What is Digital Asset Management and Why It is Important?

The term “digital transformation” has become increasingly commonplace in recent years. With lockdowns in place, many people and organizations have had to rely on digital technologies for various aspects of their daily lives. These technologies have become essential, with global spending on digital transformation estimated to reach $6 trillion by 2023.

And as the world continues to digitize at an increasingly rapid rate, one question that develops is:

How do we manage the vast digital data we receive?

The answer to that question comes from Digital Asset Management (DAM). In this blog, we will explore the concept behind DAM, its features, the importance of DAM in an enterprise, and the software associated with it.

What is Digital Asset Management and Its Features?

Before we get into the meaning and explanation of Digital Asset Management, it is essential to know what a digital asset is.

A digital asset, in simple terms, is content data that can be created and stored digitally. Nowadays, many items are classified as digital assets – documents, photos, graphics, animations, audio, video, books, and even digital forms of currency.

However, it is essential to note that a digital asset is not regarded as an asset if you don’t own its rights.

DAM is the process of handling and controlling digital assets over a single central platform. The core concept of DAM is to bring together all the digital content under one roof to shelter and protect. A DAM system offers an efficient and streamlined approach to handling data that includes activities like

Sorting and Organising:

The first step in managing digital assets is to organize them into a centralized library. This organization involves sorting out the data and arranging it systematically.

Searching:

A well-organized library helps users find the desired information quickly by providing various search options, such as keyword or attribute searches.

Sharing and Collaborating:

Since all digital assets are in one medium, sharing and collaborating can be easily done over multiple options like mail or brand portals. 

Other features include creating user groups and adjusting data access control over the data, data version control, and flexible approval workflows. The versatility of these digital asset management system features makes it a robust infrastructure.

How Does Digital Asset Management Work?

Based on the Digital Asset Management definition, maximizing the value of an organization’s digital assets and enhancing its operational efficiency is the main objective of such a system. DAM is not just storage space but is a massive consolidated process that involves several activities.

Depending on the organization’s needs, DAM systems come in various shapes and sizes. Some organizations may require these systems to simply store and arrange vast amounts of data, while others may need it to improve communication and collaboration within their organization.

But while the set goals may differ from organization to organization, the core functionality of DAM remains the same.

• Collect digital assets, arrange, sort, and securely store and manage them.
• Make them searchable, easily accessible, and shareable to boost collaborative problem-solving.

The use of metadata and information of a digital asset like file format, date created, modified, name of the creator, etc. make these functions possible.

Why is Digital Asset Management Important for an Enterprise (Benefits)?

Data was and will continue to be a valuable asset in an enterprise set-up. Every year, a lot of digital data is lost per organization. With rapid digitization, a data asset management system must be necessary to protect the investment in creating digital assets.

A DAM system eliminates data loss and duplicate data, which are some reasons for data inconsistency leading to reduced efficiency. 

Other than keeping digital assets well organized, secure, and easily searchable, reasonable digital asset management solutions also help improve workflows and facilitate fundamental data analysis.

The streamlined, straightforward approach improves communication and collaboration within an enterprise, building brand consistency and presence and resulting in much better ROI. 

Top 3 Digital Asset Management Challenges and Its Solutions

Even the best digital asset management solutions must be well assessed and monitored to ensure your organization gets the full benefit. Here are the top three most common challenges when handling a DAM system:

1. Lack of Data Governance

Not instilling a sound data governance strategy can injure an organization’s data security infrastructure. It leads to inconsistent handling of digital assets, and without any security norms, it could lead to legal injunctions. Therefore, it is vital to set up fundamental data governance laws to ensure proper data usability and compliance. 

2. Lack of Integration

Integration is one of the benefits of a digital asset management system that enables users to access and share content readily. 

When building a DAM system, identifying the existing software and platforms must be looked into extensively. Suppose you are planning to work on a new platform or software or looking to switch. In that case, it is essential to ensure this change is updated on the DAM system. 

3. Poor Metadata Tagging

Metadata is critical in organizing, arranging, and searching data. If the metadata of digital assets is poorly tagged, a DAM system would never execute to its full potential.

Maintaining version control would be difficult, leading to data redundancy, meaning employees would be wasting time working on the same assets.

Planning what keywords will be generated when creating and storing particular digital assets will help better manage and customize metadata later.

What is Digital Asset Management Software and Its Benefits?

Digital Asset Management Software is a centralized portal that helps create, manage, arrange, search and share digital assets. DAM software is a streamlined process management tool aiming to seamlessly access, secure, and collaborate with valuable organization-relevant files, be it documents, ppts, designs, graphics, audio and video, and many more.

Here are some more software-specific benefits –

• The centralized collection and storage of digital assets mean that files can be easily searched, accessed, and reused, making it a good resource allocation platform.
• Saves time and reduces production costs by preventing using outdated and irrelevant assets. This would eventually improve brand consistency and integrity. 
• With all digital assets under one roof, DAM software eliminates the risk of losing valuable content.  
• Due to version control, every employee using the software is up-to-date with the latest version of the content.
• Lastly, well-integrated DAM software will allow you to seamlessly share and move files across various digital platforms. This helps massively in managing workflow for a particular project.

Final Thoughts

With a wide variety of data being generated daily, organizations are looking for solutions and innovations to assist them in maneuvering through this digital playfield.

Suppose your organization deals with enormous amounts of data and content. In that case, ensuring you have a well-structured Digital Asset Management system is a no-brainer in today’s business world.  

It makes sense to invest in a DAM, especially with data management’s increasing importance and benefits.

But rather than asking what the best digital asset management software is, you may want to ask which DAM software suits your specific requirements.  

Vaultastic is the data management expert, with many big names trusting us with their critical business data. We have many solutions and services, including the best digital asset management tools and software. Get in touch with our experts to know more about our cloud data protection solutions and services.