Extensis Portfolio 8 Puts Creative Workgroup Assets at User\'s Fingertips
New functionality means less time searching for files and more ways to organize and share across workgroups.
PhotoPlus Expo, New York, NY. — October 20th, 2005 — Extensis, a division of Celartem, Inc., today announced Portfolio 8, a major advance in its digital asset management (DAM) solution. The new version of Portfolio provides industrial-strength workflow features to organize and route digital files utilizing visual catalogs and embedded metadata, making it fast and easy to find and share valuable branding collateral within the asset creation workgroups and externally with global partners. The Portfolio 8 product family includes a standalone version, Client/Server solution; as well as NetPublish and SQL Connect Modules.
"The most competitive organizations are looking for the best way to use technology to improve their business processes and their bottom line. This new version of Portfolio is the ultimate solution for organizing, finding and distributing a company’s critically important brand assets," said Dan Harlacher, Portfolio product manager for Extensis. "It’s our cure for the common quagmire of creative assets and image management that companies are facing every day. Plus you can do it in less time and with less money than you might think; it’s a software solution trusted by IT and approved by creatives and brand professionals."
Portfolio 8 has built-in workflow tracking out-of-the-box. With its new ability to add cataloging presets to AutoSync folders, files can be added to Portfolio with predefined metadata and can be moved through a workflow simply by dropping them into folders on the file-server. Portfolio can even keep track of the status of a job and help communicate with and route files to other members of a team.
It is now even easier to get started using Portfolio and to find guidance when needed. A new series of sample catalogs are provided for specific tasks like professional photography, stock image management, and document routing and approval. Fast cataloging quickly adds files to the Portfolio catalog and allows users to start working with them right away while other cataloging tasks happen in the background. Additionally, Portfolio can now use automatically created Screen Previews for creating CD’s, DVDs, websites, and emails, making the process of sharing even offline files significantly faster.
Portfolio 8’s new gallery features include private galleries, accessible only by the original creator and scratchpad galleries to easily collect items from several different locations and organize them for printing or other activities. Significant improvements in speed, workflow and metadata handling, now make it easier than ever to implement a full-featured DAM solution without extensive disruption and retraining.
"The digital asset management software market continues to gather momentum as more and more companies are realizing they need solutions to manage their growing numbers of assets," said Melissa Webster, Program Director at IDC. "Organizations need a solution that can be implemented quickly and at a reasonable cost to maintain business and workflow continuity."
New Features in Portfolio 8 Portfolio 8’s new features and enhancements include: Galleries • Full Custom Sort: Portfolio now enables users to drag, re-order, or sort items in Galleries, SmartGalleries, and disk folders. This functionality is remembered automatically for each user in a workgroup environment. Users can also promote a custom sort to a shared catalog so that all users can take advantage of the same ordering. • Scratchpad Galleries: Scratchpad galleries are temporary baskets that allow users of any level to sort, edit and merge collections of files from multiple galleries or searches into a single gallery that can be used for printing, collecting or publishing. • Public/Private Galleries, Read-Only Galleries: Portfolio users can now create private galleries that are only viewable to the creator. Users can also lock a gallery to prevent changes. NetPublish • NetPublish Galleries: Portfolio users can now use NetPublish to distribute a subset of a catalog, rather than an entire catalog via a dynamic website. Users can effectively publish content to the web based on metadata. • NetPublish Logging: Allows NetPublish administrators to track activity on their Portfolio powered website. Downloadable logs keep track of important site statistics. Database • Fast Cataloging: Fast cataloging quickly adds files to a Portfolio catalog and allows users to start working with them right away while other cataloging tasks occur in the background. • FolderSync & AutoSync Enhancements: When adding a new watch folder to a catalog, users can now define the frequency at which the folder is scanned, as well as attach a cataloging options preset to each new folder. FolderSync has also been refined so that ignored or excluded items do not change the folder status. AutoSync folders can now dynamically remap file paths to server local shares allowing for greater server performance. • Custom XMP Extraction and Custom File Info Panels: Portfolio 8 can now extract custom namespace XMP metadata from a wide range files, allowing users to embed custom information like job status or product sku information files via Adobe’s Creative Suite applications and be viewable inside Portfolio. Portfolio 8 will ship with sample catalogs and custom file information panels to expose this new functionality.
Pricing and Availability Portfolio 8 for both individual users and workgroups will be available for download and purchase in December 2005. Portfolio 8 Client/Server Solutions start at an estimated street price of $5,000US and can be extended to include SQL database options with SQL Connect Modules ranging in price from an estimated street price of $5,000US to $9,000US. Client connections for Portfolio Server are available in volume licenses at an estimated street price of less than $250US per seat. Portfolio catalogs can be shared via the web with the addition of Portfolio NetPublish for Server for an estimated street price of $5,000US.
Portfolio 8 is also available in a single-user version at an estimated street price of $199.95US. Portfolio catalogs can be published to the web by adding a Portfolio NetPublish license for an estimated street price of $249.95US (five concurrent web connections). Upgrades to Portfolio 8 are available for $99.95US from Portfolio 6 and 7.
French, German and Japanese language versions of Portfolio will also be available in December 2005.
For information on where to purchase the Portfolio family of products visit http://www.extensis.com/portfolio.
System Requirements Portfolio 8 will support Windows 2000, XP or higher, Pentium class processor at 1GHz or faster 256MB RAM (512 Recommended) XGA or higher display at millions of colors. 200MB Hard Drive space, CD-ROM for installation, Network interface for server connection, Apple QuickTime 6.5 or higher, web browser with Macromedia Flash 7 or higher plug-in installed. Portfolio 8 will also support Mac OS X 10.3 or higher, G3 processor at 1GHz or faster (G4 or G5 recommended), 256MB RAM (512 Recommended) XGA or higher display at millions of colors, 200MB Hard Drive space, CD-ROM for installation, Network interface for server connection, Apple QuickTime 6.5 or higher, web browser with Macromedia Flash 7 or higher plug-in installed.
About Extensis Extensis, a division of Celartem, Inc., is a leading provider of software solutions that empower digital asset creators and users. Extensis’ award-winning products are used by hundreds of Fortune 5000 companies and include Suitcase and Font Reserve for font management, Portfolio for asset management, and plug-in enhancements for Photoshop and QuarkXPress. Extensis was founded in 1993 and is based in Portland, Oregon, and the United Kingdom
. Extensis is a division of Celartem, Inc., which is wholly owned by Celartem Technology Inc., (Hercules: 4330). For additional information, visit http://www.extensis.com or call 1-800-796-9798.
. Extensis is a division of Celartem, Inc., which is wholly owned by Celartem Technology Inc., (Hercules: 4330). For additional information, visit http://www.extensis.com or call 1-800-796-9798.
About Celartem Celartem Technology, Inc. develops and sells innovative technologies for storage, access and distribution of rich media content. Celartem has developed technology in the areas of digital image compression, scalable image viewing and secure content distribution and management. Celartem is listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange, Hercules:4330. Established in 1996, Celartem is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan and has a wholly owned subsidiary, Celartem Inc. with headquarters in Seattle.