Embracing Change – Why Vendors Must Adapt to the Shifting Tides of the DAM Market

This article hs been contributed by Martin Reinheimer, founder of ProCress IT Consulting.  Martin’s skillset spans the interface between IT, marketing and media production, having worked in IT and project management for numerous software manufacturers and agencies.

 

The digital asset management market is in a state of flux. There are always new players on the market, but well-known names are also disappearing, either due to an acquisition by a market competitor or because the product is no longer up to the current requirements and has reached the end of its product life cycle. This article examines the reasons for the market changes and provides guidance on how potential DAM customers should meet the challenges.

The dominant players of the old world

In the nineties, all was still well with the world from the perspective of the established manufacturers: DAM systems were not yet called DAM systems because they did not manage all types of digital assets but were limited almost entirely to static image data. Data conversions often focussed on print channels, this required core expertise in high-quality image processing. Social media, which is the most important marketing discipline for many industries today, was used more privately than commercially.

Manufacturers were able to rest on IT architectures that had grown over many years and had been iteratively expanded with new functions, always emphasising the high-quality standards that the solution met. The architectures were based on established standards and programming languages, which led to a monolithic structure.

They didn’t have a product, but rather sold (and maintained) a large number of projects. In doing so, they tried to fulfil the respective customer requirements, which diluted the product character and made every further core development difficult – and increasingly costly, as every change in the product required the holistic testing of every project, including the subsequent deployment of every single instance.

Technology change flushes disruptive approaches onto the market

The first wave of significant new technologies hit the market with cloud developments: new storage concepts made online storage affordable and globally available. With new IT architectures, functional modules were implemented as lightweight services that are globally available as web services. Services are controlled via well-defined APIs and can therefore be maintained and further developed atomically. There is even a move towards an API-first mentality, where either no frontend is specified at all (“headless”) or the delivered frontend exclusively uses its own API. APIs make it much easier to integrate third-party systems and proprietary services into the overall tech stack.

At the latest with this technological change, the triumphal march of digital channels also begins. Social media gains commercial relevance, the market share of online shopping is constantly increasing and an alternative to print communication is emerging. With the change, the quality standards of digital assets in advertising are falling. While colour management was meticulously monitored in print catalogues, it is increasingly unimportant to customers – because hardly any end customers interested in a product have a calibrated monitor or attach importance to a colour-accurate representation of a product.

It gets even more dramatic: the availability of AI tools is accelerating development at an unprecedented pace: AI enables both the automation of processes and the creation of content with generative AI – both requirements that are being celebrated among DAM customers and that will play an essential role in increasing efficiency in any media production in the foreseeable future. AI tools are generally always cloud-based services and play into the hands of any provider that already has cloud-native solutions in its portfolio.

What does this mean for providers?

For established providers, the development is problematic – you have to recognise early enough that the market and requirements are changing; you also have to deal with the new technologies. Migrating an existing product to the new world of technology often seems impossible – the old solution has grown too wildly, and often the only option is a hard cut and the start of a completely new development. Timing is crucial here, as many resources must be made available for the new development while sales of the existing product still must be guaranteed. But communication with customers is also crucial, because you must consider concerns about the new technologies in terms of data security and costs. However, burying your head in the sand will not help, as the market will not offer enough customers in the foreseeable future to decide in favour of a traditional solution.

There are often only two options: Either develop a state-of-the-art system from scratch or find your own niche and offer a highly specialised product for a smaller market.

This development is a great opportunity for new providers: despite a lack of expertise in image processing, it will be much easier to develop a system that focuses on the basic DAM fundamentals: Creating, managing and delivering digital assets – preferably via content delivery networks and with flexibly scalable performance according to demand.

What does this mean for customers?

The market for DAM solutions is changing. The number of available solutions tends to grow, but they are also becoming more diversified. Market observation and screening is essential before making a decision.

When making your selection, you should focus less on bulging reference customer lists and more on the technology behind the solution. It is also important to consider the fragmentation of the offering and look for products that best meet your individual requirements. Independent consultancy services from institutions that keep a constant eye on the market are a good investment to minimise the risk of making the wrong decision at a central point in your own infrastructure.

Conclusion

This has never been different in the overall economic context: if you wait too long, you miss the opportunity and are penalised by the market. The only difference is that with high-tech products, the clocks seem to turn faster, and you therefore must keep a constant eye on developments.

As a customer, it is not only advisable to look at the vendor’s reputation; it is much more important to have a holistic overview of the market to be able to select a strategically important component of your own MarTech infrastructure in a future-proof manner.

 

About Martin Reinheimer

With over 25 years working in projects for globally renowned customers from a wide range of industries, Martin has acquired comprehensive expertise in software solutions, with a 360° view and knowledge of requirements gathering, planning, strategy and design, implementation and configuration, testing, and commissioning.  He has recently launched IT consultancy proCress.

You can connect with Martin via his LinkedIn profile or view his details in our DAM Expert Directory.

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