First of all please excuse my English as this is not my native
language. I hope I will be clear enough but please do note hesitate to
ask for clarifications.

I intend to start a web business in a field which already exists:
digital images sale.
I want to start it very soon and do not want to develop specific software for that.
I am looking for a source of existing software which I could use and
adapt to my business, an application which would perform basic image
bank functions.

What I am looking for is mainly something I can start with quickly and adapt
to my needs later.

I am looking for a list of the best vendors of Image Bank Management solutions.

As a result I would like the top best and/or recognised and/or leading
vendors in this field. Criteria to evaluate vendors and sort results
are something like:
-	Large installation of their solution
-	External recognition  like awards, particularly in the field of
public use of their solutions
-	Recognition of the simplicity of the solution in term of implementation
-	Recognition of friendly / easy use of their solutions by final user

The answer should link to vendors along with links to image bank
websites already using the vendors? software. This would allow me to
explore quickly whether the application globally matches my
requirements.

Thanks for your help

---

Clarification of Question by johndifool-ga on 18 Mar 2006 09:11 PST

HI,

My question has been locked for almost one week without comments ,
question or anything. Is this normal ?

thanks

---

Request for Question Clarification by guillermo-ga on 18 Mar 2006 15:40 PST

Hi John,

Yes, it may be normal. I'm working on your question and needed no
clarification for the moment. Also, comments can't be posted on a
locked question. If your question is time-sensitive, please let me
know your deadline -- otherwise, the default lifetime of a question is
30 days. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Guillermo

---

Clarification of Question by johndifool-ga on 19 Mar 2006 03:14 PST

Hi Guillermo

Thanks for your explanation. I do not really have a dead line. 
What I need is a very good answer.
May be there is an additional point to add if you're not finished:
A good open source software would also be a good answer to the question

Thanks
John

---

Clarification of Question by johndifool-ga on 26 Mar 2006 02:12 PST

Hi,

it seems that my question is difficult to answer.
Could you tell me what is the main difficulty so that I may simplify my wishes.

Thanks

---

Request for Question Clarification by guillermo-ga on 27 Mar 2006 12:39 PST

Hi John,

Sorry, I haven't noticed that you had posted another message until now
-- it's very kind of you, I appreciate it.

First, the obvious search strategy "image bank software" did not
provide significant results as one might expect. Other tries such as
"image base software" or "image management software" had the
unexpected difficulty of the many tasks that images can be object of
-- ranging from image edition through personal and corporate storage,
including of course image banking.

However, I did manage to pick up a few that serve for your specific
purpose -- and I expect to find a few other yet. What I'm not sure of
is the availability of indicators to rank them. Please let me know
your thoughts about it. Thank you,

Guillermo

---

Clarification of Question by johndifool-ga on 28 Mar 2006 12:42 PST

Hi Guillermo

Yes I can imagine ranking is a difficulty. That's why I said
"something like", meaning it's more an idea than an accurate list of
criterias.
I can accept a counter proposal of criterias if you have one

John

Hello John,

To find the information you requested, I performed the following searches:

1 >> "image bank software" - 85 results, all reviewed
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2006-06%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=%22image+bank+software%22&btnG=Search

2 >> "image base software" - 33 results, all reviewed
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-06,GGLG:en&q=%22image+base+software%22

3 >> "image database software" - first 100 results reviewed
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-06,GGLG:en&q=%22image+database+software%22

4 >> "image database software" web - first 100 results reviewed
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2006-06%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=%22image+database+software%22+web

5 >> "image library products" - first 100 results reviewed
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-06,GGLG:en&q=%22image+library+products%22

6 >> "image library software" - first 100 results reviewed
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2006-06%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=%22image+library+software%22

7 >> "image library systems" - 91 results, all reviewed
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&rls=GGLG%2CGGLG%3A2006-06%2CGGLG%3Aen&q=%22image+library+systems%22&btnG=Search

8 >> "image management system" - first 100 results reviewed
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2006-06,GGLG:en&q=%22image+management+system%22

In total, a review of over 700 search results.

Out of them, I selected 10 as the ones that matched -- in different
degrees -- your requirement.

Now, a few words regarding the selection criteria.

First, there is the quite natural position in the search results --
it's highly unlikely that a good/popular product be placed below the
first 100 -- actually those that I found were among the 20 or 30 first
results.

Then, there is the appropriateness to your purpose. In fact, just very
few of the products were described as "image bank" software -- rather,
they were designated as "image solutions", "image managers", "image
database", and the like -- expressions that actually stand for very
different kinds of image processing, which might have nothing to do
with image banks. Thus, I had to verify the features of those products
in order to figure out whether they would be of use for what you're
thinking of or not. That led to this list of 10 products/providers.
The first seven seemed to me the ones that better fit your needs as I
understand them. The eighth seems a powerful product, but maybe not
the specific solution for what you have in mind, while the last two
could be below the level of your requirements -- however, I decided to
post them all to broaden up your range of choice.

