Acquisition
Brand Refresh, Marriage, and Divorce
Mergers and acquisitions have a big impact on an organization’s DAM. Here are two stories:
Norton meets LifeLock: A Co-branding Initiative and DAM Integration
In 2017, Symantec acquired LifeLock to become part of the Consumer Business Unit, alongside the flagship Norton products. Ann and the Norton team reworked the Symantec DAM to support the transition in several areas:
Branding
Norton and LifeLock co-branded an array of digital assets. And Norton did a timely brand refresh as well. The team created special collections to showcase brand assets and guidelines for easy distribution to all users.
Welcome and train new users and producers
A large group of new employees and their agencies and producers needed access and training to the DAM. Training goes beyond uploading and indexing.
Workflow and process integration
Daily creative and production workflows differed between the two integrating groups. And, with LifeLock came two additional DAM systems. All DAMs have to be in good shape – with consistent metadata and solid publishing and archiving policies—to meet integration challenges.
Veritas and Symantec: A Saga of Marriage and Divorce
The Veritas Story - Integration
In 2005, Symantec acquired Veritas, and a very large number of people and products joined the company. The Symantec DAM replaced the Veritas DAM, which eased the transition challenges somewhat. The issues – branding, users, training, processes -- were common to both companies. Ann wrote the migration plan, revamped the metadata, welcomed and trained in new users and publishers.
The Veritas Story - Separation
In 2015, Veritas and Symantec parted ways. This DAM transition was smooth: the metadata was in good shape and archiving was current. That meant that the Veritas digital assets were easy to identify and gather for the migration.
A skilled librarian who is also a subject matter expert is a valuable asset.
“After a recent acquisition, we had the daunting task of refreshing our current DAM to include new brand assets and make our materials accessible to a host of completely new users. Ann Childs is a great DAM manager and was a life saver during our extensive brand refresh and DAM update. She was extremely knowledgeable about the DAM and its capabilities, created an effective plan to organize and update all materials and executed all tasks in a timely and efficient manner. Ann made my job as a Brand Manager so much easier by pulling together research and providing visual examples to aid me in my decision making. Thanks to Ann our DAM is now organized, updated and user friendly, ready for the new employees to access.”
— Kendred Dove, Brand Manager, Symantec Global Brand and Campaigns