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What does context have to do with DAM?

Posted by Henrik de Gyor on June 2, 2011

For the readers who have read my blog before, they have seen my writings on quite a few topics about Digital Asset Management (DAM). I mention Digital Asset Management in every place I can think of to reference with the acronym DAM.

Then, there are some people who have not read my blog…ok, maybe skimmed it…but did see the word DAM next to my name.

Recently, I was invited (by email) to present at an upcoming conference type event in [unnamed foreign country] to talk about DAM…to discuss hydropower,hydroelectricity and sustainable energy.

(sigh)

That is not my field of expertise. I talk about DAM, not DAM. Oh, wait. We need some context to clarify this now, do we not?

I will not be attending that particular conference. I respectfully declined the invitation. I also shared some context about DAM (Digital Asset Management) as I do regularly with my insights found on this blog, the weekly podcast series, the eBook and during the Digital Asset Management conferences.

DAM is green. Uh, not unless you configured the User Interface (UI) to be that color. Servers drain power (like a colander drains water) and servers need to be cooled to the Nth degree (also not too energy efficient unless the servers are located in some frozen region). You may have a DAM (Digital Asset Management) system powered by a DAM (the one with the reservoir, lake or river behind it), but not likely in too many areas.

DAM. No, I am not cursing nor swearing. Yet, I know a few people who manage a DAM for some churches. They can say DAM out loud. It is simply an acronym in the field of Digital Asset Management.  I have heard some people prefer saying “DAMS” or spelling out D. A.M.

That is not as fun.

Often, the user assigns context to the DAM assets when they use an asset.

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Another DAM Pre-Conference Tweetup in New York

Posted by Henrik de Gyor on June 1, 2011

Join us at the Tweetup* in New York City on Tuesday, June 7, 2011  from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at the New York Hilton.

This event is the evening before the start of the 2011 Henry Stewart DAM New York Conference held on June 8 and June 9, 2011.

NYC Digital Asset Managers Meetup group is coming too, so there should be more people than ever this year. Last year, we had a really nice crowd.

I look forward to meeting you there for this social event. Meet like minded-people and talk about Digital Asset Management (DAM). Join the DAM Community in New York City. Ask some DAM questions. Get some DAM answers. Buy a drink. Have some DAM fun. Meet DAM professionals from all over the US and abroad.

*Tweetup is originally organized as a ‘Twitter meetup’ in person. Here are the origins of the Tweetup. Whether you attend the DAM Conference or not, you can attend.  Please note, the DAM Tweetup is a non-hosted event with a cash bar. Twitter account not required.

Are you coming to the DAM Tweetup?

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Poll: How long did it take to get a DAM working within your organization?

Posted by Henrik de Gyor on May 13, 2011

As discussed earlier, how long did it take to get a DAM working within your organization from the day it was decided by stakeholders and sponsors to the day you measured user adoption with favorable results of a working Digital Asset Management solution will vary. Obviously, this is not just about a DAM vendor handing off an empty shell and running away, but rather having DAM with:

  • Defined users, roles and admins able to use the system
  • Up-to-date training with supporting documentation
  • Assets
  • Searchable Metadata
  • Working features and functionality
  • Configurations set for your initial needs (and adjustable for the future)
  • Any customization completed and in use by users

Answer this one question poll

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How long does it take to get a DAM working within an organization?

Posted by Henrik de Gyor on May 12, 2011

Since getting a Digital Asset Management solution working involves people, process and technology, all this can take some time.

How much time though?

The amount of time will depend on quite a few factors. Here are few to think about:

      • How easily do you work with others? Do you trust them?
      • How well does each role with access to the DAM adapt to change?
      • How proactive is the organization? (How likely will they get this solution up and running and adopt it?)
      • How many people need to be trained on the use of the DAM? Is it standardized training per role?
      • How available is everyone who needs to be based on schedule?
      • How much scope/mission creep will be mitigated by using a phased approach rather than piling on more requirements daily?
      • How large is the group/department/organization who will implement/use the DAM (initially as early adopters)?
      • How old is the organization? (the more legacy, the larger the challenge could be)
      • How many use cases and processes do you have pre-DAM which will change with the use of the DAM?
      • How much documentation needs to be created for internal, external and ongoing support as well as training?
      • How much experience and freedom does the team have to move forward with clear objectives/requirements during every phase?
      • How closely does the DAM meets your business needs now?
      • How much system configuration will meet your business need?
      • How much system customization is needed to be done to meet those business needs?
      • How easily does the DAM system work with other systems it needs to work with in your organization?
      • How quickly can your system scale…as your organization scales in size?
      • How far back in history are you going to go in order to find/add/migrate legacy assets to the DAM?
      • What are the rights and permissions behind each asset for reuse? Were they acquired externally or created internally? Does your organization own them outright?
      • How much volume is being migrated:
        • Assets
        • Metadata (often a new challenge, but depends on how great of a challenge)
        • Processes

