8 Ways Digital Asset Management Systems Benefit Companies
Digital Asset Management systems (DAMs) have many positive effects on an organization. It streamlines your processes, centralizes important company material, and enhances your organization’s efficiency. Through all of this, as well as other factors one of the finer benefits of DAM software is how it can increase employee productivity. This saves your company time and money.
Many businesses may get the wrong idea when it comes to managing their digital assets. A Digital Asset Management system is not just for large corporations. They can be an incredibly effective tool for businesses of any size! Let’s look at ways implementing DAM can increase employee productivity.
1: DAM Services Facilitate a Continuous Flow of Communication
Using a Digital Asset Management system is one of the most effective ways you can continually communicate with your teams on specific projects. Per a study by consulting giant McKinsey & Co, “Improved communication… could raise the productivity of [worker interaction] by 20–25%.”
Truly there is little to be lost by improving your inter-organizational communication. In fact, poor internal communication is linked to employee turnover, payroll inefficiency, reduced employee engagement, and more.
By being able to provide feedback on assets when they are created, or to share insights efficiently; your teams will be able to stay on track throughout the entire project without having to stop, back up, and redirect.
2: A DAM solution Improves Visibility into Project Status
An incredible thing about a Digital Asset Management system is the elimination of the need for cut and dried “project status updates.” Rather than resorting to email and having to copy an entire team to stay up to date, you can instead use your DAM to get a live look at where the project is and see what is coming next.
When someone needs an update on the project, they can simply take a live look at it themselves. If you use cloud-based DAM, you can even check in on your team while you’re on vacation. In this way, DAM helps keep projects running smoothly and allows each vital team member access to view important updates.
3: A Digital Asset Management Solution Eliminates or Minimizes Review and Editorial Process
Often, company projects go through a painstaking review and editorial process. Sometimes when all is said and done, a single project has gone through several editorial boards and winds up being almost an entirely different project than you started with. Now think of how often that has happened in your company.
By having one cohesive place to store all work and files that your teams can use throughout the entire building process, you’re able to check in periodically to adjust, add comments, and keep your teams on track throughout the entire process. If, and when changes are made; everyone is aware of them and all can be on the same page.
To save yourself some headaches (and your company some labor costs) you can easily build standard assets for your team to use consistently and store them in your digital asset management system. Instead of always having to start at Stage 1 and work their way through the beginning stages of a project, your teams can easily start from a company standard and jump immediately into the creative process.
4. DAM Systems Streamline Content Creation & Cut Costs
According to the Digital Marketing Blog “97% of companies using a DAM have reduced their costs of creating content by at least 10% and, this decrease in asset creation is on average 28%. This can be explained by a better asset reuse, as well as reduced duplications: organizations avoid redoing what has already been done.”
The fact is that most your content is created internally. This helps promote the idea that it isn’t costing your company anything. A study conducted by SiriusDecisions found that the cost of internally creating content may range from $900K per year, to upwards of $17 million. The graph below illustrates this range, starting with companies whose revenue is less than $100 million, less than $1 billion, and over $1 billion.
That’s a broad range, to be sure. However, consider the time spent creating content and managing assets at your company. Now reduce that cost by 10% while at the same time improving the efficient creation, review, and implementation of those assets.
5: Avoiding Disruption of Labor
Just like eliminating the review and editorial process, using a DAM will also help you and your teams avoid a disruption of labor. Few people enjoy the stand-still that comes with waiting for the green light from upper management, even fewer people like having to stop in the middle of something, and nobody likes having to delete something they’ve spent hours working on.
By being able to check in on your team at any time, rather than having multiple stop and review points throughout the project, teams can continue working through tasks while receiving suggestions and direction from their superiors.
6: Faster Deployment of Projects
One of the best ways DAM can increase employee productivity is through speed. The digital era we live in is all about fast, efficient deployment. By eliminating the need to have employees search time and time again for assets in the beginning stages, all minds can be focused on the end game.
You and your employees can save your company the wasted man-hours by using you DAM to store all your assets for use and re-use. This leads to more rapid completion of your outstanding projects.
#DAM can be an incredibly effective tool for businesses of any size!
7. Lowering Risks
By using DAM, your employees will know will know where to go when looking for assets, what is an approved asset, and what assets they should avoid. What’s more, your DAM software can restrict access so employees are only able to access the assets they need. This saves time and prevents risk to the project or company.
In a study done by IDC, “…business are seeing an average of 23% reduction in risk by preventing non-compliant use of content, the wrong (or unapproved) assets being used, and intellectual property being leaked or stolen.”
In that same study, it’s been shown that “86% of organizations have reduced risk by 10% or more with DAM. 18% have reduced risk by 40% or more” simply by implementing DAM.
8: Increased Variety Among Creative Contributors and External Collaborators
It’s not a secret that 75% of companies use a mix of in-house and agency-based resources. In fact, a quarter of Digital Asset Management system users are external to the company they’re working for. (IDC) When you’re bringing in external collaborators, it’s quite easy to get them on board and up to speed by allowing them access to your digital assets.
Rather than waste time by having to track down who has what and where to go to find something; DAM allows outside collaborators access to what they need quickly. This cuts down on time wasted and allows your in-house employees to focus on their own tasks rather than babysitting a contractor.
In many cases, outside contributors end up bringing a different and more diverse brand of creativity when it comes to brainstorming ideas. A lot of times, those contributors leave those assets behind for reuse when they’re done with the project.
Combined, DAM = Increase In Productivity
All in all, the use of a Digital Asset Management system by your company can most certainly have a positive impact on how productive your teams and individual employees are. From communication to continual review and updates, quickly deploying projects, and having all your digital assets secured in one place, it’s without question that digital asset management is one tool you don’t want to be without.
