RAPID RESPONSE FOR PHOTOGRAPH REQUESTS BY MERSEYSIDE FIRE PRESS OFFICE

05 Aug 2008

Sharing fire scene and incident photographs used to be a laborious task for the communications department at Merseyside Fire. The force photographer copied photos to disc for delivery to the press office. Discs were filed in numerical order with an incident name and date. Journalists called press office staff for photos to accompany a story and staff checked an Excel spreadsheet to find the right image. Print quality photo files were too big to email and had to be copied onto DVD and mailed to journalists.

Andrew Iwediebo, New Media Manager liked the simplicity of LogicMighty’s web based PhotoLibrary software for intranet access by staff and internet access by external agencies. All users search for photos by browsing the PhotoLibrary and emailing permission requests to the Administrator. Photos are now organised into categories and tagged with keywords. The whole process takes minutes instead of hours with little disruption to communications staff.

Andrew Iwediebo explains, “photo legislation was difficult for press office staff to manage in the past but now it is easy. Sharing photos used to take hours and now it takes minutes. In 2005 we purchased a site software license to install the PhotoLibrary on our own server. It is now more cost effective to have the PhotoLibrary externally hosted on LogicMighty’s server.”

Merseyside Fire PhotoLibrary was set up in November 2005and contains over 2500 photos. All incident and event photos are taken by the force photographer who batch uploads photos with keywords, categories and other search terms into the image library. Photographs taken at the scene of a fire incident in Merseyside are made available to journalists within minutes using LogicMighty web-based PhotoLibrary software. Communications staff ensure photo subject matter conforms with legislative fire safety. Contentious photos are discussed with press officers before they are made visible in the PhotoLibrary. Data protection, copyright and permission information is attached to every photo.

All staff at Merseyside Fire receive logins and user access rights from the PhotoLibrary administrator, Andrew Iwediebo. Small files are emailed and large files are burned onto disc. Privileged users in communications, press office and publicity departments populate the library and request permission from Andrew to download photos. External design agencies and publication editors can browse the library and permission is always given to download photos.

LogicMighty develops web-based software products for communications, graphic design, marketing, photography and public relations departments. Existing customers are from education, local government, private and public sectors. PhotoLibrary is an easy to use software tool to store, manage, display and share photographs and other digital assets using a web browser. LogicMighty specialises in both software development and web hosting of its PhotoLibrary software products.

LOGICMIGHTY PHOTOLIBRARY SOFTWARE INCREASES COMMUNICATIONS EFFICIENCY FOR SPECIALIST MENTAL HEALTH TRUST

12 May 2008

Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust (CNWL) is the first mental health customer for Southampton based software developer LogicMighty. CNWL communications staff upload photos into the web-based Photo Library and find images within seconds using categories and keywords via their intranet.

Stephanie Cotgrove, CNWL communications manager explains, “before LogicMighty PhotoLibrary was installed on our central server, we had a box of CDs containing photos from hundreds of different events and photo shoots. Countless photo files were stored on various PCs within the communications department. PhotoLibrary has allowed us to store all our images in one place and gives the facility to find the right image without having to wade through piles of CDs. It's been easy to set up and even easier to use. The system is used within the communications department for publicity material, newsletters and web images. I can see us extending this to other staff and suppliers in the future. Estates and maintenance department is one staff group that could certainly benefit from PhotoLibrary.”

PhotoLibrary software helps CNWL reduce the time and costs required to develop marketing materials in an organised and consistent fashion. The end result is an expandable image library with improved speed, efficiency and security. Some subject matter in photographs is contentious and security is maintained by restricting access to privileged users. Staff request permission from the PhotoLibrary administrator before downloading photos. Expiry dates, data protection information, permissions and consent are all recorded.

CNWL is one of the largest specialist mental health trusts in England with 3000 employees serving more than 100 sites. The organisation provides a comprehensive range of health and social care services for people with mental health and substance misuse problems and learning disabilities living in central and north west London.

