Picdar sold its first DAM system 20 years ago, providing archiving in police authorities across the country. They're still working today. The company and asset management has come a long way since then and continues to develop its products to meet the evolving needs of customers as they create more integrated and automated digital production workflows.

Many people feel they had their fingers burnt by dot com start-ups who evaporated as the venture capital dried up. Some companies spent a lot of money without much benefit. One of the challenges over the last five to ten years has been trying to sell a solution before there was demand, either through lack of awareness, or the premature arrival of DAM ahead of more integrated digital workflows.

Howes puts Picdar's success down to good business practice, reliability and constantly moving forward. "We listen to what customers need and deliver the solutions they require. A lot of our clients come to us because of our reputation."

Digital asset, or content, management is now at the heart of many workflows as an integral and dynamic component. It's no longer an electronic cul-de-sac. Picdar recognises this and has developed their systems to work seamlessly with applications like InDesign.

"We now do cradle to grave," states Howes. "We're taking advantage of the latest XML, JDF and Java standards for such functionality as repurposing in multiple media channels on the fly. It is mission critical, at the heart of workflow."

The next stage of development is tipped to be cross database searching from within applications, using Java 2 Enterprise Edition. It will be like a Google search toolbar in your browser, retrieving assets from virtually anywhere in the world. Adobe understand the potential and it integrates perfectly with InDesign CS.

"Customers shouldn't need any additional skills beyond their core business. They don't have to worry about the IT side of their asset management. The addition of tools like JDF will support the job ticketing and asset tracking which can be inadequate today. It will be part of an environment where publishers will be able to keep track of page costs from asset usage or repurposing as they create the pages and not when it's too late," adds Howes.

It seems logical from all this to deduce that the future of asset management is going to be in partnerships between application providers, content providers and technology suppliers, if the industry is to move forward in an affordable and flexible way. In a way the more powerful the solution the more invisible it will become as customers create and sell content without having to think twice about the technology.

One final word of caution: beware of false economies. As the market warms up, new players are emerging again and some are very good. But this isn't necessarily about price when you consider what a difference a reliable, flexible and scalable solution can make to most organisations.