As easy as ZGF... How switching from iDAM to OpenAsset Media improved digital asset management and made leading US practice ZGF picture perfect

1. Ease of use, and robustness for a large and progressive firm. These were the qualities ZGF were looking
for after experiencing low adoption when they rolled out iDAM as their enterprise image management
system. This case study presents how Axomic worked with ZGF to implement this important business tool,
and looks at its extraordinary take-up among staff during its first few months of use.
About ZGF
ZGF Architects LLP is a design firm with a focus on architecture, interior design, and urban design.
Founded 70 years ago in Portland, Oregon with a mission to strive for design excellence, stewardship
of our natural and built environment, and exceptional client service, ZGF has grown to include over
470 employees and additional offices in Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, DC, and New York. With an
intentionally diverse portfolio, ZGF’s design philosophy is centered on the premise that design excellence
should be reflected in each and every aspect of a building—its fit with the community, its function and
relationship to its users, its building systems, and its cost.
Why migrating to OpenAsset
is as simple as... ZGF
1.
“It is the kind of software tool
born out of really understanding
what the image consumers in
architecture design firms need
on a day to day basis.”
– Andrew Hollomon, Principal & Director
of Information Technology, ZGF
MEDIA
Case study
ZGF

2. Workflow mismatch
However, within just a few months it was clear
that the system did not fit their workflow. “It was
exciting to see all of our images in one place at
first but it wasn’t efficient for us at all,” explains
Associate Partner Sandra Grande. Although iDAM
was web-based and could be shared between
the various studios, it still didn’t have the necessary
functionality. “We were looking for a more user
friendly system that would interface properly with
the design software we use on a daily basis.”
Evaluating the competition
ZGF’s IT team had carried out a thorough
evaluation of various systems before investing
in the existing iDAM system, and so had a
good sense of the market landscape and
the comparative value of the various image
management products available. OpenAsset
had just entered the US market so presented an
excellent opportunity to compare features and
Collecting images
Because ZGF had not fully adopted the
previous image management system across
all their offices, they first needed to pool all
of their image resources in one place. The IT
team set up a mirrored image repository at
each location, using DFSR to maximise image
access speed in each location. The marketing
and communications teams then collected all
existing images on this central server.
From iDAM to OpenAsset in 5 simple steps
performance. And it was clear that it offered
many of the intuitive, user-focused features ZGF
required to improve adoption. “You could tell it
was the kind of software tool that was born out of
really understanding what the image consumers
in architecture design firms need on a day to
day basis, says Andrew Hollomon, Director of
Information Technology. “We liked the fact that it did
what we were looking for and was well tailored to
our workflow.”
How switching from iDAM to OpenAsset
made ZGF picture perfect
With offices in five cities across the US, ZGF had struggled for some time to develop a consistent, shared library
of digital assets. The practice originally had a dedicated image server in each studio with a system of files and
folders to organise their images. But as collaboration between the offices grew and the demand for top quality
images became higher, the practice invested in iDAM, an off-the-peg digital image management system to
help structure its data.
2.
“Talking to other customers
we felt secure that Axomic
would lend a solid hand
in helping to migrate
our image library and
metadata.”
– Andrew Hollomon, ZGF
Create a repository for all
existing images
Clean up your collected
assets
Develop a keywording
protocol
Spring cleaning
Having had a separate image server backing
up the incumbent system in each office, it
was essential for ZGF to clean up the existing
images, removing duplicates and also
unwanted assets. Andrew explains: “We made
an effort to prune and clean the existing image
system and clearly identify the projects we
wanted to migrate.”
New protocols
The migration process provided a great
opportunity to tailor the system to support and
enhance workflows, re-evaluating the existing
keywording system to ensure it met ZGF’s
needs. “We spent quite a long time delineating
which things we wanted to highlight, and also
building in search conventions from the old
system, so that users can get to the images they
want instantly,” says Sandra.

