Widen and Silicon Publishing Announce Partnership to Integrate DAM With InDesign Plugin

MADISON, WI–(Marketwired – Jun 11, 2014) – Widen Enterprises, the leading provider of SaaS digital asset management (DAM), has announced a strategic partnership with Silicon Publishing, the world leader in automating web-to-print and multi-channel publishing with InDesign. The Widen Media Collective version 7.2 integrates with Silicon Publishing’s InDesign plugin enabling designers to work more quickly and accurately.

Silicon’s Adobe-savvy team customized the InDesign plugin specifically for Widen DAM customers. Users can simply drag an image from the Media Collective and drop it into their InDesign documents. If edits are made to the image in the DAM site, changes are automatically reflected on the image in InDesign.

“The development teams at Widen and Silicon Publishing specifically tailored the design workflow to cater to the needs of our creative users,” said Deanna Ballew, Manager of Development and Infrastructure for Widen.

“We have worked with many DAM systems over the years, but Widen stands out as a refreshingly direct, efficient and cost-effective digital asset management solution provider,” says Max Dunn, Co-Founder and President of Silicon Publishing. “It’s been exciting to connect with a company with such extensive publishing and content workflow experience.”

Overall, the integration extends DAM as a critical component of the creative design process. Key benefits for the Widen-InDesign integration include:

• Drag and Drop – Users can quickly drag and drop images from the Media Collective and place them into an InDesign layout.
• Linked Files – Files are linked directly to the Media Collective in InDesign. Files updated in the Media Collective are automatically updated in InDesign.
• Workflow Flexibility – Teams can choose either a high-resolution or low-resolution workflow.
• Package Linked Files – Users can extract all high-resolution files from the Media Collective by using the Package option in InDesign to easily send files to other vendors.

“Our customers tasked us with finding a better way to integrate marketing content with creative workflows,” said Matthew Gonnering, Widen CEO. “True to Widen form, we listened and aligned with a proven technology to solve a market need.”

The plugin was built to be scalable, easy to use and beneficial to organizations of all shapes and sizes. Early adopters of the integration, Sub-Zero and Promega Corporation, have been able to reduce the manual steps in the creative process with the plugin.

“In terms of quickly concepting a layout, the plugin has dramatically reduced the turnaround time,” said Jake Sikir, Graphic Designer at Sub-Zero. “We no longer wait to download a set of images. Instead, we place multiple images, and then download when we find the right fit.”

“The InDesign plugin with the Widen DAM system has really opened the eyes of our designers to the power of the DAM,” said Sara Sarow, Marketing Services Operation Supervisor at Promega. “Instead of treating it as simply an archival system, they are seeing DAM as a tool they can use in their day-to-day work.”

Earlier in 2014, Widen partnered with AtTask, provider of cloud-based enterprise work management software for marketing teams, and ProofHQ, a leading provider of online proofing software. Widen’s partnership with Silicon Publishing further enhances the Media Collective experience by optimizing project management, proofing and design workflows.

About Silicon Publishing

Silicon Publishing is the world leader in automating web-to-print and multi-channel publishing with InDesign. Silicon Publishing has over 13 years of experience delivering best-of-class publishing solutions for some of the world’s top brands, including Nike, Google, Amazon, Hallmark, Shutterfly, and Disney. For more information about Silicon Publishing, go to http://siliconpublishing.com.

About Widen Enterprises, Inc.

Widen is a marketing technology company that powers the content that builds your brand. Leveraging cloud-based resources, Widen delivers configurable, scalable and cost-effective digital asset management solutions to help you easily store, search and share your digital content. Organizations of all sizes use Widen’s SaaS DAM solution, the Media Collective, to streamline their marketing and creative workflows and make their content work harder. Widen is trusted by hundreds of thousands of users around the world at organizations like LG, Roche, Trek, Cornell University, New Orleans Tourism Marketing, The Atlanta Falcons, Red Gold Tomatoes, Electrolux, Yankee Candle, and SeaWorld. To learn more about Widen, go to http://www.widen.com.