Future-Proofing Your Digital Asset Management & Creative Production

DAM solutions have traditionally been used primarily by companies’ marketing departments. Marketing team members use DAM software in order to manage digital assets such as photos, videos, animations, logos, infographics, music, audio, and more.

However, this conception of DAM as a marketing-exclusive technology is quickly changing. A variety of teams and departments across the entire organization may use DAM platforms in order to manage a rich array of digital assets:

• Product management: With a variety of teams and workflows to oversee, project managers can greatly benefit from the right DAM solution for storing company assets and their metadata.
• Human resources: HR may use DAM to manage their video assets for training and onboarding new employees.
• Sales: B2C businesses may use DAM as the backend of an e-commerce store that sells multimedia content to end consumers.

The use cases above only scratch the surface in terms of how companies might use DAM systems. In order to have a truly future-proof DAM strategy, you need to choose a flexible, adaptable DAM solution that can potentially meet the needs of any user base within your organization.

When contemplating an upgrade of your DAM system, the software’s primary user base should be the group of people whose opinions matter the most. After all, they’re the ones who will be using the system day in and day out, and they’re also the most familiar with the drawbacks and benefits of the current solution.

Although your creative team is an obvious choice, other sectors to consider may include:

• C-level executives: Getting approval from key decision-makers in the C-suite will be crucial in order for the upgrade to progress (more on that later). Executives and upper-level managers are primarily concerned with how the upgrade will affect their bottom line in terms of return on investment. Be prepared to back up your pitch with solid data-driven arguments about how the software will cut costs by making employees more efficient and productive.
• Vendors and contractors: Third-party business partners may also make use of your choice of DAM solution during their relationship with your company. They may even have recommendations about which software is best for your situation, based on their experiences with other companies.
• Clients: Some organizations need DAM solutions that are both internally and externally facing, such as stock photo agencies that offer images and videos for sale to customers. Surveys can be an invaluable tool for understanding how clients feel about your current DAM and what features they wish were available.

DAM systems run the gamut from basic photo libraries to full-fledged enterprise solutions with powerful capabilities for sharing and collaboration. In addition, the application may be hosted on your own on-premises hardware or delivered to you via the Internet (an approach known as “cloud software”).

Once you’ve decided to make the switch, assess how your choice of DAM solution will integrate with the rest of your IT infrastructure. Depending on your business workflow, you may wish to combine your DAM software with other applications for marketing, workplace collaboration, and business intelligence and analytics.

Depending on your level of familiarity with DAM systems, it may be wise to work with an outside consulting firm before and during the deployment. Many customers approach DAM software vendors directly, but then abandon their chosen system a year or too later because it's not the right fit. A third-party industry expert understands how organizations work and can give strong advice on which solutions will meet your unique business requirements.

While the likelihood is remote, there’s always a possibility that your DAM solution will experience partial or total data loss. This can occur due to both external factors, such as natural disasters and server crashes, as well as errors in the DAM software itself.

In the event that you’ve lost your data due to the fault of the vendor, some DAM companies may offer compensation or good-faith efforts to recover it. However, this is by no means a guarantee. Before signing a contract, be sure to read the vendor’s software warranty and end user license agreement with a fine-toothed comb.

Whether or not you suffer a data loss event, your business should always maintain backups of critical and important enterprise data. Not only does maintaining backups help recover from data loss, it also helps you roll back files and systems to a previous version if you encounter technical problems. Backups should ideally be stored in the cloud, or off-site in multiple locations, in order to protect them from physical damage.

Because data backups are often deleted after a few days and weeks, they're usually intended to be a short-term insurance policy against data loss and disaster. In addition to creating backups, your business should investigate enterprise archiving solutions for long-term storage of valuable data and files. While backing up your data creates a copy, archiving it places the original data in a separate location for long-term storage. Archives have sophisticated search and analysis capabilities that may not be available with backups.

Your DAM software should ideally be an “evergreen” solution that can grow alongside your company as market conditions and business objectives continually shift. When evaluating potential DAM partners, look to see if they describe their products as “adaptable” or “flexible.” Is this an accurate description of the software, or is it just a marketing buzzword?

In particular, search for DAM vendors that provide long-term support and maintenance. Some partners will guarantee a particular length of engagement, while others will help you migrate your data away from the platform if you choose another vendor in the future. Beware software with “golden handcuffs”: features that are designed to lock you in, such as proprietary file formats. 

With the pace of technological change only expected to accelerate in coming years, it’s hard to guarantee whether a given software application is truly “future-proof”—especially one so heavily dependent on digital content as a DAM solution.

However, your choice of DAM software should always be able to last you for at least the next three to five years. This will allow you to open up your IT budget in the event that you select the wrong DAM solution (unlikely after you finish this guide, but nevertheless a possibility).

Technological change will continue to impact business processes in the short and long terms, and DAM is no exception. Some of the ways that we see DAM solutions changing in the near future include:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning: Although they’re advancing in fits and starts, computers are slowly getting better at understanding and predicting human desires and behavior. We expect that more DAM solutions will leverage developments in AI and machine learning in order to serve up more relevant content to the people who need it.
• Workflow automation: Automating your tedious, manual business processes will cut costs and improve accuracy while freeing up human employees to focus on valuable strategic activities. Intelligent DAM systems will be able to automate simple tasks on files such as checking their integrity, converting them between different formats, and distributing them to the appropriate users.
• Reporting: Business intelligence and analytics are the keys to making smarter organizational decisions. DAM systems of the future will either integrate with BI software or generate their own reports about how different users within your business are using different content.
• Blockchains: Thus far, most of the hype surrounding blockchains has focused on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin with investors looking to strike it rich. However, blockchain technology offers great potential for any situation where companies need to maintain an immutable ledger of transactions—such as recording how digital assets are created and used.

We hope that the information in the previous sections has convinced you of the need to upgrade a feature-rich, cutting-edge DAM solution—if not now, then somewhere down the line. Of course, it will all be for naught unless you can make a convincing pitch to the C-level executives at your organization as well.

As mentioned before, executives and upper-level managers are primarily concerned about the bottom line, and whether the benefits will be worth the price tag and the extra effort. Whenever possible, use quantitative arguments about how the software will save employees a certain number of hours per week, or reduce costs by a certain amount. Above all, make the case that upgrading your DAM system will help creative teams succeed, and with them the company as a whole.

After you’ve won over these key decision-makers, you’ll need to discuss the change with your employees as well. This is easier said than done: according to an MIT study, 63 percent of managers believe that their pace of technological change is too slow due to poor communication about the advantages of new tools.

For the greatest chance at a successful DAM software rollout, follow the guidance below:

• Listen to employees’ concerns about how the change will affect them. After soliciting their opinions during the shopping phase, you should continue to value their input throughout the adoption process. Expect a certain degree of pushback, and be prepared to meet it with reasoned argumentation.
• Present your vision for how you see the new DAM system benefiting both the organizations and employees themselves. Help them understand what’s in it for them by showing them how it will simplify or streamline their jobs.
• Focus on “early adopters,” key figures within particular groups and departments who can help get others on board as well. By winning these people over early on, you can create a “ripple effect” as they evangelize for the new software.
• Work with an outside expert who understands the DAM market. A trusted DAM partner will have experience advising other companies in a similar situation, and can advise you on the various solutions available to meet your business requirements.

With these strategies in mind, you’ll be much more likely to gain the buy-in from executives and employees that you need to pull off a DAM upgrade—and one step closer to reducing your business costs while improving efficiency and productivity.