3. Firm-wide take-up
In the first months after OpenAsset was introduced at ZGF, take-up
across the offices exceeded all expectations, and the practice is only
now beginning to realise the full potential of the system. “We adopted
the system in marketing as soon as it was up and running,” says Sandra,
“and over the course of the last five months it’s really changed the way we
do things.”
High usage
Around 1,750 pages are viewed each day, with each visitor looking at
an average of 70 separate pages. Incredibly, over the first seven months
there were over three million hits from over 400 individual visitors -
around 80% of the practice. Usage is consistently high across the working
day, with the majority of users using OpenAsset’s powerful search
capability to take them direct to the images they need.
User-friendly
While the marketing team access a range of images for use in project
reports and submissions for new work, the design teams use the system
mainly to find reference material and precedents. “We’ve had a huge
number of people go into it and find what they need without having to
come to marketing,” says Sandra. “It’s a really user friendly application so
it doesn’t take hours to work it out. Overall it’s been very positive.”
“I was really pleased
with the data
migration – it felt
like Axomic had the
process down to a
science.”
– Andrew Hollomon, ZGF
0306090120150
View the online demo
at www.axomic.com
Launch OpenAsset!Migrate... and test
Moving the data
Once the images were prepared, Axomic
created a migration script to map the data
and images to the right place in OpenAsset.
Throughout the process, Axomic provided
solid support to the ZGF team, carrying out a
series of tests to ensure that the migration was
successful.
Implementing OpenAsset
With the support of an expert and dedicated
account manager, ZGF’s marketing and
communications teams were able to start
using the new system as soon as the data had
been migrated. OpenAsset was then launched
across the whole practice with a series of
training sessions to let staff know the full extent
of the resource now available to them.
“OpenAsset has really changed
the way we do things.”
– Sandra Grande, ZGF
Daily Visitors
Visitors
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4. Intuitive in use
The success of OpenAsset at ZGF has been
primarily due to its usability, and in particular its
intuitive interface. “The characteristics that make
OpenAsset appealing are the relative clarity and
elegance of the interface, the fact it finds you
what you need quickly, and its reliability,” says
Andrew. Graphic designer Suejin Yoo agrees:
“It’s a lot more efficient. In terms of the way we
work, connectivity with our design software is
imperative. Not having to generate multiple
image sizes is great – it just does it all for us within
the application.” “In terms of the functionality of
viewing images it’s great too,” continues Sandra.
“We have a huge amount of images and a large
range of project types that we cover, so just being
able to see all of those when we are putting
together a document is inspirational in itself.”
A pan-practice resource
The design teams use the system mainly to
find reference material and precedents, and
the PowerPoint feature provides an instant way
to convert these into an effective presentation
medium for clients. And for Sandra and her team,
having a central place where all the best quality
images and assets reside has enabled them to
collaborate more effectively with their colleagues
across the practice. “We don’t find ourselves with
three different versions of the same image, and
that’s been a huge thing across the firm. I think
efficiency in the way we work has been a major
benefit. OpenAsset has become our right arm.
We use it every day.”
“We understand the value of
getting the best material out
there and available to use.
And OpenAsset makes this
possible.”
– Sandra Grande, ZGF
5.
4.
To find out more about OpenAsset Media and to view
the online demo:
visit www.axomic.com
email sales@axomic.com created by
Deltek Vision integration
OpenAsset’s ability to integrate with other information management
systems has been further key to its success at ZGF. “We use Deltek
Vision extensively in marketing and across the studio,” explains
Sandra, “and because we have the connector, OpenAsset is able
to talk to it and pull across project names, descriptions and other
information automatically.” “We also leverage OpenAsset to host
images used on our SharePoint intranet,” adds Andrew, “and have
it integrated with Active Directory for logins.”
3.
1. Twelve | West Mixed-Use Building
Photographer: Timothy Hursley (©Timothy Hursley)
2. University of Oregon, John E. Jaqua Academic Center for
Student Athletes
Photographer: Basil Childers (© Basil Childers)
3. University of California, San Diego, Rebecca and John Moores
Cancer Center
Photographer: Nick Merrick (Nick Merrick © Hedrich Blessing)
4. As 1., Photographer: Ron Cooper
5. As 1., Photographer: Nick Merrick (Nick Merrick © Hedrich
Blessing)