Meet DAM and Work Freely With Your Files – 9

10. Conclusion

The role that digital asset management plays in ensuring quality control spans the content development lifecycle. Starting at the design phase, those tasked with creating new content are able to access approved and brand ready assets (“one version of the truth”) as well as important information about each asset in the form of metadata. The metadata associated with any given asset can include a range of quality control information including usage rights and permissions, prior uses, commentary, and legal instructions such as use and placement of disclaimers.

Core to ensuring quality is the ability to collaborate around the work being produced. A streamlined review and feedback mechanism greatly enhances the creative process by allowing the team at large to share their collective insights and ideas easily and in real-time. And of course, a more thorough review helps to ensure there are no erroneous errors (spelling, brand placement, legal disclaimers, etc). By allowing teams easy real-time access to work-in progress, regardless of location enhances collaboration as well as speeds the overall review and time to approval.

Digital Asset Management and the need for a DAM system are not readily accepted or even acknowledged by everyone. However, the facts given in this paper proves that every company is in need of a digital asset management system whether it is an on-demand system maintained by a service provider or an enterprise solution that is hosted and managed internally. Tomorrow, with the ever increasing amount of digital content created, the need for digital asset management on a personal level will be a necessity rather than a luxury.

The trend that is carrying the entire arsenal of business functions to a web based architecture will eventually make DAM systems, integrated with other online applications to provide an on-the-fly access to all necessary information an employee needs to perform his/her tasks from anywhere and anytime.

Works Cited

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4. Kotob, Hassan. “Business Intelligence.” 28 December 2008. eBiz The Insider’s Guide to Business and IT Agility. 21 June 2009 .

5. Krogh, Peter. The DAM Book, Digital Asset Management for Photographers. Napa: O’Reilly, 2005.

6. McLuhan, Marshall. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964.

7. van Niekerk, A J. The Strategic Management of Media Assets; A Methodological Approach. New Orleans: Allied Academies, 2006.