“DAMs Gone Wild” Webinar, Thur 21 Feb 2013, 10am PT
Createasphere’s DAM Coalition off-shoot are hosting a webinar, with the title “DAMs Gone Wild” on Thursday 21st February at 10am Pacific Time. The event will feature DAM Survival Guide author, David Diamond as well as Jacob Jaroch and Ryan Messier from Harley Davidson who will discuss how to return order and organisation back to a previous DAM initiative which may have fallen into disrepair:
“Even the best-planned digital asset management systems can become difficult to use over time. Policies lapse, users get lazy, and DAM managers come and go. No matter what the cause, a DAM that’s become cumbersome does no one any good and it must be tamed. Join Harley-Davidson DAM managers, Jacob Jaroch and Ryan Messier, as they discuss and debate DAM troubles and solutions with “DAM Survival Guide” author, David Diamond. Concise, easy-to-follow ideas you can put into practice today are what you’ll take away from this free 45-minute webinar.” [Read More]
This issue appears to becoming more prevalent as the DAM market matures. Many of the clients I work with are now on their second or third DAM iteration. On many occasions, I find that simply replacing one incumbent product with a new one won’t help to resolve the problems because they are often not technology related. Many of the issues are with the end users themselves and unrealistic expectations or lazy usage behaviour patterns. In some cases, the replacement can make things worse because any accumulated expertise leaks away as soon as the old system gets switched off.
Last year, I wrote an article for CMS Wire about Self Service DAM systems. The item was billed as a rebuttal to an earlier piece by Ed Smith, but it was more of a reality-check about what often happens when DAMs get deployed and the end users are far less enthusiastic about them than their management or the system vendor. The takeaway point from that was that training and change management are essential to successful DAM programmes. What I hope (and expect given the calibre of the speakers) is that they will emphasise that this change management process is on-going and doesn’t stop until one decides one does not need DAM any longer (so it’s an activity with an indefinite duration). The change management process can sometimes get more difficult over time as the original staff who were in place when the system was first deployed will move on to other positions elsewhere and their replacements need to be instructed about the capabilities available, how to get the best out of them and the peculiarities that all software applications have lurking within them.
That is not to say that clunky old applications should never be replaced, but like my many things in life, while going shopping for something shiny and new will almost certainly dent your wallet, it won’t necessarily improve your state of mind. If you are contemplating how to handle an overgrown DAM that has become unruly and difficult to manage, this webinar looks well worth tuning in to.
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