Creative Operations, Marketing Workflow, Marketing Project Managment

This article by Patti Johnson, Founder and CEO of PeopleResults, originally appeared on the Bluescape Technology Blog and we think our readers will find it informative. Technology transformations can miss the human element. It’s common to go from looking at exciting new features, creating an implementation plan, and, of course, managing costs—all important, but not enough. We must personalize the technology to realize the benefits.

When we think of photo studios, we think of bright lights, models wearing the latest fashions, and a photographer snapping photos as the models pose. The end results are fantastic product or editorial images that end up on websites, advertising, and magazine layouts. But beyond the glitz and glam, there is an entire logistical engine tracking every possible piece of data from managing talent contracts, keeping track of the whole product lifecycle in the studio, when it comes, when it’s scheduled to shoot and when and where to ship it back to. And that’s not even taking account of the actual shooting of photos, which has its own specialized process. An efficiency expert in a Washington Post article determined that work interruptions can cost up to 6 hours a day. And photo studio employees are no strangers to work interruptions.

This article by Morag Cuddeford-Jones originally appeared on the censhare blog and we think our readers will find this information useful. How much time do you spend looking for your house keys every morning? Perhaps hardly any. There is one set and it always lives in the key drawer. On the other hand, maybe two or more people in your household have a copy. Do they all put their key in the same drawer? Or does one set live in a handbag and the other in a desk drawer? And perhaps one of those sets also has the key to the shed, which means hunting down either that set of keys (or its owner!) every time you need to get the lawnmower out.

At any time, a disaster could occur and disrupt your day-to-day business operations. In the face of such an unfortunate event, fortune favors those best prepared. Is your business prepared? Or would you be confronted with the loss of your business-critical data? 

Businesses evolve, they grow, they restructure. At one point or another, all marketing and creative organisations will have to update or upgrade a significant portion of their tech stack, as their existing processes and workflows become outdated with new advances in technology. 

The world of marketing has transformed dramatically in the last ten years or so — what used to be a linear approach is now a much more complicated, multi-channel beast — and this has led many businesses to adopt technology-based solutions to their problems. The number of different systems and software-based applications available today is overwhelming, ranging from digital asset management (DAM) and content management systems (CMS) to product information management (PIM).