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)
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 businesstoday (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?
If you use a Digital Asset Management system and you upload (import) assets along with metadata, please answer this one question about how much time it takes.