As a Digital Asset Manager, one of the things to keep in mind is that a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system can be used 24 hours a day,  seven days a week and almost every day of every year. But these are not my regular business hours. With that level of demand, I don’t live at the office nor would my employer want me to. Nor would my family.

As much as my laptop looks like an extra limb, I do put it down (sometimes). Of course, when you most need it, you don’t have it available or you can not get a connection.

What to do when you are away from the computer and the office, but you get a critical email/phone call? Waiting until you return is not an option. You can assess how critical the need is by talking the person or emailing them, but sometimes the solution may involve using the DAM remotely. Ignoring users or having them ‘wait until I am available ‘ in front of a computer again is not realistic today, particularly in a high production environment. Ignoring users or delaying assistance does not help user adoption.

If you can not access the DAM on the web, this limits the abilities of mobile users and admins alike. If that is the case, you should have trained people (as your backup) to cover the DAM duties if you leave (vacation, sick leave or otherwise) for the purpose of continuity as well as limiting delays in production. If you work in an environment with shifts covering the work 24 hours a day on a regular basis, you may need people on each shift who are knowledgeable in DAM to support the business needs and have them sync online by documenting the work done. Otherwise, your Digital Asset Manager or DAM admin is stuck working during alleged vacation time and sick leave. This should simply be a matter of unplugging because you can, need to and want to.

Now returning to the computer unavailable with critical issue pending assistance. I have a popular smart phone which actually displays the web properly (yes, I tested several smart phones before acquiring one), but almost every phone does not display Adobe Flash NOR Flex (yet). Luckily, the DAM I use does not currently use Flex. Flex has gained popularity in DAM space because it provides a flexible GUI display. And Flex looks cool…or at least gray. Flex is Flash-based and that remains troublesome for almost every mobile user…among others…since Flash requires special players and/or plugins to display properly.

It is possible to have a mobile version of a DAM User Interface (UI) as well, which is different from the regular DAM UI, but I have not seen many yet. So yes, admins as well as all registered DAM users should be able to access and use the DAM via mobile device.

Whether we like it or not, it is not a secret that mobile access has been and continues to be a growing need for mobile workers, but how many are ready to do this now?

Can you manage your DAM on a mobile device?