We all wonder how well our competition is doing in spheres of digital transformation, omnichannel delivery and analysis. If DAM is not a core foundational play for your digital strategies, you like most companies are behind the innovation curve.
Thousands of companies across the globe have downloaded the DAM Maturity Model Gap Analysis document. Our latest survey results show a clear opportunity for any company that treats digital asset management as the foundational playbook for the ideation, creation, curation, archive and analysis of digital content.
As companies start to see, the connection between content, knowledge and analysis and the ever increasing role of DAM into the broader Master Data Management world it becomes apparent that moving the DAM needle from Incipient to Optimal is no longer a nice to have, it is a business critical imperative.
Why?
DAM is an engine that runs on metadata which enables everyone to use the right content, in the right place, at the right time, on the right device. Metadata drives the automation needed to transform any business.
The optimal way to transform is via a central repository of content (knowledge) using the power of metadata (information) to enhance people-centric workflows (Integrations and APIs) and their pet bots and smart assistants (AI/ML/NLP).
The business gains insights (analytics) and sentiment (Business Intelligence) from all operations. Content is the fuel that transforms experiences and predicates future business iterations!
How?
People
The human roles, responsibilities, and interrelationships in an organisation’s use and management of DAM
Technical Expertise People
There are necessary technical capabilities that the organisation needs to have either in-house or via an external partner.
Business Expertise
Business Expertise refers to the understanding of fundamental DAM concepts between employees and management in support of the organisation’s core mission.
Alignment
Alignment is the collaboration between technical and business areas utilising the value of DAM to achieve the organisation’s mission. This collaboration provides the capability for the groups to anticipate the needs of one another with complementary strategies.
Information
Information
The material and related descriptors that enable the use of an asset
Metadata
Metadata is specific information describing the nature of assets. Metadata provides methods to support categorisation and classification by defining taxonomy models and controlled vocabularies.
Reuse
Reuse refers to an organisation’s repurposing of assets across multiple channels and an organisation’s appreciation of single asset authoring for different intentions.
Use Cases
Use cases — from simple to very complex — describe the functional capabilities of DAM systems. Every organisation’s needs are different, and these differential requirements or use cases are defined as scenarios. They also include generic skills like personalisation, collaboration, and multichannel delivery.
Systems
The related components that work together to facilitate the lifecycle of assets
Prevalence
Prevalence defines how broadly the DAM efforts are spread within the organisation. This is the ratio of DAM activity to the potential DAM utilisation.
Usability
Usability refers to the ease-of-use of various user and configuration interfaces.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is a set of interconnected elements that provide a framework to support the entire structure of DAM.
Processes
The repeatable set of procedures and operations designed to realise each stage of an asset’s lifecycle.
Workflow
DAM systems apply business processes to manage digital assets. These processes are comprised of workflows to maximise resources and minimise latency, which in turn increases asset availability.
Governance
Governance ensures that the DAM strategy and policies are actually implemented, and the required processes are correctly followed.
Integration
Integration facilitates efficient data transference within and between systems and processes.
Across all 15 dimensions of the maturity model, across industry verticals and silo departments, the message is the same. Most, if not all, companies are nowhere near optimal and this means that organisations are haemorrhaging money, wasting resources and above all lack a complete understanding of DAM as a content-enabled business strategy that brings clarity to the transformational nature of metadata automation.
As Ddigital Asset Management begins to play an ever-increasing role within the Master Data Management practice and businesses strategies, the fundamentals for getting this right remain the same.