In this blog:
- Launching your DAM project
- Dealing with team roles and responsibilities
- Managing Asset Workflow
After you have selected a DAM that meets your company’s needs, you need to plan your implementation. This involves convincing everyone in your organization on the value the DAM will provide, and the time it will save them by using effective workflows.
This chapter takes a closer look at the planning that is needed to prepare a DAM launch in your organization and the training that’s required to encourage adoption.
Strategic planning for your DAM project
Creating a time frame for your launch is the first step in implementing a DAM. Your plan would typically include estimated dates for four phases:
- Planning: In the planning phase, you decide which objectives to tackle and when.
- Implementation: Implementation means getting the DAM system up and running.
- Training: This includes teaching people how to log in and use the system.
- Launch: This is where you officially announce that the system is live and ready for use.
These planned phases give the internal team involved the chance to see how the initial DAM project will roll out. The team members can also weigh in on any timing issues, which can help to facilitate buy‐in. Next, you want to consider the following activities and how they fit into your overarching plan:
- Setting priorities
- Identifying DAM champions and stakeholders
- Understanding your internal customer
- Branding your DAM
- Locking down your metadata
- Educating and training the team
- Building momentum
- Assessing success and failure
The following sections examine each in a bit more depth.
Be prepared to be flexible, especially if you’re taking an agile approach to project management.
Setting priorities
To create an effective system, you have to know what your guiding principles are. This stage is where you establish your mission and purpose for your DAM system. You need to match your objectives with the goals of the business so that your DAM produces ongoing value to the organization.
Identifying stakeholders and champions
You next need to determine who the key stakeholders will be. They should participate from the strategy phase of the program so that you get their best thinking and encourage their buy‐in. You also need to identify internal champions who will support your efforts and broaden your understanding and use of the system. These internal champions can be from a variety of different departments.
Understanding your internal customer
To ensure use of the system, you need to be clear about who your internal customer is. Your champions will provide you with relevant information, but what about your average user? Do you understand their needs? You can’t skip this step if you want to ensure that everyone, both internal staff and external agencies, wants to and does use the system.
Branding your DAM
When you first launch your DAM, some users will be reluctant to jump in and start working. If you create a customized onbrand portal, you’ll make the DAM feel familiar to users. They’ll recognize the branding elements, fonts, and colors, and they’ll be less afraid to try it.
Locking down your metadata
The key to a great DAM is the development of useful metadata. Make sure you pay particular attention to it and be consistent with tagging. Refer to Chapter 2 for more information about metadata.
Educating and training
You need to provide effective training and education to help staffers adopt the system. Planning how you’ll educate your users before you launch the DAM is important. Refer to the section, “Educating Your Team for DAM” later in this chapter for more on training.
Building momentum
If you demonstrate some initial success with your DAM, you can build momentum and get users to engage with the system. Discover a feature that is working well and showcase it to staffers. Success builds on itself.
Assessing success and failure
After the system is launched, your work is really just beginning. You need to determine what works and what needs improvement. If your DAM has built‐in analytics, you can see how people are using the system. You could even create key performance indicators (KPIs) that might help you directly assess engagement and usage. Chapter 6 discusses KPIs in greater detail.
Don’t rely just on the analytics. Survey teams and interview people to get feedback.
