All posts by Modula4

Modula4 announces Content Delivery Hub: Deliver Files Directly to Websites from your DAM

Modula4 is pleased to announce the launch of Content Delivery Hub (CDH), a cloud-based system that delivers files from your Digital Asset Management (DAM) system directly to web pages quickly and reliably. CDH prepares files specifically for its intended destination. Using intelligent caching between users and applications, CDH ensures the most recent version of a file is delivered as efficiently as possible.

CDH is ideal for e-commerce sites, brand portals, and marketing, public affairs, and museum sites as well. Virtually any image-intensive web site can benefit from CDH. And it’s not only for websites. It also works with 3rd party systems needing files & metadata from your DAM on a high performance, high reliability basis. These include Product Information Management (PIM), inventory management, and health record management systems.

With CDH, images are processed in the DAM. This means only minimal maintenance is needed for the assets within CDH. It also adds a high level of reliability. Since CDH operates independently of the DAM system, assets continue to be delivered even in the event of a DAM system outage. And it reinforces the DAM’s role as the “single source of truth.” If an asset is changed in your DAM system, all files and metadata available in CDH are automatically updated.

Beyond just images, CDH can also deliver original, unprocessed files such as PDFs. And CDH can also deliver any metadata associated with the asset in your DAM. This supports dynamically creating websites, and populating fields with important information in 3rd party systems.

Features include the ability to specify size, format, conversion quality, and cropping. File formats supported include JPGs, AVIFs, PNGs, WebPs, and many more. Image cropping can be defined in advance, or customized via URL parameters.

To learn more visit the Content Delivery Hub product page, or contact us.

Modula4 Selects NetX as Preferred Cumulus Replacement

With Canto ending support soon for the Cumulus DAM (Digital Asset Management) system, Modula4 has selected NetX as the preferred Cumulus replacement for their customers.

Canto will no longer provide support or updates (including security fixes) for Cumulus Entry and Workgroup beyond 2022 and Cumulus Enterprise beyond 2023. That means organizations that use Cumulus should be actively looking for a new DAM system.

NetX is a highly configurable, full-featured DAM. It’s a modern product with an intuitive interface. NetX is available as an on-premise system or as a cloud (SaaS) service. It’s used by leading brands across all industries, including universities and museums. NetX has been a leader in the DAM market for more than 20 years.

To make migrating from Cumulus to NetX as quick and trouble-free as possible, Modula4 created a Cumulus2NetX tool and process. Important tasks are automated. This ensures that your files, data, metadata structure, permissions, and workflows are properly exported from Cumulus and seamlessly imported into NetX.

Learn more about why NetX is the best Cumulus replacement.

Let me know how to get started replacing Canto Cumulus with NetX.

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Modula4 helps Cumulus users find alternatives

Canto has announced it will cease providing support or updates to Cumulus Entry & Workgroup editions at the end of 2022, and for the Enterprise edition at the end of 2023.

Modula4 is here to help. We can help you select a Cumulus replacement system from our current partners, or help you evaluate a system you’re currently considering. We can also work with your team to extend the life of your Cumulus system beyond Canto’s official end of support date.

Even if you’re not already our client, as Cumulus experts we can quickly asses how you use Cumulus to help you find the best path forward. No two DAM systems are exactly alike. We know how to find the best match for your specific needs. And we can migrate you assets, metadata, permissions and workflows so you don’t lose the features you currently rely on.

Contact us to learn more about how Modula4 can help you find the best Cumulus replacement for your organization.

Modula4 Expands, Adds Office in New York City 

To better serve our customers nationwide we’ve opened an office in New York City. As we gain more clients on the East Coast and in the Midwest, our new office lets us better serve these customers and gives us more opportunity to meet with them in person.

The New York office is located in Manhattan at 157 Columbus Ave., New York, NY 10023. The phone number is +1 (646) 687-5490. Our US headquarters remains in the San Francisco Bay Area, located in San Rafael, Calif.