With this in mind, it may take typically between 6 to 24 months to get the DAM running with your assets, your metadata and start getting real user adoption. This time is based on the vendor, implementation/integration group (whomever that comprises of internally and/or externally) and the organization working together to get the Digital Asset Management solution ready and working. The responsibility is not all on one of these groups since they are reliant on each other to get the DAM actually working within the organization. It is not just “I turned it on. I am done.” As you see, it is not just about the technology if this will actually be used properly within your organization.

Taking ‘baby steps’ is the best method to gain small wins regularly to show steady progress.

What will also help is having realistic:

      • Expectations (with both sponsors and stakeholders)
      • Specifications (documented requirements)
      • Schedules (with a scope and time line)
      • Budgets (for the people and the technology)
      • Use cases (with expectations and actual testing by users)

What will not help is if you ask to boil the ocean (unrealistic expectation and requirement) by close of business today (unrealistic schedule) using just one match (unrealistic requirement and budget). That would simply lead to disappointment and failure. Keep it simple. Then grow on top of your successes.

How long does it take to get a DAM working within your organization?

Posted in Digital Asset Management | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

How many DAM solutions should my organization have?

Posted by Henrik de Gyor on May 2, 2011

Are you collecting Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions?

Every DAM solution available has its strengths and weaknesses, but the best solutions are fully scalable and flexible in order to meet business needs. If you can not find a DAM solution that does what you need it to, customize the best DAM solution you can find to mean those business needs.

In speaking with DAM professionals at a few past venues, I have encountered organizations that literally accumulate DAM systems. Some have 3 DAM solutions. Others has 5 DAM solutions. One even has over 50 separate DAM solutions.  So, I ask the obvious question which no one seems to want to ask for some odd reason, “Why do you have so many DAM solutions within the same organization?“

The replies I typically get include:

“Our departments don’t like to share.” (Should have learned how to share in Kindergarten)

“Different budgets, different DAMs.” (Likely weak and wasteful reason to inflate budgets across the organization)

“Well, some are old DAM solutions and some really old DAM solutions, but we have never bothered to upgrade nor consolidate any of them.“

“Each solution serves a different group and different purpose.” (Should learn how to use a DAM)

So I ask again, WHY?

You work for the same organization. Start acting like it. Share. Stop building silos. Stop hoarding piles of DAM solutions. Start consolidating that pile of DAM solutions.

If you do not like working together, resolve that issue first. Work together and adapt. If you can not, there is a door and retirement is available, if needed.

If your a stakeholder or sponsor in any of these organizations, demand a full report on each and every DAM solution within the organization including the:

  • Audit every DAM system within the organization (Accountability is not just for Finance, but your digital assets and data as well.)
  • Exact purpose of each DAM (No, they are not all supposed to have exactly the same purpose. Otherwise, why do you have multiple DAM systems?)
  • Number of assets in each DAM (We do have some assets in there, right?)
  • Type of assets in each DAM (How many still image collections do you have? What about Video? Audio? Graphics? Other media?)
  • Number of users for each system (better not have one login used by all users, said Mr. Security and Mrs. Compliance. Unique logins for every user or you are just cheating yourselves out of valuable user data)
  • Groups or department(s) which use each DAM (Why are the rest not sharing a DAM solution with proper permissions to what each role, group and/or department needs to see and do with a DAM?)
  • Activity logs (uploads, downloads, etc) for the past year (These solutions are actively being used, right? Prove it.)
  • Documentation from the day someone signed off to acquire the DAM system to how much it costs to run today. (Finances still matter and so does responsibility. Who is responsible for your organization’s DAM system?)

