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Global Footwear Brand Streamlining Digital Asset Collaboration
Company Situation
The company is a well-established consumer footwear brand with a global distribution network. Their team includes in-house creative and production staff who manage large volumes of digital assets, collaborating both locally and with international partners. Their operations involve coordinating marketing assets and product imagery that need to be accessed and shared seamlessly across offices and external distributors.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the company relies on a local NAS server housed in their main office for storing files. This server supports local team members via Ethernet connections. For remote access, the team uses a VPN to connect to this NAS. Additionally, they use Dropbox to share assets externally with international distributors, resulting in a fragmented storage strategy with duplicated content across platforms.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
The NAS server is slow and nearing its storage capacity limit.
Remote users face cumbersome VPN requirements to access files, hampering productivity.
Dropbox, used for external sharing, is disliked due to its limitations and lack of integration with their internal systems.
The dual usage of NAS and Dropbox creates inefficiencies and complicates file management.
The company heavily uses Airtable for metadata and project management but lacks a seamless way to integrate file storage with Airtable for streamlined partner access.
The production team is concerned about ease of working with very large files and wants to avoid reliance on internet speed or VPNs for file access.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a hybrid cloud and local solution that consolidates storage while maintaining the ability to work efficiently with large files. Shade’s platform would replace both the NAS server and Dropbox, acting as a unified Digital Asset Management (DAM) system that preserves existing folder structures and file integrity during migration. Shade’s open and flexible API enables deep integration with Airtable, allowing metadata synchronization and enabling partners to access files directly through Airtable portals. The hybrid architecture supports offline access and local caching, eliminating VPN dependency and internet speed bottlenecks, thus streamlining remote and local workflows for the production team.
Benefits
- Unified platform replacing fragmented NAS and Dropbox usage
- Seamless integration with Airtable for enhanced metadata management and partner access
- Hybrid cloud/local architecture enabling fast access to large files without VPN or internet speed constraints
- Preservation of existing file structures and metadata to minimize change management challenges
- Simplified remote access with offline capabilities and local caching
- Data migration services to transfer existing assets without disruption
Technologies Used
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