Business Proposition
Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
ADAM Software
Media Intelligent
Media Intelligent
Media Intelligent
Executive Summary
º The Challenge of complex approvals workflows
Getting from concept to delivery of marketing and media materials requires collaboration
between multiple stakeholders and the management of complex processes and
assets - see page 1
º The Solution for effective online approvals workflows
Stronger brand messages, delivered faster, and with lower costs can be achieved by
increasing the efficiency of online approval workflows - see page 3
º The Proof - ADAM in action
ADAM’s Online Approval Workflows are deployed in enterprises across the globe to simplify
complex approvals processes involving assets, people and systems - see page 9
Realworld Scenario
ADAM is so versatile there is no single approach to online approvals. Here we present one
possible realworld implementation - see page 11
ADAM Software Related Products
ADAM Software components and related products for Online Approval
Workflows - see page 13
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Challenge of
complex approvals workflows
Getting from concept to delivery of marketing and media materials requires collaboration between
multiple stakeholders and the management of complex processes and assets
Agencies, designers, writers and editors, marketing departments, brand owners, printers,
packaging pros – they are all players in the complex workflow process of getting printed and
online materials from concept to delivery. Maintaining efficiency and clarity in such a long chain
of requirements and responsibilities is a huge challenge, and the processes in place are frequently
manual and disconnected which creates additional costs, long delays and, in some cases, even
loss of sales.
Key factors that generate complexity are:
º The number of people-to-people interactions involved in the to-and-fro of information about
what is approved and what needs to change.
º The relaying and managing of assets: printed proofs, file versions, diverse file types (often
too big for email), all associated with projects that in turn form part of your larger business
processes.
º Digital assets having associated metadata and linked resources that also need to be
integrated in approval workflows.
º Processes relating to online approvals have to interact with other enterprise systems such
as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems and Product Information Management (PIM)
systems.
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Challenge of complex approvals workflows continued
º Complexity increasing as users create multiple versions of a file, leading to an explosion in
the numbers of assets.
The complexity of managing these processes and assets has made them inefficient and expensive.
They present a large margin for lost time and errors that do not guarantee best results. This, in
turn, creates very long workflow cycles that become a major business disadvantage.
The net result: Getting return on investment on marketing campaigns becomes very hit-and-miss.
Now consider the contemporary marketplace’s requirement of stronger brand messages, delivered
faster, and with lower costs. To meet this challenge will require bringing much greater efficiency
and clarity to online approvals workflows.
In short, there is a real need to improve interactions and manage processes and assets in a more
media-intelligent way.
“With inefficient processes, getting return on investment
on marketing campaigns becomes very hit-and-miss.”
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Solution for effective
online approvals workflows
Stronger brand messages, delivered faster, and with lower costs can be achieved by increasing the
efficiency of online approval workflows
How do you take the highly complex processes involved in online approval workflows and make
them more intelligent, intuitive and organized? The ideal solution will include the ability to align
your approval processes with other existing marketing and media processes, and the wave of the
future for this is to integrate a single platform into your business processes – a Marketing and
Media Execution Platform (MEP). This will increase the efficiency of online approval processes
intrinsically and in relation to other processes in your department and organization.
The ADAM platform goes beyond simple Digital Asset Management (DAM) to provide a complete
MEP with workflow tools that are adapted for realworld processes between people, assets and
systems. ADAM is much more than a tool for simply managing digital assets – it delivers end-to-
end solutions for a vast range of business tasks, such as linking Product Information Management
(PIM) systems to marketing output, incorporating web2print, Content Management Systems
(CMS), and much more.
ADAM aligns your business processes for maximum efficiency, and provides highly adaptable
automation options, including three levels of automation:
º Status-driven workflows – the simplest form of automation, where an asset will move to the
next stage of workflow when it is flagged as ready.
º Rules-based engines – delivering almost infinite options through “if… then…” type rules
that you can create to match your exact job requirements.
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Solution for Online Approvals Workflows continued
º Design-driven Business Process Management Systems – the full power of ADAM as MEP.
Where you design complex business workflows visually in Microsoft® Visio® then incorporate
them as business processes across your enterprise.
