Deciding to purchase a digital asset management (DAM) system and implementing it is just the beginning of your DAM journey. Along the way, business happens: company reorgs, expansions, shifting priorities, etc. This can all have an impact on how the DAM is used (or not used).
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The Acquia Professional Services team has walked alongside our customers on their journeys with DAM and have jumped in to help them with challenges along the way. Here are the most common questions we&#;ve encountered and some advice we can offer for organizations going through similar situations.
Oftentimes, someone hired as a new DAM admin at a company already has experience with digital asset management and already knows all the ins and outs of DAM concepts and product functionality. What they might not know, however, is how this particular DAM system they&#;ve inherited is set up and how to administer it moving forward. DAM configurations are often extremely customizable, so the new DAM they have just been handed may have a completely different configuration structure than what they are used to.
This is why it&#;s important for a new DAM admin to connect with all of the major stakeholders and super users within their organization to learn more about the internal goals and vision for the DAM system and how the current configurations support the business and use cases of different teams. They should ask the internal team if there are any resources or documentation from the initial DAM implementation and if there is a governance document maintained by the former admin. If there has been a lot of internal shift, the admin may not necessarily get this in-depth information on why certain decisions were made. In this case, if you don&#;t have a why, that&#;s okay! All you can do is think forward. Re-engage with your stakeholders to ask them their goals and if the current configurations still support their workflows. They might have had changes too, so it would be a great time to start from scratch and reevaluate anyway.
For DAM admins who are still learning the key concepts and functionalities of Acquia DAM, we offer resources on Acquia Academy or in the Acquia DAM Community, where you can access support articles or connect with other customers through user groups. We also offer admin empowerment sessions that can help a new admin to get up-to-speed with their new position, as well as DAM site audits, which can provide a comprehensive understanding of all configurations and usage of the current DAM solution and set a new admin up for maximum success.
A DAM system can be set up in the most intentional, structured way possible, but without proper oversight and maintenance, or adherence to workflows, things can get out of control quickly. It may be time to reevaluate your configurations to include additional user permissions to allow (or rather, not allow) certain users to do certain things.
Consider what is going on in your DAM system. Are your assets building up because you lack a clear asset lifecycle or archiving policy? Do you have policies in place, but they&#;re not being followed? Either way, it&#;s important to get your DAM governance back on track. One way is through a DAM governance series of workshops and one-on-one sessions to help you establish rules that will support your desired workflows and asset lifecycles, and uncover new areas where having established rules of engagement can help you keep control of your DAM system.
This question often arises when an organization needs to expand its DAM site to encompass new brands or regions, or distribute assets to more markets.
The first thing to do is to take a step back and look at the larger strategy of how to serve all of your new and current audiences. Do new markets, regions, or partners need to have a user seat in your DAM site, or will their needs be met by a curated portal experience?
Once you determine your distribution strategy, you&#;ll understand whether or not you need to adjust your DAM security structure for internal users. Will there now be user groups who need different access to content? It might be okay if your users can access all content, but maybe it would be beneficial to add some more organization to the dashboard so they can more quickly navigate to what they care about most.
Regardless of your decisions about distribution and access, adding new types of assets will almost always invite updates to metadata. Can you simply add to your existing metadata types, fields, and category structure? Do you need to add new values to previously established fields (e.g., brand name)? Or are the important details about your new assets vastly different from what you already have set up in the DAM? If that&#;s the case, it&#;s worth exploring if new metadata types and/or metadata dependencies could assist your upload workflows.
DAM site optimization projects are a great way for customers who face these conundrums to collaborate with Acquia experts to strategize on the best ways to make adjustments based on their new use cases. We also offer assistance in building new configurations and making sure that existing assets and users are updated accordingly &#; all with minimal disruption to users and workflows.
If a company reorg, merger, acquisition, or other business event has led to a need to merge DAM systems, your approach is going to be different than if you were simply growing and adding on to an existing structure. You&#;re now faced with taking two established DAM sites and figuring out how to make the different structures fit together like puzzle pieces to support all assets, users, and workflows.
This is the perfect time to take a step back and start fresh with your configuration approach so that you can be sure to consider all requirements as a whole. What has historically worked for one DAM system may not be possible once you have merged with another. Figuring out what can be shared versus what needs to be different is a good starting place. For example, do users need to now see new or different assets than they have in the past? Are you merging your brands or products internally and therefore have a different organization or hierarchy that needs to be considered in your metadata structure?
Paying attention to the areas where there is already duplication and overlap can be a great starting point to determining a security and search structure that works for both old and new stakeholders.
This is also a good time to revisit your admin schedule and governance document &#; or create them, if you don&#;t have them established yet.
