Once started stichd making privatelabel socks for Hema. Today, in addition to socks, they also make underwear, swimwear and fanwear and are brand partners with brands such as PUMA, Levi's, Tommy Hilfiger and HEAD. Brands that are, to put it mildly, quite fashionable, and stichd must seamlessly match them in terms of collection and feel. Comrads' digital asset management system helps stichd handle their content more efficiently and accurately.
Wood Rope
Until recently, stichd's marketing department kept the content they created in folders on an internal work drive. That was their image bank. That way of working had quite a few limitations. Huub Sijbers, Business Consultant at stichd: 'We no longer knew where which version of a piece of content was stored, what the latest version was and we made adjustments without being able to document them. If we shared something with customers, we no longer knew which version it was and whether they were still using it. To work with our photography suppliers, we used yet another solution. In short, it was a pick-and-mix solution that could benefit greatly from a good digital asset management system.
Inventory of wishes and requirements
'At the end of 2018, together with an internal project group, I started taking stock of the wishes and requirements from the business. One of the brands we serve was already working with Comrads' solution and was very satisfied with it. When we had mapped out the wishes and requirements and it was time to invite a number of parties for a demo and an interview, Comrads was one of them. The way they approached the implementation best suited our needs at that moment.
Growing into the solution
'We had nothing and didn't want to go straight to a very large platform. That would be too comprehensive, which would be at the expense of adoption and would make the implementation process take forever. With Comrads, you can purchase the solution on a per functionality basis, which allows you to grow in your solution. Moreover, the people at Comrads work in a very pragmatic way and we were able to change gear very quickly. It just works very well. The pricing was also an important factor: the price is not determined by the number of users, but by the number of modules and extra functionalities that you purchase.
Personally involved
Comrads is certainly not the largest party, but that suits us very well. They have a lot of experience and think along very well in finding solutions that fit the phase we are in. And I don't just mean the system, the workflow and adapting internal systems, but also how we can make it as easy as possible for our colleagues to adopt all that news. That's what they really excel at as far as we're concerned. They don't just put a system out there, they're personally involved. That feels good.'
Solution in four areas
'A digital asset management system is going to help us on several levels. Internally, it will help us share the content we create more easily and efficiently with each other. Suppliers of photo material, for example, must be able to log into our portal to see what photos they still need to shoot. Towards clients, it is a means of providing supporting material that goes with the collection they are purchasing. Finally, there are the brands we serve: we need to be able to share things like product information and photo material with them easily so that they can also offer it on their platforms to the customers in their portfolio.'
Fully operational
'We have finished the softlaunch internally. Now it's time to fix some teething problems and refine a few more processes. I hope that we will have our new DAM system fully operational in May. The cooperation with Comrads will certainly not be the issue.
Curious?
Want to talk further about what a Digital Asset Management system can do for your organization and how to make its use a success? Contact us for a free demo on location. We are happy to think along with you.