Case Studies

Over 300 businesses around the world are using Third Light IMS.

A small selection of customers are listed below, to illustrate some typical uses for the IMS Corporate Appliance. We also provide PDF case studies for some of our clients, which are listed here where available.

The Toronto Star

The Toronto Star is Canada's largest daily newspaper, reaching over 2.2 million readers each week. From an archive of almost one million images, covering local, national and international events for the past 100 years, Torstar Syndication Services offers reprints and rights-managed licences for more than 32,000 Toronto Star photographs, using Third Light's IMS software.

The Toronto Star online archive is offered for to main types of buyer: members of the public can visit the site to purchase high-quality photo reprints, while business users can register to access a rights-managed library for commercial re-use of valuable photo stock. IMS offers exceptional convenience by providing a single front end web application to provide both print and licensing functions - the result is a large saving in time and significant cost savings compared to running two separate systems.

"Since the launch of our new Toronto Star Photo & Page Sales site, we have received many words of appreciation from our clients. They praise the site's clean and attractive appearance, and its user-friendliness. We are thrilled to have an application that allows us to quickly and easily deliver the top quality services and products that our customers deserve. We would recommend Third Light, and the IMS application, without any hesitation."

Claire Wollen
Manager, Torstar Syndication Services, Toronto Star Newspapers Limited

Click here to download a PDF case study (1.7MB)

Third Light offers unique business opportunities to newspapers wishing to profit from stock photography, or manage internal libraries of photography. To speak to our business development team, please contact us.

The Scout Association

The Scout Association provides adventurous activities and personal development opportunities for 400,000 young people aged 6-25. Internationally, the Association has over 28 million young people enjoying the benefits of Scouting across 216 countries. In 2007 Scouting will celebrate its Centenary with a programme of events and activities in the UK and worldwide. The world will come to the UK for the 21st World Scout Jamboree, the highlight of the World Scouting calendar.

"2007 is an important year for Scouting. Not only are we celebrating 100 years of delivering fun and adventure to young people, we are also playing host the 21st World Scout Jamboree. Some 40,000 adults and 100,000 day visitors are expected at Hylands Park Essex in July and August, making it the largest Scout event in the UK for fifty years. With the eyes of the world on the Movement, it was vital that we had in place a robust Asset Management system to quickly and effectively upload and deliver high quality images to media partners.

"Third Light has delivered a flexible, reliable and adaptable system that has transformed the way we use and manage our images, encouraging user generated content and ensuring ease of use both at the admin and user ends. Quite simply, they've helped us "be prepared"!

Chris James
Head of Corporate Communications

Third Light are very happy to support The Scout Association, including offering a donation of equipment and software to support the media centre at the Jamboree this summer. IMS will be used to provide core storage for photos and videos from this international event.

Click here to download a PDF case study (1.6MB)

Mediablitz Images UK Ltd.

Mediablitz Images is a new digital image library supplying imaginative high quality images for corporate, advertising, editorial and publication use. A BAPLA member, Mediablitz is the brainchild of veteran photographer Martin Lee who, using Third Light's IMS v5.0 software, was able to take Mediablitz from concept to full operational launch in under four months.

Mediablitz rely on Third Light for the complete software and hardware solution, including the image management, search and keywording technologies, and the full ecommerce suite provided by IMS. In addition, Third Light supply internet hosting and a wide-ranging package of support, training and upgrades as part of a overall service. Commenting on the success of the launch project, Martin Lee comments:

"Working with Third Light was an absolutely painless process for us. We decided to go ahead with the image library in April of 2006. We met with Third Light a week later, and in less than three months the site was fully operational. When we needed features developing or tweaking, Third Light were able to help us, usually within hours, rather than days."

"We couldn't have done it without them. Third Light were absolutely phenomenal. Working with people like that not only makes business very simple, but it creates a real wave of optimism, as well as producing great results."

Martin Lee
Chief Executive, Mediablitz Images

Click here to download a PDF case study (1.4MB)

Xstrata AG (Schweiz)

Xstrata is a major global diversified mining group, listed on the London and Swiss stock exchanges. The Group is headquartered in Zug, Switzerland and has approximately 24,000 employees world-wide, including contractors. The Group's operations and projects span four continents and seven countries: Australia, South Africa, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Peru and the UK.

Xstrata use IMS to manage marketing and public relations materials globally, using their corporate intranet to access a pair of high-performance IMS servers located in the Swiss headquarters in Zug.

"Since the IMS library was installed, we have been able to manage our images in a fraction of the time. Our new electronic library allows us to search and track a very wide range of marketing and corporate photography.

"Producing annual reports will be so much easier now that we can track which pictures have been used in the past.

"The Xstrata IMS is 100% reliable: we have been extremely pleased with the quality of the product and the high standards of service Third Light deliver."

Brigitte Mattenberger, Corporate Affairs Xstrata (Schweiz) AG

Click here to download a PDF case study (1.4MB)

Anglia Ruskin University

Anglia Ruskin University use Third Light's Image Management System a central image library. Staff and suppliers across two campuses, in Cambridge and Chelmsford reach the library using the University network. Anglia Ruskin provide a University education for over 28,000 students who are currently studying on one of the main campuses, or at one of the many colleges that form the Regional University Partnership.

"IMS saves us hours of searching and sorting through pictures. The system is intuitive to use, works from both of our campuses and gives us excellent control over how images are used. The system is easy to use, very immediate, functional and innovative. The time saved and ease-of- access makes it great value for money."

