Whether you have heard of Digital Asset Management (DAM) or not, you’ve probably been in a situation where having a DAM solution would have saved you a lot of time.
With the continued permeation of technology into our daily lives, the rising usage of digital assets such as video, audio, images, and fonts is changing how businesses communicate. Content creation is now an integral part of a brand and company’s marketing toolkit.
With the large quantity of digital assets that are created and need to be managed, it’s easy to fall into disorganization and feel overwhelmed. Many organizations have developed their own solutions to solve this problem, but many still rely on servers and folder structures as their storage and retrieval systems. These manual solutions are heavily reliant on storage space and staff, easily becoming the content archive folder where no one dares to tread.
A DAM Solution to the Rescue
Imagine the peace of mind that comes after a thorough spring cleaning or organization of a messy office. That’s the beauty of a DAM solution – a system that can help you arrange, manage, share and archive all your digital assets. DAMs allow organizations to centrally catalog, store, retrieve and distribute large collections of valuable content that otherwise might have been used once and lost forever.
Countless hours can be lost to trying to locate files, and often when they are not located, added costs go into recreating or repurchasing them. In the case of legacy files, some can go lost forever if not properly archived. The value of content comes from your ability to reuse and re-purpose it for multiple projects and channels. A DAM solution makes it easy to leverage one single piece of content for future usage.
The Benefits of Digital Asset Management Solutions
Essentially, the benefits of a DAM can be split into two main categories: organizational efficiency and cost savings.
- As a central repository, DAM systems at their core provide a single location to store digital assets, making finding, sharing, preserving and managing files efficient and easy.
- Centralized organization helps facilitate smooth workflows and enables users to quickly find the files they need when they need them.
- DAMs strengthen team relationships by helping departments collaborate and share digital assets quickly. Distributing content to vendors, customers and partners through web-based access is also an important benefit.
- With an average of 10-30% of creative time being wasted on finding assets, DAM streamlines workflows so precious time can be saved and focus can remain on core creative work.
- Easily reuse digital assets and reduce the need to create new assets, or recreate lost assets.
- Save space with centrally located files. Eliminate asset duplication and free up email systems from large file transfers.
- Reduce risk by tracking asset licensing and usage rights. Eliminate potentially costly legal landmines for improper use.
Still not sure you need a DAM? Check out our Digital Asset Management Best Practice Guides. It’s packed with more information to help guide you on the path to DAM success.
