Webinar Recap: 6 Key Ingredients for developing DAM governance
The idea of DAM governance can strike fear into users and system administrators alike. Flashes of content review notifications and long discussions about configuration minutia can start to make you feel ill.
Fortunately, successful governance is more than granular permissions and operating committee meetings. It serves as an essential framework for your DAM to support organizational objectives and drive innovation for your brand.
Rather than winging it, or following an old recipe with bad reviews, we recommend a simple, proven DAM governance recipe with only six key ingredients:
- Users
The users always come first and our ingredients are no exception. When determining how your model addresses users, you need to ask yourself a few questions:
- Is there a standardized process for requesting access?
- What are the onboarding requirements?
- What content do users require access to versus just requesting?
- Are some users not using their full access? Is that ok?
- What happens when someone no longer needs access?
These considerations when developing user design and policies will help make sure the right people are accessing the right content.
- Metadata
Often considered the backbone of DAM, metadata can supercharge your search experience. It helps associate what is similar and distinguish what is unrelated. While there are a variety of different ways to develop your schema and standards, metadata comes from a variety of roles.
- How is it applied to your assets?
- What is coming from Al, administrators, or other users?
Understanding and properly implementing a metadata strategy enables automation and efficiency in the day-to-day and long-term sustainability of DAM.
- Lifecycle
Normally, we spend a lot of time thinking about our assets in terms of what’s happening when it’s live. It is very important to think about what happens towards the end of your content’s lifecycle. Whether we are talking about expiring or archiving, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Returning too many results defeats the purpose of search.
- Old assets will be found, and they will be used.
- Too much stored in Production can slow down the system.
- Don’t forget about your retention regulations.
Remember to reduce irrelevant content, remove old assets, and reclaim storage. Find the right balance for your organization.
- Channels
When thinking about where your content will go, it is important to remember one of the key values of DAM– it should be your single source of truth for digital assets. However you are reusing assets, one size does not fit all. Use these questions to start developing an effective channel strategy:
- Where will these assets eventually be accessed (email, web, social, etc.)?
- Is there an opportunity to reduce manual asset optimization?
- Which systems can be integrated with DAM?
With the abundance of metadata available in the production process, integrations and automation should be used to reduce manual steps in this process. Understanding where key data points can be applied to assets throughout the production process will help find the right opportunities to simplify the optimization process per channel.
- Feature Management
Managing features in the DAM comes down to two main questions: What do the users need? What is technically possible? With SaaS infrastructure developing as rapidly as it is, we have a new ability to scale like never before. This scalability has freed up administrators to focus on:
- What are the users asking for?
- How do we prioritize these requests?
- When and how do we implement this feature?
- How are needs evolving?
Advances in infrastructure have given us the ability to think bigger and focus on the entire solution when determining how to release new features in the system.
- Monitoring
Bringing all of our measures together can mean different things depending on where you are sitting in relation to the platform. Here are three areas to consider when you are determining how to monitor the success of the DAM:
- Key Metrics: What was the original purpose of the DAM? Are we tracking KPIs?
- Engagement: Are contributors contributing? Are end-users consuming content?
- System Health: Is the system up? Are all features and modules working? Is there unusual activity?
Success at an individual and organizational level will depend heavily on aligning what is being monitored and how to adjust appropriately.
Effective governance will make or break the long-term success of DAM. There’s a lot to consider when developing the right model for your team. Starting with the users and implementing a thoughtful approach to metadata will help streamline the asset lifecycle, from production through delivery to various channels and eventual archival. Understanding how features align with the user base’s priorities will ensure the right work can get done. Aligning these ingredients with organizational and individual goals serves as a basis for reporting and ensures the long-term success of the DAM. When done right, communication is streamlined, users feel empowered and educated, and new processes are easily integrated and adapted as a part of everyday life. Once running smoothly, it will enable expansion across the organization and in your capabilities. There is no single model that will solve all of your woes, but there are 6 key ingredients we recommend in developing DAM governance.
To access the full webinar and recording on the ‘6 Key Ingredients for developing DAM governance’, visit Henrystewartconferences.com. For more information, contact us at info@leappoint.com or check out the author page.
