It doesn't need to be so DAM difficult and expensive

According to a survey designed by Allied Vaughn published in March 2008, "Almost 75% of respondents felt that budget was the most common barrier to implementing Digital Asset Management in their organization [and almost] 60% identified a lack of time and resources to tag information."  For over 15 years now, many developers created and optimized DAM platforms. However, many failed to simplify the implementation process and to be affordable for more than 80% of all companies: small and medium size businesses.

 

I found that many of them would rely on FTP servers, online services or email attachments to deliver their media files to their customers. In addition, when they need to retrieve their digital assets, they would organize their file server with a very complicated file structure, specific to their workflow. Therefore, it makes the implementation of DAM systems even more difficult and costly. I am not only talking about the price of the software itself, but also about the time and resources to optimize and organize the database. This whole process give small and medium size companies the perception that DAM is simply not a technology they need or can afford.

 

The truth is that DAM is what they need to manage and deliver digital assets. It has been proven that these systems allow companies to save money and handle more projects, giving a real return on their investments. The other truth is the recognition that there is a need to change the DAM approach to provide affordable solutions to small and midsize companies. I see more and more developers offering their product as a service. It is not necessarily the appropriate direction for these companies to go for a service as they still need to go through the time consuming process of uploading and tagging their media files. However, I think that it is at least a first step toward the democratization of DAM.

 

Of course the real revolution would be to find a solution that would simply use their pre-existing file structure and catalog the media files in a DAM platform. In this case, they can keep their current workflow and still save time and money in file search and handling more projects.  I am confident that this will be the future trend of DAM development. The other DAM revolution would be a pricing structure that considers small businesses budget. After 15 years, there should be a way to be cost efficient with DAM developments.