A digital asset management (DAM) platform serves as the home base or headquarters from which your entire process lives. As the software that physically hosts all your files, it serves as the centralized source of truth for your entire organization’s content.
Choosing a DAM platform for your organization can be an intimidating task. It’s a large investment and, if not thoroughly planned, may fall short of your expectations. The best way to ensure your investment is worth it is to approach the process strategically.
This ultimate guide to DAM platforms aims to do just that, allowing you to breathe easy! We’ll break it all down into digestible pieces, covering every step of the process, start to finish. You can refer back to this guide as you navigate your specific process, or team up with us at Stacks to make sure you find the ideal solution!
In this guide, you’ll learn:
- What a DAM platform is
- How DAM platforms differ from systems & programs
- The basics of a DAM platform & what to look for in yours
- Problems that DAM platforms solve
- Steps to take before searching
- How to navigate the search process
- Post-selection steps to maximize your investment
What Is a Digital Asset Management Platform?
A digital asset management (DAM) platform is a specific type of software for housing digital assets. Different platforms offer features that enable the storage of assets and also support the dynamic management of these assets as they’re used to generate value for an organization.
Check out the following resources for some examples of the best DAM platforms on the market:
How Do DAM Platforms Differ from Systems & Programs?
While every DAM platform is a DAM system, every DAM system isn’t a DAM platform. They all play a role in your overall process, but there are clear differences between DAM systems and programs that differentiate them from DAM platforms.
- Your organization's digital asset management (DAM) system is the method and structure used to organize digital assets. Ideally, they're all collected in a single place. This can be dedicated DAM software, a cloud-based file storage system like Dropbox or Box, a local server, or a collection of hard drives.
- A digital asset management (DAM) program is the unique process an organization follows for DAM, including the platform, system, and users. The right DAM program ensures that people understand their roles, that the processes for them to follow are clear and in line with how your organization does business, and that there’s a platform in place with the features that meet the needs of your workflow. DAM programs grow, change, and evolve, even when the technology behind them doesn’t.
The Basics of a DAM Platform
When choosing a DAM platform, it's important to understand the basic functionalities and your requirements, and align them with the option that best suits your needs. Platforms range from simple to complex, with a large middle ground in between.
Some of the more complex DAM platforms require you to hire developers or consultants to leverage their potential fully. Simpler DAMs can easily integrate with commonly used storage solutions, such as Google Drive, and require fewer external resources (or none at all).
What To Look For In A Digital Asset Management Platform
The marketplace is full of DAM Platforms, each with its own unique value proposition and sales strategy. Every day, new or existing companies create their own DAM solution to capitalize on a growing market of organizations in need of DAM support.
With so much salesmanship going on, it's helpful to know the core components of an effective DAM platform. Understanding what features are common helps you sort through the sea of options and sales pitches to make the right choice for your needs.
The Essentials
There are a handful of core capabilities that every DAM platform should have. These essential components are mandatory for operating an organized, efficient DAM process.
Some of the most common DAM Platform features include:
- Metadata Tagging
- Keyword Search
- Permissions Management
- Data Analytics and Reporting
- File Previews and Editing
- Workflow Automation
If an option you’re considering doesn’t have one or more of these functions, it’s best to look elsewhere.
Extras, Add-Ons, and Bonus Features
To get the most out of your organization’s DAM, some platforms offer additional functions and capabilities. This goes beyond a basic DAM platform, offering automation, integrations with other software, branded customization, and more bells and whistles.
Other features that may be custom to certain platforms, hidden behind a pay wall, or provide additional value include:
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning
- Asset Version Control
- Branding and Formatting Templates
- Approval Suites
- External Sharing Portals
- Integrations with other Core Systems
It’s important to thoroughly consider whether your organization benefits from additional capabilities. If the essentials cover everything you need, you don’t want to pay extra by falling for an upsell.
What Problems Can DAM Platforms Solve?
With these capabilities, DAM Platforms allow your team to solve problems that are common across organizations of every industry when it comes to managing digital content.
Common problems that DAM platforms solve include:
- Decentralized assets spread across teams and departments: When you store all of your organization’s digital assets in a DAM platform, you create a centralized repository that’s easily accessible.
- Lack of visibility and access to priority assets across teams and departments: Certain priority assets apply to multiple departments and have a track record of success. By introducing a DAM platform to organize assets, all teams can find and access high-value content.
- Slow or unsuccessful search processes: When your assets are scattered across different storage solutions without a structured method to find them, teams waste time and effort blindly looking for files. A DAM platform with sound search functionality expedites the process, saving your team time, money, and energy.
Steps To Take Before Starting The DAM Platform Search Process
Below are some universal steps that will help any organization looking to find and implement a DAM Platform do so more effectively:
- Identify DAM end-users and stakeholders
- Develop goals and understand needs
- Educate yourself in the space
- Determine a clear budget
- Develop a detailed launch plan
Keep in mind that every brand is different. There may be additional steps unique to your organization that would make things simpler.
