The Paradox of Choice in DAM, ECM, MAM and CMS: Vendor Fatigue Or Unrealistic User Expectations?


In this article by one of our featured DAM Vendors, WAVE Corporation, the theory outlined by psychologist Barry Schwartz in his video ‘ The Paradox of Choice’ is applied to the predicament that many consumers seeking software to manage digital information face, namely that too much choice makes procurement more complex, rather than better.

“Back when people started using computers, it was amazing that you could find a file by remembering about when it was created and looking through the list of files for those dates.  Now content is abundant, shareable, searchable, editable and we’ve created a new set of problems of how to manage all these choices.” [Read More]

The point about excessive choice leading to ‘analysis paralysis’ amongst buyers of content management technologies has been observed by a number of others.  We covered an article by MailPrint last year which discussed the same issue.  One wonders if vendors are beginning to feel fatigued at the diversity of requirements thrown at them by prospective clients.  It seems inevitable in an era of tightening budgets that more prospective end users will want to combine systems together to try and solve all their problems with a ‘one shot’ solution, but whether all their expectations can be met satisfactorily if they use this strategy has to be in serious doubt.

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