Digital Asset Management ROI Assessment

The most important task before commencing a DAM initiative is to decide whether it will produce a positive ROI for your organisation, what criteria you will use to assess whether or not it has been successful if you do and how to prioritise future upgrades and modifications. While it might appear that DAM is guaranteed to generate a positive ROI, it isn't certain by any means, especially if the objectives are not clearly defined and assessed before and after delivery. Daydream can help you by providing a structured and methodical approach to ROI assessments that focus on the likely productivity benefits and the features of a solution that will yield the most benefit.

DAM Project Management

DAM projects can be complex undertakings, even for those with some prior experience. To ensure they meet the business objectives defined for them we use a combination of PRINCE-2 project management principles and our own in-house methods refined over hundreds of client engagements. We can provide consultants who have the know-how needed to ensure your DAM initiative runs on time and within budget.

DAM Project Validation

If you have already implemented a DAM solution within your organisation and now need it to be validated and independently assessed, Daydream can help. We have years of practical experience both delivering and reviewing DAM systems. If there are potential issues with your current DAM, you can be assured that we will find them and be able to give you an honest, impartial assessment of their impact and what options you have for resolving them.

Digital Asset Management Resourcing & Recruitment

Digital Asset Management projects require a diverse range of skills and expertise. As well as technical or project management ability, knowledge of the characteristics of the media being stored such as image formats, video or audio codecs etc is often needed. In addition to delivery, information science or metadata knowledge and usability analysis is frequently necessary. Daydream and our resourcing subsidiary, Dream People can fill the gaps in your project team whether full-time or just for a single project.

DAM Systems Integration

Digital Asset Management is an integrating technology where software solutions are used to coordinate and orchestrate both media and technology. Daydream have a vast range of experience in systems integration and now to get DAM solutions to work with other system. We understand systems integration from higher level management objectives defined during the business case assessment right down to in-depth protocol analysis. This means we can identify if the selection of a given technique for integration will cause issues for other aspects of the system and also reality check assumption you or your suppliers have made about whether the proposed integration will be practical and achievable.

DAM Industry Analysis

With almost 20 years of experience in the Digital Asset Management field, we have seen the full progression of this sector from the early period where the original users were predominantly stock media libraries, government/law enforcement agencies and media production departments through to the more recent interest and widespread adoption by marketing teams and wider corporate use. Representatives of Daydream regularly contribute to the widely respected DAM industry journal: Digital Asset Management News and we collaborate closely with the editors on feature items and whitepapers also. That industry expertise is available as one of our consulting services for those who have an interest in making investments or for the preparation of bespoke research into the DAM market.

Digital Asset Management Value Chains

DAM Value Chains is a strategic approach to DAM implementation where all the processes that add value to raw digital content and transform files into assets are defined and organised in a modular fashion so each stage can be evaluated, refined and continuously improved. This approach is already common in other business sectors such as logistics and manufacturing, we have adapted those same principles in a manner that is specific to the demands of Digital Asset Management.

DAM Vendor Selection & RFP Management

Metadata & Taxonomy

Metadata is one of the four cornerstones of Digital Asset Management, many would contend it is the most important of those. We have a wide range of experience at metadata analysis and deriving metadata schemas and taxonomies that are suitable to not only catalogue assets successfully but also in a way that does not introduce an excessive staff overhead when it comes to metadata entry. In addition to conventional corporate requirements, we have a wide range of experience across a number of different sectors where DAM might be deployed, including more complex preservation and cultural or heritage use cases.

Findability and Search User Interfaces

The corollary of metadata and taxonomy is asset search and findability. This is where the success of a given metadata strategy is put to the test. While asset suppliers will want to get through cataloguing tasks quickly, end users must be able to find assets or the exercise will be fruitless. We can help evaluate either existing or proposed search interfaces and isolate any potential issues before implementation commences. During the course of our professional practice, we have both implemented search tools ourselves and critically examined existing facilities to identify what can be optimised in an efficient manner that enhances the ROI of the chosen DAM solution.

Workflow & DAM Operations

Workflow is another cornerstone of DAM and the operational mechanism that coordinates assets between users and processes. Design of efficient workflows for digital assets requires a careful balance between sophistication and complexity. Digital Asset Management operations need to be versatile enough to cope with a variety of different approval and authorisation processes - whether assets are being ingested or served out to end users. If the workflows are too complicated, end users will abandon them. If they are over-simplistic they will be unfit for real world use and end users will find themselves 'filling in' by manual methods like emails or phone calls. Daydream can use our accumulated experience in workflow design and DAM operations to help indentify the most efficient methods to arrange your workflows so they manage risks but equally do not become a burden for staff either.

DAM Hosting & Infrastructure

Digital asset hosting is becoming an increasingly specialist technical area. While the range of hosting options are increasing with Cloud hosting solutions and aggregated storage services, the size of many individual media assets such as HD video is also multiplying. Daydream can help IT managers and end users locate a suitable combination of strategies to solve their large scale hosting and rich media delivery infrastructure challenges. We have experience of working with asset libraries that range from a few gigabytes through to hundreds of terabytes. In addition to storage, we can advise on media streaming and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and where these are best employed.

Data Migration & Bulk Asset Ingestion

A key task that is frequently overlooked with DAM implementations is how to transfer assets into a system. This might involve data migration from an incumbent legacy product which is to be replaced, or it could be a new library that is being established for the first time. Daydream can advise on a variety of ingestion and migration subjects, from embedded metadata standards such as IPTC, XMP, or EXIF through to demanding technical subjects such as legacy data mapping, migration testing and detailed migration planning.

Further Information