Sandbox is where a vendor provides a demo site that you can play around with.
Proof of Concept (PoC) is taking this a step further; a more feature-rich offering where you can set up permissions, employ a global taxonomy, tag assets and experiment with workflow and other advanced functionality.
Sandboxes and PoCs can be a valuable tool for the Enterprise to first get a feel for the product but secondly start setting up infrastructure, metadata structures, roles, permissions, workflow and integrations. It’s also an opportunity to discuss functionality that’s lacking and request that vendors include it in their product roadmap.
Proof-of-Concept / Sandbox Build and Management is a managed service offered by IQ Equity.
Setting up Sandboxes and PoCs as a service requires DAM vendor approval, they may have a policy against 3rd party input which prevents IQ Equity’s involvement. Such services reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the product in a way that product demos never will.
As such, many vendors will reserve such services to enterprise clients or may not offer them at all.
At IQ Equity we encourage transparency and aim to work with vendors to both deliver for our clients but also to advise vendors on ways they can improve their products.
Methodology
IQ Equity use a KanBan (agile) methodology to reach client deliverables using two week sprints. For each sprint we demonstrate deliverables to the client, any issues we came up against and relay discussions with the vendor.
With PoCs we offer metadata mapping services, where we take your last three month’s assets and map them to the global taxonomy / vocabulary.
We have experience in setting up and managing sandboxes and PoCs with a number of 10 Core Accredited vendors.
We test functionality, set up metadata structures, organise assets and provide our clients with a vision of what the DAM could and should look like.
We also use our impartial industry knowledge and expertise to both identify the shortcomings of the product and discuss solutions to potential issues with the vendor on our clients behalf.