Best Photo Storage Tool Ever

Fantastic tool in every way!

Pros

What is there not to like?? You can create large buckets to sort all your photos, and specify keyword tags within each bucket. It's easy to create a process to follow with that sort of end system! You can search and save photos in your carousel, export samples of the photos, download them quickly into a PowerPoint, zipped folder, or drop them right into an Adobe product (no download required!!). You can easily share an album with anyone you've given permissions to, set user editing capabilities (want people to upload but not change anything? You can do that!) And the customer service is phenomenal. From making minor updates at your suggestions to customizing, to walking you through system changes, to being at your beck and call, the customer service does not disappoint.

Cons

My only complaint is that sometimes the interface changes without notice and it can take a bit to find your tools. However, these interface updates have always been a great change, just sometimes slows me down a bit.

OA has been life changing!

Overall we love using OA. It has much room for improvement but even so it is a great tool for both marketing purposes and the overall firm. The customer service is truly fantastic and we really appreciate the OA team's willingness to listen and help us at all times.

Pros

OA has been a great asset to us for connecting our image library across our offices globally. The sync to Deltek Vision is wonderful as it is a great way to look up project information without having to go through the slow and dated interface of Deltek. We love that you can upload different file types, have a variety of user settings, different categories, etc. The PDF, contact sheet generation and INDD plug-in features are extremely convenient and useful. We haven't gotten around to utilizing uploading our standard INDD templates for project page and resume generation yet but we are looking foward to doing so.

Cons

I think the user interface has come a long way but I think there is still a lot of room for improvement. I don't think that all of the settings and features are intuitive to find; for example, the image tagging keywords aren't obvious to locate and that has been a bit of an issue as we roll out OA to firmwide employees who don't know what the keywords to search by are vs. marketing who does know because we chose and implemented them. I think the mapping feature is good but it would be better if it could auto link that from Deltek as well to avoid manual input into OA.

It's Fine

Pros

Is specifically designed to work with AEC companies

Cons

Not user intuitive ( a lot of our users had difficulties with it), and a lot of the features to enhance the use came at an added cost.

Review

Migration was wonderful. Support has been helpful. We switched reps but it's been okay. We probably try to troubleshoot more in house than we need to, but you can figure things out pretty well. We are very happy with it.

Pros

OpenAsset changed the way we handle our photos and marketing material. It has been a tremendous business upgrade to file storage for us. Our marketing team and taken to - I only wish we could use all its functionality - we just don't have the time to focus on it. The rest of the company thinks it looks cool but doesn't have the time to understand the software and use it. We do it for them - but it was a good business decision.

Cons

I wish we could use all its functionality, but it's hard to keep up with all it can do when we have so much going on. We did a large data migration a few years ago and are still finding things we wish we knew then but it's too late, so we're having to play catch-up or cleanup now. That's been a little frustrating. You learn as you go, so we should have expected that. We have one in-house person who really took to the program and is learning how to best use it. Without him, we'd be lost.

We had no DAM before OpenAsset

Though I am still spending many hours uploading and tagging my content, I can already see the time savings in searching for images. I am also empowering non-marketing people to find their own images to save me the time and effort all while controlling the quality of images. Our different regional operating groups are able to share photos easier.

Pros

We had no DAM before OpenAsset. We just kept our images in our network drive folders. We are a company of 3,000+ team members and 40+ marketers spread across the country. I love that we can now search our photos like Google. We can find them faster and more efficiently. The uploading and searching process is fairly intuitive. I haven't had to explain it much to people before they start searching. Instead of finding images for people, I can just direct them to our OA portal and they can find it themselves. Frees up my time.

Cons

Tagging photos is very clunky. I can't blow up the image during the upload process to see details. Though metadata from the images is transferred into OA, the keywords I have already tagged in my images prior to OA were not transferred as keywords in OA. They are in the description, so I had to re keyword everything. Though the OA techs are writing my a script to do this automatically, but it should be an included feature. I was told that OA would be integrating AI where they would suggest keywords for my images. I haven't seen it yet, but I am excited for it. Keywording is very laborious.

Love OpenAsset

Our staff has only good things to say about their experiences with OA. IT doesn't get very many help desk tickets

Pros

There are a lot we (responses from staff) like most about this software. The features are always being added, the software is easy to use the support is A+ and it integrates with other products.