In order to evaluate the products' performance, for each I searched
for clients' lists, links or testimonials, awards or other external
references and posted them when available. However, that was not
enough to establish a ranking among them -- left aside the specific
comments I made in the preceding paragraph.

I hope this outcome proves useful. I'm at your service if you consider
that any clarification is needed.

Best regards,
Guillermo

The List:

< 1 > Asset Bank
http://www.assetbank.co.uk/
(by UK based Bright Interactive - http://www.bright-interactive.com/ )

Their claims:
http://www.assetbank.co.uk/about_us/index.html

"Why Choose Asset Bank?
"Here are some of the reasons why we think Asset Bank is so much
better than other image library products:

"No on-going licence fees: once you have bought Asset Bank it is yours. 
"Fully scalable: Asset Bank imposes no restriction on the number of
assets you store, or the number of users that access it.
"Easy to use, flexible and customisable: we can customise the
front-end to ensure that the look of the Asset Bank fits with your
existing branding, or extend its functionality to support any extra
requirements you may have now or in the future.
"Image manipulation features: you can resize and reformat images
online, prior to downloading them.
"File type support: you can store files of any type, not just images.
The contents of text-based documents such as Word are keyword
searched.
"Cross platform: Asset Bank can be installed on Windows, Linux or Unix. 
"Multi-database: Asset Bank works with MySQL, Oracle or SqlServer. 
"Project management: we can manage your project from start to finish -
from helping you figure out your categories and metadata at the start
of the project to loading your existing assets once the Asset Bank has
been rolled out."

Some of their clients:
http://www.assetbank.co.uk/about_us/clients.html

Birmingham University 
Botanic Gardens Conservation International 
Kent County Council 
London Biodiversity Partnership 
The Medical Research Council 
Salford University 
Society for General Microbiology 
Sussex Air Quality Steering Group 
The National Horseracing Museum 
The Royal Shakespeare Company 


Demo
http://demo.assetbank.co.uk/assetbank-standard/action/viewHome


Contact information:
http://www.assetbank.co.uk/contact.html

Bright interactive
11 Marlborough Place 
Brighton
BN1 1UB
UK
+44 (0)870 240 6520 


< 2 > Third Light
http://www.thirdlight.com/corporate/home

It offers two possibilities -- a corporate server application
(http://www.thirdlight.com/appliance/ims )or a solution hosted by them
for smaller requirements
(http://www.thirdlight.com/subscription/overview ).

An example of corporate client:
http://www.britainonview.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/BOVFrontEnd.woa
(See more at http://www.thirdlight.com/appliance/case_studies )

An example of hosted client:
http://www.imageexcellence.co.uk/
(See more at http://www.thirdlight.com/subscription/examples )

Contact information
http://www.thirdlight.com/corporate/contact

Postal address
Third Light Ltd.
St. John?s Innovation Centre
Cowley Road
Cambridge
CB4 0WS
United Kingdom 
Telephone and Fax
Sales and enquiries: +44 (0)1223 475674
Technical support is not available on this number
Fax number: +44 (0)700 340 1284 
Email addresses
Sales and new business: sales@thirdlight.com
Support: support@thirdlight.com 


< 3 > System Simulation Ltd's Image Library System
http://www.ssl.co.uk/content/image_lib.html

See customers in the same page. Among them:

http://creative.gettyimages.com/source/home/home.aspx


Contact information:

Bedford Chambers,
The Piazza,
Covent Garden,
LONDON, UK
WC2E 8HA
Tel: +44 (0)20 7836 7406
Fax: +44 (0)20 7836 7690
Email: ssl@ssl.co.uk
Web: www.ssl.co.uk


< 4 > Plexus Media's Image Library
http://www.plexusmedia.co.uk/image-library-g.asp

See client example at:
http://www.black-isle.info/cromarty/imagelibrary/

Contact information:

PLEXUS MEDIA LTD 
2 Bank Street, Cromarty, Ross-Shire, Scotland IV11 8UY 

Tel:+44 (0)1381 600818 
Email: info@plexusmedia.co.uk 
Web: www.plexusmedia.co.uk


< 5 > Extensis' Portfolio NetPublish

See samples at: http://www.extensis.com/en/products/Netpublish_Samples.jsp

See Customer Stories at:
http://www.extensis.com/en/about/customer_stories.jsp?contentTypeView=product&id=prod60022

