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Everything You Need to Know About Choosing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) System

Everything You Need to Know About Choosing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) System

An in-depth guide to help you navigate each step in the process of choosing a digital asset management (DAM) system with confidence.

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Building a DAM Business Case

How to outline the organizational needs for a DAM system and sell the need for DAM to stakeholders.

A successful Digital Asset Management (DAM) program isn’t built by picking the “best” software — it starts by asking the right questions about your business, content, and users long before you evaluate vendors. From metadata and taxonomy to rights management, workflow, and governance, every piece of your DAM foundation should reflect the real-world goals and challenges of your organization.

In this article, discover the essential frameworks and questions to uncover the “who, what, when, where, and why” of your digital assets. Learn why DAM is a program, not just a project — and how building the right foundation first sets you up for long-term success, greater adoption, and true return on investment.

Learn how to build a business case

Assessing Your Organization’s DAM Needs

How to determine internal requirements, identify stakeholders, and document specific business objectives.

Learn practical ways to identify stakeholders, run focused interviews, and map your organization’s real challenges and goals. By building your DAM business case around people, workflows, and measurable objectives, you’ll move from guesswork to a user-driven vision that’s ready for vendor conversations — or even ready to improve your existing system.

This article shows you how to slow down, ask the right questions, and gather insights that turn frustrations and scattered tools into clear priorities.

Discover how to assess your organization's DAM needs

Documenting your DAM Selection Criteria

How to create guidelines for defining essential features, technical capabilities, integrations, and vendor requirements.

Choosing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system isn’t just about checking boxes on a feature list — it’s about finding the right long-term partner to support your workflows, users, and digital strategy. But without clearly documented criteria, it’s easy to get lost in vendor demos, slick marketing, and buzzwords like “AI” or “cloud-native.”

This article shows you how to cut through the noise: start with business requirements, build a shortlist based on real needs, and ask the tough questions that reveal what truly sets vendors apart. Learn how to engage vendors with purpose, document meaningful differentiators, and create a selection process that protects your investment — and delivers real value to your organization.

Read more on how to document your DAM selection criteria

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Conducting Market Research and Shortlisting Vendors

Best practices for researching, comparing, and narrowing down DAM providers.

Choosing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system isn’t just about checking boxes on a feature list — it’s about finding the right long-term partner to support your workflows, users, and digital strategy. But without clearly documented criteria, it’s easy to get lost in vendor demos, slick marketing, and buzzwords like “AI” or “cloud-native.”

This article shows you how to cut through the noise: start with business requirements, build a shortlist based on real needs, and ask the tough questions that reveal what truly sets vendors apart. Learn how to engage vendors with purpose, document meaningful differentiators, and create a selection process that protects your investment — and delivers real value to your organization.

Learn how to shortlist vendors the right way

Issuing DAM RFPs and Evaluating Responses

Tips for developing a strong request for proposal (RFP) or RFI, reviewing submissions, conducting vendor evaluations, and engaging with your procurement office.

In the crowded world of Digital Asset Management (DAM), a well-crafted request for proposal (RFP) can make the difference between finding the right partner — or getting lost in lookalike demos and sales pitches. A strong DAM RFP doesn’t just list features; it connects your real-world priorities, workflows, and user needs to what vendors can actually deliver, making true apples-to-apples comparisons possible.

In this article, you’ll discover what makes DAM RFPs unique, how to structure yours effectively, and the critical questions to ask vendors so your selection process stays focused, strategic, and aligned with your organization’s goals.

Discover how to create a DAM RFP

Managing DAM Software Demos and Proof of Concepts

How to prepare for vendor demos, conduct effective trial periods, and gather feedback from users.

A slick sales demo might look impressive — but will that DAM system actually work for your teams, assets, and workflows? The real test comes when you put vendors through real-world demos and proof-of-concepts (POCs) built around your actual content and usage scenarios.

In this article, learn how to plan and run demos and POCs that go beyond feature checklists. Discover how to define meaningful tasks, prepare real assets, involve diverse users, and capture structured feedback that makes your selection process data-driven — not gut-driven. When you test systems against what your teams truly need, you’re not just choosing software; you’re choosing with confidence.

Learn how to manage vendor demos

Choosing the Right DAM: Making the Final Selection

Advice on selecting the final vendor and ensuring future flexibility.

After months of demos, proof-of-concepts, and vendor research, it’s time to make the call: which DAM system is truly right for your organization? The answer isn’t in the flashiest interface or the longest feature list — it’s in how well each option aligns with your real goals, workflows, and future growth.

