Aprimo partners with Templafy on digital asset management

Digital asset management vendor Aprimo has announced a strategic partnership with Templafy, a template management company, to create a connector for Microsoft Office applications.

The partnership, which was announced last week, allows users to access digital assets from Aprimo directly in Microsoft Office through the new Aprimo Connector for Microsoft Office powered by Templafy.

"The end users benefit tremendously when they are doing a presentation," said Christian Lund, chief product officer at Templafy. "They can stay directly inside of Microsoft Office or Office 365 PowerPoint and click where they want that image, and then those images are serviced directly inside of Microsoft Office through the Templafy UI."

The partnership includes some of the following features:

• Ability to restrict access: Allows users to search only within documents, presentations and email, rather than searching outside of workspace
• Easier access: Assets are accessible on a centralized platform in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and other Office applications
• Ensures legal compliance: Only images with correct rights and compliance can be accessed by employees

"The partnership between Templafy and Aprimo means that DAM users will have more consistent, scalable content that they can deliver to market faster," said Nick Barber, senior analyst at Forrester Research. "The integration means that creators can rely more on software and less on themselves when it comes to the mundane but necessary task of updating content."

The connector also automatically compresses larger assets, such as high-resolution photos, which can take up space in a document or presentation that does not require such large files.

"It is optimized for the Office platform," Lund said, about the compression feature. "What happens through integration is that it is sent through Templafy UI, and those images are automatically compressed to be optimized and fit well with Microsoft PowerPoint, or Word or Outlook."

Lund said partnerships like the one between Aprimo and Templafy are significant to bring together SaaS vendors in order to enhance the user experience.

"[The connector] is particularly helpful for the end users because it allows them to work much faster and gives the business a much better way to govern and feel secure that people are using things in the right way, and also to leverage their investment technology in general," Lund said.

No specific pricing was mentioned for the Aprimo Connector. The connector is also integrated with Office 365, Microsoft Office Online and Google's G Suite.