Hair and beauty publisher Pivot Point International, Inc. has improved their creative workflow with MediaBeacon, the digital asset management (DAM) from Esko. The DAM unites creatives through an Adobe Connector that allows designers to work seamlessly with assets from the DAM directly through Adobe creative tools.

“One of the major reasons we chose MediaBeacon was the ability to track Adobe objects, show document reports, and see what objects were being used in InDesign documents,” says John Bernin, senior director of digital innovation and asset management at Pivot Point International. “There might be a couple of hundred objects in one document.”

Pivot Point publishes content, utilizing a large pool of digital assets, for around 2,500 schools across 80 countries. The company has a large online learning enterprise and also serves the professional market with content curation and distribution.

Matthew Haws, vice president global marketing at Esko Brand Solutions, added: “Prior to digitizing the process, users couldn’t easily locate assets. Sometimes a designer would work on a document only to find it was the wrong one. DAM software, MediaBeacon, and Adobe Connector have simplified and streamlined the Pivot Point workflow and united creative team processes to drive efficiency gains.”

After implementing MediaBeacon, all digital assets for Pivot Point are stored in a single location, so no one wastes time searching for, recreating, or using the wrong version of files. Of note, creatives can now store and track Adobe files with ease.

Introducing digital technologies, such as digital platforms, into business processes makes them 40-50% more efficient, according to Forbes1. However, to start using this functionality designers typically have to go through a culture shift, potentially undoing years of shortcut procedures and methods of collaborating to better leverage digital tools.

“To get the connector to work correctly, we had to all be using the same workflow for our design. There was this ‘aha’ moment when the whole team realized how well it was working for them,” said Denise Podlin, digital asset and illustration innovation manager at Pivot Point. “I can’t tell you how excited our designers are with the new process and the Adobe Connector.”

After updating their workflow and incorporating the connector, the team stores all of its layout and linked files in MediaBeacon, giving designers access to assets directly through the connector in InDesign and resulting in a streamlined, efficient workflow process.

Esko MediaBeacon is available now. For more information, please visit Esko Brand Solutions or view this Pivot Point case study to find out more.