Cons

The add'l cost for storage as it wasn't explained that I would have this so it wasn't budgeted.

Best Dam Software I've seen

We had an archaic image database that didn't allow anyone but marketing to be able to pull down any image size but thumbnails. Now anyone in the firm can get images and be able to use them in Word, PowerPoint, or InDesign without losing resolution and turn out a great product. In a pinch a project manager can create a PowerPoint presentation of project images without waiting for marketing to help them.

Pros

The ease of the migration of our images and the great customer service was awesome. They are continually updating/upgrading the product to be more intuitive, helpful, and keep up with the technology market. For instance, AI, they've built into the product intuitive searching for similar images. Fantastic feature!

Cons

A couple of the admin features takes a little longer to navigate when you have a large group of users. Have requested a couple of enhancements which they are looking at.

A drastically more efficient Marketing Team

Our firm loves OpenAsset. It was the answer to an ongoing problem in storing, naming, and searching for image files, videos, animations, etc.

Pros

We've joked that having OpenAsset is like having another employee on our team. Once you see OpenAsset and the efficiency it brings, you cannot unsee it. After being spoiled by the ease of use and search functionality, you really can't go back to life without it. User support is top notch. Many of my "wishlist features" items over the years have been documented by support and eventually turned into real workflow enhancements.

Cons

There are just a few minor, cumbersome tasks that aren't immediately intuitive to our standard users.

A place for everything... and everything in its place.

Our company takes advantage of the OpenAsset / Vision connector. The API data is then used by our website CMS. It eliminates a lot of duplication of work which is appreciated by our small team.

Pros

I love how the file size structure eliminates the need for multiple copies of images on our server. The sizes we need (even custom sizes defined by us) are all in one place and can be generate on the fly.

Cons

A few features that we would like to have are only available in the Cloud version... we use the on-premises version.

Made for the accessibility of information

Providing all employees on an international basis a platform to find project info and images is essential for BDP's day to day working. Customer support has always been fast, personal and helpful.

Pros

OpenAsset provides BDP with a platform for all employees to access, whether images, PDFs or project information. Easy to manage and for employees to find their way around.

Cons

Not a lot of negatives to find, but if any issues arise, customer support has always been prompt and helpful.

OpenAsset Review

Amazing product. It saves countless hours of time each and every week we have it. The Axomic team is great--they listen, they help, and they truly want the product to help our business be successful.

Pros

How easy it is to connect OpenAsset to existing systems currently in place. It instantly adds value in that the moment we upload a new file, the system is porting over data from our Deltek Vision system making it easy and quickly usable.

Cons

Certain functionalities have to be used in certain ways--that is, for instance, you can only drag and drop files into InDesign from the grid view, but say I'm previewing in full-screen; I can't just drag that active file right into InDesign from there. Some features seem to be layered in as opposed to integrated in a central way. Lastly, I think the limitation of the system which could vastly improve it is to break free from strict things like search terms, and instead allow for more open-ended search features that are smart and intuitive rather than restrictive.

Intuative image database tool that leads the field with great customer service and regular updates.

I use Open Asset daily to weekly for my job. Again I have seen improvements in the 3 or so years we have been using it, they come often and only strengthen the product. Im excited to see more recognition technology being implemented that will help in tracking down similar images and more.

Pros

The customer service and upgrades are a great part of the Open Asset system. You can customize to your hearts desire with a steady stream of new features always on the horizon that improve things and get you excited about what's coming next. The cross platform functionality with the Adobe suite is also a lovely touch.

Cons

Most of my concerns have been addressed by the Open Asset team and are already in development for future editions. Things like being able to upload and store power point presentations.

Watching OpenAsset Develop

OpenAsset's user interface has gotten better since we started on the server-based software a few years ago, but it is still not entirely intuitive and our staff remains frustrated with it as they are not regular enough users for navigating the site to stick in their minds. The support page is helpful but it does not explain every function and feature.

Pros

I love that I can store an unlimited number of images on the cloud and share them anywhere with my company.