New Partnership, Acquisition in Australia

Modula4 has formalized our partnership with Work-in-Progress (WIP), a Cairns-based DAM consultancy with a focus on Canto Cumulus. WIP provides support, consulting, and technical services for Modula4 customers in Australia and throughout the Asia Pacific region. WIP also offers Modula4 products and customizations to its own clients. WIP Director Robert Krause has previously worked for DataBasics, Modula4, and Canto.

In more news from Down Under, we’ve acquired the assets of Aimtec, a DAM reseller and developer based in Greensborough,VIC. Previously a Canto Certified Platinum Partner, Aimtec established market-leading capabilities in digital asset management and in particular, developing customized DAM systems around Canto Cumulus. Aimtec has delivered solutions to some of Australia’s top corporations and government agencies. It’s also the developer of ZoomA, a tool that lets users quickly see fine details in assets managed by Cumulus. All of Aimtec’s products and contracts are now owned by Modula4.

New Key Hire in Berlin

Lutz Heymann, formerly of Heymann Consulting, has joined Modula4’s Berlin, Germany office as a Senior Consultant. With his deep DAM experience and extensive Cumulus product knowledge, Lutz helps support our growing client base in Germany and throughout Europe. Lutz assists Modula4 customers with strategy, training, configuration and other services, allowing them to get the most from their Canto Cumulus systems. 

Plan Now or Pay Later: Article by Modula4 CTO Michael Gellner featured in Journal of Digital Media Management

The article “Plan Now or Pay Later: Sustainable Design Ideas for Digital Asset Management” co-authored by Modula4 CTO Michael Gellner and David Diamond, author of The DAM Survival Guide is featured in the latest edition of the Journal of Digital Media Management.

Appearing as the lead article in Volume 7, No. 1 (Autumn, 2018) of the journal, “Plan Now or Pay Later” provides guidance to organizations when determining which processes to automate in their DAM system to get the biggest return in time and cost savings. This allows them to maximize the usability of their DAM systems by removing repetitive manual task without making the them needlessly rigid.

The Journal of Digital Media Management is the major peer-reviewed, professional journal for anyone involved in the capture, storage and effective application of digital media assets.

Copies of the article can be downloaded here.

 

New auto-tagging feature now included with the DAM4 Platform

Modula4 has introduced AI Auto-Tagging,  a new feature of the DAM4 Platform. Using Artificial Intelligence (AI), auto-tagging analyzes images to suggest metadata tags. Tags are based on what appears in the image as well as what’s inferred from the context. It also identifies the dominant colors.

AI Auto-Tagging is powered by Clarifai, the leading AI image tagging service. Clarifai offers a free tier of service, with packages available for high-volume tagging. Clarifai uses their advanced machine learning system to evaluate millions upon millions of image to build its ever-expanding reference base.

AI Auto-Tagging is also available in a Custom Edition which lets you use your own images to train the image recognition and tagging. This fine-tunes the image analysis and tags to the specific needs of your organization.

AI Auto-Tagging is included with the DAM4 Platform, and available as an add-on to Cumulus when purchased separately.

You can learn more about AI Auto-Tagging here or by contacting Modula4.

 

Email Order System Pro now available for Portals

Modula4 has announced that their popular Cumulus asset ordering system Email Order System Pro (EOSP) is now available for the Portals web interface. Originally available as an option for Modula4’s Web Module and Canto Sites, the Portals version retains the ease-of-use and functionality of the versions previously only available for the other Cumulus interfaces.

 

 

With EOSP users simply fill out a form to have assets delivered to them via email. The flexible forms are easy to create. An intuitive admin interface makes it simple to set-up and manage. EOSP offers multilingual support and includes an extension that lets administrators find the requested assets using the Cumulus admin client. Learn more by visiting the EOSP product page or contact Modula4 to request a demo.