Digital Asset Management DAM:

What to Know Before You Go!

By John Horodyski, Principal of DAM Education, a consulting agency

Copyright 2015 Widen, Inc.

All rights reserved.






Digital Asset Management: What to Know Before You Go!

The decision to implement a digital asset management (DAM) system is a positive step in the
right direction to gaining operational and intellectual control of your digital assets and is
not one to be taken lightly. It brings with it great responsibility as to how your organizations
assets will be efficiently and effectively managed in daily operations. It is more than a sum
total of its parts; it must include a detailed review and analysis of all those contributing
factors to DAM - digital assets, organization, workflow, security, etc. And yet, the decision
itself to choose a DAM system enacts a chain of questions to be carefully considered before
proceeding down the path to DAM.
This whitepaper dissects the question of What to know before you go? and details the best
questions to ask yourself, your team, your department, and your organization before you go
with a digital asset management system!

DAM: Are You Ready?

What is the goal of the DAM system?
Is this for marketing operations? Web content? Long-term digital preservation?
Is it a singular installation or more expansive for a global audience?
If you can get your goal right, then you can achieve DAM success
There may be many good reasons to implement a DAM system within your organization, not
the least of which is identifying, centralizing, and making accessible valuable assets for
use and reuse within an organization. And while that is a worthy and most formidable goal
to assume, there must be an opportunity to stand back and ensure the problems are being
solved with the DAM solution. Knowing your problem to solve will be your greatest starting
point on your DAM journey, and from there more questions may then be formed. First and
foremost, the problem of who is your audience and what are their problems to be solved is
paramount to success. Take the time to understand the use scenarios. Who will be using the
DAM and what procedures / output do they need?
There is no need to work in isolation, and it is encouraged to seek out input from others
within your organization. This is a great way to make friends, form alliances, and create
strong internal partners that will ultimately help drive your DAM solution.
DAM is not a project, a temporary assignment to IT or marketing whereby
temporary resources and monies are assigned to try and fix something. DAM is
more than this. It is a product to be financed, resourced, and managed as any
other product and/or service found in any organization.

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Copyright 2015 Widen Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.




Digital Asset Management: What to Know Before You Go!

What are your digital assets?

Content analysis, rights, standards
Images, graphics, videos, 3D models, text, etc.
Similar, but different and all deserving specific attention
Do you really know what you have? This is not necessarily
a leave-no-rock-unturned siege upon the organization, but if
you are to invest time in this, then it is advised to look far and
wide for assets, for they may well reside in both the familiar
and unfamiliar of places. Shared folders, desktops, and external
drives are usual suspects in this exercise. This is a perfect
opportunity to reach out to your users and/or customers and
ask them what assets they have and, better yet, where those
assets are. And ask your users where the assets are going and
how are they to be used.
Knowing what those assets are and how many you have (and will be creating on a regular
basis) will help determine what type of DAM implementation you will need. This may be
as small as a single installation with a few users or an enterprise-level solution with many
things to do.
In addition, knowing more about your assets will ultimately help you in your preliminary
discussions with software vendor(s). In most situations, DAM solutions will be able to do
what you need them to do, but there are situations where you may have unique assets, such
as 3D models and their associated information, or workflows that may not be as easy for
a DAM solution to solve. This may well need customization work, which is both timely and
costly. That thought should be at the back of your mind at all times, and working with a good
DAM vendor will make the process all the more profitable for you. Engage and build a strong
relationship with your DAM vendor during the courting stage, for it will be one of your
greatest assets going forward.

What is your metadata model(s)?

How do you identify and define your assets?
Are you able to achieve the sweet sixteen?
How important is search to you?
Do you know what assets you have and how to identify,
organize, and describe them? This is not an exercise to
be rushed; this is critical to the entire DAM operation.
If you get this part wrong, then the entire DAM is damned!

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Copyright 2015 Widen Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.






Digital Asset Management: What to Know Before You Go!