With such power at your disposal, ADAM radically alters the way you build and execute your
online approval workflows. The platform provides precisely the tools required and makes even
the most arduous of tasks easy-to-deploy while delivering unequalled control over every aspect
of your work.
From core asset management to powerful business process management, ADAM covers all the
bases you need. ADAM stores any type of digital asset in an intelligent way that makes creating,
managing and delivering those assets intuitive, while the powerful collaboration tools within
ADAM workflows allow you to leverage automation to control and improve how you do business.
At every stage in the online approval workflow, ADAM offers flexible options for managing people,
processes and assets. Consider these three key steps: Asset Approvals, Content Approvals and
Contract Approvals.
Asset Approvals
The first step in the online approval workflow is getting the correct assets into the DAM and
making sure only the correct people can access and approve them.
ADAM’s unique record-level storage and approvals make handling complex artwork (think Adobe®
InDesign® files with associated links) and metadata a breeze. The workflow takes the pain out of
keeping track of assets, all related files, and up-to-date metadata. ADAM provides control that is
uniquely easy to use and execute.
At every stage of your approval process, powerful workflow rules allow you complete control of
processes and stakeholders. You can set up your workflow so assets ingested into ADAM must
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Solution for Online Approvals Workflows continued
be approved by designated users before becoming available in the ADAM Asset Studio. You have
complete control over who can approve what, as well as who can see, modify and replace which
assets. And industry-standard security ensures permissions control right down to asset versions.
Online previews of assets also mean everything is centralized and more efficient. Even huge files
like video or 3D can be rendered as previews on the fly in ADAM and served quickly across the
globe 24/7 to any user with a web browser. No more spider-web of email communications, lost
assets, long downloads or calling the courier!
And in data-intensive workflows where you are processing large quantities of assets (think
images from a photo shoot), records can be grouped so sign-offs for any number of assets can be
processed at one time – providing huge time-savings. Metadata can also be applied simultaneously
to multiple assets.
Content Approvals
Once assets are ingested in the DAM, the complex process of involving multiple stakeholders in
content approval processes gets underway.
The ADAM platform has centralized every aspect of online approvals, so agencies and marketing
departments can work together on producing publications as if they were in the same room.
First step is to tailor your approval process to your precise needs. Different enterprises will have
variable workflow needs and ADAM’s media-intelligent Workflow Studio provides complete
flexibility and control right at the core of how you design and implement your online approvals
process.
You can set up your workflow so hot-folders for ingested items will automatically start approvals
cycles, but how do you manage the entire end-to-end process?
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Solution for Online Approvals Workflows continued
ADAM’s workflow creation process is so advanced, you can design your online approvals process
visually in Microsoft® Visio® then incorporate them into the DAM. This allows for complete
flexibility in how assets travel through your review cycle, and it can be as complex or as simple
as you want.
Once the workflow is in place, designated users receive invites denoting what changes they need
made to an asset, and the person responsible for the creative work is automatically notified that
changes are required.
For example, it could be text modifications or it could be the look and feel of the artwork. ADAM
delivers previews from a centralized server, removing file-management complexity, ensuring up-
to-date content, and dramatically decreasing the time to approval/market.
Once the designer or editor has made their changes, they save their work back to the DAM and
the reviewer is notified again. They might approve the job at this stage or send further corrections
and changes back.
ADAM keeps a full history of reviews and reviewed assets: you can roll back to previous versions
at any time, or check who did what or who asked for what – and who missed what. This provides
a great way of ensuring liability issues don’t bog down relationships with clients. With ADAM, it’s
always clear who needs to do what and who did what.
ADAM is also highly secure at every stage in the approval process. Administrators and job owners
have full control of access rights to assets right down to individual file versions. This means asset
distribution only happens when you want it to and always to the right people.
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Solution for Online Approvals Workflows continued
Contract Approvals
Once artwork content and layout is approved, the workflow for printed assets proceeds to the
contract stage, where last minute changes can be made and digital proofs are inspected before
output.
