Is Your DAM Facility “Self Service” – And Would Some Of Your End Users Prefer That It Wasn’t?

Ed Smith, of Extensis, has written an article for CMSWire: My Other DAM is a Self-Service Intranet Portal.  He uses the metaphor of petrol pump attendants in Oregon (where it is compulsory to have someone fill up your car, apparently) to illustrate how a self-service DAM rather than a facility where you need to go and ask a ‘gatekeeper’ to get an asset for you is prferable:

“Let’s take a look at the other role in this analogy: the gas station attendant. They’re pretty busy with other customers, and would rather be doing other things like being inside their warm booth or smoking cigarettes (30 feet away of course). People in charge of managing digital asset management collections feel the same way. The DAM manager would rather be working on something besides being an asset concierge. Instead, as a gatekeeper they become a bottleneck and are frequently interrupted with requests for assets. As one DAM attendant recently bemoaned, “They need my brain to find anything!” [Read More]

I have to agree entirely with Ed, however, unlike filling up your car, frequently, the technology and processes for providing access to digital assets mask some other wider business (or more specifically, HR) issue.  I plan to write something about this topic as it is another one of these hidden complications of DAM where the technology gives people an excuse that some are eager to exploit to suit their own agendas.

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