Enterprises remain stifled by legacy enterprise content management (ECM) systems as well as homegrown asset management solutions that do not scale, according to Melinda Cormier, Nuxeo’s senior director of digital marketing and brand strategy.
“These solutions are not applicable to how you’re moving your business forward,” Cormier said. “Modern companies want to grow.”
Cormier delivered that message in a recent CMSWire webinar sponsored by Nuxeo, which detailed how to "Redefine Your Digital Asset Strategy for 2017." New York City-based Nuxeo is a hyperscale digital asset platform. A digital asset management (DAM) system that scales globally, provides deep insight and analytics, has good search, allows for third-party integrations through APIs and provides strong governance program provides a solid foundation for digital transformation, she said.
DAM Benefits
James Goldman, senior manager of content marketing at Equinix, a Redwood City, Calif.-based global interconnection and data center company, joined Cormier in the webinar to explain the nuances of DAM.
Organizations should realize that DAM is about assets rather than publishable assets. A content management system (CMS) does the latter, he added.
A DAM houses all the components that comprise that published asset, such as photos, videos and audio files.
“DAM is different than content management but the best DAM systems are integrated with CMS,” Goldman said. DAM systems are beginning to “blur the lines” with CMS — “and that’s a good thing,” according to Goldman.
DAM also provides organizations governance around digital assets.
“A lot of times,” Goldman said, “the impetus is to say we need a new DAM because we can’t find anything. There are assets all over the company and we don’t know where they are. We can’t find it. We don’t know it’s there, and we can’t use it. Or we may know it’s there but we don’t know when to use it. That’s when governance comes into play.”
Governance provides a framework to ensure organizational goals are met.
DAM Challenges
Cormier said organizations still difficult to integrate DAM into their business processes. There are a growing number of content types and delivery channels. They are unable to evolve and scale over time as needs change. And Goldman agreed.
“I see ultimately this idea as almost a domino effect where you have siloed assets and that limits people and organizations to understand those assets and harness those assets,” Goldman said. “And that’s an inability to evolve or scale. Companies are more and more becoming content marketing companies, and these digital assets are their value proposition.”
Beyond Marketing
Managing digital assets must be a cross-organizational function to “leverage the value of your content.”
To succeed in DAM, Cormier suggests stakeholders:
Unlock the value of their digital assets. Describe your assets and know how they can be leveraged for business needs.
Embed DAM into the fabric of your business. Bring in other departments. You need to go across the organization if you want to have digital transformation success, Cormier said. Create an API-first technology infrastructure.
Continuously innovate ahead of market. Take advantage of new technology like image recognition and automated video storyboards
Evolve and scale as needs change. Adapt as the market changes and needs. Have a flexible content model that’s configurable rather than content-coded. Future-proof the application and allow for a diverse set of deployment options.
Dom Nicastro is managing editor of CMSWire and an award-winning journalist with a passion for technology, customer experience and marketing. With more than 20 years of experience, he has written for various publications, like the Gloucester Daily Times and Boston Magazine. He has a proven track record of delivering high-quality, informative, and engaging content to his readers. Dom works tirelessly to stay up-to-date with the latest trends in the industry to provide readers with accurate, trustworthy information to help them make informed decisions. Connect with Dom Nicastro:
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