HOT DAM! What’s Next? A Q&A with David Strachan, Director of Engineering
To digitize business critical experiences, you need not only flexibility, security and power, but also the ability for your business users to create engaging content. HCL recently released exciting new capabilities to its platform, that helps empower users to create compelling experiences, improving the bottom line and customer satisfaction. We interviewed the person behind the constant development, iteration, and improvements to HCL Digital Experience to get the inside scoop on the latest updates in the latest release, as well as a window into what is coming soon. In June, we released a reinvented Content Composer and a new (free) Digital Asset Management (DAM) capability. You can learn about all of that by watching this video:
We talked to David to find out what’s been added since.
Q: What do new rendering and versioning capabilities mean for content creators?
A: When an image is added, the tool now auto-generates multiple renderings suitable for each of the universal screen sizes and device dimensions of desktops, tablets, and smart phones — saving time and improving accuracy. Also, the version history of each image is now preserved, letting you revert back to previous versions as needed. These capabilities were added to the DAM in our July release and there’s more to come in the August and September releases too, including the addition of versioning support in Content Composer.
Q: How is media (images and video) now managed in the DAM?
A: Media is stored in collections (which act as folders), and these collections can be nested. Collections have assigned role-based access and permissions so access to the media can be controlled on a collection–by–collection basis. Media is usually published via content, so the workflow is handled at the content level. DX content management leverages the renditions so your content will look great on all devices.
Q: Is it easier to search and find assets in the DAM? Is metadata stored?
A: Yes. You can search by title, date and metadata. Basic metadata is automatically added, but you can and should add additional, more robust and descriptive metadata to boost SEO, as well as store rights information, photographer or videographer credits, and make finding assets even easier.
Q: How is this native DAM better than others out there?
A: Well, for one thing — it’s free to all DX customers! Also, it comes fully integrated so it’s faster to get up and running and one less thing to do before you can get started making content and digital experiences.
Q: What changes are coming in the next few months?
A: We’ve got a packed agenda for the coming months, when it comes to DAM and content management features. We’re going to see more features like custom renditions, image editing features and most excitingly a partnership with a video streaming platform so you can publish streaming videos directly from the DAM. For content management, we’re going to be extending Content Composer to cover more of the core WCM capability, such as site areas, presentation templates, components, and more.
Q: Can I test drive Digital Experience, the new DAM or upcoming features?
A: Yes! We invite current customers and those with curiosity to join us at regular release review sessions to keep up to date with our latest features. If you’d like to give it a try for yourself, your sales rep can help organize that. Contact one here. You can also register to join us at an upcoming webinar, and you can also watch lots of great videos here.
When we talked to David, he emphasized that his team is constantly updating the DAM with big improvements as well as little usability fixes — and while some changes or fixes are small, many small changes add up to big advantages.
Stay tuned and make sure you are on the latest version of HCL Digital Experience.
