Our Customer Success Managers frequently attend site visits to catch up with our clients and explore ways they can make progress with using OpenAsset. In this blog, Alex Cesarini recaps his trip to visit some of our Boston-based clients.
A couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit one of our Country’s most historical cities. If you’re familiar with the story that Boston tells, it is one of independence, change, and innovation, most frequently through architecture. My trip followed a similar theme, which continued into many of the meetings I attended with OpenAsset users. During my time there, I met with a wide variety of clients that are impacting architectural development within Boston and across the world. Elkus Manfredi is a client who is working on a number of projects that will soon change the skyline of lower Boston. Similarly, SAFDIE has contributed to the incredible new Jewel that greets visitors to Singapore Airport. Other clients that I visited over a busy three days included: Shepley Bulfinch; Wilson Butler; Nitsch Engineering; ArrowStreet; Payette; SMMA; Tsoi Kobus Design; HMFH Architects; and Bergmeyer Associates.
During my visit, one of our clients said that “OpenAsset tells the story of our company, from start to finish.” To me, that was such a great goal for us as a company to be able to contribute to, but also for a client to work towards. For this firm, their DAM represents all of the hard work their team puts into projects, reflecting the independence, change, and innovation we see everyday in architecture all over the world. Another firm I met with uses this same mentality to onboard new employees and educate them about the firm’s project history, covering what could otherwise take months or years to learn and visualize.
Another theme that emerged from my meetings with Boston-based clients is how OpenAsset can be an essential tool to help companies retain their identity while they undergo significant changes, such as mergers or acquisitions. A meeting with one client led us to evaluate their original goals for using OpenAsset. While they had at times struggled with aspects of their implementation, the process of going through a merger had led them to reevaluate some of their broader strategic goals. In our meeting, we discussed some of the challenges they faced and how accomplishing some small goals can be the best way to accomplish your larger goals. Using OpenAsset will help them to keep their sense of identity as a Boston-based firm, while they embark on a fresh start as a “new” company.
Going onsite with different clients, especially given their range of sizes, industries, and specializations, one would think that the challenges they face in managing images might be wildly diverse, but I found that wasn’t always the case. It was interesting to learn that a common theme for certain companies was their use of administrator tools such as group permissions, and the configuration of their ranks and access levels. It isn’t the case that it is particularly hard to manage or configure these tools, but rather the way they are used can evolve over time. As each company continues to grow and change, OpenAsset has become more of a company-wide tool used by people outside of the team that originally found it valuable.
During our meetings, this led us to discuss questions like: “Who should be able to see construction photos?”, “Who should have access to our event photos?”, “What should we rank photos that we use most frequently but might not be from a photographer?”. These questions required us to really think through clients’ needs and the solutions varied according to what goals OpenAsset was helping to achieve. Safe to say, I think we found solutions to all of them. With that being said, it is often a comforting feeling to know that others struggle in areas that you might struggle with. The really good news is that is what we are here for. Please do not hesitate to share with us your goals and ask of better ways to achieve them; that is what makes our days bright and it’s what we are here for.
As a native New Yorker, I truly loved the city of Boston and felt privileged to meet some of the people who have contributed to the architecture and culture that make it what it is. A trip for the books. Thank you, Boston! And I waited until the Amtrak made it’s way out of Boston till I put my Yankee hat back on!