1. Identify DAM End-Users and Stakeholders
DAM stakeholders are essentially those who stand to benefit from the creation and growth of a DAM program. End-users are those who will be accessing, using, and managing the DAM Platform.
Once these people are identified:
- Assign roles in the DAM Platform search and onboarding process
- Identify your future DAM staffing needs
- Bring representatives from these stakeholder groups together to gather feedback and input.
This will be your DAM team as you choose a platform and develop a program around it.
2. Develop Goals and Understand Needs
Once your stakeholder group is identified, use their expertise in content management to gain a better understanding of your team’s needs and set goals. Lean on them for valuable insights about challenges and use cases your organization faces when it comes to managing content.
You can learn about needs and use cases through:
- Interviews
- Surveys
- Focus groups
- Other feedback collection methods
Some steps to take in your research include:
- Gathering information about your brand’s content creation, usage, and management.
- Learning about different teams’ processes on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis.
- Understanding the core use cases a DAM Platform will need to integrate within, and what the most pressing challenges you need to solve are.
Together with that information, set goals for what you want in a DAM platform.
3. Educate Yourself In The Space
There are a lot of DAM Platforms out there. All of them have different and compelling selling points and talented salespeople.
To be successful in your search for a DAM Platform, it's important to understand the high-level landscape of the market so you can decipher the truth from an elevator pitch. Most DAM Platforms specialize in a specific level of complexity, whether it be small-to-medium business (SMB), mid-market, or enterprise level.
To learn more about DAM platforms and narrow your search to the level of sophistication that fits your organization:
- Read case studies
- Examine websites and product pages
- Read customer testimonials
- Look for product demos or free trials
4. Determine a Clear Budget
It's vitally important to know what you need before you begin the search process, but you also need to know if you have the buying power to make the right choice.
Not only does clarifying your budget allow you to narrow your options before initiating a search, but it also speeds up the procurement process once you do choose a vendor. Make sure you know you can afford what you need and don't settle for something you'll have to ditch later.
Migrating DAM platforms is far more costly than implementing the right one the first time. During the sales process, discuss how you may be able to start small and grow your DAM Platform over time if your budget is limited.
5. Develop a Detailed Launch Plan
While the headline may sound intimidating, the biggest piece of information to prepare is related to timing: developing a specific, detailed launch plan. Creating a plan helps you work backwards from go-live, ensuring each step of the process informs your DAM platform selection.
Make vendors aware of:
- What kinds of assets you'd like to have in the DAM Platform
- When you'd like them to be migrated
- When you'd like users onboarded
- What your ideal "launch date" is
- How much time your team has to dedicate to the process
This will allow you to set the pace of your implementation and hold vendors accountable to deadlines from the start. It will also keep your internal stakeholders focused on preparing the DAM processes and standards they need to be implemented, organizing assets, and identifying needs.
How To Choose a Digital Asset Management Platform?
After completing the pre-search steps to prepare yourself, it’s time to select a DAM platform for your organization. This is an exciting process, as it’s a step forward toward an improved, efficient DAM program!
Here are five steps to follow when choosing a digital asset management platform:
- Map current workflows and user cases
- Highlight bottlenecks and limitations
- Understand unique requirements
- Determine “Must-Haves” and “Would-Like-To-Haves”
- Make a decision confidently
1. Map Current Workflows and User Cases
One of the most common questions you'll hear from DAM Platform salespeople is, "How do you all use digital assets?" It can be easy to shrug your shoulders and think, "Isn't that why I'm here?"
Having an answer prepared, however, is critical to successfully navigating the search process. This allows you to put the ball in the vendor's court, forcing them to prove their system is the right fit to support your process.
To prepare this answer, map your current asset lifecycle from creation to archive, identifying key tasks within your current workflows.
2. Highlight Bottlenecks and Limitations
Along with the key tasks, keep an eye out for the places where the asset lifecycle slows, breaks down, or falls apart completely.
What are the challenges and limitations that have led you to this sales call? Where are there opportunities for efficiency, and how can the DAM Platform you're looking into fill those gaps?
As you listen to answers to these questions, highlight the most straightforward solutions. Unnecessary complexity often limits the end-user experience.
3. Understand Unique Requirements
When it comes to your DAM Program, from the platform you choose to the people managing the back end to the processes that make things work, outline what makes your organization unique. Make sure the DAM Platforms you are evaluating check the necessary boxes.
Every organization is different. Some industries have strict IT restrictions around the platforms they implement. Others have specific content that needs to be kept especially secure.
4. Determine “Must-Haves” and “Would-Like-To-Haves”
With your stakeholder group, determine what will bring the most value to your organization and what you may be able to put on the back burner. Create a list of criteria organized by priority, with essential functionalities labeled “must-haves” and additional features under “would-like-to-haves.”
If you've ever bought a home, you know this is both the most fun and most frustrating part of the buying process. You are forced to narrow down what the most important search criteria is and allow yourself to compromise on everything else, knowing that the truly perfect fit doesn't exist. The same is true for DAM Platforms.
