Sulzer’s DAM success: Goodbye to outdated marketing assets
About Sulzer
Sulzer is a global leader in fluid engineering who operates in 45 countries with 13,500 employees. The company specializes in pumps, compressors, and separation technology, serving industries such as water treatment, energy, and chemicals.
Within Sulzer, the marketing and communications teams manage a vast array of digital assets, including close to 10,000 media assets, ranging from photos, icons, stock images, 3D drawings to video footage and even music, as well as ca. 4,000 marketing materials - everything from advertisements to articles, brochures, campaign material, posters, presentations, and roll-ups.
To streamline managing this diverse content library and ensure brand consistency across all channels, Sulzer adopted Fotoware Alto (previously "Content Platform") in 2020, replacing their previous system, Picturepark 8.
We spoke with Milla Suikkanen, Team Lead Brand Design, and Saara Kinnunen, Systems Specialist, to learn how they are using their system today.
The Challenge: Organizing and accessing digital assets
Before using Fotoware Alto, Sulzer’s teams faced challenges in managing their growing volume of assets efficiently. The company needed a centralized system to store and organize media assets and marketing materials. Ensuring that sales and marketing teams accessed up-to-date and approved content was a key priority.
Additionally, the lack of structured metadata and a controlled vocabulary for their metadata, made searching for specific assets time-consuming, while manual tagging and categorization processes added unnecessary workload.
The Solution: A centralized and customizable platform
Sulzer’s transition to Fotoware Alto provided a structured and efficient approach to Digital Asset Management (DAM), replacing Picturepark 8.
Unlike Picturepark 8, Fotoware Alto does not rely on a folder structure but allows a content item to belong to multiple categories. This was a new way of working but ultimately enables structured organization of content, simplifies data management, and improves intuitive accessibility.
During the transition process, Fotoware’s in-house experts ensured that moving to the new solution was smooth, the setup meets Sulzer’s requirements for the use case, and that their team was thoroughly trained on the new platform.
Fotoware Alto is also a highly flexible solution, allowing for extensive customization of metadata, permissions, user roles, taxonomies, structures, hierarchies and more, enabling Sulzer to tailor the system precisely the way they need it – by their own developers or with guidance of Fotoware’s Professional Services team. This extent of customization possibilities ensures that the platform can adapt to Sulzer's evolving requirements, making it a versatile tool that enhances efficiency and organization.
— "The great thing about this system is that it’s so sophisticated and highly customizable that we can develop it exactly to our needs – which are constantly evolving – making sure it stays useful and effective for us."
As a result, Fotoware Alto became the single source of truth for media and marketing materials, ensuring easy access for internal teams. The primary users at Sulzer are currently marketing, communications, and sales teams. It is, however, accessible to all employees, allowing a wide range of internal stakeholders to use their Marketing Library.
There are approximately 1,500 users who have accessed the platform in the past year, with around 50 daily users and 28 editor users responsible for managing and updating the content.
Key features and capabilities
Sharing
Among the platform’s most appreciated features is the share feature, which has significantly improved the way teams distribute and manage assets – internally as well as externally. This feature is particularly useful for sharing logo files, branding guidelines, and other key graphic elements. Previously, users had to re-upload and resend files whenever updates were made, leading to potential issues in using outdated materials. Now, users can share a link containing a file collection that remains up-to-date even when files are replaced, reducing unnecessary duplication of work.
Taxonomy
They have developed a detailed taxonomy that includes for example tags for division, industry, equipment type, service type, media type, language, and permissions. This taxonomy is aligned with their website taxonomy to facilitate potential future CMS (Content Management System) integrations.
With having a taxonomy in place, system users can efficiently and accurately search and filter through the content library and quickly find the specific assets they need. Additionally, having a consistent taxonomy across different platforms ensures that content is organized in a coherent manner, making it easier to manage and maintain.
Business Rules
To further reduce manual and repetitive tasks, Sulzer has implemented business rules. One important workflow for Sulzer that is automated by business rules involves the application of metadata based on controlled vocabulary and the precise categorization of assets.
Through an integration with a stock image provider, assets are frequently imported with keywords and categories already assigned. However, to complete the metadata set and align assets with Sulzer’s taxonomy, the workflow matches the stock image tags and categories with those of their Marketing Library, and assigns respective metadata based on its vocabulary.
— "We no longer have to tag industry or application categories manually. This used to be a lot of manual work, but now the system does it for us which saves a lot of time."
User roles and permissions
Sulzer have created specific user roles and permissions to ensure that only authorized personnel can view, edit, or share certain content. This includes setting permissions for different user groups to access relevant materials.
Defining permission sets enhances security and ensures that sensitive or proprietary information is only accessible to those who need it. It also helps in maintaining the integrity of the content by preventing unauthorized modifications. Additionally, it allows for better organization and management of content, as users can easily find and access exactly the materials they need – and are permitted to use.
Version control
Another vital feature is version control, which allows them to maintain a history of all versions of a document. If a mistake is made or if there is a need to revert to a previous version, they can easily compare to or restore the older version.
Virtual items
Virtual items are used to manage content that does not have a physical file associated with it, such as articles on their website or certain types of video content. Virtual items allow them to create placeholders within the system that can be linked to external content or represent non-file-based information. This provides a way to organize and manage all types of content within a single platform and create a comprehensive and organized content library, even for items that are not traditional files.
Previews
Sulzer also actively uses previews to provide a visual representation of assets, which is particularly beneficial for understanding the content of documents and images at a glance.
For example, they use preview images for roll-up banners to show the entire design, making it obvious to the viewer when a single file contains multiple roll-up designs that belong together. This helps users quickly grasp the content of materials that are not immediately clear from their file names or descriptions, without needing to open the file.
The Impact: Increased efficiency and brand control
Since implementing Fotoware Alto, Sulzer has achieved greater efficiency in organizing and retrieving digital assets. Centralizing their content in one marketing library helps maintain consistency in branding and messaging, reduces the risk of using outdated or incorrect materials, and improves efficiency by making it easier for users to find and share the right assets. It also supports collaboration for employees across different regions and divisions, making sure that everyone can access the same up-to-date resources and is working with the latest information.
All media assets and marketing materials are checked for safety compliance upon upload and tagged accordingly, in order to only use images that comply with the company’s safety regulations. This includes verifying that images depict proper safety gear, such as helmets and safety goggles.
The platform's centralized repository and metadata tagging system make it easier to manage and retrieve compliant assets, reducing the risk of using non-compliant materials. This ensures that all distributed content meets Sulzer's safety standards and regulatory requirements.
Looking ahead: Plans for optimization
Sulzer is working closely with Fotoware’s Professional Services team to fine-tune the platform and develop business rules that best fit their needs. In a dedicated workshop with the Fotoware consultants they have explored possibilities for additional automation and improvements which are currently being tested and implemented.
The possibility of integrating their system with their CMS (Content Management System) to directly feed digital assets from Fotoware Alto to their website is also currently being explored. The taxonomies of both systems are already aligned, therefore the groundwork for this integration is in place.