This article shows you how to move from gut feeling to evidence-based decision: using structured scoring, weighted criteria, and cross-team input to choose the platform that best supports your users and strategy. You’ll also learn how to avoid common final-pick pitfalls, document your reasoning, and build internal buy-in so implementation starts on solid ground.

Find out how to make your final decision on a DAM vendor

Set the foundation.

Remember, selecting a Digital Asset Management system is about understanding your organization’s unique workflows, content, people, and long-term goals. By investing the time to assess real needs, document selection criteria, explore the market thoughtfully, and test systems against real scenarios, you’re setting the foundation for a DAM that delivers real value, not just software.

Just the beginning.

However, DAM success doesn’t stop at the final decision. It depends on the groundwork you’ve laid like engaging stakeholders, aligning on business objectives, and planning for governance, training, and support. A disciplined, user-driven selection process is what makes the difference between a system that struggles for adoption and one that becomes an integral part of how your teams create and collaborate every day.

Focus on the People.

Wherever you are on this journey — building a business case, running demos, or making your final call — keep your focus on the people and outcomes that matter most. And know that each step, done thoughtfully, moves you closer to a DAM that fits your organization today and scales with you into tomorrow.

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Choosing a Digital Asset Management System: The Final Decision

After months of evaluating platforms, the moment has arrived: it’s time to make a decision on your digital asset management (DAM) system. Your choice will shape how your teams access, manage, and use content for years. Our goal is to help you move forward with confidence.

We assume you’ve already done the necessary legwork: aligning stakeholders, identifying requirements, evaluating right-fit vendors, and running demos and a POC tailored to your assets and workflows. If not, consider revisiting those steps—take a look at our previous posts in this series.

Reconnect with Your Digital Asset Management System Goals

Before comparing feature lists or pricing tables, revisit why you began this process. What problems are you trying to solve? What does success look like a year from now? Make sure your final decision is rooted in those goals. Your task is to choose the digital asset management system that best supports your organization, not just the one with the flashiest interface.

Evaluate DAM Vendors Using a Structured Framework

A decision of this magnitude benefits from objectivity. Using a structured scoring model or decision matrix can help your team make a transparent, evidence-based selection. This approach allows you to evaluate each platform against consistent criteria, assign weights based on your priorities, and compare options side by side. It also creates documentation that supports internal alignment and future reference.

Ten Dimensions to Evaluate Each Digital Asset Management System Vendor Finalist:

1. Value

Does the platform deliver the functionality you need? Does it offer capabilities that significantly improve how your organization produces, manages, and shares content? Focus on alignment with your current and future needs, not the total number of features.

2. Feasibility

Can you implement and maintain the platform with your available resources? Consider implementation effort, integration complexity, and ongoing management. A great-looking system may require infrastructure or capacity you don’t currently have.

3. Usability

How easy is the system for different user groups—admins, content creators, and end users? If these groups weren’t included in demos, or didn’t participate in a proof of concept, go back a step. Be sure to get input from the people who will be affected most. Don’t forget to test admin functionality too.

4. Affordability

Is the pricing model sustainable? In addition to license fees, consider implementation (including integration and migration), training, support, storage, and feature add-ons. Don’t forget to look at the cost of utilizing AI services, too. We recommend projecting costs over at least three years to get a clear picture of the price.

5. Scalability

Will the platform grow with you? Think about asset volume, metadata complexity, user numbers, and geographic spread. If you have a particularly large collection or number of users, ask the vendors what their largest deployments are. Review whether the vendor’s roadmap aligns with your growth trajectory.

6. Security & Compliance

Does the platform meet your organization’s security and compliance requirements? Evaluate encryption, access controls, audit trails, and alignment with standards like GDPR or SOC 2. Consider both technical and policy aspects.

7. Ecosystem Fit

How well does the platform integrate with your current systems? Assess APIs, connectors, plugin availability, and the vendor’s experience with relevant third-party tools. Custom integration can quickly become a significant area of cost and complexity, so look for vendors that plug-in to your ecosystem easily.

8. Social Proof

Have similar organizations (in industry, size, scale, complexity) adopted this platform successfully? Are they growing with it over time? Review case studies, references, and testimonials. Speak directly with current customers to learn about the vendor’s strengths and limitations.

