What is digital asset management?

Why is digital asset management important?

Digital asset management encompasses more than just storage solutions; it represents a comprehensive approach to handling digital content in the enterprise environment. Organizations generate and acquire vast amounts of digital content daily, from marketing materials and product photos, to training videos and brand guidelines. Without a proper DAM system, these valuable assets can become scattered across various storage locations, leading to inefficiency, inconsistency, and potential security risks. The implementation of DAM solutions helps organizations maintain control over their digital assets while maximizing their value and utility across different departments and use cases.

The business value of digital asset management

The implementation of a DAM system delivers substantial business value across multiple dimensions of organizational operations. At its core, DAM technology streamlines workflows and reduces the time spent searching for and managing digital assets, which can result in significant cost savings, improved productivity, and reduced risk of unauthorized asset use. Organizations utilizing DAM systems typically experience enhanced collaboration between teams, faster time-to-market for campaigns and products, and stronger brand consistency across all channels and touchpoints.

Cost efficiency and resource optimization
Digital asset management systems generate cost savings through various mechanisms. By centralizing asset storage and management, organizations can eliminate redundant asset creation and purchases, reducing both direct costs and staff time invested in asset management, as well as consolidating legacy storage systems to reduce file duplication. The automated workflows and advanced search capabilities enable teams to quickly locate and utilize existing assets, preventing unnecessary recreation of similar content. Additionally, DAM systems help organizations maintain proper licensing and usage rights tracking, reducing the risk of costly compliance issues or copyright infringements.

Brand consistency and control
One of the primary advantages of implementing a DAM system is the ability to maintain strict brand consistency across all marketing channels and customer touchpoints. DAM solutions provide centralized control over brand assets, ensuring that all users access the most current and approved versions of logos, images, and other brand elements. This centralization helps prevent the use of outdated or unapproved assets, maintaining brand integrity and professional appearance across all communications and marketing materials.

Elevate customer experiences with DAM-powered digital experiences
Maximize content value by combining digital asset management with digital experience management. Streamline workflows, accelerate content delivery, and ensure brand consistency across channels. Empower teams with AI-driven automation, real-time collaboration, and personalized experiences that drive engagement. Deliver seamless, data-driven digital experiences that enhance customer success, foster loyalty, and drive business growth at scale.

Key features of digital asset management systems

Modern DAM systems offer a robust set of features designed to address the complex needs of enterprise asset management. These systems combine sophisticated technology with user-friendly interfaces to provide comprehensive solutions for organizations of all sizes.

Asset organization and metadata management
Effective DAM systems provide robust organizational capabilities through intelligent metadata management and tagging systems. Organizations can create custom taxonomy and metadata schemas that align with their specific needs and workflows, enabling precise categorization and easy retrieval of assets. Advanced metadata management allows users to track essential information such as usage rights, expiration dates, and approval status, ensuring compliance and proper asset utilization throughout the content lifecycle.

Workflow automation and collaboration tools
DAM systems streamline content workflows through automated processes and collaborative features. These systems can automate routine tasks such as format conversion, watermarking, and approval routing, reducing manual effort and accelerating content delivery. Built-in collaboration tools enable teams to share, comment on, and approve assets within the system, eliminating the need for external communication channels and ensuring all feedback and revisions are properly documented.

OpenText's digital asset management solutions

OpenText offers two comprehensive digital asset management solutions designed to meet the diverse needs of modern enterprises: OpenText™ Digital Asset Management (DAM) and OpenText™ Core DAM. These solutions leverage practical AI through OpenText™ Experience Aviator to manage rich media content throughout its lifecycle, from creation and distribution to retirement.

OpenText Digital Asset Management
OpenText Digital Asset Management is our flagship enterprise digital asset management software, offering powerful capabilities for organizations with complex digital asset requirements. The system provides industry-leading features including AI-enabled search, powerful workflow automation, and sophisticated rights management tools. Organizations using OpenText DAM benefit from limitless scalability, handling billions of assets and petabytes of data without performance degradation.

Key capabilities of OpenText DAM include:

• Maximum extensibility through comprehensive APIs and versatile integration frameworks, enabling organizations to extend digital media services into other systems and processes with powerful no-code optimization tools.
• Advanced access control and personalization that combines simple authentication integration with powerful tools for governing user experiences and content access.
• Flexible metadata management offering both pre-built templates and customizable metadata models to track essential asset information, including tags, expiry dates, usage rights, and approval history.

OpenText Core DAM
OpenText Core Digital Asset Management (DAM) is smart, simple, and agile cloud-native digital asset management software designed for marketing and communications teams seeking rapid deployment and immediate value in the OpenText Experience Cloud. This multitenant SaaS solution provides an intuitive, personalized user experience specifically tailored for marketers, enabling quick onboarding and efficient asset management. Core DAM integrates seamlessly with OpenText™ Customer Communications and Experience Cloud solutions, providing a streamlined approach to digital asset management.

Core DAM's distinctive features include:

• An intuitive user interface designed specifically for busy creative and marketing professionals, minimizing training time and maximizing productivity.
• Integrated generative AI capabilities through OpenText Experience Aviator for automatic metadata creation and image generation.
• Seamless publishing flexibility that enables content distribution across any channel while maintaining brand consistency.

DAM integration and extensibility
OpenText's DAM solutions offer extensive integration capabilities with leading business applications and creative tools. The platforms integrate with solutions from Adobe, Microsoft, Google, and many others, including:

• Creative design tools: Adobe Creative Cloud suite including Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
• Cloud storage and collaboration: Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, and SharePoint
• Enterprise systems: Salesforce, SAP, and various content management platforms
• AI services: AWS Rekognition, Google Vision AI, and Microsoft Azure AI

This comprehensive integration ecosystem ensures seamless workflows and efficient asset management across the entire digital content lifecycle.

DAM implementation and best practices

Successful implementation of a digital asset management system requires careful planning and consideration of organizational needs and objectives. Organizations should begin by conducting an assessment of their current digital asset landscape—including an inventory of existing assets—workflow analysis, and identification of key stakeholders and users.

Planning and preparation
Before implementing a DAM system, organizations should establish clear objectives and success metrics for their digital asset management initiative. This planning phase should include analysis of current workflows, user needs, and technical requirements. Organizations should also consider factors such as storage requirements, security needs, and integration requirements with existing systems and workflows.

User adoption and training
The success of a DAM implementation depends on user adoption, targeted training, and ongoing governance. Unlike enterprise content management systems, DAM solutions typically have a small number of contributors and a much larger community of read-only users who might only access the system a few times per year. Elegantly delivering optimized experiences for different user types is a hallmark of a well-implemented DAM solution.

Digital asset management builds brand value

Digital asset management represents a critical investment for organizations seeking to optimize their digital content operations and maintain competitive advantage in today's digital marketplace. Through strategic implementation of DAM solutions, organizations can achieve significant improvements in operational efficiency, brand consistency, and content security. The comprehensive features offered by modern DAM systems—particularly those provided by OpenText, the global leader in information management —enable organizations to effectively manage their digital assets throughout the content lifecycle, while delivering measurable business value and return on investment.