Cons

I like least that 1. Albums default to private and 2. You cannot select the file type of an image when you download it at a size other than Original

A must have for marketing teams

The customer support at OpenAsset has been exceptional. They have worked with us every step of the way to meet our specific needs. They keep adding new features that make the software even more useful.

Pros

OpenAsset solved our issue of making project photography easily searchable and accessible by all of our staff across four offices. The InDesign plugin was especially helpful for our marketing team productivity.

Cons

It took us many months to get the software customized to our liking and uploaded with content. Training for users is a must because OpenAsset has so much depth to it that even seasoned users might not be aware of all the features available.

Great Product for AEC Industry

OpenAsset has given us the ability to share our latest work firmwide, better collaborate and idea share, and find the photography we need quickly through tagging. It's provided huge efficiencies for the marketing team.

Pros

The software is very user-friendly, the interface is easy to navigate and the tagging is simple. I also felt like the set-up was straight-forward and OA was easy to work with. We have had great feedback firmwide on the platform and have been able to conduct training in 20 minutes - a testament to the ease of use!

Cons

Two things I would love to see - the ability to sell photography through the site. Often architecture firms sell photography to partners, consultants, etc. and it would be great to be able to share photos and accept payment through this one-stop platform. I would also love the ability to further brand/customize the home page. Those are tiny in the scheme of things, but would be great adds!

Couldn't recommend it enough

Customer service is second to none. Everyone I have encountered at OpenAsset has been brilliant.

Pros

There is no comparable software for image use that I am aware of - it is a great product for our industry, and used throughout our business. It is incredibly user friendly (compared to some document management systems, for instance) and functionality is great.

Cons

From our experience, some of the "improvements" in the last few years have actually hindered functionality for the way we work. Might consider more user-testing or research before implementation?

OA for work resource

Marketing has benefited from OA. All of our install photos are stored here and they can be used in a number of ways for marketing.

Pros

The capacity and function. You can create PPT or PDF documents, label your photos, save PDF documents, and much much more. It responds quickly so you can create something fast when you need it like a PPT or document to send to your client. You can also just download photos to put into email and you can also save files in various sizes and formats for multiple presentation options. You can also choose a photo and that will prompt other photos similar to what you are looking at so there are multiple ways that you can search and produce a carousel of photos. Excellent for companies that need marketing resources where all employees can access individually. Very user friendly.

Cons

Nothing that I can think of at this time.

Efficiency + Organization

With 12 offices, we had imagery all over the place in servers and hard drives. OA has allowed us to pull our entire company catalog into one place for everyone to have immediate access to. The training and customer service has been fantastic and it's really been a game changer for our marketing staff.

Pros

Having all our catalog of imagery at our fingertips is a huge efficiency. The connection to Deltek Vision is also amazing to have all the information in one software program. The tagging is a fantastic feature and there are so many more things the software does that we haven't even implemented.

Cons

Not a huge fan of the process of drag and drop into Indesign. Seems like there can be a better way of doing it but that's not a major issue. I also wish that it talked to Vision in addition to receiving information from Vision.

Great tool for marketing professionals.

Sharing images/project experience has become much easier. The ability to tag content to enable a better search has helped tremendously.

Pros

The ability to share content instantaneously across a large company is crucial to the success of our marketing team. Open Asset is the perfect solution to this challenge.

Cons

I feel that the current platform is limited to only sharing images/video currently. We have the growing need to have a solution to share other marketing content (presentations, written proposal narratives, client quotes, etc.). I see the potential of the tool and have a great experience working with the Open Asset team to solve our needs.

A must if you have large quantities of media assets

Pros

The ability to store all of our media assets in the cloud and have it infinitely searchable and accessible by all is so powerful and valuable. The ability to link directly into InDesign has completely changed our workflow.

Cons

We would love more media types to be cataloged (.indd, .aep, etc) and have been having issues with vector files and downloads.

Open Asset - Image Database Solution

Open Asset is great for use with filing project photos for later use in marketing materials, proposal, and precedent imagery that’s searchable

Pros

With open asset you can build a database of images and file and structure it however is best for your workflow. Assigning tags to pictures lets you search through images by description which is a terrific capability for anyone working with images a lot. Saving the same image at different file sizes and resolution that can be linked to many other programs is also a huge time saver.