9. Trust

Does the vendor seem like a reliable long-term partner? Look at financial stability, delivery track record, and support reputation. Review SLAs, support channels, and upgrade policies. You’ll get great insights when you speak to other customers.

10. Exit Path

If your needs change, can you move on easily? Ask vendors how they support full export of assets, metadata, vocabularies, and user data in open formats. Understand the terms and costs of a potential exit.

Assign Weights and Score Objectively

Not all criteria carry the same weight. A nonprofit with limited IT support may prioritize feasibility and security, while a global brand may focus on integration and scalability. Assign weights to reflect your priorities, then score each option accordingly.

Final DAM evaluation using weighted scoring

Include a cross-functional team in the process to reflect diverse perspectives and build alignment. Document your evaluation so you can refer back to it as needed.

Avoid Common Final-Decision Pitfalls

Even with a strong evaluation process, watch out for these missteps:

• Letting brand recognition or peer adoption sway your decision
• Letting cost outweigh actual needs
• Underestimating implementation, integration, and migration effort
• Failing to thoroughly vet vendor support and services

Get Internal Buy-In and Document the Decision

Before finalizing, make sure all key stakeholders are aligned. Review the decision rationale with leadership, legal, procurement, and IT to surface any final concerns. And as a reminder, don’t forget to talk to your chosen vendor’s current customers (and not just the ones they suggest you talk to!)

Document your decision, including priorities and tradeoffs. This record will be valuable during implementation and future reviews.

Final Thoughts

Selecting a DAM system is more than a software purchase. It’s a strategic decision that will shape how your organization manages content for years. Use comprehensive evaluation criteria and a collaborative process to choose with confidence.

When implementation begins, you’ll be glad you did.

Digital Asset Management Demos and Proof of Concepts

Digital asset management demos and POCs are where things get real. A demo is a live, guided walkthrough of your specific usage scenarios—ideally using your actual assets. A proof of concept (POC) goes further, giving your team hands-on access to test how the system performs with real workflows. Together, they offer a grounded, honest look at whether a system fits, not just how it looks in a sales deck.

A structured, goal-driven approach to managing these activities is the best way to move from feature lists to informed decisions.

Before the Demo: Set Your Foundation

Start by defining what matters most to your organization. Common areas to evaluate in a DAM system include:

• Workflow automation
• Metadata structure and taxonomy
• Permissions and user roles
• Search and discovery
• Upload and download processes
• User interface and experience (UI/UX)
• Integrations with other systems (e.g., CMS, PIM, MAM)

Also consider what makes your organization unique. Do you manage large volumes of high-resolution images, video, or audio (rich media)? Do you need to preserve or migrate older, inconsistent, or incomplete metadata (often referred to as legacy metadata)? These factors should inform the usage scenarios you ask vendors to demonstrate or support during a proof of concept (POC).

If you haven’t created usage scenarios yet, now’s the time. A usage scenario is a short, structured description of a key task a user needs to perform in the system. Each should include:

• A clear title
• The goal or objective
• The user role
• A brief narrative of the scenario
• Success criteria

Aim for 6 to 8 scenarios that reflect your core needs across different user types. A focused set like this keeps digital asset management demos and POCs grounded in what really matters to your team and ensures a more meaningful evaluation.

Preparing for the Demo

Give vendors a chance to show how their system handles your real-world needs. Ask them to walk through 4–5 key tasks your users need to perform in a two-hour demo session.

About two weeks before the demo, send each vendor a small sample of your actual content—around 25 assets in a mix of file types and sizes—along with a simple spreadsheet describing those files (titles, descriptions, dates, etc.). If you work with items made up of multiple files (like a book with individual page scans), include one or two of those as well.

The goal is to see how the system performs with your materials—not polished demo content—so you can better understand how it might work for your team.

Digital Asset Management Demo Participation and Structure

Invite a diverse group:

• Core users
• Edge users with atypical needs
• Technical staff
• Decision-makers

Suggested agenda:

• 30 minutes – Slide-based intro and vendor context
• 60 minutes – Live walkthrough of your usage scenarios
• 30 minutes – Open Q&A

Distribute a feedback form before the demo so your teams can rate the system and each usage scenario in real time. Collect quantitative scores (e.g., “On a scale of 1–5, how well did the system support this scenario?”) to make it easier to compare vendors side by side. Include a few qualitative prompts as well, such as “What surprised you?” or “What did you like or find confusing?” Keep the form short and focused—if it’s too long, people won’t fill it out.

