As companies’ digital transformation accelerates, the management of their digital assets takes on a whole new dimension. The DAM market is now worth $2.44 billions and is expected to triple by 2022. In France, Digital Asset Management is worth almost 50 million euros. These figures clearly illustrate the growing need for companies to provide a framework for organising, regulating and securing the flow of their increasingly heterogeneous content production. In addition to this need to manage digital resources, there is also the need to secure content in the face of an increase in the number of cyber attacks.
What is DAM software ?
What is the purpose of Digital Asset Management ?
The main objective of a DAM solution is to enable companies to make the most of the various assets at their disposal, thanks in particular to optimised content management and coordination. A DAM solution is ultimately an enterprise asset management software that supports your digital assets throughout their lifecycle. Rather than a simple management tool, the DAM is now thought of as a collaborative solution that must combine ease of use and security. Previously reserved for large organisations, DAM is now a necessity for SMEs and VSEs with, among other things, the rapid development of marketing materials.
In concrete terms, a Digital Asset Management solution allows you to :
- Centralise
- Store
- Annotate
- Index
- Search
- And disseminate your corporate digital assets.
Who is concerned by DAM?
To answer this question, we think first of all of marketing teams. They have to create, store, index and distribute numerous resources on a regular basis. But Digital Asset Management has a much wider range of users. In fact, to sum up, DAM is aimed at all the entities of a company that can benefit from a digital asset management solution. And by digital assets, we mean an exhaustive range of formats (PDF, JPG, PNG, Gifs, videos, mp4…) for all types of documents (marketing, financial, legal, creative, technical…). And it is to meet this growing need of the number of users that DAM software is becoming more and more valuable for organisations. Such transversality requires not only a centralisation of the company’s digital resources but also their optimisation throughout their life cycle.
What are the advantages of DAM (digital asset management) software
Time saving
Using a Digital Asset Management solution will undoubtedly save you precious time. As we know in business, time is money!
First of all, you will see a saving in search time. Thanks to a DAM platform, searching for files is less time-consuming for the teams, as they are centralised and their indexing optimised. This allows employees to devote themselves to tasks with greater added value for the company.
In concrete terms, organisations that implement a digital asset management system can save up to two thirds of the search time previously spent. (Source: Guide to measuring DAM ROI, 2019) Time is also saved on transfer and download issues. The DAM solution automatically converts assets to the right size and resolution for all channels.
Productivity gains
Implementing digital asset management (DAM) software can help organisations significantly reduce the time between asset creation and delivery. According to a 2019 Netcentric study, it can speed up the creation of new assets by 47%, thereby improving productivity and operational efficiency.
Through centralisation, indexing and search optimisation, among other things, we see a reduction in the cost of asset re-creation by eliminating redundant efforts, reducing the number of assets created but never used, and improving the reuse of those same digital assets. Another productivity benefit is that easy, always-on access to critical files allows team members to work more efficiently and get to market faster.
Content production is boosted by faster workflows. As a result, we can say that using a Digital Asset Management solution improves collaboration by eliminating bottlenecks and “redundant” silos that typically delay projects.
Security gains
As soon as an organisation collects, stores and/or distributes digital assets, the issue of securing content arises. In order to avoid the loss or degradation of your assets, your DAM (Digital Asset Management) solution must manage this security aspect. Digital Asset Management software is designed to guarantee a maximum level of security. It allows, for example, to establish a hierarchy of access rights according to users, and protects media with a digital watermarking system.
The DAM also manages all the metadata associated with a resource, such as rights information for licensed content. In this regard, according to the Netcentric study conducted in 2019, the implementation of a DAM solution would reduce the legal risk of using erroneous or unapproved assets by 23%, protecting them from accidental distribution or theft, and ensuring licence compliance at the same time.
Security is also about the proper use of your digital assets through optimised access management based on the premise that not all DAM users should handle or access all of the company’s digital assets. This is why managing access to the various digital assets, coupled with reporting on resource use, ensures security and transparency.
Another cornerstone of securing your content : hosting
There are two possibilities: hosting on the company’s servers or storage managed by your DAM provider. In this case, it is essential to check three points :
- The data centre of your service provider must guarantee a very high level of security
- the hosting must be located on European (EU) territory in order to guarantee the digital sovereignty of your data
- Your choice must also be made according to the level of security of your company’s own infrastructure and your internal management policy
Valuation of your digital assets
We could summarise the advantages of Digital Asset Management software with the following sentence: DAM enhances the value of all your digital assets. The need for centralised and optimised management of digital assets is no longer a matter of debate for most companies. The figures mentioned in the introduction amply prove this.
But beyond making itself indispensable, the implementation of a DAM solution implicitly gives value to your digital assets. Better exploited, used and distributed, your media are as many assets to make your brand image perform. DAM ensures secure and more collaborative management, better communication and increased productivity throughout the life cycle of your digital assets.
Project management : DAM, the 6 key steps
1st step
This first stage of project management for the implementation of a DAM (Digital Asset Management) solution consists of defining your objectives and your needs and then having the chosen strategy validated by management. Next, make an inventory of all your media and finally set up your project team. During this first phase, the human resources mobilised are generally the DAM project manager, the Communication and Marketing departments, a documentalist if necessary, the Legal department, the IT department and, more specifically, the Information Systems Department.
Step 2
Organise a project launch meeting when the project is signed in order to facilitate communication and initiate change management with all the stakeholders, who may or may not be involved, but are all concerned. You can call on an external consultant if necessary.
3rd stage
Study and analysis workshop phase. It is during this phase that all the stakeholders in the project will be most involved.
4th stage
Delivery of a technical and functional specification booklet. This must be validated by all the stakeholders, it is the guideline for your DAM project.
5th step
Content categorisation, editorialization and front office design. Be aware that your DAM platform must be both ergonomic and structured, highlighting all media.
Step 6
Finally, your DAM provider will install and configure the tool.
Given these numerous advantages, opting for the implementation of a DAM solution means investing in a solution for the future !
Today, Digital Asset Management adds value to all types of digital resources by optimising and securing their management throughout their life cycle.
Tomorrow, artificial intelligence technologies, particularly in the field of machine learning, will profoundly change the way things are done. Among other things, deep learning will make it possible to optimise search methods with precise and automated indexing of digital assets.
