The Spotlight Is on . . . ACD Systems International

The Spotlight Is on . . . ACD Systems International

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ACD Systems International Inc., based in Victoria, BC, Canada, with offices in the U.S., is acclaimed for its ACDSee image management and Canvas technical illustration software. Both have gained a loyal following among professional photographers and image-oriented end users who demand workflow efficiency and speed. 

This relatively small, independent company actually created and began perfecting the architecture for organizing, retrieving and working with digital images before there even was a digital imaging industry! Today, it serves millions of consumer, business and corporate customers worldwide, including governments, educational institutions and Fortune 500 companies.

“To say that we got in on the ground floor is a bit of an understatement,” notes Mark Franklin, the company’s president. “We were established in 1993 before the advent of the worldwide web, and back then we were designing programs that were the de facto JPEG decoder/viewer for Mosaic on PCs! In the 1990s we introduced Canvas, one of the first drawing programs on the Mac platform. In 2006 we announced ACDSee Pro, one of the first comprehensive image management workflow programs designed for pro photographers. Last year we integrated online storage and management into the professional workflow with ACDSee Pro 3 and ACDSeeOnline.com. 

“Over the past 17 years, we’ve developed these programs to allow individuals and organizations to do more and get more out of their images, and our greatest asset is our end users. We work with them through advisory groups that help us to improve our products so we can meet their expanding needs by consulting and beta testing. Their passionate involvement and input is an essential element in our success, and it’s one of the main reasons that a small company like ours, with about 80 creative and dedicated employees, can go head-to-head with giant corporations and generally surpass them in terms of operational speed and performance.”

What differentiates signature ACD software, like the popular ACDSee Pro 3, from many of their competitors’ programs is that they are true database-driven products that create the organizational matrix within the software itself, allowing photographers direct access to the files on their system and connected devices, and eliminating the need to import images into the specific application being used, such as Photoshop. This saves a major time-consuming step. 

At the other end, ACDSee Pro’s nondestructive image-editing environment lets photographers cut out the export step in their workflow, so files can be viewed, shared or used outside the application more easily and quickly. All data associated with files, including file and folder names, IPTC and EXIF metadata, and application-specific data is indexed by ACDSee Pro, so locating specific images or groups of images using the software’s proprietary image retrieval and display technologies is incredibly fast. 

Finally, publishing functions are built right in, so photographers can easily e-mail or upload images to an FTP site or copy them onto ACDSeeOnline.com for storage. This application is currently available only in the PC version, with a Mac version coming shortly. Indeed, ACDSee Pro for Mac is now available for free public beta testing.  

“Although online downloads constitute one of our primary distribution channels, specialty retailers are an active, growing part of our marketing mix as well,” notes Gen Lambert, director, Marketing and Product Management. “Packaged ACDSee image management software is available in photo and electronics stores, including B&H, J&R Electronics, Microcenter and Fry’s Electronics. ACDSee Pro not only provides a good profit margin for retailers, at $169.99 it also offers exceptional value for consumers compared to other image management workflow applications—a crucial consideration in today’s economy.

“Its capabilities make it a strong up-sell product for Adobe Photoshop,” adds Lambert, “creating a total solution for consumers along with enhanced profitability. Retailers can check out the possibility of adding ACDSee Pro to their offerings by going to lifeboatdistribution.com or dandh.com.”

“Another reason ACD Systems continues to be successful in this highly competitive business is that we’re collaborative,” observes Mark Franklin. “We’re structured and goal oriented, but we’re not much on bureaucracy and every one of our employees has a voice in this company, especially when it comes to ideas and innovations. And as I mentioned, we’re focused on our users and drive innovation through user feedback. Despite the marketing dollars our competitors are able to put behind their products, they just can’t match us on speed or on our focus on our customers’ workflow. That’s why our customers are passionate about our products, and why yours will be, too.” acdsee.com

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