If you realise that your business is wasting time and money as a result of not having a self-service centralised store of your digital files, then you may be considering investing in a Digital Asset Management system (DAM).
DAM systems offer many benefits to all kinds of organisations from global giants to charities and could work for your business too. But no matter how good your DAM is, if it doesn’t get used there's no point in having one.
Here’s six tips to ensure a successful roll-out of your DAM system:
1. Be an internal champion
If it is your role to manage the launch and integration of a DAM solution, make sure you know why your business is doing so. Be clear on not just the key benefits, but how it can impact everyone within the business, whether it is through reduced stress and time trying to find key assets or improved communication. If you are 100% clear about the benefits it will bring then you will be able to communicate these to the greater business when the opportunity arises.
Though there is much industry debate over the calculation of ROI for DAM systems, illustrating time and cost savings with actual numbers will help your case.
It is also useful to get a sponsor in your senior management team, this should help ensure you get significant exposure and support in all your internal communications channels prior to launch.
2. Choose the right system
Getting buy-in for a new system is pointless if the system is not fit for purpose. Be clear on what you need your DAM system to do for each distinct set of users (e.g. staff, Marketing and Partner Organisations). At Asset Bank we can tailor our solutions to meet a business’s needs. To give you an example, Momondo's Asset Bank has 11 pre-set image sizes for their websites and social media sites. This means the relevant team can quickly download an image in the right size and format for their intended use - saving many man hours. Highly flexible functionality along with the ability to add as many attributes as required for asset identification, as well as branding in-line with company standards, all ensure that Asset Bank systems work for every organisation.
3. Training
Offering training to administrators will ensure they understand the potential of the software and will be able to make the most of it over time. Non-admin users should not need training if the solution you have opted for is intuitive to use. However, you can create a Getting Started Guide to help communicate some key concepts such as Lightboxes and conversion options at download and allow users to contact admin users easily via a Contact Us form.
4. Best practice guidance
Your DAM system should be flexible enough to allow you to communicate with different groups of users. This may vary from Brand Guideline pages, to Promoted Collections that show the best of your brand in action. It should not just be a centralised resource, but a site that communicates what is important around the use of your digital assets.
5. Monitor engagement and usage, then improve
Thanks to the reporting function, it is easy to see which groups are engaged with the system, either uploading, viewing or downloading. Review this regularly and reach out to groups where usage is low to see if there are issues you can solve via education or configuration. In addition, you should be reviewing failed searches - the things people are looking for that they cannot find. Understanding what these words and phrases are will either prompt you to apply more tags (e.g. adding a synonym to an existing keyword such as 'employee' to 'staff') or uploading content you previously did not think would best be housed there, for example key presentations from your last sales conference. In addition, a news feature can be added to your DAM, offering a quick and easy way to keep all users informed and up to date on the system and new content.
6. Integrate with other systems
For users to really get on board with any system it needs to feel second nature to use, thankfully, an Asset Bank DAM is extremely user-friendly and can be integrated with existing in-house systems, ensuring quick and easy access to assets. Some of the most popular integration options with Asset Bank include single sign on - where you can use existing logins to access your DAM, and CMS integration - where you can browse and upload images from your DAM within your CMS. We also have a REST API and Publishing Feature.
We hope that's given you some useful ideas for making your DAM launch a success.
For more details on the Asset Bank DAM system call the team on +44 (0) 1273 923 150.
