On behalf of Digimarc, I attended the Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management (DAM) conference in New York this week. I gained a lot of valuable information during my time away and would like to share some of my key take-aways with you.

DAM is a Decision
First and foremost, DAM is not just a piece of software that you add to your business to house your assets. It’s truly a much larger business strategy that the enterprise needs to embrace. It’s all about process: How you use images, when you save them, how you save them, the metadata that you attach to them, how they leave your organization, and at what level of consistency this is done. It’s a project that involves many areas of the business and needs to be managed as such. If you think that simply buying a DAM and tossing it into your business will suddenly fix all of the issues you’re having around images, you are sadly, and monumentally, mistaken. It’s a business decision that everyone needs to get on board with.

All DAM’s Are Not The Same
DAM offerings vary. A lot. The level of complexity, hosted vs. non-hosted, file types supported, what you can “do” to a given file type within the DAM vs. simply storing a file, price point, integration options and ancillary services available are as varied as the stars in the sky. Okay, well maybe not that much, but more than I had ever imagined. You won’t find one-size-fits-all solutions, and there doesn't appear to be a single solution that does everything really, really well. When you start to look at putting a DAM in place, or even replacing the one you already have, be prepared to invest some time educating yourself on the various solutions in the market. And, much like a lot of software out there – many will probably do waaaaay more than you’ll ever need. You need to figure out what business problem you’re looking to solve and then find a vendor that does that well. 

Meta-what?
Metadata is a fancy high-tech term for data that is associated with a given file or asset. This could include keywords, file info, photographer and rights/usage info, date taken, etc. The importance of consistent metadata connected with the assets being entered into the system cannot be overstated.  While I was at the conference, I heard a number of great speakers talk about their DAM installations, business processes, problems they had solved via the DAM, etc. and one of the things mentioned over and over was the importance of the metadata being clean, consistent and searchable. As an example, consider the character SpongeBob. If you are searching for “SpongeBob” and the guy who used the file before you keyed it in as “Spounge Bob”, you’ll never find the file you’re looking for. Ever. Thorough and consistent metadata is critical to any successful DAM program. Otherwise everyone gets frustrated, and the project ultimately fails because locating the file or assets you’re looking for will not be possible.

Digital Watermarking in the DAM Space
Digital watermarking is one technology that can greatly enhance DAM systems. Digital watermarking plays a role in the overall DAM strategy as it ensures the metadata (including your ownership information) remains with the images and enables you to locate the sources of leaks if your images make their way out through email and onto the web. You need to have resources to assure that you can best utilize the information and services it provides.

I’d love to talk with you about how Digimarc digital watermarking can play a role in your organization and the benefits it can provide within an overall DAM strategy. Operators are standing by. Ok, well, not really. But we’d like to talk with you to find out how you use images, how they are used by others outside of your organization and if we can solve any of the business problems that you are experiencing around the usage of your image assets.