In the world of construction and architecture, acquiring information about a specific plot of land is difficult, and for some projects, nearly impossible. Dustin needed a system that enabled his clients to access integral images, videos and documents in one centralized location.
“It’s amazing how you can go to a site and not know where the power is and where the water comes in. In most cases, nobody knows where the plans for the whole building are. In this industry, information is elusive. We’re trying to change that culture,” says Dustin.
Before Canto, Dustin and his team used a stitched-together solution for storing images and documents. This was a confusing combination of editing, product management and cloud-storage tools.
“I was using Lightroom but everybody needed to have a copy of it, and it doesn’t sync well. We also used Base Camp, which is a fantastic set of software but not for digital asset management. On top of that we had Dropbox, but it was a little scary because we couldn’t put content behind a wall of safety. We needed more of an online photo processing system where everybody could get into the same program,” says Dustin.
The team researched alternatives to their tech stack and came across digital asset management (DAM). A new concept to Dustin, he was intrigued and motivated to research further.
“I started learning about digital asset management and realized this has way more to it than just editing photos. It’s something we ought to look at,” says Dustin.
Dustin led the search for a DAM solution. After trying out several other products, he chose Canto for its constant innovation, security measures and Portals feature.
“We started looking at what Canto could do and what we could accomplish with it, and our minds started turning. We reviewed other systems and Canto was the most progressive. It only took me about a week to decide – it was exactly what we’d been looking for,” says Dustin.
Now Imhotep stores all of their images, videos and PDF documents in Canto. Generally, site owners, architects and contractors need these assets, such as blueprints, to get information on empty sites, in-process construction projects or completed buildings.
Getting organized
Canto has made organizing assets far easier for Dustin’s team. External accessibility is paramount, so they decided to organize Canto in a way that made sense to their clients. Each site has its own Portal and there are tags for phases of construction, history, current status and more. Every site has a story, and every part of that story is now documented in Canto.
Since everything is centralized and organized in Canto, Imhotep’s clients can find exactly what they’re looking for, right when they need it. The longer that Imohtep has a site documented in Canto, the more assets it will accrue, making the Portal even more robust and valuable.
“We’ll take pictures of the way we found a site, during construction and when it’s finished, so people have a history of what happened. They’re not glamorous pictures, but they’re historical pictures. If there’s ever a structural failure down the line, with Canto, we can go back in, look at all the pictures that were taken during construction and find out what happened,” says Dustin.
Dividing topical content in the curated view
Each site has hundreds of images and documents attached to it. Curated Views in Canto help the Imhotep team separate content, making it quick and easy for clients to get specific information they’re looking for in an album.
“We love that we can break out content in the Curated View so somebody doesn’t have a 200 page set of drawings when they need to find one thing. People can search through documents easier,” says Dustin.
Imhotep has a ton of content, and with the amount growing steadily, Curated Views will continue to be a staple in their library. With Curated Views, each section of files has a different title to make the search process as smooth as possible.
“We can break albums out into site, exterior, interior, rooftop, mechanical, electrical and plumbing images. We give each section a title and people can just cruise through. It makes the content very readable,” says Dustin.
