8 Tips for Finding and Choosing a Digital Asset Management System
Tags: management
Published: 2019-06-20 22:19:12

![](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/h60isxt5ti4aon5wk1e6.jpg)
<figcaption>[Pixels](https://www.pexels.com/photo/working-in-a-group-6224/)<figcaption>

Struggling to find relevant content? None of the staff know what is the approved version of the product video? Companies are trying to keep up with the increasing demand for quality media content. Using engaging and high-quality visual content is already a standard in an industry focused on consumer satisfaction. 
 
Since the quantity of digital files an average company has to manage is ever-growing, it is easy to feel overwhelmed when it comes to manage and organize the data. This is where Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems come in. DAM is a software solution that helps companies effectively organize, store and manage their digital assets. Read on to learn about DAM systems, why you need one, and how to choose the right system for you. 

## What Is a Digital Asset Management System?
Digital Asset Management (DAM) is the process of organizing, storing and retrieving rich media, managing digital rights and permissions. Digital assets or rich media are digital files that provide value to the company and are searchable and discoverable with metadata. Rich media includes photos, videos, logos, graphics, animations, illustrations, and screenshots. DAM is part of the Enterprise Content Management (ECM), which curates and organizes the organization’s information. 

Digital asset management systems are software solutions ranging from digital libraries to ECM-types. The best DAM systems enable workflow automation, using AI capabilities such as smart tagging. 

### Why You Need to Use a Digital Asset Management System
[Studies](https://www.mediavalet.com/dam-every-marketers-forecast-infographic/) show that in companies without a DAM system: 
* Staff members waste one day a week just managing and transferring files. 
* When searching for files, employees only succeed 35% of the time. 
* 65% of sales representatives have trouble locating relevant content. 
* Organizations replace $300 billion of digital assets annually. 

The first reason organizations adopt DAM systems is that they save time otherwise wasted looking, storing and managing media. Allowing employees to work faster helps companies reduce costs and optimize processes. Other benefits your company can reap from a [Digital Asset Management System](https://cloudinary.com/solutions/digital_asset_management) include:
* **Proper storage of digital assets**—the system eliminates duplicates and stores the data in an organized and searchable way. No more lost data or cryptic filenames. The DAM provides a clear view of what assets you have, saving time and server space. 
* **Processing of large amounts of data**—most DAM systems offer unlimited scalability. 
* **Rights management**—DAM allows controlling who has access to assets as well as read and edit permissions. Another feature present in DAMs is the management of licenses. The system hides assets once their licenses expire, avoiding copyright issues. 
* **Automatic format changes**—photo editors can save time by setting the system to automatically change the format of the asset. 
* **Seamless distribution**—A DAM solution uses automation to distribute the content across the marketing funnel in a timely and cost-efficient way. Companies operating several marketing channels can rely on the digital management system to ensure the right content gets to the right person on time. Through integration with cloud systems, all information is centralized and can be retrieved easily. 

## How to Choose a Digital Asset Management System
There are several digital asset management solutions in the market all with their strengths and weaknesses. Some run from the cloud while others are on-premises or offer a combination of both. Most solutions leverage from artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate processes and make the data searchable using metadata. To help you make a decision, we offer eight tips to help you find the right DAM for your company. 

### 1. Identify who is going to be impacted by a DAM implementation. 
Who are your stakeholders? What functionality do they need? You should involve the people who are going to use the system, employees, agencies or clients to ensure buy-in from the start. The system will be great only if the people actually use it correctly. 

### 2. Determine the Digital Asset Management expected RoI
Before starting in your quest for the right digital management system for your company, you need to define what Return on Investment (RoI) you expect from deploying a DAM. You should consider that a digital asset management system helps reduce costs such as:
* **Recreating assets**—unavailable because they are not easy to find, and they need to be re-created, wasting time and money.
* **Searching for assets**—users can spend up to 8% of their working day searching for digital assets. 
* **Distributing assets**—manually distributing assets to partners and vendors. 

### 3. Decide where you want to host your Digital Management Software: cloud, on-premises or hybrid
Consider the features that each deployment model offers, and which features it doesn’t:

![](https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/1okg0mapcij9uaun6yuv.png)

### 4. Define what permissions and restrictions you want to set
The DAM system can separate groups of users according to what permissions they get on the assets. It can grant editing rights to the graphic design team and not to the content writing team, for example. By defining the rights levels beforehand, you can look for a solution that allows giving different types of permissions. 

### 5. Look for integration
You should look for solutions that integrate with your operating system and existing software tools. Does your creative team use a lot of Adobe products? You should look for a system that has a connector to Adobe Creative Suite. Integrating the DAM with your existing software allows users to familiarize themselves easily with the system and make better use of it. 

### 6. Understand the lifecycle of the assets- audit your assets
In order to choose the right system for your organization, you first need to know what kind of assets need to be managed, and what their lifecycle is. A good rule of thumb is to choose a system that alerts relevant users of outdated assets. 

### 7. Do your homework
With so many digital asset management systems available on the market, it is important to check for reviews and ratings before committing to a solution. There are many [technology review forums[(https://www.g2crowd.com/products/mediavalet/reviews) where you can get unbiased insights into what can work for you, from existing customers who leave their opinions about the good, the bad and the ugly of each digital management system. You should also compare the different vendors pricing schemes, looking for hidden costs to avoid surprises. It is good to research before talking to a representative about what is included and what not in the package. 

### 8. Look for automated features
The best DAMs out there integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the user experience and the quality of the queries. These systems use machine learning and image recognition to automate tagging, assigning the appropriate keywords with minimal human involvement. 

## The Bottom Line 
Choosing the right mix of features and capabilities for your DAM is like a tailoring a bespoke suit━you need to choose the right fabric and style that fits you best. No two DAM solutions are the same, and you should consider which system best suits your specific needs. You will then be able to leverage the advantages of the solution you choose by fine-tuning your assets with the right metadata to target the customer effectively.