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Blog about Digital Asset Management

Tag Archives: 2011


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How many DAM solutions should my organization have?


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 to exist.) 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?


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 are you interested in attending the DAM New York Conference?

Henry Stewart Conferences will have their DAM Conference in New York City on June 8th and 9th, 2011 at the New York Hilton.

How many reasons do you need to attend DAM NY 2011?

  • Readers of this blog may use the discount code when registering for this DAM Conference
  • Attendees who wish to stay at the New York Hilton can get a discount on a hotel room while they are available
  • Pre-conference tutorials are available on Tuesday, June 7, 2011
  • A meetup scheduled with the NYC Digital Asset Manager meetup group during the evening of June 7, 2011.
  • Great lineup of speakers and panels, including the keynote with Richard Buchanan, Vice President & General Manager, Content Services, Comcast Media Center (CMC). Richard Buchanan will present about Managing Digital Video Assets Across Multiple Media Formats and Platforms
  • A lot of networking with analysts, DAM experts, potential DAM users, active DAM users and vendors.
  • You are not alone when it comes to DAM, so join the conference and the conversations during the largest DAM-specific event of the year
  • I am to present about DAM Reporting, Measurement and Auditing
  • If several people from your organization want to attend, there are discounts as well
  • Find out the latest information about Digital Asset Management
  • Here is what some people have said about this conference

Why are you interested in attending the DAM New York Conference?


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Why do I need a unique identifier for each DAM asset?


When an asset is uploaded to a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, there is often a unique identifier assigned by the DAM. This is sometimes called

The unique identifier often comprises of a series of numbers and/or letters. This is unique within the DAM system.

So, why is this important? Because a unique identifier is unique regardless of what the file name happens to be. File names are often created by people, not computers, therefore rarely unique.

Often, it is a sequential number assigned by the system upon upload of the asset. There are some unique IDs which are created with an algorithm to make sure the asset is unique within the DAM system. This can help reduce exact duplicate assets in the DAM system.