If you have too many DAM solutions, assign a team to plan to consolidate the solutions to a minimum (preferably around one DAM solution, but definitely no more than the fingers on one hand if they each have a real, viable reason.) There will likely be some whining at first, but this is possible to do. The idea is not simply cost cutting, but requiring groups to use Digital Asset Management as intended. No additional dumping grounds. No additional silos.  If the DAM can support collections, then role-based permissions can restrict who can see what collections (folders) and assets within those collections. Remapping of metadata will likely be needed between DAM solutions (if metadata even exists for the assets in each of those systems). There is no logical reason why any organization, regardless of their size nor scope along with their assets, would need to use, maintain nor pay for 50 DAM solutions. Well…aside from complacency. They must love silos because they use a tool (DAM) that is meant to break them down, but instead created more silos by acquiring more separate DAM solutions. FAIL.

Start over.

How many DAM solutions does your organization have?

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How many vendors have owned your DAM system?

Posted by Henrik de Gyor on April 26, 2011

Does your vendors’ ‘roadmap‘ consist of a single dot?

Or are the only lines on that ‘roadmap’ coming from that dot consist of the words “acquired by…”?

Is change, innovation, update and upgrade not part of the vendor’s vocabulary? And is it part of yours?

Has your DAM had more vendors owning it over a handful of years that:

  1. You lost count how many owners it had? (This may take two hands)
  2. The vendor can barely assist you on their ‘new’ system let alone navigate around the system themselves?
  3. An update from the vendor simply consists of a delayed email notification of new ownership and/or new management, after you read about it a month ago through another online channel?
  4. The vendor only ‘innovates by acquisition,’ but updates/upgrades not a single system?
  5. The present vendor has no clear record of what product(s) and/or service(s) you use? (How do you spell CRM?)
  6. You as a client feel forgotten by today’s vendor? (Helpful service trumps a branded pen any day)
  7. Personalized service from a person who speaks your language would really be helpful as long as they can actually deliver what you need as far as assistance is concerned?
  8. SLA might no longer stand for Service Level Agreement? (Support might seem like a foreign concept as well, but still paying for it)
  9. The most technical documentation available is their sales brochures regurgitated with [pick one] vendor logo/name?
  10. When you call/email/send smoke signals to someone who might still work for the vendor(s) requesting some technical support, but the only reply you get back is “Oh, we need to hire someone again to answer your question”? And then you wait. Ask again. And wait some more. And then social security finally becomes available to you… and then you are seeing the writing on the wall. Retirement is looking real good. So, the only question remains… who goes first? You or the vendor?
  11. Migration to a more stable DAM vendor and system is looking better, more efficient and/or more effective every day?

How many vendors have owned your DAM system?

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Why does a DAM need an API?

Posted by Henrik de Gyor on April 19, 2011

Most reputable Digital Asset Management (DAM) vendors offer a solution with a GUI and API. Not all DAM clients use the API though. At least not yet.

With the growing need to converge DAM, WCM, CMS, wikis and other ECM solutions, the API is one way to tie all these solutions together on the back end so each solution can talk to each other instead of us jumping from one solution to another repeatedly and also playing the endless copy/paste game. Since many organizations are only accumulating more digital assets by exponential numbers each year, this convergence will be needed faster than most people realize. Or people could continue living as if it was still the 20th century because they wish to continue getting buried further underneath poorly managed digital assets on a daily basis. Some people may have not awakened to the possibilities of how the solutions listed above can assist their daily work rather than needlessly burning time at the office shuffling paper in order to act busy even though they can’t find that file created a year ago, a month ago or even a week ago. Do you know anyone who meets this description?

People need to make the conscious decision to work smarter with digital assets. This involves:

  • Finding the right tools for the organization’s business needs regarding digital assets
  • Finding out how digital assets should be managed within an organization (that is managed and organized, not one or the other)
  • Having up to date documentation explaining the process and systems involved today
  • Having training and ongoing support for users of these systems and processes
  • Following through with a standard workflow or process (how do you spellconsistency)
    • What do I do with a digital asset once I have created or acquired it?
    • What do I do if I need to use a digital asset again?
  • Having scaleable systems that can grow with your organization (rather than be limited to what seemed adequate or cool or shiny at one time)
  • Holding people accountable (If you don’t know, ASK lots of questions and push for decisions instead of making lots of mistakes. If you do know, document it so others will know as well.)
  • Having someone who can program systems to communicate with each other via the API
  • Having an API on the systems which will ‘speak and listen’ to the same (programming) language(s) both to and from each system

Does your organization’s DAM have an API? Does your organization use the API?

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