Choosing any new business system can be stressful, but selecting the right Digital Asset Management (DAM) system can sometimes feel like a collective game of bingo.
With over 250 different DAM systems commercially available offering various combinations of features and functionality, this post explores how the complexity and critical nature of choosing the right DAM system can make it seem like you’re hoping for the right combination to win big.
WHO’S PLAYING?: ENGAGING ALL STAKEHOLDERS
Identifying all stakeholders is one of the most critical steps in planning for any new business tool or service. Who are the key players? Get their initial involvement and ensure they understand the rules of the game. One common challenge is ensuring that all the stakeholders not only sit at the table but that they also feel invested.
It can require a little diplomacy and even psychology to ensure that all voices are heard and to remove any doubt or confusion about their involvement in the selection process. Only once everyone is ready to play can you call “eyes down!”
THE BINGO CARD: UNDERSTANDING YOUR REQUIREMENTS
Just as a bingo card has a unique combination of numbers, every stakeholder in every organisation has a distinct set of requirements that they see as crucial for the DAM system. These requirements can include a wide range of features and functions, from handling various file types, integration capabilities with other business systems and creative tools, user-friendliness, scalability, security, and support for custom metadata.
Before selecting potential DAM system vendors, it’s essential to agree on your organisation’s specific short-term needs and longer-term goals and where your digital files will play an important role. With critical needs identified, you have a better chance of hearing the correct numbers when they’re called out. Familiarity with your bingo card’s features and functionality will prime you when listening to vendors talk about specific features and benefits, giving you an idea of the patterns you need to win. It can be challenging to get right.
Because stakeholders from different teams might have the same features or functionality written down on their bingo cards, participants might think that the functional requirements are agreed upon because there appears to be so much commonality. It might be 75-ball Bingo (played in the United States), or 90-ball Bingo (more common in the UK and parts of Europe). Missing a crucial requirement, whether a security requirement or functionality to manage user consent and protect personal information, could mean the difference between a system that enhances your workflow and one that hinders your team and generates frustration.
MARKING YOUR CARD: EXPLORING THE MARKET
In bingo, players hold individual cards and call out when numbers match. During the DAM system selection process, you evaluate whether a system’s features align with your needs. This can involve meticulous comparison and often involves going back and forth between options, determining which features are essential and which are nice to have. It’s about making strategic decisions without knowing how they will play out in the long term.
Finally, if you’re happy with your unique ‘bingo card of requirements’ and anticipate which lines you might complete first, you also need to be interested in your colleague’s cards. The numbers might be similar to your own, but the importance placed on them will likely be different.
EYES DOWN: EXPLORING THE MARKET
As different DAM vendors and their features are revealed and compared in the DAM selection process, you may change your mind about which numbers you want to come up with. A single DAM vendor might introduce something that solves a problem you didn’t fully appreciate or understand that changes the game.
Finding the right DAM can involve extensive research and product demonstrations to understand which options best suit your requirements and build a shortlist of vendors. This stage of the game is critical and can feel overwhelming due to the numerous choices available. If you enquire and reveal your early interest in DAM, understand that you will have started the clock ticking. Understandably, the DAM vendor will want to continue the dialogue. You will be in their sales funnel. You will be chased. Each shortlisted DAM vendor Sales Rep will be relentless in their pursuit and under pressure to close the deal.
Remember, the card is in your hands. The game is starting.
NEAR MISSES AND FALSE ALARMS
With excitement levels and background noise increasing, everyone hears numbers being called out in the bingo game, but do all the players actually comprehend ‘bingo lingo’ and fully understand the features being called out? “Kelly’s Eye” (1), “One Little Duck” (2), “Cup of Tea” (3)
When different DAM vendors describe identical features using different adjectives and verbs (with subtle connotations and possible misinterpretation), it’s crucial to review answers methodically and ask for functional demonstrations before “Tickerty-Boo” (rhymes with 62) is ticked off and anyone prematurely shouts “line”.
CALLING HOUSE
Nobody wants to witness that face-palm moment when someone prematurely shouts out “house” in a game of bingo. Similarly, getting excited about a DAM system too early is possible, only to find during the pilot phase or testing that it doesn’t perform as expected in your specific environment.
Before getting too excite validate your findings. Contact current customers using the DAM systems to get their feedback and experience.
Perform a cost analysis to understand the total cost of ownership, frequency of updates, costs for additional storage, additional user license costs and process for migrating to another DAM system in the future (assuming that nothing stays the same forever).
Ultimately, a good fit can only be measured by how well the DAM system aligns with your initial needs and goals and key indicators (to help measure success) like user adoption, efficiency gains and ROI goal achievement might not be easy to calculate in the first 6 months.
This article is also published on LinkedIn
