METACOMMUNICATIONS ANNOUNCES FIRST INTRANET SEARCH AND ARCHIVE MANAGEMENT
SYSTEM FOR CREATIVE WORKGROUPS
Digital Storage Manager Streamlines Process of Finding, Tagging and
Archiving Networked Production Files; Offers Compelling Benefits to
Creative Workgroups and IT Managers
BOSTON, Mass. (MacWorld Conference & Expo) – July, 2005 –
MetaCommunications, Inc., a leading developer of business management and
workflow solutions for the graphic arts industry, today announced the
availability of Digital Storage Manager, the first Intranet search and
archive management system for creative workgroups. A powerful and intuitive
product, Digital Storage Manager solves a few of the industry’s most
challenging problems finding, tagging and archiving the myriad files used
in the production process.
“Graphic arts organizations are under tremendous pressure to increase
efficiency and profitability,” said Robert T. Long, Executive Vice
President of MetaCommunications. “Digital Storage Manager significantly
reduces the time, labor and costs required to manage the ever-growing cache
of production files. Our innovative, cost-efficient Intranet search and
archive management system puts a high beam=92 on Spotlight for Mac OS X
Tiger, enabling creative professionals to take the ability to find, tag and
archive beyond the desktop to an entire workgroup’s network.”
=46ind, Tag, Archive
Every day creative workgroups generate thousands of digital files, such as
images, logos, PDFs and photos, which are used to produce advertisements,
brochures, direct mail, product packaging and Web pages, among other types
of art. Historically these creative, prepress and publishing files have
been either saved on local computers or stored haphazardly on various
fileservers or offline media such as tape or CD. Because the files have
been assigned little or no metadata — pertinent descriptive information
about the files, such as authors, customer and job information, copyright
information, formats, locations, size, versions, etc. — it has been
difficult for colleagues to access the files for use and re-use.
According to GISTICS research, an average of $8,200 per person per year is
spent on file management activities, which include searching, verifying,
organizing, and archiving files. Creative professionals spend an average of
1 out of every 10 hours of their time on file management. Searches alone
account for a full third of that time.
Digital Storage Manager solves this problem by providing a unique database
file system that represents a centralized view of an entire network’s
online and offline production files, real-time indexing of the files=92 uses=
,
customizable metadata tags, online and offline file search and retrieval,
and one-step archiving and backup.
Digital Storage Manager’s array of benefits derives from its unique
strengths in the functions of finding, tagging and archiving files:
=46ind: The out-of-the-box, turnkey system, which is built on proven
technology in MetaCommunications=92 award-winning Virtual Ticket product,
enables users to quickly and easily search across an entire network of
online servers and offline repositories to accurately find any file
regardless of location.
Tag: Customizable file tickets enable administrators to setup custom
metadata schemas for an organization. Users may access the file tickets to
efficiently visualize and assign metadata they deem pertinent. Digital
Storage Manager also automatically captures rich document metadata,
including Adobe’s XMP standard.
Archive: Digital Storage Manager’s unique “archive it and forget it”
technology allows simultaneous archiving and backup of online and offline
files in one simple step, significantly reducing archiving time and
eliminating expensive maintenance.
Key Components of Digital Storage Manager
Digital Resource Explorer Online production servers are automatically
indexed by server agents, creating a mirror of pointers to actual files.
Users can use customizable file tickets to quickly and easily add metadata
to individual files or entire folders in real-time. Digital Storage Manager
automatically captures file metadata and preview information from the most
commonly used creative tools in the industry. Files or folders can be
archived by selecting items in the window.
Production Jobs This view enables users to manage files and folders as a
job. Jobs can be assigned metadata which is automatically propagated to
each file belonging to the job. A job can either be archived immediately
from this window or a date can be set for it to be archived later.
Digital Resource Search Production users can search across online and
offline storage to find files based on standard file metadata, customized
job and file metadata or the contents of many file types. Searches can
either be saved by each user or published to groups of users.
Cataloging This window allows users to bring legacy files into the system.
Retrieval Request Queue This window enables archivists to easily manage
and fulfill requests for offline media and automatically notify individuals
when their request is complete.
Archiving Queue This window provides a workflow for batch archiving of
files and editing of metadata. It also enables archivists to manage online
archives, and back up and archive files to offline media in one simple step
for disaster recovery.
Digital Storage Manager offers integrated plug-ins for QuarkXPress, Adobe
InDesign and Illustrator, and Mac OS X Finder, allowing users to edit
metadata within familiar native applications without disrupting workflow.
Digital Storage Manager also integrates with industry leading
backup/archival solutions including Brightstor ARCServe, Dantz Retrospect,
Powerfile R200, Roxio Toast and Mac OS X Disk Utility.
Digital Storage Manager has an SDK for integration with third party systems
including FileMaker Pro. Production systems may be queried for metadata and
applied to files or folder automatically.
A Digital Storage Manager Web Server is also available to customers who
wish to provide restricted, browser-based file access to external
departments, customers and vendors.
Pricing & Availability
Digital Storage Manager offers enterprise technology at a desktop price.
The product is licensed by the total storage under management. Mac OS X and
Web client access is unlimited. MetaCommunications is offering introductory
pricing through October 31st, starting at $995 for 100 GB of managed
storage. Pricing for storage increments of 250 GB, 1 TB, 2.5 TB, 5 TB, and
unlimited are available. Digital Storage Manager will soon be offered by
select resellers, distributors and OEM partners. For more information, call
800-771-6382, e-mail (mailto:sales@meta-comm.com)sales@meta-comm.com or
visit http://www.meta-comm.com.
About MetaCommunications
MetaCommunications is a leading software developer of workgroup and
enterprise business management and workflow solutions for the graphic arts
industry. MetaCommunications=92 products include Virtual Ticket 6.0, Job
Manager 3.5 and Digital Storage Manager. These cross-platform products are
customizable and scalable from five-user workgroups to hundreds of users in
an enterprise environment. MetaCommunications has more than 750
installations of its software worldwide, helping some of the world’s top
creative agencies, corporate marketing groups, printing and prepress firms,
and publishers work more efficiently and profitably. MetaCommunications was
founded in 1991 and is headquartered in Iowa City, Iowa. For more
information, please visit
(http://www.metacommunications.com/news/releases/050328/)http://www.meta-com=
m.com.