London, UK, March 18th 2010 – Canto® today released Cumulus Sites, a new add-on module that makes the creation of websites easy. Tailored to integrate with Canto Cumulus digital asset management (DAM) software, it combines the ease-of-use and accessibility of a website with the power and control of Canto Cumulus. Cumulus Sites offers a live asset delivery platform that organisations can stylise to suit their identities and customise to suit their file sharing and distribution requirements. Cumulus Sites is distributed exclusively in the UK by JPY.

Cumulus Sites lets companies provide flexible, controlled access to their valuable data via a website; a function which can be hugely useful. A manufacturer, for example, might use it to allow distributors easy access via the web to product pictures, videos, marketing collateral and other documents.

"Customers want seamless integration between their files and websites," explains Canto CEO Ulrich Knocke. "Cumulus Sites enables them to manage files using Cumulus, while making files available to website visitors in real time, based on any permissions they define."

Cumulus Sites features a 'login-free' mode that offers instant 'guest' level access. Common permissions for guests include browsing of approved files, and downloads of watermarked on-the-fly variants, though any access level can be defined. Cumulus account holders can gain higher access levels through an 'anytime' login option. User actions can be tracked for usage statistics reporting from within Cumulus.

Sites users can share one or more files using a collection link feature. Links can include passwords and expiration dates, and they may be emailed or even added to PDFs, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages, etc. for 'viral' distribution benefits. Cumulus accounts are not required to access files shared via collection links.

"Collection links are based on personal collections users create," explains Steffen Setzer, Canto's director of marketing. "This enables users to easily re-send links to files they distribute often, such as product brochures, support materials, etc. This alone is a powerful new benefit offered by Cumulus Sites."

The appearance of Cumulus Sites can be easily modified using layout options inside Cumulus. Additional basic configurations are defined via XML, while advanced configuration changes can be performed via CSS and JSP.

Cumulus Sites also supports Canto's new 'Cumulus-Direct URL' technology, which enables organisations to provide downloads and previews of Cumulus assets from URLs embedded in websites. Cumulus-Direct URLs prevent customers from having to upload updated files to website directories, because Cumulus always serves the most recent version. Downloads and previews are tracked for usage statistics reporting from within Cumulus.

Dr John Yardley, Managing Director of JPY, Canto's exclusive UK distributor, comments: "We're very excited by the potential of Cumulus Sites to instantly extend the reach of any Cumulus 8 system to anyone, anytime, anywhere. Cumulus Sites makes sharing assets over the web a whole lot easier than it has ever been before which should resonate very well with users."

Cumulus Sites is a standard component of new Cumulus Workgroup, Enterprise and Complete systems. Cumulus Sites requires Cumulus 8.1.1, which was released concurrently. Sites is also available as an add-on to Cumulus Entry and previous Cumulus systems, updated to 8.1.1.

Cumulus Sites is available now. For further information or to arrange a demonstration, please call JPY on 020 8390 8487 or visit http://www.jpy.com/products/canto.

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About JPY
JPY is a UK distributor, consultancy and software house specialising in workflow, data-management and asset-management products. JPY acts as the UK distributor for Canto, as well as a number of other companies including Archiware and HELIOS.

JPY has over twenty years of working with high-profile companies, from national newspapers through advertising agencies, printers and pre-production houses to corporate communications departments and individual graphic designers. Other markets include education, entertainment, government, medical, leisure, corporate and retail.

JPY's customers include the majority of the UK's large newspaper groups, the BBC, Sony, BP and Texaco.

For further information go to http://www.jpy.com

About Canto & Cumulus
Canto has been dedicated to helping customers fully utilise their digital assets since 1990. Canto Cumulus is a cross-platform solution that enables companies to easily organize, find, share and track their ever-increasing numbers of digital files, in any format. Canto's worldwide network of certified developers offers an impressive assortment of plug-ins that enhance the Cumulus product line further.

For further information go to http://www.canto.com

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