With the help of Alfresco Gold Partner, Formtek, Dorfman Pacific has a new Image Management Application (IMA) based on Alfresco Enterprise. The IMA application includes a content data model unique to Dorfman Pacific’s requirements that tags and stores all the associated metadata for items and digital images. Using a batch input program, the company can speed up the input of large numbers of product images into the system. Lastly, images can be easily managed and accessed using a web browser. This means that Dorfman Pacific can provide partners secure access to the image library for up-to-date and accurate product images.

1. alfresco.com
dorfman-pacific.com
formtek.com
case Dorfman Pacific Implements an Image Management System
study with the Help of Alfresco and Formtek
Customer Challenge
Dorfman Pacific Customers around the world know Dorfman Pacific as one of
2615 Boeing Way the largest full-line, in-stock headwear and handbag companies.
Stockton, CA 95206 The product images used in the company’s hardcopy and online
catalogs and marketing materials visually define how the public view
them. With its product line expanding, managing its collection of
Industry
digital images and product materials became time consuming and
Retail difficult. With images stored in multiple locations, Dorfman Pacific’s
marketing team had a hard time updating or creating new product
Solution catalogs. More importantly the process was error-prone.
Enterprise Content Dorfman Pacific recognized that managing their product data and
Management associated images was a complex task. For example, an item might
be manufactured in different styles and colors, and each of those
product variations can have an associated image. Photos taken Results
Products
using different camera angles or image resolutions may also need to • Streamlines the sharing of images with internal teams,
Alfresco Enterprise
be associated with the item. The large number of possible product partners and resellers
and camera parameter permutations meant that any single catalog
Partner • Speeds the distribution of images
item may have very many associated images. And the images
Formtek, Inc. include Adobe® Photoshop® files typically 20-30 Mbytes each. • Secure web portal for centralized access to all digital images
Dorfman Pacific resolved to implement an electronic solution that • Provided small-footprint web-based accessibility
would centralize and automate the management of product informa- • Easy creation and storage of images in multiple file formats
tion, including digital catalog images, and facilitate distribution of the
• Reduced the time required to process special digital asset requests
information to their factories. The company also wanted to reduce
the time required for the graphics department to find, retrieve and • Encourages consistency and reuse of assets
distribute requested product images to resellers and distributors. • Eliminated the need to FTP, email or ship CDs of digital assets
“
“
IMA improves the ability of our sales force and customers to utilize our extensive library of images for their own needs,
while at the same time significantly streamlining our marketing, product development, and sales efforts.
— Todd Gardner, Senior VP of Merchandise and Marketing for Dorfman Pacific

2. alfresco.com
| Dorfman-Pacific | Formtek dorfman-pacific.com
formtek.com
Solution Conclusion
Dorfman Pacific turned to Alfresco Gold Partner, Formtek, The Dorfman Pacific IMA solution has met the require-
to build a new Image Management Application (IMA) based ments of the project charter and succeeded in producing
on Alfresco Enterprise. Dorfman Pacific was impressed with significant efficiencies. Prior to implementation of the
Formtek’s successful track record of building secure and IMA solution, fulfilling a single image request often took
scalable mission-critical content management 30 minutes. With the implementation of IMA, up-to-date
applications for use in demanding environments. and accurate product information is being distributed to
Formtek recommended Alfresco Enterprise ECM software the factories, and customers can fulfill their own requests
because it provided rich functionality out of the box that for images and other information, eliminating the effort
would minimize development costs. Within months, required of Dorfman Pacific’s graphics department.
Formtek was able to design, implement, test and roll out
the new IMA application using Alfresco on a VM server with Next Steps
MS Server 2003. Most importantly, Alfresco offered The initial success of the application has led Dorfman
Dorfman Pacific a lower total cost of ownership, not only Pacific to engage Formtek in discussions regarding
for the initial implementation, but for their ongoing upgrading and expanding the use of Alfresco and the
systems management. IMA solution. One additional project being considered is
To efficiently search content in the new IMA application, to improve the custom product ordering process. This
Formtek developed a content data model unique to project would involve adding document types such as
Dorfman Pacific’s requirements that tags and stores all the emails, purchase orders and specification sheets to the
associated metadata for items and digital images. The new IMA repository, enabling automatic check-in of in-bound
metadata structure accounts for each product’s various emails, and modeling the custom order workflow
style, manufacturing, and camera parameter. Users can process within IMA.
now easily search the system using any of these metadata
parameters and find images that match specific criteria.
Alfresco provides Dorfman Pacific staff the flexibility to
access the IMA content in multiple ways. Users in the
graphics department can leverage the IMA repository as
to locate and download the images needed in the
appropriate resolution and file formats. The portal can also
be customized allowing Dorfman Pacific to market new
“ Alfresco’s cost advantages and open
standards make it the ideal platform for
managing digital assets. Dorfman Pacific
a standard network drive and interact with the repository products directly to the partner. is an great example of how customers can
directly from their graphics applications, such as use Alfresco to build Web-based content
Formtek also sped up the input of large numbers of
Adobe® InDesign®, without needing to start the applications to meets today’s needs today
product images by creating a batch input program.
browser-based client. while still having a flexible platform that
Formtek designed the IMA application to be available via
The program validates the names of documents to be
uploaded with data stored in Dorfman Pacific’s STYLES
“
will grow with an organization as
requirements evolve over time.
any browser allowing both internal and external users database, reports any conflicts that are found, and allows
access to the content. When there is a request for images the user to correct those conflicts. The images are then
from a partner, Dorfman Pacific can send a secure URL batch uploaded, into the IMA repository, and the — Victor Malespina, VP Sales, Formtek
with an individual login and password. Partners can search filenames are parsed into metadata fields to provide
the Alfresco repository using style number and other criteria added search functionality.