What are the benefits of a Digital Asset Management tool?
In today’s article, I want to discuss the benefits of using a Digital Asset Management tool (DAM), following the publication of the IDC study « Proving the Value of Digital Asset Management », last June. Often considered as a buzz-generating trend lately, just like the DMP that we were recently discussing, the value of a DAM is, however, not yet fully understood by many of us. The idea behind this study thus seeks to prove the positive impact of a DAM on the ROI of a business, and shows that using a DAM can not only reduce asset creation costs, but also reduce risks, and globally increase productivity and income.
What is a DAM?
First, it is essential to define the DAM, a tool that truly finds itself at the crossroad of the challenges of the digital marketing and the creation. In its official definition, the Digital Asset Management refers to the set of tasks and decisions, within an organization, that allows the collection, classification, search, visualization, storage, and distribution of the different multimedia content of the organization (photos, videos, sounds, documents, etc.).
More concretely, the DAM is a software solution that permits to combine all media assets in one place, and that all stakeholders (internally in the company, but also external agencies and service providers) can access. Everyone can get an updated version of any content (which can save the agency from using an outdated logo on her latest campaign for instance), but the DAM also allows to manage seamlessly any format, and to centralize all contents created.
What are the benefits of a DAM?
The results of the study are clear: a DAM is an incredible generator of value, with 4 main benefits:
- Increase revenue: 79% of companies using a DAM saw their revenue increase by at least 10% and, on average, organizations are even realizing a 24% increase in revenue. Indeed, the use of a DAM accelerates time to delivery for marketing campaigns, but also permits to launch new products more quickly.
- Reduced asset creation costs: 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 avoids redoing what has already been done.
- Reduce risk: By using a DAM, 86% of companies reduced their risk by at least 10%, and on average, organizations are seeing a 23% reduction in risk. Indeed, a DAM allows a better management of rights, and reduces legal costs for rights violations.
- Increase productivity: Finally, 97% of companies have seen their productivity boosted by at least 10%, while marketing organizations are realizing on average a 34% improvement in productivity, thanks to a reduced time spent searching for assets, more streamlined review/approval processes, and easier collaboration with external stakeholders.
So many benefits that we can wonder why anybody nowadays should do without a DAM, these solutions being not restricted to large organizations, far from it, as many small and medium businesses are nowadays investing in a DAM. When it is possible to save money, better manage rights or increase income, why would anybody refuse to use a DAM? J
What about you, what is your experience in Digital Asset Management? Feel free to continue the discussion and share your views in the comments section!