SCC Budget Assignment Module provides a sophisticated job ticketing and scheduling workflow within the SCC MediaServer Digital Asset Management DAM System. The module supports centralized planning and management of news budget events, job requests, agency contracts, photo, video, graphic and story assignments, or any type of electronic work order, from creation through to completion.

Data entry forms and displays within the system are easily configurable, and all data entered into the system is immediately searchable and fully editable (subject to user permissions). The module provides an e-alert triggering mechanism based on the status and values of one or more form fields, and supports automatic linkage to high-resolution content submitted to job requests via a drag and drop content upload facility included with the SCC system.

Once created, each record is given a unique reference number (URN) and this, as well as all other the contained information is automatically indexed for full text search. All job request records are tracked and updated throughout various stages of production and linked automatically to submitted high-resolution content uploaded to each record. Access to data is tightly controlled by login credentials through which users can be restricted to viewing only certain records depending on field content, such as by Event Date, Reporter, Photographer and Status.

The Budget Assignment module allows the creation and display of workday schedules in an easy to view report format. Each report display is customizable and accessible via a standard Web browser. The user can choose to view any combination of attribute fields from the schedule either by day, week, month, etc. Status fields within the job request and/or work schedule record can be used to color code the display e.g. "New" in red, "Approved" in blue, "Completed" in green etc.

The Budget Assignment module includes an Agency Contracts management facility, allowing contract records to be entered into the system relating to one or more agencies that are supplying on-spec material to the SCC MediaServer system. In addition to agency contact details, the contract record includes the target Site and Newsroom to which the contract applies, the dates of contract commencement and expiry, and also the associated payment costs which apply to the use of agency content under a variety of circumstances. Once configured and enabled the presence of the contract record tightly controls user access to that agencies supplied content, by allowing or preventing to agency content for each individual based on their Site and Newsroom, and also recording each use of agency content for reporting purposes. An agency content utilization report is included with the module, allowing used content to be displayed for any given period, with associated costs calculated automatically based on each circumstance.

The Budget Assignment module enables the SCC MediaFactory "Harmonizer" channel type, which allows automatic linking of submitted high-resolution objects (photos, videos graphics, stories etc.) to the associated budget or assignment record. The Harmonizer channel allows one or more metadata fields from the parent database record to automatically populate metadata in the child (linked) records.

For example, a budget summary can be entered into a budget record, which is inherited by a child photo assignment record. As soon as the high-resolution content (photos, video, graphics etc.) is inserted into the MediaServer system, the package is automatically linked and the content subsequently inherits the budget summary from the parent record, allowing the high-res files to become individually searchable by that data.

Any number of metadata fields such as contact name, address and phone number, event date, etc., can be configured to transfer automatically during linking. Note that in this case the metadata content can be set either to merge or append only if the target fields are empty, ensuring that existing metadata is not overwritten. Once linked a simple click allows all related content to be easily retrieved.