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Medium-sized organizations drowning in marketing assets should choose Canto
November 14, 2020

Medium-sized organizations drowning in marketing assets should choose Canto

Martine Empson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Canto

Canto is currently being used by our client's marketing department. I was involved in the selection process and implementation. The client was able to move from multiple on-premises drives and cloud storage services to one consolidated repository for their marketing assets. The client was able to move from relying on multiple folder structures to a comprehensive tagging and keywording organization system. They also shifted from spending much of their time searching for assets, sharing them, and receiving them to a self-serve model that enables collaboration and sharing of assets inside and outside their organization.
  • Ease of use
  • Configuration options
  • Portals
  • Unlimited guest (unlicensed) users
  • Workflow
  • Task assignment
  • Five FTE reduction in marketing department
  • 5TB of on-premises server upgrades, power, and maintenance saved
  • Saved many, many hours of searching for files
We evaluated many products. Those that best met the needs of our clients were Canto and AssetBank. We found that MediaValet was overpriced for our clients. For organizations that would be looking to purchase significant amounts of licenses, MediaValet is a good option thanks to their pay-for-storage only pricing model. But, for smaller organizations that want to share externally with unlicensed users, we found that Canto and AssetBank were a better value, followed closely by Brandfolder.
Any somewhat tech savvy employee can become an administrator--zero coding required. The
admin panel is feature rich, yet the layout makes it very easy to use.
Categorization and terms do not require a computer science degree to
administer. Configuration can be completed without needing to engage technical
support. For power users and end-users, it could
not be simpler. Canto has struck a nice balance between the familiarity of the
folder structure and the efficacy of metadata. I think they found a sweet
spot that accommodates the vast majority of users.
Support during the selection process was top notch. I cannot vouch for the account team because we have not begun our quarterly review cycle. We are still in implementation. The implementation team could be stronger, in my opinion. The process is very canned and templated. I did not find that the implementation team took the time to really get to know the client's individual use cases well. They are great for answering questions and providing feedback. But, this is not the type of implementation service that includes project management. If you want to avoid having this project drag on, my advice would be to assign someone as a project manager who can keep resources on track. Some clients implement over many months or even years, bit by bit. For us, this was not an option. We wanted to be up and running with 5TB of data, portals, and a review workflow within 90 days. A project manager is indispensable for this scenario and Canto is not it.

Do you think Canto delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Canto's feature set?

Yes

Did Canto live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Canto go as expected?

No

Would you buy Canto again?

Yes

For a medium-sized organization where only a one to three departments use Canto to store their assets, Canto is likely well suited. It enables the organization and sharing of assets efficiently and simply. The second item I would check is whether the organization intends to rely heavily on a workflow that includes task assignment. If so, Canto may not meet your needs. For any organization that is not overly complex (fewer than 1,000 employees) and that does not intend to manage tasks in Canto, I highly recommend this product.