Specifically, metadata will be your greatest asset. It will provide the structure and
information needed to make your assets more meaningful and not just assets. When
metadata is present, your assets become smart assets; they provide meaning and value.
Time and time again, people feel the need, and rightfully so, to describe their assets in
multiple ways from the perspective of multiple users. More often than not, that exercise can
lead to 5075 metadata fields where assets may be described. In some circumstances, this
number might rise north of 100, well beyond reach of control and in a state of information
overload. Your goal is to have a manageable set of fields upon which you are able to discern
the most critical elements of your assets in terms of administrative, descriptive, and
technical metadata.
There is no magic number of metadata fields because every organization is
different, though the number you may wish to aspire is the sweet sixteen. These
are the sixteen elements that you need to identify, organize, and describe your
assets and, ultimately, let your users search against.

What is your taxonomy?

The better question is, Do you know what this is?
How are your assets organized?
Why do I need one, and can the DAM help me
with that?
Indeed, if this word strikes imagery of various alpine and
bucolic animals stuffed in their most glorious of poses, then
this is a good time to use the dictionary and figure this out.
Better yet, hire a librarian or archivist to help you out.
Now that you have identified your assets and believe you have a metadata model of
manageable means, it is time to consider how they will be organized within the DAM system
both from a back-end perspective as well as the front end. Out of the box, DAM systems have
existing functionality for the visual display of information for the user; thats the how part
of DAM.
How to search for these assets? This could be through a variety and a combination of means:
A faceted classification system
Well-defined folder browsing
Perhaps a structured vocabulary from the corporate system feeding the DAM

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Copyright 2015 Widen Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.




Digital Asset Management: What to Know Before You Go!
Think of your users and how they will want to play with the DAM and search for assets.
There may well not be a simple, one-size-fits-all solution that may involve different views
depending upon your users.
What if this is to replace an existing DAM? What if this is a new venture altogether?
... A new DAM?
Migration requirements
Change management
Either way, these what-if scenarios are worthy of attention in order to understand how to
implement a successful DAM solution. As previously mentioned, this is not just a simple
project to be executed, but rather a product, a significant investment in time, money, and
resources to solve a specific problem within your organization. If this is a replacement DAM
solution, then most obvious of concerns are that of legacy development code and migration
of assets and technology systems, connections with existing systems part of a larger CMS or
MAM - the entire technology infrastructure.
If this is a new DAM solution, there are other pressing issues to consider, most notably
resources. Do you have the right team in place to implement this? Better yet, do you have a
change management process in place to manage the change to a DAM system? This includes
everything from communications to product evangelism, to metadata management and
beyond. Take the time to consider how this will be rolled out and who will be a part of that
process.

Consideration of possible workflow issues

Workflow modeling and production tool requirements
Is there a solid workflow process in place?
Optimization of marketing operations
Digital asset management may be understood as a workflow device to assist in the marketing
operations or other operational management critical to your organizations needs. Some
have invested in DAM solutions to speed up workflow and potentially create bigger profits,
and again, the opportunity exists to take a step back and receive as much of an overview as
possible. Now is the time to identify and map out the workflow process of your department
and/or organization. If there were to be any holes in the process, this would be the time to
find them both in current terms as well as future needs for the organization.
In many situations, companies say to a vendor, Here is our process. Automate it. and do not
look at the integrity of the process. If the process is flawed and cumbersome, you do not want
that to be automated because the end result will be messy. In addition, documenting the

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Copyright 2015 Widen Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.






Digital Asset Management: What to Know Before You Go!

workflow is another great opportunity to build better relationships with internal teams and
partners. The result of this documentation serves as the blueprint for your DAM solution and
the people and processes connected along the way.

Consideration for digital preservation of assets

Are some of your assets worth preserving beyond the workflow cycles you have
established?
More to consider than just metadata: What about formats and standards?
This is critical in terms of looking ahead with the view from behind. There may well be sound
reasons to identify, organize, and centralize your brand assets in one location for digital
preservation of some kind, whether that is short- to mid-term or a much longer-term vision.
If indeed a preservation problem needs to be solved, talk to your DAM vendor about this
and discern what may be done. In some instances, there are many good examples of using
archiving as a means of procuring new monetization and revenue streams. It is worth the
effort to explore new ways of repurposing assets, as well as considering the long-tail use of
assets for potential repurposing in the future.