ADAM’s support for integrated approvals workflows covers every aspect of marketing and media
publishing. In the print production process, content and style are important as well as a number of
more technical factors like color spaces, separations, spot plates, etc. ADAM integrates contract
approval cycles into your workflow with the same level of ease-of-use, clarity and efficiency as
you find in all ADAM processes.
ADAM works seamlessly with advanced RIP/Soft Review systems like EskoArtwork’s WebCenter
in order to render faithful soft proofs with all the technical information and annotation tools on-
hand that a production team needs.
At core, the simplicity is the same. The automated workflow allows both content and production
experts to ascertain if a file needs revisions or if it can move to output. As a file moves into the
contract approval stage of the workflow, ADAM hands the file to the RIP to generate a faithful
soft proof. The preview in this case is then delivered as a pixel-on-demand, RIPped version of the
final artwork to ensure what you see is what will be delivered as final output. If the file needs
revisions, the designated stakeholder is automatically informed of the reviewer’s revisions.
Beyond the control and simplicity ADAM brings to the online contract approval process, it also
eradicates the need for hard copy proofs. These are expensive to produce and slow to deliver, and
if there are revisions, they add significant cost and time-to-market. This is particularly the case
for specialty printing like marketing collateral and packaging jobs. ADAM’s integration with soft
proof technologies eradicates this expensive step in the approvals process.
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Solution for Online Approvals Workflows continued
ADAM’s online contractual approvals bring many benefits over traditional workflows:
º Faster than sending hard copies.
º Easier than sending massive packaging samples.
º Less expensive than producing multiple proofs.
º All versions are stored centrally and can be reviewed and compared (side-by-side or overlaid) at
any time.
º Approvals are automated so there is no confusion as to who has to do what – it’s configured in
the workflow.
º For time critical jobs, ADAM can even hand the job to a second reviewer if a first reviewer fails
to act in time – when the presses are already running this can produce significant cost savings.
º Centralized online proofing also provides security in that reviewers receive a pixel-on-demand
rendering of their materials, so the full version of the file is also safe from unintended distribution.
º Production teams have full control of advanced print preview features like separations, spots and
transparency, etc. right from within the review system.
ADAM is also versatile enough to integrate with any other RIP/Review system you may already
have invested in. ADAM’s highly flexible API makes integration of approvals workflows with
existing review systems easy, safeguarding your investment and providing a scalable platform
that can grow with your business.
Once your asset has passed through the approvals workflow – Asset, Content, Contract – ADAM
can automate the distribution process, sending the files to printers, web download centers, or
FTPing them – ADAM is so flexible it can deliver in any way you require.
At ADAM, we’re working hard to make the online approvals process simpler and more powerful
than ever before. Today, ADAM’s online approvals processes save time and money at every step
of your production workflow.
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Proof - ADAM in action
ADAM’s Online Approval Workflows are deployed in enterprises across the globe to simplify
complex approvals processes involving assets, people and systems
As marketing processes increase in complexity and the need for better brand management grows
in a global marketplace, forward thinking enterprises are deploying technology that brings control
and efficiency to the way they work.
One such company is LEGO, the world-famous toy manufacturer. As part of a drive to get complex
online approvals under control, they deployed ADAM and have seen strong improvements in how
they work since making the move.
LEGO Deploy ADAM for Online Approval Workflows
LEGO have integrated ADAM into their marketing department in a diversity of ways, and have
made use of ADAM’s highly adaptable workflows to assist in a wide range of process automations,
including online approvals workflows.
In one deployment, LEGO developed a custom packaging creation process to ensure results met
their exacting standards - they named it iColor.
iColor covers all the steps of preparing packaging for LEGO’s range of products and easily
integrated designers, art directors, print experts and other stakeholders into the process. The
assets are controlled by ADAM as they pass through every stage of the online approval workflow,
right through to final distribution of the assets through ADAM.
The iColor integration of ADAM provides detailed information on the project at every step,
ensuring measurability and control throughout the workflow from briefings and project overviews
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
The Proof for ADAM as a Development Platform
to detailed task assignments. LEGO have used ADAM’s robust and detailed user-level security to
great effect, ensuring administrators always have a complete overview of who is involved in a
project and also what assets and responsibilities have been assigned to them. Key requirements
like permitted image or file type, related LEGO products etc. are all fully integrated and part of the
automation process at the heart of the iColor ADAM integration.
