Clothing retailer Next is building a digital ‘Image Factory’ to make it quicker and more efficient to manage its growing volume of digital assets for use on its website and in marketing campaigns.
This will help the retailer to bring its products to life on its ecommerce website (next.co.uk) and the Next Directory more efficiently, and to create a more immersive experience for customers.
Next has a huge volume of images to deal with, plus they have major drop dead deadlines they have to work to, such as the launch of each fashion season and each Directory.
This means that having an effective and future-proofed digital ‘Image Factory’ to manage these efficiently is of paramount importance.
Next Plc has selected multi-channel publishing firm Evolved Media Solutions (EMS) to the task of building and implementing the new platform which will be created using WoodWing’s digital asset management system, Elvis, tailored to Next’s own unique needs.
The new DAM system will be flexible, able to manage a variety of different asset types for use across different devices and scalable for use across 72 countries. EMS will integrate Elvis with Next’s IT systems and will ensure that that the new, more flexible platform is able to upload digital assets, manipulate them and get them ready at speed for the ecommerce website, Next Directory or marketing purposes.
Russell Pierpoint, Managing Director at Evolved Media Solutions, adds, “We will use Elvis as the core of the DAM system because it is so scalable, making it possible to work with up to 100,000 assets a day. The platform will provide a more fluid workflow which will also include automated processes to make tasks such as imagery uploading, resizing, colour balancing and approval quicker, easier and more efficient.”
Jan de Roos, CEO of WoodWing Software, says: The volume of assets needed across all areas of marketing and communication are growing every day. We designed Elvis in a way the system can easily handle even the largest volumes of any kind and can be scaled without limitation. Next’s decision to switch to Elvis shows that this strategy fully complies with the requirements of our customers.”