The Digital Asset Management Value Chain: The Future Direction Of DAM In 2013 And Beyond
Subscription Only
Introduction
This article was written by both Ralph Windsor and Naresh Sarwan of DAM News.
In 2011 and 2012, we assessed the prospects for the DAM sector with reference to the technology and business aspects of the industry. This year, we have elected to handle things slightly differently.
DAM gives the impression of a fast-moving sector, but many of the trends take place over a longer period that lasts many years and the pace of change in the industry is not quite as rapid as many of the participants would like to think.
Subscription Required
You need an active DAM News subscriber account to access this content. If you already have a DAM News subscription, you can log into your account here.
Another healthy dose of “adult supervision” from DAM News.
As an industry, we have to accept that what we do is support other business processes. Without those processes, there would be no point to DAM. Until recently, I think virtually all DAM vendors approached the market thinking they were on par with Photoshop or PowerPoint in terms of being an “application of asset origin,” let’s say.
Having been around this industry for so long, it’s really great to see so many people now thinking differently about what DAM is and needs to become. What’s left to see is which vendors (if any) can think far enough into the future to see what’s happening and then, of course, be able to execute on what they predict.
After all, for all the noise we hear from vendors about DAM’s evolution, we sure don’t seem to see much evidence of that evolution. At least not yet.
But the year is young.
David Diamond
Director of Global Marketing
Picturepark DAM
Thanks, excellent article! I have posted a reply on my blog (I’m a DAM software developer, currently thinking a lot about components and integration, so this fits in quite nicely):
http://www.strehle.de/tim/weblog/archives/2013/01/15/1548
Thanks for the reply post on your blog, Tim. You make some good points on that, I especially agree with this one:
“customers will want to combine different components in the same user interface. Web-based applications make this technologically possible, but to be usable as a UI widget, features must be specifically programmed with this use case in mind”
I’ve read some people talking about REST/XML etc and something like them probably will be the lower level technology to enable DAM value chains to become a practical reality, but something more structured and specific to the needs of DAM looks like it is required.