Bynder vs. Extensis Portfolio

We have numerous renderings for some of our properties that are constantly being updated. It was hard to keep track of the most current rendering since it lived in multiple locations with various employees. Creating a central location where we can regularly update the renderings without having to add a new file and re-upload solved the issue of questioning whether the rendering you were looking at was correct.

Incentivized

Best for image asset management; hands down the most robust and cost-conscious solution we have worked with. Best for customer support--from design and integration to life-cycle maintenance. Best of expansion of catalogues and assets--- easily add asset packs onto your SaaS agreement as you need--no worries here. Portfolio is continuing to improve its video asset management. However, if you are seeking solely a video management solution, Portfolio is maturing, but not "there" just yet.

Incentivized

• Extracting content is where Bynder shines. My previous EverNote account reminded me of the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark -- warehouse full of stuff where clearly everything was lost once it was put in there. Bynder makes it easy to find and extract information especially because of the thumbnail views aided by the categorization tools. Since you can use these in combination everything is basically a complex Boolean search without needing to know how to write a complex Boolean Search.
• Easy I/O. Getting information into and out of Bynder is really easy -- follows the "don't make me think" rule. visual cues and clear buttons, etc. In fact, since I use multiple systems, I find it easiest to actually do file transfer TO MYSELF via Bynder rather than download or email files between my PC and Mac for example. That's how easy it is.
• Categories, tagging, last-used, most-frequent, hide/show -- there's a lot of flexibility in organizing your content. Technically, this kind of thing exists in every tool I've ever used... but it's the implementation that matters. UI design is vital to making this a valuable tool as opposed to a dreary step of "file retrieval".

Incentivized

• Organization. It allows us to keep our photos organized and in their appropriate folders so we can find them again.
• Search. Extensis Portfolio imports all the metadata from the photo and allows you to search for keywords or descriptions from its interface.
• Sharing. Its NetPublish function allows for easy sharing across campus for other communicators to use photos we've selected for them.

Incentivized

• Link Sharing: One thing I wish Bynder had was quick link sharing for images or collections of images to share outside of Bynder. Currently you have to create a collection and send it via email to the person you want to view it. Otherwise you can make it public and share a link but then that collection technically can be viewed or downloaded by anyone. Since I'm used to the functionality of Dropbox, this is one thing that I feel is lacking.
• Public Media Center: Along the lines of the last comment about link sharing; one thing that would be helpful is a public media center. If we were able to tag what photos we would want to include there, along with downloadable logos, guidelines, PR, etc. There are workarounds but the functionality doesn't quite exist.
• Automatic Translations: We opted to keep all of our metadata and tagging in English, as most of our International partners do speak some English; however, it would have been nice to have an option to automatically translate any metadata/tagging for certain languages. We did have the option of automatically translating the main menu buttons but that wasn't much help. If we wanted metadata/tagging in other languages we'd have to input it manually for thousands of assets.

Incentivized

• Permissions is a big deal. It is all or none access.
• Very easy to make an irreversible database mistake with just a few clicks.

Incentivized

It is incredibly user-friendly and easy to navigate. Once you poke around, you intuitively learn how to use the platform. Our company provided training sessions for all employees during our official roll-out, and everyone seemed to have a good grasp on how to navigate this platform. We have yet to hear about an employee having difficulty using Bynder, which is a big win

Incentivized

When we were getting ready to switch vendors, WebDAM wasn't very responsive to my questions or my needs. They also sent me all the files on an external drive that was formatted for Mac and didn't even think to verify whether I had a PC (which I did) so the external drive was useless and I had to wait another week to get the updated external drive that was formatted for a PC that I could then use.

Incentivized

We have someone in Extensis Portfolio's customer service who is the main contact whenever our group has questions or concerns. When we were looking into a campus-wide option for a digital asset management service, they were very forthcoming and easy to work with, and able to answer any questions that we had for them.

Incentivized

WebDAM and Bynder merged, so we didn't have to choose between them. We found these two had the best templating functions, which was a must have for our clients. Their permissions and user group management also seem to be the most robust. We found their support, including site, documents and staff to be the most responsive

Incentivized

We have been with Extensis for many years-- so the comparisons are outdated at this point. Companies like WebDAM, Adobe's Lightroom, mediavalet, and others, just don't have the robust catalogue management Portfolio does. There is a solidness and assurance of functionality we experience when using Portfolio-- nothing clunky or web-cloud shaky

Incentivized

• More polished and compelling national marketing pieces due to greater and better use of photos.
• More polished and compelling regional marketing pieces due to regional staff members ability to access assets directly and select from full bank.
• Greater efficiency when designing pieces (easy to share assets with external designers).
• Increased use of marketing assets across regions due to sharability.

Incentivized

• Allows quick and easy image and asset searches.
• Has been an invaluable tool for our organization by freeing up database employees to tackle other tasks.

Incentivized