NEW YORK--Aug. 5, 2002--Simon & Schuster, a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, announced today that it has selected Accenture, the world's leading management consulting and technology services organization, and Artesia Technologies to help develop and implement an enterprise-wide Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution for its collection of digital content and information. The project focuses on the creation of a centralized, integrated repository that efficiently manages and extends the useful life of digital assets such as books and multimedia products, cover art and author photos, marketing materials including advertisements and news releases, and other collateral resources. Working in conjunction with a team from Simon & Schuster, Accenture helped to create, design and implement the comprehensive, DAM solution using Artesia's TEAMS software. The software works seamlessly across different platforms, providing a common front-end computer interface that makes for easy-to-use electronic storage, retrieval and distribution of key assets for all employees. In addition to archiving assets upon completion, the DAM solution at Simon & Schuster is designed to allow employees to find and use the most recent version of some assets while these assets are still in development. The DAM solution developed for Simon & Schuster is expected to provide faster access to artwork and marketing materials for all departments, increased access to asset usage rights and restriction information, greater flexibility and creativity in producing customized sales materials, fewer exchanges of files and printouts, and reduced third-party printing, copying and shipping costs. "We turned to Accenture and Artesia because of their combined ability to help companies develop broad strategies for managing and distributing complex digital content over multiple platforms," said Jack Romanos, president and chief executive officer of Simon & Schuster. "We expect our digital asset bank to have a major impact on our day-to-day lives, helping us to make our traditional publishing operations faster and more efficient, as well as anticipating the longer-term business impact of digital asset management for Simon & Schuster." Anticipating those longer-term business needs was made possible because of the inclusive strategy Simon & Schuster adopted in launching its digital asset bank. The Simon & Schuster team interviewed scores of employees from the full range of departments and across every division of the company, from top management to end users, to arrive at a comprehensive vision of how the DAM solution should operate. This process was vital in developing a list of the most essential assets, designing a system for storage and retrieval, customizing the interface, and developing a set of protocols for importing assets to the system, and in assuring a position of enhanced ownership for the many employees who would be affected by the new system. Artesia designed software components to enable future capabilities to be integrated into the system. The solution was initially deployed to a pilot group at Simon & Schuster and their input on the relevance and timing of certain assets, available formats and usage patterns allowed the development team to refine the final solution. "The ability to effectively create, manage and distribute content and its collateral components is critical for success, but too often this means simply digitizing existing content for archival purposes," said Debbie Polishook, a partner in Accenture's Media & Entertainment practice. "Simon & Schuster needed not only a digital archive but also a true digital content workflow to enable several departments across the company, such as marketing, online and editorial, to access key content assets throughout the development lifecycle. By leveraging the TEAMS flexible and extensive metadata capabilities, the Accenture and Artesia solution is designed to store additional information about Simon & Schuster's assets, such as formats, authors, different versions, rights and permissions and information about and links to related assets.