Introduction
A digital asset management (DAM) system is a software application that helps you organize and manage your business's digital assets. It can be used in any industry but is most commonly utilized by organizations with large amounts of web content or other digital assets. If you are looking for more on this, we recently went through An Ultimate Guide to Digital Asset Management Software.
What Is A DAM?
A digital asset management (DAM) system allows users to store, organize, search and access digital media files. These systems are used to manage all types of digital content such as images, audio recordings, and video files.
A DAM system can be used for a variety of purposes including managing an organization's website or social media accounts; organizing information used by marketing teams; storing logos or branding elements; maintaining an archive of past projects; collecting client testimonials; compressing media files into smaller sizes for faster download speeds on mobile devices or webpages; uploading videos from camera phones onto websites, and many other uses.
DAM systems are more than just a storage solution for your media files though—they provide additional functionality that helps people find what they need quickly when time is limited (or valuable). For example, A DAM module may allow users to create custom folders based on specific criteria like date ranges or file types so that finding exactly what you're looking for takes less time than searching through hundreds of thousands of images without knowing exactly what keywords would match those criteria in an unstructured database system."
DAM Systems Have A Few Main Components
- The DAM software itself is usually installed on the organization's internal servers. It can be any of a number of different types, including CatDV, Axel.ai, Contemo, Iconik, and more.
- A DAM server to store all the files that are uploaded by users and clients of your company. You'll probably want this in an off-site location with backup systems in place just like any other important data you're managing—you don't want it lost or destroyed if something happens to your building!
- A database where all the information about every file is stored. This is often called a metadata repository or "data lake." It might also be referred to as a "DAM database." This could be Oracle or SQL Server databases on-premise; Amazon Web Services cloud solutions such as Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) instances or Simple Storage Service (S3) buckets; Google Cloud Platform Cloud Bigtable instances; etcetera depending on what kind of platform you choose for your own digital asset management system software solution!
- The web interface where users can view their files in order to find them quickly when needed without having to download anything from external sites like Dropbox or Google Drive first -- especially helpful when working remotely from home offices located far away from corporate headquarters where everyone else works but not necessarily near any WiFi hotspot either!
What Does A DAM Do?
The DAM software itself manages all of the digital assets within an organization. The DAM software does a number of things:
- It manages metadata for each asset, including who created and modified it and when, as well as keywords that describe the asset's subject matter or type.
- It manages users, their permissions to use certain assets based on their roles in the organization, and which assets they have access to see based on those permissions.
- It secures access to digital assets by enforcing security policies that dictate which users can see what data (and when). These policies may be defined by departments or individual employees; either way, they're stored in one central location so they can easily be changed if necessary.
- Digital asset management systems also manage versioning—that is, how many different versions of an image there are—and workflow—how many steps someone has to go through before they're allowed access to view an image or edit a document. They also provide reporting tools that tell you how many people logged into your DAM system over time so you can see whether any suspicious activity took place during this period (such as excessive viewing patterns from one user).
Metadata is used to describe and organize assets in the DAM system. It can include keywords, categories, descriptions, and more. Metadata is often found in searchable databases like those used at universities or businesses.
Who Uses DAMs?
DAM systems are used by organizations in a variety of industries. These include:
- Media companies
- In-House Creative Teams
- Advertising agencies and marketing firms
- Churches
- And Many more
It's important for an organization to select the right DAM solution based on its needs. There are many different options on the market, pricing can vary greatly and so can features.
DAM solutions are vital for organizations that need to manage large amounts of digital media information in a controlled, secure environment. The software allows users to organize, manage and optimize all types of files from various locations and formats into one central repository.
Digital asset management (DAM) solutions are vital for organizations that need to manage large amounts of digital media information. DAM can help you find and organize your digital assets, making them more discoverable and accessible.
Conclusion
DAM systems are an essential tool for any organization that needs to manage large amounts of digital media. The right solution will help you reduce costs, improve productivity and create better products by organizing your files more effectively. If you'd like to learn more about what a digital asset management system is or how it works then contact us today!
