Introduction to Digital Asset Management

Introduction to Digital Asset Management

asset ('as∙et) – noun: a useful or valuable thing, person, or quality.

digital ('dij∙i∙dl) – adjective: relating to the use of computer technology.

digital asset: a useful or valuable computer file.

Digital assets are everywhere in the modern business world. As organizations of all sizes create critical assets for a growing range of business purposes, digital asset management (DAM) is more important than ever. DAM is a discipline to store, categorize, search, retrieve, and archive digital files, such as images, documents, creative files, and audio and video clips. We call these digital files “assets” because a significant amount of time, effort, and expense goes into creating content, thus making the files valuable resources. However, the value of these assets can only be truly realized if they’re available to everyone who needs them, when they need them.

Key Benefits of Digital Assets

Whether it’s a font that’s used and reused throughout a website or a video of a company gathering, all digital assets supply value of some kind. Businesses rely on digital assets to build brand awareness and present a visual identity for their products or services. And high-value assets are the ones that get a lot of eyeballs, in print or digital media, and across a variety of digital channels such as websites or social media messaging.

For a creative individual or organization, digital assets are of tremendous value—assuming you can store, organize, and retrieve them easily.

Key Benefits of Digital Asset Management

Recent years have seen DAM adoption explode among organizations with growing numbers of digital assets. The reasons for this are straightforward:

  • DAM products can integrate directly with existing creativity software, supercharging the application’s functionality, streamlining your workflow, and improving productivity.

  • A good DAM product is one that’s intuitive and easy to implement, which translates to a rapid boost in productivity without constant support.

  • DAM makes it easy to share assets, which has benefits for efficiency and effectiveness.

Portfolio and DAM

  • Portfolio is a scalable solution, built for collections of a few thousand to tens of millions of assets.

  • Portfolio stores all file types (images, graphics, videos, text, etc.) in their highest quality formats and lets users convert them on demand.

  • Portfolio protects your assets in a secure vault, letting your users fit asset creation, modification, and use into their regular workflow.

  • Different client applications let editors, creatives, and managers access assets based on their needs.

  • Portfolio lets users upload assets from mobile devices, so users don’t have to wait for someone to return to the office before they can start working.

  • Portfolio lets you publish collections of assets to a web server for the ultimate in selection and conversion convenience.

  • Portfolio does all this while maintaining the integrity and security of your assets.

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