Who are Aarsleff? 
The Aarsleff Ground Engineering Group devises, plans and delivers a variety of projects across the infrastructure, marine, residential, rail, commercial and energy construction markets. With skilled and professional teams based in Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Czech Republic, Norway and the UK, the Ground Engineering subsidiaries are equipped to work on several types of site, delivering specialist ground engineering disciplines to solve technically challenging ground related problems in most parts of the world.
With a growing marketing capability in Aarsleff Ground Engineering, it’s more essential than ever that teams can quickly and easily find digital assets for use, both internally and externally.
Prior to introducing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, Aarsleff’s digital assets were stored across the company on different servers, network drives, and desktops. In this case study, we learn how Aarsleff were able to select, implement, and launch a DAM solution within 12 months; revolutionising how they control, maintain and share brand assets across their group of companies in seven different countries.
In this case study we learn how Aarsleff:
Designed an effective taxonomy
Use a folder structure which enables all Aarsleff employees to quickly and easily find assets relevant to them.
Allowed users to share assets in a branded tool
Provided all users with an area to upload and share assets to external partner using Aarsleff branding.
Saved time and money through reuse
Tagged images and documents so people could easily find content and reuse it in the future on different projects.
The Challenge:
Keeping track of your digital assets is a common challenge for marketing teams, and Aarsleff were no exception. As the capability and team grew larger this problem made it increasingly difficult to find and share files with colleagues.
As Group Marketing & Brand Manager, Jessica wanted a solution that would keep track of assets from a range of different offices around Europe. Selecting a DAM that can act as a single source of truth for all marketing assets and project material was vital to align marketing efforts across different countries. The DAM could then allow users to share assets with a branded experience. There is a wide range of things to consider when selecting a Digital Asset Management solution. One of the most important considerations for Aarsleff was making sure that they chose a vendor that they could truly collaborate and partner with.
By having a strong relationship it would help to ensure that the project launch went smoothly and that they would have the right level of ongoing support to guarantee long term success. Aarsleff started their search for a DAM system in May 2019, and by August the application was up and running with a team of champion users trained and a vast set of imagery uploaded and available to different offices throughout Europe. By working closely together throughout the onboarding process, we ensured that effective decisions were made and regularly tested with users to get real feedback on what options would be most useful to the full range of users, not just the admins.
“We had no system in place, genuinely, where we could easily share and see other people’s photographs from construction projects for example. We would have to locate the photo’s copyright holder and then seek permission to use it, which is a lengthy process to go through each time.”
Jessica Banham, Group Marketing & Brand Manager
The Solution: Launching a company-wide DAM Library
One of the most important things to ensure a successful launch was to get a variety of users involved during the onboarding and configuration conversations. The solution In addition to making files easy to find, one huge benefit of Asset Bank has been the range of sharing options. Employees can easily use the ‘transfer room’ area to quickly share files (large and small) with colleagues, or users can select a number of images and create a gallery which can be published and sent to people externally. Both of these options give a fully branded experience, helping to bring the Aarsleff brand to the front and centre as opposed to other platforms which are less customisable.
By involving a group of ‘champion users’, there was a regular flow of information between the project team and the end users. This helped them get feedback on each stage of the design so changes could be made to further improve the user experience. The folder structure that we have implemented is designed to guide users through a number of clear areas, helping users to navigate the asset bank and easily find what they’re looking for. This can be based on a specific service, country, project, or a number of other criteria. Once a member of the marketing team has found the files they are searching for, they can learn more about the image to make sure it’s suitable for use in their document.
“One thing for us that’s completely transformational for the team is the transfer function. We can send a branded package across to our clients which immerses people in the brand. It showcases us in a great light, and if we’re sending files like that it gives a good first impression about the sort of services we deliver because we’re using something really high quality to showcase in the initial stage. First impressions count, and Asset Bank has helped us to make those first impressions.” Jessica Banham, Group Marketing & Brand Manager
The Results
Unifying a brand experience between seven different countries.
A few months after choosing Asset Bank, Aarsleff now have nearly 100 users regularly logging on and using the application.
The phrase “I’ll upload it to Asset Bank” is now commonplace in meetings as a great way to finish off projects, and the number of people using the application is steadily growing over time.
To give users a personalised experience, there are eight different branding options applied to different user groups so people are always working in a system that feels familiar to their day-to-day.
The new structure has allowed each country to maintain their own assets as well as providing a consistent branded way of working both internally and externally. One benefit which wasn’t anticipated is the cross learning and visibility of what other teams are working on.
Aarsleff have had a great launch to their Asset Bank and are enjoying the benefits that a well-configured DAM can bring to an organisation.
Here are their top tips for your own DAM project:
- Get the buy in from your fellow employees. Make sure everyone is aware of the project and the benefits it will bring to them. Remember this isn’t just for the marketing team.
- Use feedback to improve the DAM. During the onboarding project get feedback from a range of users that will interact with the system. Understand what features will be most beneficial to them as it will help you make the right decisions when configuring the DAM.
- Don’t be scared by it! A Digital Asset Management system sounds quite scary, but you have to embrace it because it will help your business. Go through a training process with your users but also encourage them to get stuck in and give it a go.
Jessica Banham, Group Marketing & Brand Manager
“For a market sector you can pre-populate a Lightbox with photographs and videos and you’ve then got it pre-populated for the future. It saves so much time and it looks neat. From a client’s perspective you’ve satisfied their needs immediately.”
