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Blog about Digital Asset Management

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Why should I pay for the DAM when the entire organization uses it?


Someone asked me about this question and remembered I wrote about this briefly in an earlier blog post, but wanted me to ellaborate. So here is blog post to explain it.

Let us say one group or department is the original requester of a DAM solution within an organization. Likely this same department becomes the business owner, stakeholder and/or sponsor of the DAM solution. This same department or group pays to administer and maintain the DAM. They might pay for any monthly/quarterly/annual licensing fees and/or service level agreements (SLA) for the DAM solution as well. Now let us say other departments see the value in using the DAM to keep the organization’s branding, graphics, photographs, publications, presentations, reports, video or other intellectual property (IP). The DAM gets more user adoption by more departments. Now who pays for the DAM within this organization?

Often, what occurs is the original requester, sponsor or stakeholder continues paying for the DAM solution. Because of this, they might say “Wait, I am paying out of my department’s budget for other departments to benefit from this solution as well? What’s in for me? Why should I pay for the DAM when the entire organization uses it?”

Consider this idea “Why am I the only one paying for it? If we share the DAM, share the cost.”

Enter the idea of chargeback or simply charging the department who requests to acquire/create/use something with the actual expense in resources used by refunding it. This idea is likely a change for many companies in how they deal with budgets and how departments are accountable for the resources they use. This also keeps a department which may overtax another department’s resources in check. So, with this idea every department or group has their own budget as usual, but since every DAM user should have a unique login (right?) and possible different collections of assets they can access or share, why not split the total cost of these expenses based on actual usage of the DAM solution per department? Charge each department based on usage of the DAM solution.

If one department uses the DAM more than another department by a measurable amount or percentage, should they pay a larger share of the cost each month/quarter/year? Should each department be able to share this cost evenly or should each department pay for what they use based on a percentage? Or have one department pay for it all?

How do you measure usage of the DAM? With usage reports from the DAM which could list:

  • Who are the DAM users (by individual login) accessed the DAM? (keeping individual user accountability)
  • Who has the most active DAM users within a given period of time?
  • Who wants/needs/asks for the most time in administration, maintenance, support and/or training?
  • When did they access the DAM? (keeping time accountability)
  • How often did those users or group of users access the DAM? (time based usage)
  • How long did they access the DAM over a period of time? (number of minutes or hours)
  • How much was downloaded/exported from the DAM? (by the number of assets and/or file size if bandwidth is measured)
  • How much was uploaded/imported to the DAM? (by the number of assets and/or if bandwidth is measured)

I would recommend looking what you are paying for internally and externally to gauge what are the costs of doing business.

Some DAM vendors charge for bandwidth (how many GB is uploaded/downloaded to/from DAM within a given period). Some don’t.

Server space costs money regardless of whether it under your own IT department’s domain, a vendor’s domain or in the cloud. Who is using the storage space?

Is the data deduplicated? Do you want to dedupe the DAM data to minimize duplicate assets?

Some DAM vendors charge per DAM login or per concurrent user. Some DAM systems limit how many users you can have or the total users at one time. Can your organization add/remove DAM users without the vendor’s help?

How much does it cost to administer, support, maintain a DAM and train the DAM users? How much does it cost in errors and problems when you don’t?

Why should I pay for the DAM when the entire organization uses it?

Are these costs of doing business worth sharing as you share business tools such as a DAM solution?


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Is there another weekly podcast about Digital Asset Management?


Another DAM podcast is a weekly series of audio recordings which complement Another DAM blog. In September 2010, these podcasts began to appear with weekly interviews of different DAM professionals from around the world. Everyone interviewed have different stories to tell, information to share and is passionate about what they do. Some people interviewed are well-known in the practice of Digital Asset Management or related fields.

Every person interviewed is asked at least three similar questions:

  1. How are they involved with Digital Asset Management
  2. A question related to what they do
  3. What advise would they give DAM Professionals or people aspiring to become DAM professionals

You can listen and even subscribe to this podcast series:

This weekly podcast series is hosted by Henrik de Gyor, the author of Another DAM blog.

Another DAM podcast weekly interviews will continue into 2011. Who would you like to hear interviewed?

Is there another weekly podcast about Digital Asset Management?


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How do I create use cases for DAM?

A blog reader asked about how to create use cases for DAM.  I gave a presentation about this topic during a DAM conference.

What use cases did you have before DAM was part of the equation? Before you had a DAM, were your workflows documented?

All too often, use cases are not documented. In fact, they may be locked in multiple silos where each person (even within the same group ) do things differently.  Therefore, migrating to a workflow with DAM becomes a mystery. Without use cases, the user adoption of the DAM is often lower if users do not know why nor how nor when to use the DAM.   Where does DAM fit in the users’ daily workflow? Use cases can also affect the choice of a DAM solution.

Use cases need to be documented and shared.

Another reason for having use cases is training for new people. How do newly hired people find out how to do their job? Are they born with this knowledge? Should an employer expect everyone to know how to use all the tools and policies of the organization to get their job done?  Not likely.

