Follow the Yellow Brick Road

Remember the advice that the Munchkins gave Dorothy about the best way to get to OZ? It was simple, right? “You just follow the Yellow Brick road.”

Firms and organizations often ask “What are the essential considerations associated with purchasing a digital asset management system?” (Translation: How do I keep from getting lost once I set out for the land of Digital Asset Management?)  That’s easy too; the Yellow Brick road to DAM is “return on investment”.   This post explores the implications of metadata and taxonomy on ROI.

Simply calculated, ROI includes:

Expected returned from your digital assets

LESS

Cost to purchase, install, customize and maintain the DAM

LESS

Metadata design costs

LESS

Asset conversion costs

Return on investment isn’t always about money though. The right DAM combined with the right metadata model enhances your business processes (both internally and externally) with clients and partners. Better client service, improved partner relationships and reduced frustration levels, though less tangible, all contribute value. Either way, the results can be dramatic.

Before making a DAM recommendation to a client I like to ask a few questions:

1. What do you want/expect from a DAM solution - what are the most important technical, business and human requirements that you’re considering?
2. How unique are your requirements - what are the customization costs associated with making the system work with your business?
3. Have you properly identified what the new system will look like and is the proper metadata design in place to accommodate your find-ability expectations?
4. Does the DAM support the types of metadata relationships that the you need to improve your business?
5. What are the implementation costs for cataloging assets?

The goal is to implement a DAM that improves your business. Replicating existing inefficiencies in the DAM can sometimes seem like “progress” in the short run but won’t deliver the expected ROI over the long haul.

Comments

[George Lamptey]

Leonard. Thank you for the summary. I agree that ROI is a key driver in having a DAM solution. For those companies where rich media is the core business, the traditional media and packaging companies the ROI expected from the digital supply chain is critical for the implmentation of DAM. But I also think that companies not normally associated with digital media can see the benefits of having DAM to capture, manage and distribute content about the company. The knowledge base and information archive of the company captured and tagged for growth in accessing information in a digital archive.
Regards