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Having a well run, up-to-date digital asset management (DAM) system can be a real boost to a business. Whether you need to construct a marketing campaign or simply produce a flyer, having everything stored in one place makes life a lot easier. And with turnaround times always short, having images and pages to hand can make that campaign happen a lot quicker.

An awful lot can go into a DAM system. We’re not just talking about images and pages, but also TV campaigns, radio ads and spreadsheets – pretty much anything can be stored digitally.

“The term DAM is broad. It is a solution to allow you to manage your digital assets and catalogues what you have,” explains Marcus Kirby, consultant at Kirby Lewis Associates (KLA).

Kirby says you should think of it as being like a digital filing cabinet that can contain all your past print jobs. You simply type what you’re looking for into a search engine and the DAM system will find a load of related assets for you to pick and choose from.

For a printer, this is an invaluable value added service. “If the assets are with the printer, then the buyer will use that printer again,” says Kirby. “It becomes part of the process to supply the assets to the printer and it helps that printer to retain clients.”

While this may sound attractive, there are inevitably some downsides. Buyers can end up being tied down to the same supplier, which is great if the relationship is working well but it provides little room for manoeuvre if you want to switch to another printer quickly. Handing all your assets to a supplier also reduces your capability to capitalise on these assets.

Huge choice
One option is to invest in a DAM system yourself. By owning the software, the buyer is more in control of his own files and can find assets easily and quickly.

But getting the right DAM system is tricky thanks largely to the number of different options there are
on the market. “There are more than 1,000 products and you can add in other solutions such as campaign management and CRM,” says Kirby. “Prices can range from £200 to £200,000.”

One DAM system provider is Silicon Systems. Its Flowmation product combines DAM and remote approval with project management and can be built “from the ground up” to become entirely web-based.

“You can create a library of assets,” explains Paul Rowley, sales director at Silicon Systems. “It can range from image files to InDesign templates and users can view thumbnails. They can take those files and put them in a collection – a bit like a shopping basket. You can then order or download the files.”

The storage area is online allowing anyone to search for the files. Flowmation also has a project area that displays different pages and allows users to view the project as it passes through the production process. There’s also an area where you look back at previous jobs.

Better connections
Rowley claims that systems like Flow­mation have become increasingly popular. “It’s a fast-moving market now,” he says. “People are more familiar with the inter­net and are often shopping online. Buyers are familiar with a web browser and the internet is now much faster. Connections are not so slow.”

Another provider of DAM software is Extensis, which recently announced a major upgrade to its Portfolio server. Version 8.5 ramps up the searching, archiving and automated web delivery tools and rather than selling it as merely a DAM product, Extensis has pitched the software as a “complete web publishing solution”.

Whether it’s a complete web publishing solution that you’re after or a more basic product, the ultimate aim of investing in a DAM system is increasing efficiencies and saving money. Communisis argues that it has shaved pounds off its clients’ overheads thanks to its DAM system. The print manager linked up with Aprimo to implement Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) and reckons that in addition to cost savings, it has also reduced the admin time that goes into creating campaigns.

“Using EMM, we have helped our customers to reduce campaign administration by 10-20%,” explains Nic Sheen, business solutions director at Communisis. “Design and process costs associated with marketing print have been drastically improved by reducing artwork amends, transmission and proofing costs.”
He adds that the system has allowed better colla­bor­ation between in-house marketing teams, agencies and the print supply chain. “The technology enables customers to retain a full electronic audit trail of every marketing asset produced, amended and re-purposed.”

Exploiting your assets
Systems, like the one used by Communisis, can deliver real benefits, but KLA’s Kirby says that there are plenty of companies who are not getting the most out of their DAM software.

“In my experience, most implementations do not go as planned,” says Kirby. “Many do not give a good return on investment and that’s due to the information that is wrapped around them. You wouldn’t believe the number of systems that have only 500 assets and not something more comprehensive like 20,000.”
He argues that most DAM systems fall down because they are simply not updated on a regular basis.
Out-of-date artwork and branding is a major obstacle and means that all that money spent on a brand spanking new product is wasted – there’s no point having a DAM system if the information or images contained are out-of-date.

“The return on investment very much depends on what information you have,” adds Kirby. “It is vital to ensure that the management of assets is ongoing and robust.”

Communisis’ Sheen further cautions: “Unless the information is authoritative, the DAM system becomes worse than useless. We are able to do that librarianship for our clients.”

By keeping it constantly updated, your DAM system will work harder for you and it should be much more straightforward to get that marketing campaign turned around quickly and efficiently.