Preparing for a Workfront + AEM Integration: New to AEM

While the prospect of integrating Workfront and Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) can feel daunting, the fact is, it doesn’t have to be complicated. By taking the appropriate steps to prepare each platform for the integration, as well as selecting an implementation partner who can guide you through the process, the integration can be much more seamless and much less painful. In this article, we’ll be discussing how businesses who are new to AEM, but who have experience in Workfront, can prepare for this type of integration. (For those of you who are new to both AEM and Workfront, this article may be more helpful.)

At Hoodoo Digital, we are uniquely equipped to discuss how to prepare for this type of integration because we built the connector that Adobe uses to integrate these two platforms. This connector allows these platforms to share information back and forth as needed. With that in mind, we’ll first discuss the type of information these two systems can share, and then we’ll get into the specific steps your business can take to prepare to integrate your new AEM system with your established Workfront platform. 

AEM Assets is a best-in-class Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool that allows users to store and utilize assets across a wide variety of digital channels. As digital assets are developed, they generally traverse through a specific workflow, from creation to approval to distribution or publication. The workflow from creation to approval can all be managed in Workfront. After integrating AEM and Workfront with the Connector, you will be able to propagate the asset and metadata to your AEM DAM to make the distribution and publication step more seamless. This helps with version control, accurate metadata, and the ability to easily search for an asset in either system, providing you a single source of truth for all your final digital assets.

Let’s look at two steps you can take to better prepare these systems for integration: 

1. Pick Meaningful Workfront Project Form Fields: Identify the fields that are common to all assets for a specific project - these are the types of fields that don’t need to be updated frequently and aren’t unique to the asset, as much as they are unique to the project. This information will be automatically mapped to an AEM asset to help you locate the asset, or a version of the asset, after it has been created, approved, and sent to AEM. Common Project fields include the out-of-the-box (OOTB) WF Project fields like Project Name or Project Description, and can also include Project Custom Form fields that are more business-specific, but critical for asset searchability.
   
   
2. Pick Meaningful Workfront Asset Form Fields: After you have picked your project form fields, you’ll need to identify the form fields specific to the assets you’re producing in Workfront. These form fields can include things like an approval number, an author, or an expiration date - just to name a few. In addition to being specific to the asset, these fields will likely be highly specific to your business, industry, and asset type. For example, an installation manual for a refrigerator will have very different data associated with it than a web banner for running shoes. 

The connector provides a seamless and easy way for you to propagate your activity in Workfront to a metadata field/schema in AEM (and vice versa). In the long-term, integrating Workfront and AEM can reduce redundant work, minimize the potential for mistakes, and ensure consistency where you need it. Since you’re more familiar with your Workfront business processes, it’s imperative that you find a qualified partner who can help you translate your existing Workfront processes to exact AEM metadata and customized workflows specific to your business needs. 

To learn more about how integrating AEM + Workfront can benefit your business, consider joining us for our webinar: 5 Ways to Use the AEM + Workfront Integration. 

Are you looking for an integration partner that knows the ins and outs of a Workfront + AEM integration?

We do. We're Hoodoo.