Microsoft Studios and Portfolio

Microsoft is not just a producer of world-class software; it also manages one of the world's largest collections of digital media. Microsoft Studios is the largest of Microsoft's internal media production facilities, creating media content for Microsoft's famed consumer software products, online services, corporate presentations, training and research, and even televi-sion broadcasting. Microsoft Studios is a separate business unit within Microsoft that provides internally billable services to other Microsoft divisions and departments, such as Encarta and MSNBC Online. "Our primary charter is to support enterprise communication for Microsoft," says Mark Beauchamp, engineering group manager for Microsoft Studios, Redmond, Washington. True to the Microsoft competitive spirit, other Microsoft business units are free to pursue outside vendors if Microsoft Studios can't make the grade. Initially, those Microsoft business unit customers consisted of Microsoft Encarta for encyclopedia content, MSNBC for Web site content, and the Microsoft Product Portfolio, which stores and tracks all media used for Microsoft's consumer and enterprise products. Each product group maintains its own schedules and production workflow, creating a challenging task for any digital asset management (DAM) system.

Selecting a Digital Asset Management Solution Microsoft Studios archiving engineers began looking for an external solution for digital asset management back in early 1996, nearly a year before the organization had a production facility of its own. At the time, the need for a systematic way of organizing and retrieving digital archived materials was even more important than the need to create an elaborate production facility.

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