Cons

Open asset can feel like a clunky database while searching and filing images. The amount of capabilities it has makes it more complicated to use if you’re looking for a simple photo library.

Director of Design

Overall everything has been great, they are quick to respond and answer questions and constantly offer web trainings.

Pros

We link all of the images with our vision data file, this makes it easy to know everything about the project that the image is tied to.

Cons

There have been some recent changes to the layout, I preferred the buttons to access information prior to the change

Great Customer Service

I appreciate the continued support from our account manager. She is knowledgeable, helpful, and willing to brainstorm solutions that work best with our firm.

Pros

The ranking and tagging capabilities, the album creation, contact sheet feature, and the ability to send external download links.

Cons

Not able to drag and drop images into other Adobe programs (Photoshop, for example). OpenAsset plugin only available for InDesign.

OpenAsset

OpenAsset in an integral part of the Marketing / Business Development workflow for AEC firms.

Pros

OpenAsset gives anyone the ability to work with thousands of images quickly and from virtually anywhere.

Cons

Asset key-wording can be tricky to get it right for future searches.

Essential Tool for an A/E Firm

Pros

Ability to store massive amounts of files on an enterprise network. Deltek connector is essential.

Cons

Supported formats could show a better understanding of digital assets relative to the A/E profession. Support for textures, scripts, BIM families, and other file formats would make this an even more valuable tool for the company. Right now it is primarily a marketing tool when it could service a much wider usergroup.

Makes work easier.

Pros

Open Asset has streamlined our work flow allowing our staff easy access to all our digital assets.

Cons

The restrictions of our Open Asset are on us, we have yet to move to the cloud.

Works for me

I can quickly find and use photos from all of our projects and incorporate them into my indesign documents.

Pros

The ability to drag and drop into InDesign.

Cons

Sometimes it seems a little laggy but this may be due to our server.

OpenAsset

Pros

Capacity, organization features, download/export options

Cons

kinks with the InDesign plugin, process to update categories

Great for our team!

Pros

OpenAsset makes it easy for our marketing team to access files organization-wide. Our employees are scattered throughout the US, Canada, UK and Ireland.

Cons

Some of the editing features like adding keywords are codes to photos and projects can be tricky if you aren't paying close attention to select or deselect multiple files.

Open Asset

Pros

It's user friendly, intuitive, and powerful.

Cons

No complaints, really. Does what it's supposed to.

OpenAssent provides order

Great for sharing project images and documents easily with a large group of people who can reuse and reference those quickly via search instead of slogging through your company's archaic nested folder structure on your local server

Pros

It is an online, use-created database tool that can help share content more easily and transparently in a large firm. Easy to setup and organize images, documents, resources. Great search functionality and ability to use asset links in other applications

Cons

Can be a lot to setup and maintainenance, like any library or digital repository. Because you can have many authors uploading content, it can be a lot of work to enforce company standards.

OpenAsset Review

Pros

OpenAsset is extremely searchable and is a dramatic improvement over storing images in folders on a server with searchability limited to file name.

Cons

When linking OpenAsset images into an InDesign file it has a tendency to noticeably slow the operation of my computer. I appreciate the fact that I don't have to worry about broken links, but the lagging they cause can be frustrating.

Good corporate DAM solution

Pros

Good and personalised support available, relatively customisable interface, reliable connection. Updated relatively frequently

Cons

AI recognition not launched yet, however product seems to be fragmented between traditional 'on premises' version and the cloud solution.

Good system, with great support.

OpenAsset has great service. They respond very quickly and are very helpful.

Pros

It's the best out there for companies in architecture and property.

Cons

Takes a little training to know how to use it properly.

Best digital asset management software

Streamline content management and Marketing.

Pros

Everything. We love the software and use it every day. The software has helped us streamline our processes.

Cons

Nothing. We love everything about it.

OpenAsset

Pros

I like that we are able to upload files at full size, saving us time.

Cons

Mapping to Deltek Vision can cause challenges for any data that isn't super simplified. Also, it has taken a long time to get our templates uploaded.

Glad We Found OpenAsset

Pros

Ability to organize and tag images for ease of use and sharing.

Cons

Really nothing - we had a massive image library, so probably setting up initially was the most difficult part.