LEGO iColor on ADAM
Approve/reject task for checking color
LEGO iColor on ADAM
Overview of projects a user is involved in
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
Realworld Scenario
ADAM is so versatile there is no single approach to online approvals. Here we present one possible realworld
implementation
Realworld Scenario - Online approvals workflow in action
ADAM WebCenter Studio
º An agency account manager is asked to work with
a global brand’s marketing department to produce
packaging for the latest version of its mobile device.
º A designer at the agency creates artwork for the
product, saves it to ADAM and the account manager
is automatically notified. She reviews the artwork,
selects the users at the brand’s marketing department
WebCenter Studio handles online approval workflows of any
that she wants to review the materials, then launches level of complexity with any number of processes and players
an approval request for the collateral.
º The marketing department receives the request, reviews the collateral and sends changes through ADAM back
to the agency.
º These steps can be repeated as many times as necessary and at no extra cost. It is much faster than sending
traditional hard-proofs and delivers huge cost savings.
º Once the artwork content has been approved, the process can enter the next step: contract proofs.
º ADAM makes moving to this next step of the process easy: the assets that are now being viewed for contract
proof approval are still accessed through the ADAM platform but have been generated by a 3rd Party RIP/Soft
Review system.
continued on next page
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
º An agency production expert now reviews the artwork, checking separations, colors etc. on the
fully RIPped file. A creative director also reviews the file one last time. If changes need to be
made, they are automatically communicated to the designer who makes the desired changes.
º When the file is finally ready, they can be automatically transferred to the printer and no hard
proofing will be required if they are using the same RIP as was used for the contract proofing.
º Finally the assets are distributed for printing by ADAM and stored in the DAM for future access.
“ADAM radically alters the way you build and execute
your online approval workflows.”
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
ADAM Software Related Products
ADAM Software components and related products for Online Approval Workflows
Components providing key functionality for Online Approval Workflow are highlighted in red.
Please visit our website to read more about:
º Config Studio
º Asset Studio
º Workflow Studio
ADAM Products
ADAM Studios
Adobe
InDesign®
ADAM Connectors EskoArtwork
3rd Party Products WebCenter®
ADAM Related Product
PageBuilder DOCMAKER Adobe
Workflow
WORKFLOW Studio Studio Creative Suite®
WebCenter
Studio Connector
PIM Creative Suite
ss Proces
Studio B u sin e s En Connector
AM gi n Microsoft
AD AD A M A PI e Office®
CONFIG Office
Studio Connector
ADAM Microsoft
ASSET Sharepoint
Studio ENGINE Connector
Sharepoint®
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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ADAM Software Business Proposition: Online Approval Workflow
Media Intelligent
Related Business Propositions
Other ADAM Software business propositions that you might find interesting
º DAM as a development platform º Packaging Workflow Automation
º Enterprise E-Library º Workflow for Agencies
º Product Information Management (PIM) º Enterprise Marketing Collateral Localization
º Automatic Catalog Publishing º Brand Management
º Interactive file formats in DAM º Print (pre-)production
º Enterprise Workflow Design
Contact ADAM Software
ADAM Software ADAM Software US Inc
Kortrijksesteenweg 1108a 1515 Broadway
BE-9051 Gent New York, NY 10036
Belgium United States
Phone: +32 9 381 63 36 Phone: +1 212 520 1028
Fax: +32 9 381 63 46
Email: info@adamsoftware.net
Web: www.adamsoftware.net
About ADAM Software
ADAM Software is a global provider of media workflow and marketing technology software. We
offer enterprises the ability to manage, structure and deliver media between people, processes
and systems. Working with our partners enables us to implement our software globally while
providing workflow solutions to all types of enterprises. What drives us is a passion to organize
media intelligently, making it easier and more accessible to everyone.
ADAM Software NV º www.adamsoftware.net º info@adamsoftware.net
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