Aalst (Belgium), March 21, 2006 - AlfaPrint, a Belgian-based leader in digital asset management solutions, announced that Microsoft has selected its ADAM software development framework to drive their prosource DAM solution across EMEA and in a later stage, on a global level. Microsoft selected AlfaPrint’s technology after a competitive review of DAM solutions from numerous other providers.

ADAM successfully passed Microsoft’s stringent security audits, fully complying with all functionality and usage requirements. Microsoft will implement ADAM to link existing shared data and to consolidate fragmented asset distribution of processes and tools.

Prosource is a single source for all Entertainment & Devices (E&D) marketing collateral and enables internal marketing groups, media partners, retailers and the Internet community to access and download a variety of materials. Designed with a general Microsoft look and feel, prosource features an Xbox interface.

Hilda Brady, Product Manager Prosource, states that ADAM’s broad functionality and base in Microsoft technology were key deciding factors. "The main features we were looking for were related to administration, localization, scalability and user friendliness. The security and multiple platform features were also very important," says Brady. "The scalability of ADAM will allow a phased global deployment and future integration with DFS (Distributed File Sharing) for global replication, as well as integration with our existing enterprise applications."

The ADAM solution offers a variety of download and ordering mechanisms, including smart asset retrieval and distribution, and user level security. The system is completely configurable in terms of classification structure, attribute tagging and user management. ADAM’s localization framework and Unicode support were seen as decisive advantages during the selection procedure.

John Porcaro, Group Manager Xbox PR & Communications, Microsoft Corp., explains: "Our global marketing vendors and partners rely on us to provide instant access to hundreds of thousands of marketing assets: photographs, videos, screen shots, even huge layered files. Because we often deal with pre-release information, we needed a solution that allowed us to confidently share secure assets without worry of information leaking to competitors. In view of the shear volume of assets being managed daily, it was important to have a system that was easy to use, by our partners, our vendors, and especially our own employees. ADAM’s engine allowed us to build a global system with the features that will make it easier for our partners to work with us."

"AlfaPrint’s ADAM engine allowed us to quickly prototype and build a global Digital Asset Management solution. Their experience in this area made them a natural choice to tackle this strategic project, and their responsiveness and flexibility made the whole project easier than we imagined." concludes Mr Porcaro.

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