Digital asset management (DAM) has become a critical business function as more and more companies find themselves with an ever-increasing number of digital assets to manage.
The latest research from Gartner estimates that by 2020, the amount of data worldwide will grow to 163 zettabytes. This is equivalent to 44 trillion DVDs worth of information.
With such staggering numbers, it’s not surprising that so many businesses are turning towards solutions like cloud-based DAM for help in managing their digital assets.
This post provides tips for maximizing the power of DAM systems and how they can help your organization better manage its growing collection of digital media content across multiple departments and processes. You can also find more information about DAM at https://www.encode.eu/blog-posts/your-guide-to-digital-asset-management-dam
1. Establish Clear Usage Policies
You need to establish clear usage policies before you can begin using a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system. What are the business objectives? How will they be used? Who has access, and how often should it be updated with new assets, revisions, or deletions of old ones? With this information, you can handle your digital assets with confidence.
2. Promote The System
One of the most effective ways you can promote your system is to take a moment and remind users why it’s great. Every time someone uses the system, ask them how they’re feeling about using it again in the coming days or weeks so that you know what changes need to make.
If people are getting frustrated with something like switching between different screens too often, say-you’ll want to make sure there’s an easy way for them to fix this problem.
3. Learn From The Results
Every time you create a new asset, tell yourself what it will do in advance. When it’s done, find out if that happened – then think about how to make future assets even more effective.
This will help keep you on track toward achieving your goals while also enabling insights into what worked well or needs improvement.
4. Identify Where Users Work
One of the essential steps in digital asset management is to identify where your users work. This doesn’t mean you’re going to have to change their workflow – but it does offer insights into how they use and interact with files, which can help determine what kind of capabilities are needed for a solution.
For example, if your organization shares documents across multiple departments or uses different file formats based on who’s viewing them (i.e., designers might need PDFs while accountants may need Excel spreadsheets); then, a single-file format will save time during document sharing and editing because there won’t be any conversion issues involved.
In contrast, if everyone works from one physical location and all share the same equipment or software system, then adopting a document management system that allows for simultaneous editing may be a better option.
5. Understand How Employees Manipulate Digital Assets
One of the most critical pieces to understanding how you can maximize your digital asset management system is determining what tools and processes are currently in place.
If staff members typically send files to one another via email, that process needs to be tweaked before adopting a new DMS. Or, if they’re working with PowerPoint presentations from their current platform, it may not make sense for them to switch over right now because all their content will need re-creating.
There’s nothing wrong with tweaking some systems within an existing workflow instead of implementing something entirely new.
Final Thought
You can maximize the power of digital asset management if you have some basic knowledge about it.
