Most people in their personal lives do not organize their own “brand” – their personal images, music, documents, and other files. iTunes has made it convenient for us to organize music and Podcasts. It has even added metadata to help find what you are looking for. We also share our digital files. How do you do it? Which files are the latest and greatest to share?
Now, think about how you share files with your co-workers, solution providers and customers. Are your files populated with metadata and organized? Do you have the ability to find and deliver your content quickly and efficiently so you could make a profit?
For many organizations, the thought of getting started with a DAM SOLUTION is overwhelming.
Okay, before you start with all of the excuses:
- You don’t have the luxury of a huge staff to maintain and train users on a heavy, enterprise-level DAM
- You don’t have $30,000+ per year to spend
- Creative professionals don’t want to be IT administrators
- No one wants to become a librarian just to organize his or her files beyond the file names
- (Insert your own excuse here)
By SOLUTION I am referring to a central repository for your assets and content, having organized digital files, working efficiently with content, delivering content and an actual system itself. There are simple actions that can be implemented to get started on a solution NOW. On top of that, there are easy to use DAM systems out there that quickly turn these simple steps into real, effective, results.
For most, the needs are simple. The need to put their stuff somewhere, the need to find it quickly and easily, then the need to deliver it. I realize that this is extremely dumbed down, as the job itself of delivering the right file size and type can reach all sorts of levels of complexity. Keep in mind you must start somewhere.
First, you need ONE central place to put your “brand-ready” assets. The ones that effectively communicate your brand should be in one central location so that it is possible to authorize and manage distribution across departments, offices and geographic locations. This allows you to keep your most current marketing material readily available.
Some traditional enterprise DAM systems are physical pieces of hardware that need to be installed, backed up and maintained on location (which itself is a complex task that few communication professional are going to want to do). However, there are DAM services that are fully hosted in the cloud. These services require no hardware to install and no software to download. This is how the CleanPix DAM workgroup solution works. CleanPix is available anywhere with an internet connection and is a great place to store your finished, “brand-ready” files.
“The success of implementation with a DAM service is based on getting several staff members to adopt it in their daily routine. For this to happen, it needs to be user-centric. It’s DAM simple’.” – Nelson Vigneault
http://www.cleanpix.com/public/solutions
The next challenge is to get organized. That may take some time, depending on its importance, but your assets are already being “organized” even in a “disorganized” fashion. So take the minimal amount of time to do this. How do you do this? You organize with the metadata. Why does it have to be so hard? It does not. But again, you need to start somewhere. So, make it simple, be consistent in your verbiage and know that you can always add more.
Next, we struggle with delivering content and delivering it in the correct size and format. You are starting to get organized; you can find your stuff, now you need to deliver the correct file. Not all files are equal! You know you cannot deliver a tiny web image for a full-page ad or photo that is going to print. There are DAM services out there that will automatically convert files for the appropriate output device. You don’t need to think about it, let technology do the “heavy-lifting” for you.
For those who think they cannot do DAM and think it needs to be so hard and complex to work… it’s not. Easy to use DAM is readily available, they key is to make the decision to use it!