Providing a 'single focal point' for a European conservation non-profit's digital media

29th March 2023

For more than a century, the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation has promoted and built awareness of conservation and sustainability.

In that time, the SSNC has become Sweden’s largest environmental organisation, with over 200,000 members and 270 local associations. The organisation is headquartered in Stockholm, but the local associations all operate independently. The SSNC’s Digital Asset Management processes simply weren’t working effectively.

“I already knew the value and opportunity of ResourceSpace.”

“I’d worked with ResourceSpace in my previous company, so I understood its value,” explains Robert.

“In that organisation, we’d replaced an expensive, proprietary DAM system with ResourceSpace and it made a huge difference. The previous DAM had been folder-based, not built on metadata like ResourceSpace, so the change made a huge difference in terms of DAM usability.”

“With ResourceSpace you’re not boxed in.”

“Unlike other proprietary DAM systems, with ResourceSpace you’re not boxed in,” says Robert.

While many ResourceSpace customers use the out-of-the-box DAM that’s already packed with functionality and integrations, the SSNC take advantage of the fact the software is open source, with Robert’s team implementing their own changes to best suit their needs.

“It’s so easy for developers to jump in, and I’m always checking in with the forums to discover the new things that are being done.

“We also work with a third-party web agency that maintains the DAM, connecting other systems via an API,” says Robert.

“We now have a single focal point for use of media.”

The effective implementation of ResourceSpace has allowed the SSNC to have a ‘single focal point’ for their digital media.

“We have digital media coming into us from many different places,” explains Robert.

“We purchase digital media from sites like Getty Images, we commission photographers for special projects and even accept photo submissions from our 200,000 strong membership.”

Unsurprisingly, this means the SSNC boasts a massive library of digital assets, and before ResourceSpace was implemented they weren’t managed in a single, central location.

“There was a big economic cost because of this,” says Robert.

“We might purchase a single image for $20, but it would be stored on a hard drive that would be wiped, or it would simply become lost - and wasting money is not a good thing for a not-for-profit!

“We also had problems with purchasing the same image multiple times because we had no central management of the assets.”

This issue was made worse because of the way the local associations operated, independent of the main organisation which didn’t have much control over how they worked.

“Now with ResourceSpace, everything is centralised, meaning we can use and reuse our digital media multiple times and for multiple purposes, within the terms of the licences. From the output side, ResourceSpace connects with our main website, as well as our social channels which makes publishing our assets so much easier.

“ResourceSpace has also allowed us to normalise our processes, and pass these down to our local organisations so they understand best practice for using and managing digital assets.”

“I would definitely recommend ResourceSpace if I moved to another organisation,” says Robert.

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