When Airbus embarked on its Digital Asset Management project, the ambition was as ambitious as the company itself. The aim is to distribute the aircraft manufacturer's best visuals to 50,000 employees worldwide.
This new project was initiated by the Airbus communications department. It's called Photolib+.
Meeting the challenges of an international project
There are over 130,000 photo files to share securely. These are photos of airplanes, production lines, employees in action... These numerous visuals are much in demand by thousands of internal users to illustrate their brochures, PPT presentations and other graphic and documentary productions. The system must be simple and user-friendly. It has to save time for everyone involved in the graphics chain. But the project is complex.
Historically, several image databases have existed within the company. Each of these databases is managed by a different country. Photo management habits differ between teams, as does the language used. These databases need to be merged. One of the key challenges is therefore to converge the documentary structures and adopt a common language. Media management habits vary from one country to another. Quality criteria and legal constraints differ from country to country. The challenge is to ensure that everyone adopts best practices. As the project involves sensitive data, it is subject to numerous security constraints. Access to documents must comply with strict rules of confidentiality and data protection.
After a highly demanding call for tenders, Keepeek was selected to meet all these challenges.
A collaborative project
All the countries in which Airbus operates are involved in enriching the common image base. Each Airbus unit has its own specialty and therefore holds photos specific to its discipline.
- In France: center section, pre-assembly, fuselage, engine pylons and A320, A330, A350 and A380 final assembly lines.
- In Germany: front and rear fuselage, vertical stabilizer, A320 final assembly line, A380 paint shop.
- In Spain: rear end with horizontal plane, A400M assembly line.
- In England: sails.
To guarantee the consistency of the database, local contributors (communications departments, iconographers, documentalists, photographers, etc.) have been trained by Keepeek. Common documentary principles have been established to respect vocabulary and classification guidelines. A simple option might have been to create a branch for each division, with each contributing independently in his or her own space. But this was without counting on Airbus' desire to bring all its employees together at the heart of a common project.
The Communication Department's project is part of a drive to share knowledge. A common filing plan merging all entities has therefore been definitively adopted.
Photolib+ is Airbus' first Cloud project
The Photolib+ project is deployed on Keepeek's premium Cloud. This platform is designed to ensure a high level of security and guarantee application response times. The quality of the platform must therefore be doubled. Photolib+ should prove to management that SAAS tools are reliable and secure.
When it comes to security, scrupulous specifications must be met: IP filtering, complex passwords, intrusion tests, etc. Photos are for internal use only, and may only be distributed externally with specific agreement.
A rigorous documentary structure
It took several weeks to reach a consensus on the documentary record, to get all the divisions on board. Everyone needs to feel comfortable with the target document structure. Once the structure had been validated, existing media had to be imported appropriately. A team of Airbus and Keepeek engineers took charge of this complex mission, retrieving data from historical databases (Cindoc, Fotostation, etc.).
Decentralized contribution but centralized management
Each division has its own organization, dedicated contributors, in-house and external photographers, and identified validation circuits. Local contributors are given considerable autonomy to enrich the media base. The secret of a virtuous Digital Asset Management project is to allow many contributors to participate. To ensure supervision of the processes and guarantee high quality indexing, a documentation unit based in Toulouse is in charge of steering the project.
Immediate membership
With over 30,000 visitors in the first week of launch, the success was immediate. Thousands of employees all over the world (China, US, Singapore, Dubai, India...) visit the Photolib+ site every day to download the Group's most beautiful visuals and promote the aeronautical leader.