Acquia can help in DAM merger scenarios, with a site optimization project paired with an asset migration and metadata import. This is an efficient way to bring all assets and users into one shared DAM environment that is set up to intentionally support all audiences moving forward.
Are you spending time and resources maintaining the same information in more than one system? Are you uploading the same assets manually to multiple systems? If the answer to either of those questions is &#;yes,&#; then this is an opportune time to consider expanding the role of DAM across your martech stack to save you time, money, and resources and let your DAM system truly serve as the single source of truth for your organization.
Maybe you know exactly what systems you&#;d like to integrate with your DAM platform but would like to take a strategic approach to prioritize and plan for those initiatives. Maybe you&#;re still googling the words &#;API&#; and &#;integration&#; and aren&#;t really sure where to begin. In either case, a DAM ecosystem design engagement is a great starting point for a DAM admin who wants to learn more about how they should be thinking about integrations and what value they will add to the organization. You&#;ll work with an Acquia expert to establish an action plan so that you can be prepared for working with technical teams in the future to make your integration building experience as smooth as possible.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is designed to help rein in file chaos, video, centralizing images, and other assets in the user-friendly media library. Every user of this system can get more out of the digital assets and achieve the goals.
The digital asset management tool allows in organizing all the content or product details that have creative importance. DAM solutions collect and sort all the data and organize based on the intuitive hierarchy for asset storage.
This ensures that no data is lost and the duplicate data is deleted. Digital Asset Management provides a single repository for digital asset storage that makes its access simple. DAM streamlines the collaborative processes thus increasing productivity in a short duration.
Metadata acts as a source of rich product data. The DAM platform works with speed and ease for collecting all the essential data from thousands of files. Making use of specific keywords associated with the different digital assets makes the search easier.
Tagging the digital asset using metadata allows easy searching while saving time. This saved time can be used for other important tasks for the development of the product.
The DAM solution allows keeping the digital assets updated and consistent across the different channels. It helps in eliminating outdated, low-quality, and unapproved assets. If the enterprise controls more than one agency, handling the brand consistency becomes difficult.
Digital Asset Management platform provides a centralized hub that allows the users to access the latest files making the communication fruitful sharing consistent data.
Digital asset management solution helps in enhancing the visual appeal. The designing teams can focus on creating new designs to build quality digital assets.
DAM solutions provide security in protecting the different digital assets like images, videos, and datasheets securely. Digital Asset Management allows storing the data at a centralized location and managed across by the different users based on the permissions and access granted. These access permissions ensure the data remains safe.
Asset usage analytics plays an important role in making the decisions for the digital media depending on the file performance. The instantaneous data helps in providing the insights that will allow the organization in making better decisions for the next plans.
It provides insights into the performance of the assets across the different channels. It allows in comparing and interpreting the data from the different sources.
With the growth in the business as the number of products increases, the product data also increases. Due to the increase in competition, there is a need to provide the details of the digital asset for all the products. Handling all this digital data manually can be tiresome and time-consuming.
Digital Asset Management allows for easy scalability. It can handle enormous data for small, medium, or enterprise-size businesses. DAM solutions have the power to manage the increased data with great efficiency.
To explore more reasons for considering an advanced DAM solution for your business, don&#;t miss to visit Why Do You Need a Digital Asset Management Platform?
As a beginner to the software packages in the digital asset management category, you have to be conscious about several important things and make a well-informed decision to pick and invest in one of the most suitable digital asset management systems.
Here is the set of questions you need to ask for choosing the right DAM solutions.
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The complete assets in the media library would not do much good when you cannot find them on time. An effective search function is very important. An advanced Digital Asset Management system filters by file type, author, project, date, and other things along with the standard keyword searches.
If you wish to get a first-class digital asset management solution at any time, then you have to be conscious about how to properly and successfully use the facilities available at this time. You can save both time and money when you use this software as efficiently as possible.
Organizations have a distinctive ecosystem of procedures, processes, and people. Your DAM system must fit your needs and be customizable especially in some important fields for categorizing assets.
You can get so many favorable things when you update external portals with your logo, imagery, and colors to fit the brand.
Easy customization on time is one of the most important benefits to all users of the most effective DAM system.
Everyone has to know how the Digital Asset Management system scales with them as their asset collection increases before they decide to invest in such a system. You must know whether to add storage further at the push of a button. You can add a maximum number of users when your team expands.
You require a centralized media library especially when your company grows well and lets every member of staff access it. You can pick the DAM system designed to serve you for years to come.
An outstanding digital asset management system does not just store any asset. This is because it puts them in context. In general, metadata is extra information you give for each asset. The metadata includes dates, keywords, copyright, approval status, product line, and other information helpful to the organization.