Enter a new person (new hire) to the organization. What are they supposed to do? What tools are involved? When do they use the DAM and for what purposes?  Should new people operate differently than people doing the same tasks for years within the same organization? Not likely, but they often do. Does each person who coaches a new person give their own version of how to do things (plus or minus a few steps)? Is this standardized? This is often not only due to a particular level of experience, but lack of documentation and poor training. And we expect consistency. Somehow. Maybe by mind reading? That is not likely going to happen.

When you start researching a DAM for your organization, instead of looking at shiny features, see if it would work well with your use cases by presenting them to the vendor during a demo. Have real assets you would likely be working with along with real use cases. Ask the vendor to demo their solution for your use cases with your assets with metadata from start to finish in front of you.

Start building use cases with what you have and how you do things today.

  • What do you do today?
  • How do you do it?
  • Who does what?
  • When does it happen?
  • Why is it done that way?
  • What is the process?
  • What tools are used?
  • How could this improve?
  • How can this be done more consistently?

Be sure to consider the people, process and technology (in that order) which are involved from start to finish. Not sure who/how/what is involved? Ask by using…

  • Surveys
    • Online or paper form, with long answer questions, not simply ratings
    • All roles (don’t expect 100% return, even with a prize)
    • Send to everyone including decision makers and potential DAM users doing the daily work
  • Group workshops
    • Be aware of who is talking and who is not
    • Include all group members
    • In case extroverts have all the say while introverts remain quiet in the corner getting frustrated, have people take turns talking so everyone contributes
  • Individual interviews of:
    • Not just senior staff, but junior staff for a varying perspective
    • Both computer literate and those who prefer analog
    • All roles

When reviewing who is working, consider their role in the organization, not just their name so you can build and scale these job functions as needed.

Who makes the initial request? Who/What takes the request? Who handles/processes the request? Where does the request go after that? and after that? and after that? (note a pattern to fill the gaps)

How many other people do the same task(s)? Is this redundancy to handle volume or act as a backup? Can this scale up or down today based on the amount of work to do?

What is the volume of requests? Where do the requests get filled/completed? Who does this? Who/What delivers the end product/service?

Consider the whole life cycle of typical project from idea to delivery. And walk through all the steps.

How much communication is involved in all this? Likely not enough.  It is not enough to lock decision makers in a room. As discussed earlier, there are different points of view to keep in mind.

Keep the communication channels open among all differing points of view.

Stay positive. When negative points need focusing, laugh about it, then find a resolution.

Create roles. Envision the end result. Have a goal. Make it clear. Try even mind mapping. Simplify when in doubt. Follow through. Measure the results.

Avoid jargon and acronyms (so anyone can understand it). Be open to feedback, but have a schedule with deadlines and accountability.

However you create use cases, write them down and share it within your organization.

Let us know when you are ready for vendor neutral consulting on Digital Asset Management. We can also help you create your use cases.

How do you create use cases for DAM?


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How do people talk about DAM within an organization?

When discussing Digital Asset Management (DAM) within an organization, there are (at the very least) three different points of view. These perspectives often include the following:

  • Business
  • Creative
  • Technical

The business aspect is often the sponsor of the DAM. This perspective looks at:

  • Money (what is coming in and going out, even if the organization is non-profit)
  • Time (hopefully used wisely)
  • Delivering the product(s) and/or service(s) to clients

The technical group is often one of the facilitators of business, supporting the communication, creation and delivery of those products/services (more and more every day). The more technology is involved in acquiring/creating/delivering/selling those products/services, the more significant this technology point of view plays a role within the business. DAM has many technical facets (similar to an onion). The technical people need requirements, specifications, use cases, a realistic budget, schedule and the tools to make things happen.

The creative aspect is often another major facilitator of any business.  Creatives may be the creators of the end of products/services. Beyond simply making business “look good,” creatives can often bring clarity to the business vision and can make the message more user-friendly. Creatives are often one of the major users of DAM. A DAM helps an organization not only archive, but also search, find, use, reuse and re-purpose ideas. Many creatives often want to create anything they want, at any time, using any resources they can get their hands on and spend as long as they want on it.

Sounds simple, right? So, why is it so hard to talk about DAM, to be heard and understood within an organization?

This seems to happen often when people work…

  • within their own different silos
  • on a remote island, office or cubicle
  • in their own world
  • locked within their own comfort zone

Most of the time, all these points of view and people work for the same organization and have the same ultimate goal (often involving the realization, creation and/or delivery of the end products and/or services). Sometime this goal is not clear to everyone due to the lack of communication, specifically dialogue (not just monologue) between groups. This dialogue should be with other people who you do not often do not communicate with, but this will help share these perspectives across groups/departments. Break down the silos, egos and misconceptions. Stop throwing work over a real/virtual wall. Stop ignoring what happens before, during and after someone works on something. Stop hiding in your office, behind your email and/or IM. Most of your co-workers don’t bite. Neither should you. Leave your comfort zone and get a fresh look at what the other groups do to make things happen. Speak up.

Build a community with your organization. Everyone should be aware what happens before, during and after each role has done their part. Decision makers should talk to people who are in the trenches to get a real sense of what is going on within the organizations and what can be improved. Don’t take any group for granted. Document workflows based on real world use cases. Share these use cases and workflows openly within your organization. Bring up topics for improvement (or don’t expect things to change for the better). Be open to communication and candor. No one has all the answers. Listen.

How does your organization talk about DAM?