Consideration of any licensing / legal issues

Do you need a DRM and why?
Permissions, roles, and security: How well do you
know your assets, your users, and their needs?
In the cloud or out of the cloud, and what does that
really mean?
This might be the time where metadata comes to the rescue for you and your assets. A
comprehensive metadata model with fields specific to rights usage and management will be
critical for your users interest in use and reuse. To get there demands an understanding of
what your assets are and knowledge of how they may be used. No technology will solve that
issue; that is pure human processing.
On the other side of the rights issue is the construction of permissions, user roles, and
security for the DAM soltuion that will guide and direct your users to a more successful DAM
experience.

Consideration of possible DAM systems / vendors to use

Evaluation, RFP, proof of concept, test drives, and sand boxes
Selection and procurement

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Copyright 2015 Widen Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.




Digital Asset Management: What to Know Before You Go!
This is where the fun begins: the review and selection of DAM vendors to solve your DAM
problems. Do not rush this process. Take the time to interview your DAM vendors for the
job, and ask them questions about existing clients, technical roadmaps, and professional
services. Good DAM vendors will be found with ease; they will stand out and provide service
from the beginning. A good scan of a vendors website will show you what they are doing and
who they are working with. Be mindful of whitepapers and case studies, as those will provide
insight into their design and ability to solve problems. Furthermore, a strong social media
presence will let you know how current they are and plugged into the marketing operations
issues affecting DAM. This is your time to effectively perform due diligence.

Look past the software and determine what is going on with training,
implementation support, help desk, upgrades, and new releases. Its not just what
comes out of the box that is important; the vendor you choose will become your
partner in this development initiative and you will need a good partner.

Management issues
Operations planning and program roadmap
Do you have a leader / a champion / an evangelist?
Do you have a team in place to manage day-to-day operations?
DAM is neither a silver bullet, nor is it a Catherine wheel. It is the best way in which to
manage your rich media assets for use and reuse within your organization, a beacon of
hope and power to advance your organization to the next level. In order to harness that
potential power, the right people need to be empowered to make changes and align DAM
with the strategic goals of the organization. A champion is needed to argue on your behalf
and advocate for budget spending. Champions - digital asset managers, business analysts,
and technical engineers - are also needed to manage the day-to-day operations of a DAM
solution.
Is it for you? DAM may well be the art of organization only so far as it may provide a structure
of order amongst the information chaos of a modern media organization. DAM can do many
things so long as you are willing to drive DAM well and let it solve the problems you have
identified. Businesses can increase profits with DAM in two ways:
1. Organizing your assets in a central location will make them searchable and will allow
your organization to save time, which equals money. Access to information will allow for
quick and easy search and no more lost time looking for assets. Shorter search times lead to
quicker response times.

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Copyright 2015 Widen Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.






Digital Asset Management: What to Know Before You Go!

2. The assets in your DAM solution are available for use and reuse to create new
assets and new products. In the current real-time world, a quick and accurate response is
priceless.
Do you have the right team in place to do this? DAM is not a project. It is a corporate
product, by every sense of the definition of product. It is a long-term investment that needs
people and processes to power its potential. This is about you and the choices you will
make. Take the time to arm yourself with the right information and you will have a much
easier time in making the right decisions.

About the Author

John Horodyski is Principal, DAM Education (http://www.dameducation.com), a DAM
consulting agency focusing on DAM education & training. John is also the Manager, Digital
Programming, Product Development at the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).
John also serves as Director of Marketing & Business Development for Wrinkled Pants, an
educational software studio focused on the development of education and literacy based
apps for the iPad.
John teaches a graduate course at San Jos State University, School of Library &
Information Science in Digital Asset Management. John spent many years at Electronic
Arts where he managed their global digital asset management system as well as being a
producer within the EA Sports and online divisions. He has published professional articles
and presented at numerous conferences on digital media, metadata in video games and
taxonomy design and continues to offer DAM training & consulting.
John holds a Masters Archival Studies and Masters Library and Information Science from
the University of British Columbia and is the Managing Editor to the Journal of Digital Asset
Management.

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Copyright 2015 Widen Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.