If your Digital Asset Management system provides automatic metadata management for organizing files accurately, then you can get the most outstanding benefits. You will be happy when this system saves you from any large-scale data entry project.
Every user of the best Digital Asset Management library can open it to anybody and individuals who require accessing such assets as long as they know how to use it. End users can hit the ground running with an intuitive interface.
Keep in mind that a complex DAM system requires proper training regardless of whether you administer this system or you are the end-user of this system.
A proper integration does not fail to speed up the workflow, save users from the troubles of regularly exporting the assets only to upload them somewhere. It is a suitable time to explore and bear in mind various aspects of the dam solutions as comprehensively as possible. You can use the best integrations with the design tools especially Adobe for simple asset creation and editing on time.
This is advisable to use the social media integration facilities for sharing images straight from the library. You can use CMS integrations to publish assets on your website as quickly as possible. Your digital asset management system must offer a robust application programming interface to let developers connect it with any app their clients like,
On-site digital asset management solutions need maximum IT resources to set up and maintain the complete servers and make certain enough security. You have to access the complete assets off-site on time and scale up when the company grows and buys the new hardware on time. You can focus on the manageable alternative for this issue right now. Software as a service digital asset management providers are dedicated to hosting assets very securely on the cloud.
There is no hardware to maintain. There is no barrier to entry for businesses with small IT teams. You have to only pay for the overall resources you access and use. You can easily add users and upgrade the overall storage capacity almost immediately without complexity in any way.
Video is one of the most important parts of the effective content strategy in recent years beyond doubt. If you understand the significance of the video in your content, then you have to ensure that your digital asset management system has to handle the video content. You can preview the video files devoid of exporting them. You have to trim the video and download the clips you require.
You can consider whether this system uses PremierePro integration or not. You must know and remember that not every DAM system is video compatible. You have to check this facility when you have to work with lots of video assets.
All users of mobile gadgets like to get in touch with their kith and kin, learn, make informed decisions, develop business, and do other things on the go. Smart users of the number one digital asset management system nowadays can contact and consult with experts in the efficient use of the digital asset management system.
You can buy and use the best-in-class nature of the DAM system with a user-friendly interface that is accessible safely and quickly from any mobile device at any time.
New and regular users of laptops, tablets, and smartphones can connect with their team from anywhere at any time. They access whatever they require from anywhere. They ensure that the mobile app of the digital asset management system offers the complete features they require.
Administrators have to control who can access what for the digital asset management library to serve the whole business. They require accessing everything and the ability for approving the complete assets for use.
They only need access to certain assets, certain libraries, or certain low-resolution versions of images. They keep in mind and make certain that flexible permissions help all to get what they need exactly.
Dropping a digital asset management system into the present ecosystem of workflows and users may need some adjustments to how the current team operates. You have to be conscious about who requires accessing what assets at first, who must approve assets for use, and who has the ownership of the new and enhanced media library.
It is a suitable time to map out the complete processes and see what digital asset management could get rid of unnecessary steps. This approach helps you decide what elements to prioritize.
Your marketing team may consistently field requests for assets. You can explore the DAM system in various aspects and how it lets other teams self-service especially straight from a library of the media approved prior.
You can look for very flexible upload choices when you require getting images from photographers in the field onto social networking platforms. This facility helps everyone to add images directly to the library wherever they are.
You have to make certain that your digital asset management provider uses the proper encryption as well as security protocols to keep the digital assets safe. You must get answers to your questions and clarify your doubts about where your assets get stored, the security aspects of the data center, and other important things about the reputable DAM provider.
You may have understood the importance of successfully centralizing the assets in one place. This is because such a thing is all about efficiency and gives you an overview of the asset library. The robust reporting and analytics offer the overall insights into how the assets are being properly used.
You may get a lot of mileage out of some assets and get interested in creating assets like them further. You have to find whether valuable assets are being underused or spot some patterns to refine the content strategy. DAM systems protect assets from misuse by keeping track of the person&#;s downloading issues.
Prompt customer support from the digital asset management system provider is very important. You can prefer the DAM provider with true customer care and dedicated support staff. You must remember that DAM is an ongoing process. You have to ensure how quickly the customer support team responds and how such a team interacts with you before investing in the DAM system.
If you want to explore the leading DAM platforms that provide advanced features and functionality to manage your media files effectively, visit 11 Best Digital Asset Management that You Shouldn&#;t Miss to Use.
Considering the benefits of using the digital asset management solution, the enterprise or brands should hire the DAM developer that will lead to better organization of their digital assets.
By asking the above-listed questions, you can pick the right DAM solution for your business.
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