About
Union Coop is the largest consumer cooperative in the UAE, operating a network of hypermarkets, shopping centers, and online retail services. Known for its extensive supplier base and high-volume marketing activity, Union Coop relies on fast-moving, on-brand creative content to support its campaigns and retail promotions.
Recognition
Acquia Engage Awards 2026
Best Use of Asset Management & Content Workflow · Acquia Engage Awards 2026
A Digital Asset Management Transformation
Union Coop’s creative output was impressive but their assets lived across laptops, drives, and outdated systems with no audit trail, no approval workflow, and no version control. Axelerant stepped in to implement Acquia DAM and the Workflow App, transforming Union Coop’s fragmented asset estate into a centralized, governed platform.
This strategic rollout involved bulk-migrating 2TB+ of legacy files, designing metadata standards, implementing a two-stage: Trading → Marketing approval flow, and enabling secure external vendor participation.
Union Coop faced a growing operational burden: the volume of assets was exploding, approval cycles were unclear, and campaign timelines were at risk due to lack of governance.
Fragmented Asset Stores
Files were scattered across personal drives, shared folders, and Magento exports. There was no consistent taxonomy or metadata, making it difficult to locate, track, or reuse assets.
Manual, Risk-Prone Approvals
Approvals happened over email, with no audit trail and a high risk of unapproved assets being released. Multiple departments were involved, Marketing, Trading, and external vendors, but there was no structured workflow to manage the process.
Scale Without Safety
Suppliers had no secure way to upload content, and once files entered the system, they could bypass governance altogether. Metadata inconsistencies and duplicated assets were common, and onboarding new vendors for campaigns was error-prone and slow.
Platform & Workflow Constraints
Union Coop needed not just a tool, but a sustainable operating model. Acquia DAM’s Workflow App required creative solutions to bridge metadata gaps between stages, and the migration process required careful planning to handle duplicate handling, ingest validation, and metadata templating.
Axelerant delivered a phased, governance-first rollout of Acquia DAM tailored to Union Coop’s operational reality, ensuring technology served the process, not the other way around.
Discovery And Metadata Design
- Mapped every source of truth: personal drives, shared folders, Magento exports.
- Designed a metadata taxonomy aligned with search, filters, legal requirements, and operational tags.
- Modeled user roles and permissions across marketing, trading, and external suppliers.
Bulk Migration And Validation
- Migrated over 2TB of legacy assets using Acquia’s Bulk Migration Tool and S3 staging.
- Ran duplicate scans with rule-based outputs (reuse, skip, or ingest as-is).
- Validated ingests via pre-release QA, reducing clutter and confusion.
Workflow Implementation
- Set up a two-stage approval system: Trading reviews first, then Marketing approves final release.
- Used the Workflow App for requests and approvals, pushing finalized assets to the DAM (Asset App) post-approval.
- Designed a practical workaround for Workflow-App-to-DAM metadata gaps via metadata sheets and controlled upload handoff.
Vendor Enablement And Handover
- Created secure upload paths for suppliers with role-based controls to prevent unauthorized asset releases.
- Delivered editor and vendor training, detailed runbooks, and launch readiness sessions to Union Coop’s internal and external users.
The implementation delivered quantifiable and operationally meaningful improvements.
2TB+ Of Assets Centralized
Every legacy asset is now hosted in a single governed platform, improving visibility, ownership, and auditability.
Zero Bypass Risk
Governed multi-stage approvals replaced risky, email-based workflows, eliminating accidental releases and creating traceable audit trails.
Measurably Faster Asset Lifecycles
Duplicate reduction, metadata validation, and structured approvals have reduced asset turnaround time and boosted campaign velocity.
Scalable Vendor Participation
Role-based access, training, and upload profiles now support future vendor onboarding and large-scale campaign collaboration, without governance compromise.
Project Highlights
100% Centralized Asset Repository
All previously scattered files, across drives and Magento, now live in a governed Acquia DAM instance. This single source of truth enables search, audit, and reuse at scale.
Governed Two-Stage Approval Workflow
Axelerant implemented a Trading → Marketing approval model using Acquia’s Workflow App. This enforced sign-off sequencing, eliminated ad hoc email-based reviews, and ensured only approved assets reached public-facing systems. Audit trails and role-based permissions added visibility and compliance.
Metadata-Driven Discoverability
Custom metadata templates and upload profiles were introduced to support search, categorization, and legal tagging. As a result, teams could find relevant, campaign-ready assets quickly, reducing manual effort and enabling better content reuse across channels.
Ask anything about how we ran Union Coop - or what it would look like for you.
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