Timberland implemented Open Text's digital asset management system to centralize their collection of digital assets and media. This solved problems of assets being misplaced, duplicated efforts across regions, and not knowing global usage rights. The system provides a secure central repository, user permissions, and searchable access to assets. It has improved productivity, collaboration, and eliminated costs associated with physically distributing media.

1. 1 | Customer Success
Open Text Optimizes Media Management at Timberland
Digital Asset Management System Saves Time, Improves Media Re-Use, and Reduces Risk
quarters in the United States, Timberland offices span North “Images were put onto DVDs and on shared drives, which
America, the United Kingdom, and Asia. would then get archived to CD after about two years,” says
Timberland implements media management software from Dimou. “We would save all of our images according to year,
Open Text to manage their digital assets and all types of rich so there was a bit of a file system, but it was manual and
media including, brand and company logos, digital photos, only internal.”
“Before implementing the media management promotional images, catalogs, photographs, video, ad layouts,
software from Open Text we were at a risk of concept designs, and more. The system enables Timberland Sharing knowledge across the enterprise
losing the entire original collection of physical to centralize their collection in a secure repository for global There were obvious shortcomings to this storage system—in
media in a disaster. That was one of the use. The company can set user privileges and release dates particular usage rights. “The internal design team was aware
reasons we looked for a software solution on content and control usage rights and restrictions based of the usage rights, knowing what to use in an ad, a direct
that could manage and maintain our assets on the assignment of roles and asset groups. mail, or an in-store graphic. Externally this information was
in a safer place.” harder to track down. Before switching to Open Text, there
The challenges of global consistency was no way to keep the usage rights and other information
According to Victoria Dimou, the Creative Director Art and about an asset with the actual asset. Now everyone with
Copy Group at Timberland, and an early adopter of Open Text’s access to the system can quickly and easily review the
digital asset management system, one of Timberland’s greatest information,” says Dimou.
challenges was global consistency. “Making sure that everyone “There was also the possibility of design teams in different
was aware of what assets were available across the globe regions duplicating efforts. The gallery view provided a visual
Timberland is a global leader in the design, engineering,
was an issue,” she says. “Another was keeping track of those snapshot of the recent projects and photography available
and marketing of premium-quality footwear, apparel, and
assets. For instance, images on CD or DVD had a tendency on Gear Box (the name they branded their digital media
accessories for consumers who value the outdoors and
to get misplaced. Other issues were the duplication of assets, repository), thereby eliminating the risk,” she says.
their time in it. Timberland markets products under the
ensuring that usage was understood globally, and finding a “Some other beneficial features are the image conversion and
Timberland®, Timberland PRO®, Mountain Athletics®,
storage place that was big enough to house all assets.” contact sheet creation. Three custom one-step downloads
SmartWool ®, Timberland Boot Company™,
Howies ®, and IPATH ® brands. With head- Before introducing Open Text media management, Timberland allow the user to convert and export an image, eliminating
had no formal company process for storing their digital assets. the need for proprietary image software for each desktop.

2. 2 | Customer Success
The contact sheet feature enables the user to create a custom sessions,” says Dimou. “We now send out a monthly Gear
contact sheet of their selected assets. This downloads as an Box newsletter to keep them engaged. Once a system has
Acrobat® PDF,” says Dimou. Customer been around a while, it’s vital everyone know about changes
and upgrades. We also encourage the users to provide
Open Text system creates Industry
feedback on the system and how it is working for them.”
a central place for valuable images
When Timberland implemented digital asset management
Digital asset management system
software from the former Artesia (today an Open Text media Business Challenges generates measurable efficiencies
management software solution) in early 2006, it was with a What do Timberland users like most about the Open Text
goal to create a central place for everybody in the company, system? Dimou says, “One-touch, one-click downloads.
all over the world, to find images. Quick keyword search. Contact Sheet. Simple navigation.
“During the implementation process, the Timberland team took Sets and Collections. All over the internet.”
a scoring grid and categorized their must-haves and nice- Tracy Legge, Digital Asset Manager at Timberland, explains
to-haves,” says Ravi Vyapuri, IT Application Architect at why users like the personal sets and public sets feature that
Timberland, who was directly involved in the implementation Business Solution the software offers. “They like to share images with other
process. “We met as a core team (assembled from the relevant people in their groups. For instance, someone from marketing
departments) and wrote down all of the features that were can go in and create a set of images for other users to have
most important to everyone.” Business Benefits easy access to. Accessing the images on the Internet is more
Certainly usability was important,” says Dimou. “And because convenient for users than logging onto the company network.
we are Mac-based, it was critical that the solution we selected Having those assets as thumbnails provides a visual snapshot
worked on Mac and PC. Archiving images was important, but of the contents.”
being able to search those images via keyword was critical. Overall, Open Text’s digital asset management solution has
Open Text has a robust search engine, indexing asset contents improved productivity and collaboration across the enterprise.
as well as the metadata input.” “In the future, there are plans to implement the work flow
Timberland looked at several vendors, but was most impressed function to further enhance this,” says Dimou.
with the Open Text digital asset management software. Legge adds, “The system saves time as well. The images are
“It satisfied the key requirements not only of marketing, but of in Gear Box, and users can get them right away as opposed
the broader enterprise—product development, licensing, to FedExing a disk that could take two to three days inter-
apparel, corporate communications, and e-commerce,” says nationally. Before, we might have burned 20 disks a day for
Dimou. “Open Text’s ability to handle different file types, such Today, Timberland has almost 400 users on Gear Box. distribution. Now the need to burn disks and shipping
as INDD, AVI, WMV was a notable benefit. We also liked the “We provided WebEx training sessions and sent out a expenses has been eliminated, not to mention the
ability to upload assets in bulk form from the product customized training guide to all Gear Box users. We also time saved.”
management repository.” offered training videos for those who couldn’t make the training

3. 3 | Customer Success
Lessons learned from I think we did the right thing by not rolling out the system to Ravi concludes, “Now that the media management library is
the implementation process everyone right away. And we will be able to better anticipate in place, it’s really a huge museum of all of our products. We
issues that might come up during the next implementation.” weren’t able to store all of these physical assets in a room for
Vyapuri says the implementation was a learning process. He people to look at, but now we have a place where people can
adds, “I would advise other customers to keep in mind that Dimou agrees, “Before hand, it is a good idea to attend lectures
or knowledge sessions about digital asset management.” see the evolution of our products over the years. And that
every implementation requires a bit of a learning curve when creates a story of our past, and the promise of a future.”
it comes to issues popping up that aren’t part of the plan. Legge adds, “The more information you have going into it, the
better off you’ll be.”
www.opentext.com
Visit online.opentext.com for more information about Open Text solutions. Open Text is a publicly traded company on both NASDAQ (OTEX) and the TSX (OTC). Copyright © 2009 by Open Text Corporation. Trademarks or registered trademarks of
Open Text Corporation. This list is not exhaustive. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved. 09DAMS0007EN