Do I Need a Digital Asset Management System?

What Is a Digital Asset Management System?

In today’s digital world, images and videos speak louder than anything else. That’s why digital asset management — also known as DAM — is so important. A digital asset management system helps companies to organize, manage, and centralize all of their photos, videos, copy, fact sheets, and anything else that can be transmitted digitally.

One major reason why DAM systems are so valuable is that they’re not limited just to the organization who owns the assets. The DAM is typically shared with partner agencies so that those businesses can also access the company’s assets to collaborate on projects. The ease of access, accompanied by multiple authorized users being able to utilize files at once, and permissions to track usage, makes a DAM essential for any business that’s serious about product management and product marketing.

Do I Need a Digital Asset Management System?

It’s not uncommon for skeptical companies to scoff at the idea of paying for a program to manage digital marketing materials. After all, why can’t they manage these assets themselves? Consider these benefits of digital asset management software:

• Centralized Location: With a DAM, all of the company’s digital assets are stored in one location, so that everyone knows where to find what they need, quickly and easily.

• Tagging: With file tagging, it’s easy to know exactly what each image or video contains. Tagging is one of the most valuable digital asset management tools there is, making it significantly easier for staff to find the files they’re looking for.

• Searchable: Asset tagging also makes it possible to search the DAM for a particular product, campaign, image style, or anything else that might be desirable.

• Automatic Updates: When accompanied by a digital experience platform (DXP), updates to the DAM will automatically transmit the newest version of the file to websites or product catalogs that reference that file location.

• Brand Portals: Most DAMs allow users to create brand portals, allowing them to share a selection of digital assets with team members, agencies, or channel partners.

The benefits of digital asset management are quite clear. However, to fully reinforce why DAM is so important, think about a company that doesn’t use digital asset management. Files are in different folders, in employee’s email boxes, and stored locally. Nobody can find what they need. There are multiple versions of every file, and nobody knows which is the correct one. In short, it’s a mess, and there’s no easy way to fix it. However, with a digital asset management system, all of these issues could easily be remedied. And avoiding the disaster scenario highlighted above is enough motivation for any business to start to take their digital assets seriously by using a DAM.

Is Dropbox a Digital Asset Management System?

Dropbox is one of the world’s most well-known and widely used online storage platforms. People use it every day to store information in the cloud, where it can be accessed anywhere. Though Dropbox does have practical and useful functionality, particularly for individual use, it falls well short of being a full-fledged digital asset management system.

Dropbox, at its core, is only an online storage tool. It doesn’t do any of the other things a digital asset management system does. Though users can search for files on Dropbox, the site doesn’t allow for file tagging. Dropbox also doesn’t link to digital creations produced by the company, which means those items will remain static forever. If a file is replaced by another file, Dropbox won’t update catalogs, webpages, or any other digital assets that reference that file.

While it is a helpful tool for personal use, Dropbox has significant limitations that prevent it from being a full-fledged DAM tool. Instead of trying to “make it work” with Dropbox, marketers and manufacturers should invest in a digital asset management solution that will increase efficiency and provide tremendous value.

How Do I Choose a Digital Asset Management System?

There is a seemingly endless list of digital asset management companies, all of which swear they have the best digital asset management software on the market. However, each business has to make their own choice based on their unique situation and what works best for them. While every company wants a good deal, even the best free digital asset management software comes with a high number of restrictions. Organizations should ask themselves these questions to determine what they need most from DAM software, and then find the digital asset management companies that best meet their requirements.

• What is the primary problem we’re trying to solve with the DAM? Your company may have tons of assets, but no way to structure them. Or, you may want the ability to automatically update your catalogs. You may even want to do both! It’s good to determine the biggest issue you’re facing, and let that be the guiding principle in your search.

• How many digital assets do we have, and what types do we have? Some companies only have blogs and images to organize. A forward-thinking company, though, might have video content, podcasts, white papers, audiobooks, Web layouts, and much more. These various file types can be very difficult to organize without a DAM.

• How will we structure the taxonomy of our digital assets? The great thing about digital asset management is you get to choose how files will be organized. Files can be organized by file type, date of production, the campaign with which they’re associated, file creator, and many more ways to structure your data. Identifying the perfect taxonomy can be a bit of a challenge, but once it’s set up, it’s easy to organize the company’s assets — and more importantly, to keep them neat and tidy going forward.

• What other systems do we need to integrate with? As discussed, the real value of a DAM comes in seeing how it links up with already-existing websites and catalogs. Businesses may need to incorporate their DAMs along with product information management (PIM) systems and product experience management (PXM) software. Companies like Lumavate offer these programs right out of the box, and they integrate seamlessly with each other. Before you buy a DAM, think about how you’ll use it and how you want it to interact with the other programs that rely upon your digital assets.

• Where and how will the digital assets be used? Every company uses its digital assets in its own unique manner, but nobody keeps their files hidden from the public. You want to choose a DAM that makes it easy for your files to be displayed to the public, so that they will be enticed to buy your products. At the same time, it should be easy for employees to access, edit, and update digital assets for immediate use. A good digital asset management system, such as the Lumavate DAM, will make it a breeze to add files to the DAM and incorporate those materials into campaigns and catalogs.