Rebecca Bowerman, Anglia Ruskin University

Click here to download a PDF case study (1.3MB)

Mortgages Plc

Mortgages plc is a UK residential mortgage lender and a wholly owned subsidiary of Merrill Lynch, one of the largest financial institutions in the world. Founded in 1997, the company has offices in London and Glasgow and a number of regionally based staff.

Mortgages plc uses Third Light's IMS Corporate Appliance to centrally store and display images for public relations use, including photographs from corporate events and product launches. Using IMS it is possible for the pictures to be accessed from the London, Glasgow or regional offices of the business, and to share photos with partner companies. The service is also used to offer prints from hospitality events to guests.

Peter Beaumont, Sales and Marketing Director, comments:

"Using the IMS Corporate Appliance has given us a way to distribute pictures and keep them centrally managed. We are able to offer galleries after events or launches, which we can share with our guests, PR companies and other relevant contacts. We've got photos from events since 2000, and it's fantastic having that available so easily. We also use IMS to store our stock of marketing images, such as director press photos.

"We've saved time and improved awareness of our brand. Having this picture library generates a positive impression, without being complicated to use. We're delighted to be using this in our marketing team."

Britain On View

Britain on View is the UK's specialist photographic library offering unique pictures of Britain and British life, and is operated by VisitBritain. With a significant stock of world-class photography, Britain on View required an internet based exhibition tool to allow visitors from around to world to view and purchase these images.

Using Third Light's IMS solution allows Britain on View to sell photo and gift products online, with no overheads thanks to the complete automation of the IMS printing systems. A wide range of photo and gift products are available through the new e-Shop. In addition, the galleries are searchable and indexed with keywords, to help buyers locate exactly the right pictures.

Ed Veasey, Sales & Licensing Co-Ordinator for VisitBritain, describes the new IMS system:

"Using Third Light's IMS has meant we can offer fully functional galleries of our stock in a very short space of time. The solution is simple to populate and customise, and very well-suited to offering galleries to a global audience. Our new e-Shop will allow more people to access and buy pictures, and give us management information on how our stock is accessed. We are delighted to be working with such an innovative commercial solution from Third Light."

Cytec Surface Specialties, Belgium

Cytec Industries is a specialty chemicals and materials technology company with pro-forma sales in 2004, including the Surface Specialties acquisition, of approximately $3.0 billion. Its growth strategies are based on developing technologically advanced customer solutions for global markets, including aerospace, coatings, mining, plastics and water treatment.

Cytec use Third Light's Corporate Appliance to manage stocks of engineering, product and schematic diagrams used by the marketing and communications team in Brussells, Belgium. IMS shortens the lead times on graphics-intensive projects by allowing fast, reliable access to a managed stock of approved photography over the web.

"Since adopting IMS, Cytec Surface Specialties has been able to increase its effectiveness in image management. The system is very fast and easy to use and enables us to have excellent control over our images.

"We are very pleased with both the IMS product and the helpful and professional service provided by the Third Light team."

Michael Scharf, Marketing Communications Manager, Cytec Surface Specialties

Subscription Site Testimonials

RacingFotos

Racing Fotos is a national press library for up-to-the-minute racing event photography. Pictures from multiple photographers are not only centrally stored and searchable, but they are also immediately distributed to the news desks of all of the major UK newspapers within minutes of upload. This is achieved using IMS's unique FTP Manager.

Andy Watts, Co-Founder of Racing Fotos comments:

"Following the introduction of Third Light's IMS into the Racingfotos.com web site our clients have only commented positively about the changes. The professional, clean look of the site, and its simplicity, speed and ease-of-use are crucial factors for clients sourcing images from internet based libraries.

"From our point of view, IMS has revolutionised our business, giving us far more control in the way our clients use our site, tailoring it exactly to the way the clients search for, and obtains their images. The administrative data produced from the IMS is invaluable for creating a better site for our clients.

"Third Light's team have been brilliant, listening and working with us to improve our business, a team we're glad to have on our side."

RacingFotos.com

Royal National Lifeboat Institute

Portrush Lifeboat Station launched their website early in 2004, primarily as a resource for local fund-raising groups and to raise local awareness of the station's day-to-day activities.

"The RNLI plays a vital role in the life of many seaside villages, and there is always a lot of public interest in the powerful and evocative images of the volunteer lifeboat crews around the coast responding to emergencies at sea.

"Third Light's software allows us to easily manage our photograph library, selectively publishing pictures for the visitors to our website. As well as public access, IMS gives us the control to provide selected high-quality images on demand to the media for newspaper and magazine coverage of publicity events. We received several requests for printed copies of images, and realised that selling prints was an obvious way of raising a bit of extra money for our Crew Training Appeal. With IMS's PhotoBox integration we can not only sell prints, but also t-shirts, mugs and greeting cards - instantly available when we upload our pictures and without us having to charge, post or print anything ourselves. As a non-profit organisation, all the profits from these sales go to helping the Portrush crew save lives at sea."

Conchur Dickinson, Portrush RNLI

RNLI web site

Example IMS Subscription Sites

Third Light IMS is used by a wide range of businesses including photographers and copyright image managers. We store over 2 million images for our customers with our IMS Subscription services.

Example Subscription Sites

Other clients using hosted services include Royal Mail, Alcan, Macclesfield Borough Council, Emap Media Group, Don Johnson Inc. and hundreds more.