How do you transform almost a century ofaudiovisual archives into an accessible strategic resource? Faced with this question, Colas has opted for an ambitious digital transformation of its documentary heritage. Preservation of physical media, accessibility of digital content, user rights, optimization of storage costs: find out how this subsidiary of the Bouygues group, a global player in the construction and maintenance of transport infrastructures, chose Keepeek as its DAM (Digital Asset Management) solution to manage over 190,000 media.
Interview with Magdalena Dulac, Head of Audiovisual in Colas' Communications and Brand Department, and Benjamin Suc, CEO of Limonade & Co, which has been helping the company manage its digital assets for over 10 years.
Together, they talk about the successful transformation of this historic heritage into a strategic resource and the optimization of Colas' document governance .
Preserving and digitizing a century-old audiovisual heritage: the challenges of digital transformation
" Colas has been producing photos since 1929 and films since 1953," explains Magdalena Dulac. "We had more than 40 types of physical media for film, all stored with an archiving service provider. We were concerned about the durability of these historical supports and their limited accessibility.
Management therefore voted a budget to digitize these historic archives. " Colas wanted to respect the company's history. With numerous company absorptions over the years, it was essential to preserve this history to understand the DNA and diversity of the organization," she adds.
DAM and media centralization: an effective rationalization strategy
Before implementing Keepeek in 2019, Colas managed its media via two separate tools: a photo library and a video library created in 2011. " We needed to simplify access to our media. The primary objective was to facilitate consultation and encourage employees to take advantage of this heritage, while rationalizing storage and operating costs".
" The indexing project represented a major challenge," explains Benjamin Suc. "We started with two totally heterogeneous metadata collections, both in terms of structure and reference systems. Even elements that seemed similar, such as the indexing of geographical terms or the names of subsidiaries, followed different logics. We had to define a shared core to harmonize video and image descriptionsand, above all, to align repositories on a common terminology to guarantee efficient searching. Migration and indexing required 3 to 4 months' work, but this restructuring was essential to ensure data quality and consistency over time.
" This indexing phase was facilitated by our preparatory work," adds Magdalena Dulac. " When Keepeek began its intervention, we had almost finished defining the thesaurus . definition of the thesauruswhich saved us at least 6 months on the overall project.
Today, the platform centralizes over 190,000 media (176,000 images, 9,000 videos and PDF documents) for a total volume of 12 TB, accessible to over 30,000 users worldwide.
The centralization of media in a single system has also made it possible to create previously impossible connections between different types of content. " We've been producing a magazine, Routes, in French and English for years. Thanks to Keepeek, we can now establish links between articles and associated mediamaking it easier to reuse and trace assets. This interconnection, impossible when our content was hosted in two separate systems, considerably improves the efficiency of our teams.
Rights management and integration into the digital ecosystem
Digitizing historical heritage quickly raises questions about rights. " This is an important point to bear in mind when taking over old collections. Do we still have the rights of use and distribution? Neighboring rights to music and other legal issues require a thorough search for the rightful owners, which isn't easy when you go back to 1929".
Keepeek fits perfectly intoColas' digital ecosystem. " Keepeek is a repository for finished files," explains Magdalena. "A finished product produced by an agency is deposited in Keepeek, then integrated into our intranet and distributed on our corporate site. This simplicity of workflow is a real asset.
To enrich its document base, the Keepeek platform integrates direct access to the Shutterstock image bank. This connection enables teams to centralize all visual resources in one place, whether they come from internal or external productions.
Learn more about the integrations available on Keepeek DAM.
Intelligent storage strategy: "hot/cold" management of digital assets
Content management at Colas is based on a well-defined "hot/cold" strategy. " Cold corresponds tooptimizing file storage on Azure. Colas is unique in that its audiovisual production is substantial, particularly in terms of high-value but very large rushes. These rushes are stored "cold", so that administrators can download them only when needed.
" Hot" refers to assets used on a daily basis," continues Benjamin. " The notion of heritage comes into play in relation to the content life cyclealso managed by legal rights. When a document reaches "archive" status, we assess whether it should be preserved for historical use, on a case-by-case basis, keeping only what corresponds to the patrimonial stakes".
Document governance and training: the keys to a high-performance DAM
The key to success? Clear media governance and ongoing training. " We have set up training courses for a discerning audience, including communications managers around the world. Over the years, we have simplified the contribution of employees, with Limonade & Co and the communications department responsible for indexing".
To keep users engaged, the team has developed a multi-channel strategy: " We've produced video tutorials, editorialized the home page and put reminders on our intranet. In a group as decentralized as Colas, monthly meetings with our network are essential," adds Magdalena Dulac. " It ' s thanks to these regular exchanges that we get the information we need to feed the media library in a coherent and dynamic way. Our teams, spread over more than 50 countries, provide us with news from the field, which is fundamental to enriching our documentary base ".
Co-construction and innovation: evolving the DAM with the editor
The collaboration between Colas and Keepeek goes beyond a simple customer/supplier relationship. " We regularly challenge the Keepeek team on the evolution of functionalities. Depending on the feedback, innovations are either integrated into the global roadmap, or specifically for Colas".
The gains observed are significant: " Managing photos and videos on the same report saves time and optimizes indexing to create coherent corpora. Keepeek's functional palette for asset description is broad and complete, which greatly optimizes indexing time.
The prospects for the Colas media library
For Magdalena, Keepeek's added value can be summed up in one word: " Simplicity is what's most important for users and administrators in managing and enjoying our assets ". In 2025, a new redesign of the brand portal is planned.
This simplicity does not exclude sophistication, as Benjamin Suc emphasizes: " It's a toolbox that can be adapted to the user's needs; the functionalities are varied, but everyone can find the right tool for their level. We also hope that the integration of AI tools will become increasingly important.
About Colas | https://www.colas.com/fr/
Colas, a subsidiary of the Bouygues Group, designs, builds and maintains transport infrastructures in a responsible manner. Present in more than 50 countries on five continents, through a network of 1,000 construction operation units and 3,000 materials production units, Colas employs 65,000 people.
About Magdalena Magdalena Dulac
Magdalena Dulac, a philologist and head of audiovisual at Colas, oversees all the Group's audiovisual productions, which have won over twenty professional communication awards in the last 10 years. A pioneer in her field, she created the first video library within a public works company and continues to manage the Colas Group media library.
About Lemonade & Co | https://www.limonadeandco.fr/
Limonade & Co is a cooperative agency specializing in archiving, media management (DAM) and enhancing the memory of organizations and people since 2012. With offices in Paris & Lyon, Limonade & Co supports its customers in projects that mobilize their assets with a 360° vision.
About Benjamin Suc
Benjamin Suc has a degree in human sciences and archivistics. Since his university studies, his main interest has been the promotion of corporate cultural heritage. At the TBWA Paris communications agency, he developed an original approach to communicating and disseminating archive documents via digital media. Building on this expertise, he has since worked with major accounts on consultancy and research assignments in information flow management and document indexing, contributing to the implementation of Digital Asset Management solutions for companies such as Michelin, Lafarge, Valeo, Groupe Bouygues and Maison Chaumet. He has also led several digitization projects aimed at optimizing the accessibility and preservation of archives.