Running the POC

Once you’ve identified a finalist, it’s time for hands-on testing. A two-week POC is ideal—short enough to keep momentum, long enough to explore.

Set expectations upfront. Testers must dedicate focused time. The POC isn’t a background task. If people delay or casually click around, you won’t get meaningful results.

Check with the vendor about potential POC costs. Some vendors charge if their team invests heavily and you don’t purchase. Ask early.

Prepare for a successful POC:

• Give vendors ~3 weeks to configure the system with your content and workflows. Share usage scenarios and access needs early.
• Assign clear roles, for example:
  • End Users – Test search, discovery, and downloads
  • Creators – Test uploads, tagging, and editing metadata
  • Admins – Test permissions, structure, workflows, and configuration
• Create a task-based script aligned with your usage scenarios. Ask testers to log their experience, pain points, and surprises.
• Schedule three vendor touchpoints:
  • Kickoff (60 min):  Introduce the vendor, ensure everyone has access, clarify roles, and walk through the POC goals and script.
  • Midpoint Check-in (30 min):  Surface blockers or confusion while there’s still time to fix them. Encourage open questions: “How do I…?” or “Why isn’t this working?”
  • Wrap-up (30 min): Review what worked and what didn’t. Ask the vendor to walk through anything missed. Preview post-purchase support and onboarding to help gauge confidence in next steps.

Reminder: This is not a sandbox. Stick to the script, test with intention, and focus on how the system performs in a real working scenario.

Decision Making

Pull your team together while the experience is still fresh.

Start with the structured feedback:

• Compare rubric scores across categories like usability, metadata, permissions, and admin tools.
• Look for patterns or outliers: did some roles struggle more than others?
• Discuss gaps, friction points, and what’s non-negotiable.

If your group is large, collect final thoughts via a form and summarize for review.

Document your decision—not just which system you chose, but why. Connect it to your business goals, priorities, and user needs. This not only strengthens your recommendation, but also provides valuable context for onboarding new users and teams. When people understand the reasons behind the choice, they’re more likely to engage with the system and use it effectively. It also gives you a foundation for measuring success after launch.

Final Thoughts

Digital asset management demos and POCs don’t just validate vendor claims, they clarify your priorities, surface assumptions, and test how ready your team is for change. They help you figure out not just if a system works, but how it works for you.

A well-run process builds alignment, fosters engagement, and reduces risk by exposing critical gaps early. Most importantly, it sets the stage for a smoother implementation.

When you choose a system based on real tasks, real users, and real feedback, you’re not just buying software. You’re investing with confidence.

Next Article:

Making the Final Decision on a Digital Asset Management System

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Conducting Market Research and Shortlisting Digital Asset Management Vendors

Choosing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is one of the most critical decisions an organization can make for managing digital content. But diving into the DAM market without guidance can be overwhelming. Dozens of vendors offer similar feature sets, and without a clear plan, it’s easy to get lost in marketing jargon or swayed by a sleek demo that doesn’t reflect your real-world needs.

This process isn’t just about picking a product. It’s about starting a long-term relationship with a vendor who will support your team, evolve with your workflows, and play a role in your digital strategy. That’s why thoughtful market research and intentional shortlisting are essential.

Begin with Requirements, Not Features

Effective vendor research starts with clarity about your needs. Before browsing solutions, define what your organization actually requires from a DAM platform. Consider:

• Who your primary users are and what they need to do with assets
• What types of assets you manage (images, video, audio, documents)
• Metadata standards and requirements
• Integration needs (CMS, PLM, PIM, creative tools, cloud storage, preservation)
• Permission models and access control
• Reporting, analytics, and training needs

List “must-have” and “nice-to-have” features, then use that as your rubric. This helps you stay focused on what matters and avoid shiny features that don’t advance your goals.

Navigating the Digital Asset Management Marketplace

A web search is a fine place to start, but it’s not enough. Vendor websites offer a polished view, but few provide meaningful detail about true differentiators, limitations, or ideal usage scenarios.

Sites like G2, Trustpilot, and Capterra offer user-generated reviews and side-by-side comparisons, which can be helpful for spotting trends or potential red flags. That said, be aware that many listings are paid placements, and reviews often lean toward the extremes—either very positive or very negative. Also, many of the tools listed on these sites aren’t actually full-featured DAM systems. Some, like Canva or Airtable, offer DAM-like features but may not meet the broader needs of your organization. This can make it tricky to distinguish between tools that support part of the workflow and those that can truly serve as a centralized DAM solution.

