goal to minimize friction created by an ever increasing pool of digital content, Canto recently released Cumulus X, an enhanced version of their product.The milestone version 10 of the Cumulus platform offers a powerful mobile-first architecture, more robust third party application integrations, and multiple options for secure 24/7 access to digital assets, coupled with an all new iOS app.

Once, the Atlantic Coast Media Group (ACGM), a multi-channel personal care marketer, experienced a significant increase in their multimedia content owing to an expansion in their product lines and marketing outreach. The client had accumulated over thousands of bulky production video and image files that were stored on different servers in various folder structures. “The challenge in finding the right photos and videos caused delays in getting the product to market and the customer’s local storage advertisement required plug-ins to be previewed, which weren’t easily accessible to the marketing team,” states McGannon. Cumulus enabled ACMG to move from a dated folder structure file management system to a streamlined, mature DAM system where they could preview and stream videos and images, as well as organize, manage, and distribute production files with ease. ACMG also took advantage of Canto Roboflow—an add-on product that enhances Canto Cumulus with “watch folder” auto-cataloging and catalog synchronization—to automatically route images and videos into predefined categories. This addition made the influx of countless assets a hassle free process for the client. Ultimately, upon deploying Cumulus, the client was able to better manage their valuable digital assets and seamlessly conduct their distribution and marketing projects.

Say Goodbye to Bulky Attachments

To help clients intuitively manage and share digital assets, Canto also provides Flight—a cloud based SaaS solution that uses a visual interface and complements Cumulus solutions. Flight not only simplifies team collaboration, but also facilitates users to organize, find, and share files using unlimited custom-branded portals. “Flight was developed for the increasing number of organizations looking to access applications in the cloud, rather than deploy their own infrastructure,” says McGannon.

With Flight, a client can send large files, photos, and videos directly to a recipient with secure links, rather than bulky attachments to view or download files. The tool also allows customization options where a user can incorporate a design that matches their branding requirements.

Structuring Complex Needs with Hands-On Support

Always aiming at maximizing a client’s investment, Canto’s professional services connect strategy, processes, technology, and business skills.

“We train our administrators and users to ensure that their new and improved digital workflows are fully optimized,” quips McGannon. In the case of Newsday, a daily newspaper, the client wanted to shift their communication with advertisers to a more mobile, digital process. As a solution, Canto developed a specific iPad app to support onsite sales processes for Newsday—using the Canto Integration Platform and Canto professional services. The app allowed Newsday’s sales personnel to place 15 to 20 percent more orders, witness shorter workflow, and dramatically reduce the error rates in corrections. “Canto’s professional services took over all the consulting and integration services to disseminate a modern advertising business workflow that delivers real-time digital proofs of print advertisements,” adds McGannon.

As implementing a solution that works in tandem with a client’s existing infrastructure is a core requirement for most organizations, Canto provides standard integrations for a number of Content Management Systems (CMS), Product Information Management (PIM) Systems, Adobe Tools, and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or cloud storage tools. The Canto Integration Platform, RESTful API, is also known for bridging the gap between Cumulus and the front-end user interface. Canto’s customers automatically gain access to the Canto Community where the company offers full access to downloads, upgrades, and additional resources. This includes expert advice, DAM community engagement, and resources at the user’s fingertips. Moreover, to enable customers attain a holistic perspective of their data and IT infrastructure, Canto has established technology partnerships with several software vendors that are closely connected with DAM.

"Flight was developed for the increasing number of organizations looking to access applications in the cloud rather than deploy their own infrastructure"

More Innovation on the Charts

Dedicated to helping companies transform their digital workflows with continual product innovation, Canto plans on deepening its customer relationships and partner alliances. In the days ahead, the company will be addressing their customers’ rapidly changing needs, with powerful integrations, improved workflows, and other features that create an exceptional user experience. Currently, the state of DAM tools has spiraled from storing and cataloging data to being able to predict and craft a business strategy after data analysis. What is driving this evolution is the metadata that accompanies every digital asset. Staying abreast of current market needs, Canto envisages further enhancing metadata handling, indexing, and versioning capabilities of a DAM solution. “We will continue our longstanding commitment to create a better, more engaging user experience for our customers, while also establishing DAM as an indispensable enterprise application,” ends the CEO.