A Look Back at Digital Asset Management (DAM) in 2010

By Irina Guseva (@irina_guseva) Dec 29, 2010

Digital Asset Management (DAM) has seen a surge of elevated attention in 2010. But this is not the only year-in-review highlight we point out as we close the DAM books this year.

2010 is the Year of DAM's Rising Popularity

As more and more organizations realize the need to effectively manage all content types, including multimedia and digital assets, they start looking at specialized solutions to accomplish that mission.

DAM in 2010 stepped out of the realm of being a useful tool for only large media houses and made its way to organizations outside of the M&E vertical. There are many challenges to be solved as the need for DAM grows for anyone who needs to manage brand assets, images, videos, audio files.

A perfect illustration of that is one of the polls we conducted this year that revealed that the majority of organizations are still using file shares to manage their digital assets.

DAM Vendors Sans Frontiers

With DAM popularity rising, vendors started hopping around the globe to expand their horizons and persuade the markets of DAM goodness. Many saw opportunities outside of their home bases to extend customer acquisitions and increase revenues.

Usability is the Main DAM Challenge

People need DAM, but is DAM ready to give people all they need? Managing digital assets is not as straightforward as you may think. While you may have a DAMS that allows you to do that, is it an easy task?

Many DAM systems have good functionalities, but the majority of them have issues related to complex interfaces, multi-step processes and alignment with current workflows.

DAM vendors started to address UX issues by really concentrating on polishing their UIs in product releases that saw light in 2010. Other improvements included adding integration points and redesigning some of the functionalities to make them fit more seamlessly within the larger landscape of the organization.

DAM and Web Engagement Management

As revealed in one of the latest pieces of research, companies look at DAM as a way to save money and improve operational efficiency and not only as an enhanced marketing vehicle. This has changed in only 12 months. Last year, organizations were identifying DAM as a means of increasing returns on marketing investment and ensuring brand consistency.