LogicMighty develops web-based software products for communications, graphic design, marketing, photography and public relations departments. Existing customers are from education, local government, private and public sectors. PhotoLibrary is an intuitive software tool to store, manage, display and share photographs and other digital assets using a web browser. LogicMighty specialises in both software development and web hosting of its PhotoLibrary software products.

NEW HIGH SPEED SELF SERVICE LOGICMIGHTY PHOTOLIBRARY FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE

19 April 2008

The University of Gloucestershire’s central marketing department officially launch their new LogicMighty PhotoLibrary. 5000 photographs are shared with staff over 4 campuses for their own marketing activities via the university intranet. Users are given log-ins, passwords and privileges by the PhotoLibrary administrator. The system works seamlessly on PCs and Apple Macs and is designed for non-technical users. A variety of digital assets are available and statistics show the most popular downloaded images are photos and logos.

Staff in central marketing used to find managing and distributing photos time consuming and labour intensive. Searching for appropriate photos involved checking disorganised archives on a shared computer and hunting through stacks of CD-ROMs or old publications. Sometimes it was difficult to find the right photo and always inefficient to email large files. Now PhotoLibrary software installed on a university server allows privileged users to search for content using a consistent set of keywords and categories. With just a few mouse clicks, an image is found and downloaded as required. The new self-service PhotoLibrary is speedy and flexible, provides a wider selection of photos and complies with branding guidelines for marketing campaigns. Graphic design efficiency has also improved using the LogicMighty Adobe PhotoShop plug-in to find and manage photos directly from a page layout environment.

Ben Parkyn, marketing officer and photo library administrator explains “since we completed the initial set up of the library it has proved to be an invaluable tool. It has enabled our store of photographs to be shared around our campuses resulting in greater variance in our publications. The time saving for our central department is also quite noticeable as people can search for themselves. The rights system has proved useful in ensuring our brand is maintained through suitable monitoring image usage. It is an ongoing project to keep the library maintained but one we deem worthwhile.”

LogicMighty, established in 1987 to provide contract software engineering, is a Southampton company. Since 2000, web-based software products have been developed for communications, graphic design, marketing, photography and public relations departments. Education customers include University of London, Oxford Brookes University, Birkbeck College, Bouw College in the Netherlands, the Institute of Education and University College for the Creative Arts. Other customers are from local government, private and public sectors all around the world. PhotoLibrary is an easy to use software tool to manage, store, display and share photographs and other digital assets using a web browser. LogicMighty specialises in both software development and web hosting of its PhotoLibrary software products.

LOGICMIGHTY SOFTWARE STREAMLINES AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENT IMAGE LIBRARY

2 April 2008

New South Wales Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) has launched a new efficient self-service PhotoLibrary. Using LogicMighty software, images representing NSW DPI activities are available for all staff to search and download in a range of sizes and resolutions. A wide choice of images is needed by staff to keep publications and PowerPoint presentations up-to-date.

Michel Dignand, Communications Co-ordinator acts as PhotoLibrary Administrator. He circulated a survey to key users following a pilot exercise. “The survey confirmed our opinion that the most important benefit is simplicity to the user. Staff locate images using 3 or 4 search methods. We estimate that many thousands of hours are saved each year using this self-help search and download facility”.

Formed in 2004, NSW DPI is the amalgamation of Mineral Resources NSW, NSW Agriculture, NSW Fisheries and State Forest NSW. Michel Dignand is responsible for merging many image libraries scattered across the organisation into one centralised system. “From the very beginning, PhotoLibrary has proved fast, simple to use and reasonably inexpensive. 3500 staff spread over 130 locations find images for publications and scientific presentations quickly and easily. We spent days sourcing images before LogicMighty PhotoLibrary was set up. Now we generally find a selection in seconds. There are almost 4000 images in the library and that number is expected to grow to around 10000 in the future”, says Michel.

The NSW DPI PhotoLibrary is accessed via the internet and hosted by LogicMighty. Australian customers Assa Abbloy and Sydney Ports Corporation have PhotoLibrary installed on in-house servers. LogicMighty in Southampton provides business software solutions for communications, graphic design, marketing, photography and public relations departments. There are two other LogicMighty web-based products to manage press cuttings and video and sound clips.