5. Make a Decision Confidently
Armed with all this information and more, you can confidently narrow down your choices and begin the negotiation process to make your final decision.
Our recommendation at Stacks is to collect formal quotes from at least 2 platforms to ensure that proposals aren't vastly different.
Revisit your implementation and onboarding plan and make sure their answers line up. Once you've made your choice, turn your attention to adding more detail to this plan and rolling it out to your team to keep them informed.
Criteria to Consider When Evaluating a DAM Platform
Stacks has assisted in the evaluation of countless DAM Platforms with clients of all shapes and sizes. Over time, we've developed a list of common criteria we've found to be helpful to clients as they navigate this process.
The criteria are determined by priority for your company and organized in the following hierarchy:
- High-Priority: Typical “Must-Have” Criteria
- Medium-Priority: Potential “Must-Have” Criteria
- Low-Priority: “Would-Like-To-Have” Criteria
High-Priority: Typical “Must-Have” Criteria
"Must-Haves" are the highest priority features, capabilities, functionalities, and pieces of the proposal that you cannot or will not compromise on. Be sure everyone in your stakeholder group has the same list of "Must-Haves" as they compare platforms.
"Must-Haves" that we have found most clients use include:
- Cost (annual subscription, onboarding fees, implementation project cost)
- On-Premise vs. Cloud-Based Platform Configuration
- Supported process use cases
- Supported file types
Medium-Priority: Potential “Must-Have” Criteria
Since every organization is unique, some other criteria become "Must-Haves". To some companies, this category is as high-priority as the previous. Others likely deem this level medium-priority.
Some criteria that can either be "Must-Have" or "Would-Like-to-Have" include:
- Security features (user permissions, encryption, password protection, etc.)
- Onboarding & implementation time requirements
- Platform customization
- Past work with similar organizations and/or industries
Low Priority: “Would-Like-To-Have” Criteria
While it may seem like this criterion is less important, it can include extremely valuable components for your team. This is where negotiations are won and lost.
Some common criteria that often fall in this category include:
- Integrations with other systems
- Special features & automations
- Artificial Intelligence
- Culture fit with the platform team
- Post-launch platform support
Next Steps After Choosing A DAM Platform
Once you’ve chosen a DAM platform, the hard work continues! We’ve determined three key steps to follow after selecting a platform to maximize your investment:
- Establish standards & processes
- Validate & document processes
- Implement processes & standards
1. Establish Standards & Processes
To make the most of the DAM Platform you just invested in, you'll need clear, understood, and documented processes and standards around managing digital assets and the platform they live within.
These standards and processes include permissions hierarchies, folder structures, file naming conventions, metadata taxonomies, and many workflows from asset ingestion to archiving.
To-do's:
- Develop user groups & permissions hierarchies
- Develop DAM standards, including taxonomy structure, metadata requirements, and more
- Create core workflows and standard operating procedures (SOPs)
- Outline asset lifecycle & DAM governance model
Associated Costs:
- Onboarding & implementation fees (Est. $5,000-$40,000 depending on DAM Program size and complexity)
2. Validate & Document Processes
Once you've created standards and processes, you need to pressure test them in the real world. Ask your DAM Platform vendor about developing a testing environment in which your team can iterate. Once feedback is collected and processes are adjusted, they need to be documented and distributed to end-users.
To-do's:
- Implement select standards, processes, & integrations on-platform
- Run end-users through User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
- Collect feedback & adjust standards
- Document standards, processes, & workflows
- Distribute documentation to end-users
Associated Costs:
- Typically included in Onboarding & Implementation fees
- Migration of assets (and enrichment) is often a separate cost
3. Implement Processes & Standards
Finally, it's time to set up your processes, allowing you to confidently launch the DAM Platform to end-users. This step requires significant time and oversight, often necessitating an internal hire or contracting an external agency to execute this work for you.
To-do's:
- Create folder structures, permissions hierarchies, and other workflows within the DAM Platform
- Enrich relevant assets with metadata, organize assets appropriately, and publish assets to the DAM Platform
- Quality control of the development of processes and standards
- Train and onboard end-users
Associated Costs:
- Third-Party Support (Dependent on activities and agency)
- Service Integrators
- Integration Support and Enablement
- Hiring fees + DAM Librarian salary (Dependent on location and experience level)
Find the Right DAM Platform For You With Stacks, LLC!
As you’ve learned through this resource, it’s essential to select the right DAM platform for your organization’s needs. We’ve provided guidance and outlined steps to follow in every phase of your search. Bookmark this guide so you can refer back as you navigate the process and inevitably hit some roadblocks along the way.
If you’re still feeling shaky about choosing a DAM platform, look no further than our team at Stacks! We’re here to serve as a consultant and certified expert to pair you with the ideal platform for your needs. To get started on your DAM platform search process with the help of Stacks, fill out our contact form below!