For deeper and more balanced insight, explore:

• DAM News – Offers industry-specific news, vendor updates, and interviews with practitioners.
• CMSWire – Covers a range of digital workplace topics, including strong, up-to-date content on DAM.
• LinkedIn – A powerful resource where DAM professionals share real-world insights, lessons learned, and vendor experiences. Connect with industry peers who have already implemented a DAM and ask for honest feedback and recommendations.

Research Firms & Case Studies

• Reports from Gartner, Forrester, and Real Story Group provide in-depth vendor evaluations and market analysis. (You can typically find these linked from vendor websites.)
• Seek out case studies from vendor websites to understand how specific solutions perform in real-world contexts.

Industry Events

Consider attending a Henry Stewart DAM Conference, which gathers DAM professionals and vendors for learning and networking. These take place annually in:

• London (June)
• New York City (October)
• Sydney (November)
• Los Angeles (March)

These events offer an opportunity to demo different systems and meet digital asset management vendors in person, expert panels, and the opportunity to hear directly from other organizations about their selection and implementation journeys.

Learn from Peers, with Context

Colleagues can be a great source of insight. Ask what systems they use, what worked well or poorly, and what they’d do differently. These conversations reveal how vendors behave during implementation and long-term support.

But keep in mind: a DAM that works well for your pal over at their organization may not be right for you. Your users, workflows, and digital strategy are unique. A negative experience elsewhere might reflect poor alignment rather than a flawed system. Treat peer feedback as helpful context, not universal truth.

Consult the Experts

If you lack time or in-house expertise, consider hiring a DAM consultant. Specialists know the landscape, can translate your needs into actionable requirements, and can help you run a disciplined selection process. They can also facilitate internal conversations neutrally to surface user needs and pain points, ensuring decisions are informed by real requirements and aligned with strategic goals.

Digging into DAM Differentiators

Most DAMs claim to offer robust features—AI, metadata support, flexible permissions, and more. These terms sound impressive, but they rarely reveal how the system actually works in practice. Real differentiators are found in the details across all functionality areas.

For example:

• “AI” alone isn’t helpful. One platform might offer basic auto-tagging, another facial recognition, or full generative AI descriptions and AI-driven workflows tied to metadata.
• “Controlled vocabularies” are standard. A system with the ability to support complex taxonomies, multilingual thesauri, or ontology integration might stand out if this is what your organization need.
• “Permissions” are expected. Granular controls, field-level restrictions, and automated rights management are worth noting.

Ask vendors for documentation that shows actual configuration options, not just marketing overviews. In demos, go beyond checklists. Ask how it performs at scale, supports your asset types, and adapts to real-world workflows. If you don’t push, vendors may not volunteer specifics.

Engage Digital Asset Management Vendors with Purpose

Once you reach out to digital asset management vendors, you’re signaling interest. Sales reps will follow up. That’s expected. Many will work hard to win your business, and that can be a good thing. But this isn’t just a sales transaction. If you choose their system, you’ll likely be working closely with that company for years.

Pay attention to how vendors engage with you. Do they ask thoughtful questions about your needs? Offer strategic guidance? Or are they focused only on closing the deal? You want a partner, not just a product.

Ask tough, specific questions. Request use-case examples. Involve your users early so they can determine if the system fits their actual workflows.

Early demos can help you understand layout and navigation. But once you’re seriously considering a system, ask for tailored demonstrations using your scenarios and assets. This helps you evaluate both product fit and vendor fit—their responsiveness, flexibility, and support philosophy. And if you really want to get under the hood, consider doing a proof of concept with your top 1-2 finalist vendors.

Building the Shortlist

A shortlist should include only those digital asset management vendors who align with your requirements, fall within your budget, and seem like a cultural fit. Aim for five to six vendors for your Request for Information (RFI) or Request for Proposal (RFP).

After reviewing the vendors’ responses, narrow the list to two or three finalists. Invite them for detailed demos, reference calls, and technical Q&A. Note that at this point, you’re evaluating the partnership as much as the platform.

What Makes Digital Asset Management Vendors Shortlist-Worthy

A vendor becomes shortlist-worthy not just by meeting your technical and functional requirements, but by demonstrating alignment with your organization’s broader context and strategic direction. Beyond feature fit, consider factors like company size and funding stability—these can indicate whether a vendor is likely to support and evolve their platform over the long term. Geographic location may matter for support hours, data residency, or language requirements. Longevity and client retention can signal maturity and reliability, but don’t discount newer vendors if they show strong responsiveness and innovation. Experience within your industry or with similar organizations can also be a valuable indicator of how well the vendor understands your needs and challenges. Most importantly, assess cultural and strategic fit: does the vendor listen actively, offer thoughtful insights, and seem invested in your success? A good partner should feel like an extension of your team, not just a service provider.

