Order is half the battle – our media asset management

A media asset management-system helps you to manage your corporate data centrally and to distribute it where and how you want. dynamicDAM® offers an essential step to more efficiency in daily work.

Media asset management – An underestimated work

Digital asset management (DAM), media asset management (MAM), or simply speaking image database is not a completely new concept in content management. For some time now, there are various systems that manage images, videos or documents as a core task. At the beginning, there were desktop applications that had to be installed directly on a computer, but in the meantime, these applications move to web. Today, all good applications are web-based.

The features put in focus, but unfortunately, not the core tasks …

This kind of application is still compared with the single features they offer. Excel-lists are sent that are usually predefined by a single provider, and the alternatives are evaluated according to the following criterion: Do they also have all of these features?

Then, the decision is made according to who has the most to offer in terms of quantity, and in return, who offers the lowest costs.

Unfortunately, what was intended to happen then, happens again and again. Out of 100 features 95 are not used at all, or even needed. Nobody thought about the data quality and equivalent assets are uploaded twice or three times without even being necessary. In addition, no one is able to see through the system anymore and, to top it all, everyone is allowed to adjust the setting as he or she likes.

Managing the chaos …

What you need in this situation is a system that offers a solution and does not cause further problems. Therefore, an intensive technical support is what we count on when the structure and organization of media-assets, as well as a comprehensive explanation of data formats is addressed. That’s how we can provide lot of explanatory work in order to work efficiently and structure the work right from the start.

A DAM’s contents and purpose

Why do I actually need a DAM-system? It may sound strange, but only when you decide to work with a DAM, the better you understand the need for it. Some departments already become aware of its benefits; others only take notice of it. At this point, it is important to keep the red thread alive and to match every requirement and every feature request to see if it can be fulfilled with a little creativity and onboard resources.

In addition, it is essentially a matter of distributing ideal data to partners, retailers, field staff, agencies, customers, and, of course, your own employees.

This already requires a general change of thinking here. Storing logos, images, and texts on the desktop, and only using or updating them at this one spot is the death of any central repository.

Concept, organizing, and filing

An essential basis is a structured filing. Many people are used to filing in folder structures. This is simply because they know it from their own computer. Whether Mac or Windows, files are stored in folders. But this has decisive disadvantages for a DAM. If an image is located in one folder, it cannot be located in another folder at the same time. But this is exactly what is required, since relational storage is absolutely necessary to uniquely assign data to several structures without creating duplicates.

You wouldn’t believe how many DAM systems I have seen where this issue alone has created a huge chaos. Data in a DAM system must be freely assigned by filters, taggings, types, etc. so that it can be found. This is a very elegant solution to this problem.

Online and offline data – what does 300 dpi mean again?

A DAM system and thus the data it contains must generally be prepared for online and offline use. An identical image is only stored once in the highest possible resolution and is automatically generated by the system in other qualities, sizes and formats. We call this download formats, including the consideration of color profiles, color space conversion etc. GS1-compatible formats are possible as well as 300 dpi jpgs with clipping paths. But png formats with transparencies and smaller pixel sizes are also possible at any time. (Learn more about resolution in our article.)

Maintaining separate formats for online and offline is simply unnecessary. Only if the image/video is different in content, it is a different asset.

The data formats – a mystery for marketing managers

What is a jpg, what is a png? What is the advantage of a gif? Why is there a psd? And what about the vector formats? The old world was sometimes not so bad. There were many more decision makers who knew what they were talking about. Today, unfortunately, you find this expertise only very rarely.

You have to know data formats, all their advantages and disadvantages, and also their possibilities. Only then a DAM system can continue to show its advantages in a much more digitalized world in the future. This is the only way to avoid misunderstandings.

It is a good way is to set specifications for image/video and document formats from the outset. Only what complies with these standards will be accepted, what does not, needs to be improved. This keeps the system “clean” and the data quality increases enormously. We prepare fact-sheets for such specifications and our clients are happy about this, as it gives them a reliable basis for excellent data quality. Especially, when many different agencies deliver assets, this is essential.

Conclusion: The single-point-of-information

A DAM-system, ideally combined with a PIM-system such as dynamicPIM®, offers an excellent basis for today’s data requirements. In addition, time-to-markets are significantly reduced, and products can be published faster in stationary trading or eCommerce.

A prerequisite is that the data quality is top. No feature list can help here, but a good, clean and structured approach. Clear rules and a reliable system that enables high availability.

We experience every day that good structured data, whether product information, media data, SEO optimization, texts, etc. is a significant competitive advantage. Those who have it are in front, those who don’t are struggling to keep up.