Another DAM Blog

Blog about Digital Asset Management

Tag Archives: Technology


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


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?


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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 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.


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How is Another DAM podcast created?

Since September 2010, I regularly create Another DAM podcast and release it weekly. Most of these podcasts are interviews of Digital Asset Management (DAM) Professionals from anywhere in the world. Sometimes I will create an audio version of some of my most popular blog posts.

Equipment

If I am interviewing someone in person, I find a quiet room and use my smart phone to record the conversation. I find this to be the easiest method to record audio. Testing the audio with myself with the person I am interviewing, I can position the smart phone/microphone for the best results. Several podcasts have been recorded at conferences, hotels and offices very successfully using this method.

If I am doing an interview over the phone, I use Google Hangout or Skype to make the call. As a courtesy, I call the person I am interviewing directly whether they have a Skype account or they just use their phone. Using Callburner (PC) or WireTap Studio  Call Recorder (Apple) allows me to record both sides of the conversation directly from Skype. Of course, I tell the person I am interviewing when I am recording the audio conversation (many areas require this by law).

Audio Quality

Skype or Google Hangouts is best audio quality when using headphones with a microphone. Fair audio quality are with landline phones and the worst audio quality are mobile phones.

Editing

Using Audacity (PC/Apple) or Garageband (Apple), editing and formatting the audio file is relatively easy to learn and accomplish. If you don’t want to edit the audio yourself, there are a number of services you can send the audio for editing as long as you listen to the audio yourself first and then list exactly what you want the edited with time codes.

Who do I interview

I interview men and women involved in Digital Asset Management from all over the world. Yes, I look for new people to interview all the time. I do not interview DAM vendors since I am vendor neutral.

Scheduling an interview

Most often, I find the people to interview in the field based on my contacts and their contacts. Yes, networking helps a lot. I often send the person an email with the following information:

  • The intent of the podcast interview
  • A listing the questions I plan to ask them during the interview so they can ponder the questions ahead of time
  • A link to my earlier podcasts for them to review if they want to
  • My contact information

Since some of the people I interview work for an organization which may need a PR/media relations/communication person to give prior approval, I leave them time to do so. Once I find a person online or in person who agrees to be interviewed (and gets approval, if needed), it is a matter of finding a good time for both their schedule and mine. This often means dealing with different time zones (which can be an advantage sometimes). Most people prefer to schedule an interview during their weekday working hours.  I often try to schedule the interview early in the morning or in the late afternoon to not conflict with my schedule.

Time

Aside from finding the scheduled time to do the interview and the edit the audio, it takes me (after the initial learning curve) about one hour to record and edit a 5 to 15 minute podcast. This is why I send the audio to someone for editing at minimal cost and sparing my effort.

Approval after the interview

After the interview has occurred and audio has been edited (by myself) to the desired content, volume and format, I apply metadata to it. After editing, I send the person I interviewed a link to download and review the audio. I  give them the choice of either accepting the audio as I first edited it or tell me specifically what needs to be edits. Many approve of the audio as-is. Some go through several rounds of audio edits with me. Some re-record the podcast again. Occasionally, they edit the audio themselves and send me back another audio file with approval.

Release of the podcast

Once the podcast is approved in writing, I add it to a queue of podcasts to be released. I release a new podcast on Thursdays. When the podcast is released, it is aggregated to multiple channels. The release is also publicized on LinkedIn and Twitter among other locations.

Measure what you manage

In order to see what content works best, what are the most popular topics and measure what means of publicizing brings the most traffic, I watch analytics weekly and adjust accordingly.

Why I do not record video (yet)

I do not record video podcasts because I do not see the value of talking heads (including mine). Editing video takes much more time than audio alone. A finalized video is often a larger file size and takes longer to download. If I ever needed to record video (from Skype or even as a screencast), Vodburner is available among other tools.

Listening

You can find, stream, download and even subscribe to this podcast which can be heard on your computer or MP3 player.

The podcast is available here:

Why this is free

Well, it is a podcast. Who pays for podcasts today? Simple answer: no one.  Earlier, I covered why I do all this free of charge.

Enjoy Another DAM Podcast.