Awards page: http://www.extensis.com/en/about/awards.jsp?contentTypeView=all

News coverage: http://www.extensis.com/en/about/news.jsp?contentTypeView=all

Contact information:
http://www.extensis.com/en//about/contacts_directions.jsp;jsessionid=

Extensis, Inc.
1800 SW First Avenue
Suite 500
Portland, OR 97201 USA
Tel: 503.274.2020
Tel: 800.796.9798
FAX: 503.274.0530

Extensis UK
Century House
The Lakes
Northampton, NN4 7SJ
United Kingdom
Tel: +44(0) 1604 636300
Fax: +44(0) 1604 636366  

Online Sales
email: websales@extensis.com
tel: 800.796.9798  

Customer Service
tel: 800.796.9798
503.274.2020  


< 6 > Cellum Imagine
http://celumimagine.com/en.htm

See product multimedia description at: http://celumimagine.com/tour_en.htm

See clients list at: http://celumimagine.com/60-88-0-1-0-0.htm

Contact information:
(http://celumimagine.com/contact.htm )

Europaplatz 4
A-4020 Linz, Austria

Phone: +43 (0)732 716529 0
+43 (0)732 716529 3
Email: office@celumsolutions.com


< 7 > Capture
http://www.capture.co.uk/capture/

"a fully-integrated picture library management system - which
incorporates an image database/browser with Web capabilities so images
can be searched, viewed, selected and marketed over the Internet."

Links to clients at http://www.capture.co.uk/capture/info/ :
http://www.travel-ink.co.uk/
http://www.flowerphotos.com/
http://www.ecoscene.com/
http://www.kospictures.com/
http://www.redcover.com/

Contact information at http://www.capture.co.uk/capture/contact/ :

Capture Image Library Systems
The Old Coach House,
14 High Street, 
Goring-on-Thames, 
Near Reading, 
Berkshire RG8 9AR, 
England 

Contact Naomi Stewart

Tel: +44 (0)1491 873 011 
Fax: +44 (0)1491 875 558 
  
Email: info@capture.co.uk


< 8 > Midwest Information Systems, Inc. (MIS) products PAXit / PAXnet

PAXit (http://www.paxit.com/paxit.asp ) is the core product, a digital
image management, and PAXnet the module that "allows you to share your
existing database of images, reports, presentations, and data with
everyone who connects to your web site (...) (needing) just a web
browser..." (http://www.paxit.com/paxnet.asp )

PAXit brochure at http://www.paxit.com/pdfs/PAXit_Brochure.pdf
PAXnet brochure at http://www.paxit.com/pdfs/paxnet.pdf

Some of their customers (world class companies such as IBM, Boeing, GM
or Ford) are listed at http://www.paxit.com/paxit/customers.asp

Contact information:
http://www.paxit.com/contact.asp

T E L : 630-279-4000 
707 N. Iowa Ave.
Villa Park IL 60181-1510


< 9 > Jamie's Software - Image Albums for Microsoft® Access
http://www.jamiessoftware.tk/imagealbums/ia_jump.html

"Image Albums is a Microsoft® Access presentation and storage
application designed to allow you to organize your images in a
database. Powerful and yet easy to use, the application has been
utilised by professional photographers, geneaologists, medical
professionals, graphic designers, botanists and home enthusiasts to
help maintain quick and easily accessible image databases."

Among its features, it claims that you can "share the image database
over your local area network", "search your custom data fields via an
advanced search facility" and "easily create a website from your image
database".

Clients testimonials and links at
http://www.jamiessoftware.tk/imagealbums/ia_testimonials.html :

Blackawton and Strete History Group
http://www.historybash.co.uk/

Organized Sports, Inc
http://www.organizedsports.com/

Bakerplace Communications
http://www.bakerplace.net/

Contact information at http://www.jamiessoftware.tk/contact.html :

Jamie Czernik
1/1 780 Tollcross Road
Glasgow
G32 8TY
Scotland
Email address: jamie@jamiessoftware.tk


< 10 > PrimaSoft's Photo, Picture Organizer Deluxe
http://www.primasoft.com/deluxeprg/photofdlx.htm

"Photo, Image Inventory Software for Windows"

"2 days after initial release. Software reviewers from ZDnet gave
Photo Organizer Deluxe the highest rating"
(http://www.primasoft.com/awards/photo_software_awards.htm )

Contact information at http://www.primasoft.com/about.htm :

PrimaSoft PC, Inc.
P.O. Box 456
Surrey, BC V3T 5B7
CANADA
phone: 604-951-1085
email: support@primasoft.com

Thanks a lot, it' a well done work which will help me greatly

Thanks John for the great rating and comment! :)

Guillermo