Why do I need a Digital Asset Manager?

At a recent Digital Asset Management Conference, I was asked to present on the role of the Digital Asset Manager (what I do on a daily basis). This is not because I need to justify my position in this economy nor explain what I do aside from drink coffee all day, but rather to explain what it takes

Posted by Henrik de Gyor on June 9, 2009

At a recent Digital Asset Management Conference, I was asked to present on the role of the Digital Asset Manager (what I do on a daily basis). This is not because I need to justify my position in this economy nor explain what I do aside from drink coffee all day, but rather to explain what it takes to:

• Listen, learn and adapt to changes in the business needs of the organization
• Promote, train and support all DAM users on a daily basis
• Explain how we measure ROI with every project, collection and asset we add to the DAM
• Simplify and unify across departments by sharing assets in DAM
• Network and interview potential users of DAM to see what their business needs are (which are usually similar to everyone else’s needs in the organization)
• Report on the progress of the DAM on weekly and monthly basis
• Create workflow for the use of assets with DAM
• Create and maintain up-to-date DAM documentation
• Maintain consistency
• Maintain metadata standards used within the organization
• Review and test any configurations and/or customizations for the DAM
• Be the biggest proponent, in-house advocate and expert in DAM for your organization
• Make sure a DAM solution does not become another ‘shelf baby’ (i.e. another tool which an organization invested in, but did not get user adoption, so it is another waste of time/money because no one uses it)
• Maintain an active registry of DAM users and needed permissions

This is one position that is in demand nowadays, but can be quite technical and requires:

• Patience (lots of it)
• Energy (lots of it)
• Attention to detail

• Process-orientation in order to create workflow that make sense to users
• Love of data (metadata)
• Consistency and flexibility (being methodical helps too)

• Thriving on progress (even baby steps)
• Customer service (i.e. user support)
• Ability to demonstrate how to improve production with DAM to save time and money, when used properly
• Prior DAM experience

In a previous post, we covered why you might need a DAM. So, your organization gets a DAM solution, it gets implemented for your organization and it is ready for regular operations. Now what?

• Who is driving the progress of DAM?
• Who is tracking progress, measuring growth and addressing risks to report on a weekly/monthly basis for stakeholders?
• Who will answer DAM questions and support DAM users?
• What happens when something goes wrong?
• Who is in charge of the DAM?
• Who will fix it?
• Who will be the adviser when to file a trouble ticket with the vendor versus what can be resolved in-house?
• Who will create the trouble ticket when the time comes?
• Who will follow up?
• Who will train users and power users of the DAM? (Attrition happens)
• Shall I go on?

Do you have a Digital Asset Manager?