As you plan for the upcoming year, you may find yourself evaluating the image and video technology that supports your business and debating, “Do we make it work? Or do we make a change?”
Switching platforms is a big strategic decision. There are budget constraints, migration complexities, training requirements, approval processes, inherent security risks, and adoption challenges to keep in mind.
Because of those obstacles, many are tempted to simply do nothing and make do with current systems. But is that the best decision for your business in the long run? What will that decision cost you?
Sticking with outdated or inadequate legacy systems can lead to several significant and costly issues, including:
Legacy systems often require manual processes that are time-consuming and prone to errors. This inefficiency reduces overall productivity and prevents your team from focusing on higher-value tasks. For instance, managing visual content manually wasted over 240 hours per month for The Deporvillage team, time that could have been better spent on strategic initiatives.
“To ensure all images are responsive and optimized for size and speed on web and mobile, we’d need to create about 10 different versions of every image across our 6 different languages. If we had to replicate that manually, it would be too complex, expensive, and cumbersome to maintain. Plus, we’d need a design team that would be four times larger,” shares Pavel Pratyush, CTO at The Deporvillage team.
See the changes The Deporvillage made to increase productivity.
Slow and cumbersome systems can negatively impact the quality of visual content delivered to customers, leading to poor user experiences and diminished brand perception. A seamless, high-quality visual experience is crucial for maintaining customer satisfaction and loyalty.
“Delivering quality images at scale is a daunting task, particularly since our catalog has a single image for each event, that we need to ensure displays well across all viewports. All 17,000 of our images required manual editing, severely limiting the potential for innovation in experience design. We prioritized editing for a desktop view, knowing that the images may or may not look good in other viewports. Our images took 6x as long to load and our pages took about 4x as long,” reflects Susan Stieglitz, Head of Imagery at StubHub.
Read Stubhub’s success story to understand how the team enhanced visual experiences for customers.
Inefficient workflows and outdated technology can delay the launch of new products and features, making it harder to keep up with competitors and market demands. For example, using a legacy system took WingTai Asia 3x as long to launch new product lines.
“Because our teams worked on images locally, managing assets was a nightmare. We were constantly emailing images back and forth, modifying them, and then emailing them back. And if assets were appearing in different places, you’d need to have many copies in different sizes, and optimize them for mobile devices,” recalls Roy Saadon, VP and Head of Product Technology at WingTai Asia.
Explore this case study to see how WingTai Asia expedited its time to market.
Technology is constantly evolving, and staying with old systems can hinder your ability to leverage new trends and innovations, leaving your business behind. An AI-powered visual API platform allows for quick adaptation to industry changes and technological advances, ensuring your business stays competitive.
“Prior to 2020, we were on a bespoke, heavily customized web platform. During the pandemic, I took the bull by the horns and moved us to Salesforce Commerce Cloud. Our goal was to try and give shoppers the same experience on a desktop, mobile, or tablet. But we didn’t have a DAM in place to act as a visual content library or integrate with Salesforce. The way that we were sending third-parties imagery and videos was pretty outdated and manual involving URLs on spreadsheets. I almost daren’t put a figure on the hours wasted through that clunky process, as it would probably be such a scary number,” reflects Elaine Smith, Head of Digital Product at Dune London.
While the costs of doing nothing are high, the benefits of switching to an AI-powered image and video API platform like Cloudinary are substantial. Our platform offers automation, improved efficiency, better customer experiences, faster time to market, and the ability to stay ahead of technological trends. Investing in modern technology not only mitigates the risks associated with legacy systems but also positions your business for future growth and success.
Download our strategic planning guide for 2025, Pros and Cons of Switching to an AI-Powered Visual API Platform, to learn more about how making the switch could be your best move yet.
