Extensis
Digital Asset Management
Do I Need a DAM System?
Should your organization use a DAM system to manage valuable images, documents, audio and video files? Use this checklist to find out.
Current State of Assets
- Assets are everywhere: on a server or individual computers, CDs/DVDs, hard drives, etc.
- You’re using an unstructured folder hierarchy or an inconsistent file naming convention
- Assets are in a variety of formats, and without the right software, they’re difficult to preview
- It’s so time consuiming and challengng to find old files that your team often re-purchases assets or even re-creates them form scratch
- There are multiple “final” versions of assets, or saving files in multiple formats has resulted in excessive duplicate files.
- Some marketing materials lack consistent branding, and unapproved/incorrect files are being used by internal teams or partners.
- No secure location for file storage and sharing
Current Workflow
- The team performs repetitive tasks like resizing, renaming, converting, and watermarking files
- Colleagues can’t find assets by themselves, so there is a “go-to” person for locating assets
- Sharing large files with colleagues is a multi-step, time-consuming process — which gets even more complicated when sharing between computing platforms and devices
- Field personnel need easy access to digital files
Goals
- Would like to repurpose content to maximize creative investment
- Working with creative and production applications — would like to repurpose content from one system to the other
- Save precious time, money, and ensure consistency
Add up your number of responses:
0-3 Points: Possibly
You have simple needs and a process in place. However, you might want to re-evaluate if the issues you identified above have a negative impact on workflow.
4-8 Points: Yes
A DAM system will help you organize and archive your digital content and provide your organization with a mechanism for easily finding and sharing those assets with others.
9+ Points: Definitely
Digital asset management is a must for your organization. By implementing a DAM system, you’ll see dramatic time savings and efficiency gains.
