Digital Asset Management: How efficient is your handling of media content?
Images, videos, presentations, design files or PDF documents are omnipresent in corporate communications. But what is so special about companies and organizations that use media content successfully and efficiently? And what turns content into digital assets?
The answer is to understand media content as a value-adding element and to provide it with associated methods and processes. After all, images and videos, which are usually produced at high cost, are not simply digital files. They are content that is valuable for corporate communications. The central and media-neutral management of digital assets is the basis for the optimal design of processes and workflows. If media content is integrated in a process-oriented manner and used repeatedly, the return on investment of media assets increases considerably.
How can development levels in digital asset management be determined and continuously improved? There are transferable models that paint an ideal picture of how an organization or company manages the handling of digital media content. Pixelboxx has also developed a concept that describes the way to this ideal state. The following sections show which development levels Pixelboxx distinguishes and which dimensions are crucial in handling media content.
5 levels on the way to digital asset management
Level 1: Unaware
An organization that is at the first level has not yet dealt with methods of digital asset management. The reasons for this can be very different. On the one hand, organisations let service providers, such as advertising or communication agencies, do the practical work with digital media. On the other hand, it is often the case that the current state of the organisation is considered sufficient. The organization or company is typically not aware of the challenges that need to be overcome and the potential that exists. Of course, those who do not recognize the problem are not looking for solutions.
Level 2: Discovery
The second level describes a phase of discovery. Where on Level 1 the awareness was still missing that it is possible to organize various processes around digital media more efficiently, the necessity of taking action was now recognized. Level 2 organisations are specifically thinking about which tasks and processes can be optimised. Once these potentials have been uncovered, it is evaluated whether there are tools, e.g. software, with which they can be exploited. At this level of maturity, the organization seeks and discovers isolated solutions to practical challenges or uses media organization functions in different and distributed solutions.
Level 3: Transition
At the previous level of maturity, tools and solutions for very specific problems were identified. Now they are being implemented and integrated into the practical workday. During this phase, users learn the practical use of a DAM solution. In productive use, they can now analyze processes and plan, control and execute workflows using the new tools. It is important to learn a lot in this phase. The knowledge generated here is the basis for all further optimization.
Level 4: Cultivate
With the knowledge gained in the "Transition" maturity level, one is now in a position to make various optimizations. First and foremost, this means that work processes can be better planned, managed and controlled. In addition, processes are automated. To make the degree of automation as high as possible, it is necessary to create technical interfaces to other systems.
In order to integrate digital assets into the communication chain in a meaningful way, interfaces to the following components, for example, are available:
- Product Information Management (PIM)
- content management (CMS)
- customer relationship management (CRM)
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Marketing Resource Management (MRM)
- Online Shop/E-Commerce
Digital asset management can only develop its full potential if it is technically and operationally integrated. Due to its deep roots in the system landscape of an organization, the planned processes and procedures can be lived and success can be measured.
Level 5: Strategic
Organizations at this level of maturity have completed a complete strategic integration of the DAM system into all affected business processes. They continuously carry out analyses, evaluations and developments of the organization and its systems, either independently or supported by external experts. The processes and tools are thus up to current and future requirements.
Characteristic for the fifth level of maturity is continuity in controlling and a proactive approach. An organization cannot maintain it without continuous investment. This means that it must constantly check whether its system and processes are up to future tasks. But on the other hand, it is very agile and responsive in adapting to new exogenous requirements. For example, new forms of communication, sales channels or technologies do not pose a threat to these organizations.