Final Thoughts

DAM market research is both a filtering and discovery process. It takes effort, but the payoff is a well-aligned solution that fits your organization and your future.

Stay focused on your goals. Be curious, but critical. Ask hard questions. A solid selection process sets you up for long-term success—not just with the tool, but with the vendor team that supports it and the users who rely on it every day.

Next Article:

Issuing and Evaluating RFPs for DAM Solutions

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Assessing Your Organization’s Digital Asset Management Needs

Choosing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system is a high-stakes process, but it can also be energizing and collaborative when done right. Whether you’re replacing a legacy system or starting from scratch, the first step is understanding what people need. This means listening carefully, mapping what’s working and what’s not, and building shared enthusiasm for what a DAM can unlock.

Start with People

The foundation of this work is people. Find them, talk with them, and the rest will start to fall into place. Before you dive into features or vendors, start with people. A DAM system’s success depends on the constituency that uses and supports it, so identifying and engaging the right voices is essential.

Who makes or uses the digital assets?

Think broadly about anyone who creates, manages, approves, uses, or delivers digital assets. That might include:

• Content creators, designers, and editors
• Marketing and communications teams
• Archivists and records managers
• Product or project managers
• IT and security staff
• Legal, compliance, and risk officers
• Executive sponsors and decision-makers
• Funders or departments responsible for system costs

To identify the right stakeholders, ask:

• Who touches assets from creation through to delivery and preservation?
• Who makes decisions about DAM staffing, training, and long-term support?
• How is the DAM currently funded—or how will it be funded in the future?

Start broad. As you engage people across roles and departments, a smaller group will naturally emerge with deeper involvement, insight, and decision-making responsibility. These are your core stakeholders—the people who will help shape the system and carry it forward.

Listen for Insights

Stakeholder input isn’t just helpful—it’s essential. These conversations shape your goals, expose pain points, and clarify what your DAM needs to support. Engaging the right people early gives you a clearer view of how assets are really managed—and where the friction lives.

As you talk with them, don’t just focus on workflows. Ask about long-term support: Who will own the DAM? Is IT prepared to manage integrations, infrastructure, and security? Is there funding or staffing available to maintain governance, training, and standards? These questions are just as important as functional needs and should guide your assessment from the start.

Start with short, focused interviews. Skip surveys, which often yield surface-level feedback. Instead, speak one-on-one or in small groups. Record conversations (with permission) so you can revisit the details. Ask open-ended, practical questions like:

• What tools do you use to create, manage, or find digital assets?
• What do you wish were easier?
• What already works well?
• How do you handle rights or metadata?
• What slows you down or creates confusion?
• If you had a magic wand, what functionality would you ask for?

Pay attention to the language people use. It’s invaluable when you begin writing requirements or explaining priorities to vendors.

Organize and Prioritize What You’ve Learned

Once you’ve gathered enough feedback, use a simple rubric to organize and prioritize what you’ve learned. This helps you spot patterns, identify gaps, and guide planning. Assessment isn’t just a step toward a decision. It’s how you learn what success will require. It helps you see not only what’s broken but what’s working, what people hope for, and what you’ll need to prioritize.

Your assessment should help you answer:

• Where are the friction points in your asset lifecycle?
• What are the root causes of confusion, delays, or errors?
• What already works well and could be scaled?
• What would help your teams collaborate better or move faster?

A useful way to organize this thinking is with a simple rubric:

This high-level rubric helps turn qualitative insights into a shared understanding of your current landscape. It can surface high-impact gaps, clarify priorities, and serve as a foundation for your implementation roadmap or RFP.

Keep Listening, Keep Refining

At the heart of a successful DAM assessment are people—the users, decision-makers, and behind-the-scenes teams who rely on digital assets every day. Their insights are the source of your best ideas.

Information gathering isn’t a one-time process. Keep asking questions. Keep listening. As your understanding deepens, your priorities will evolve, and your system requirements will sharpen. The more inclusive and user-driven your approach, the more likely you are to select a DAM that meets your real needs and earns long-term support.

What may feel like a jumble of tools, frustrations, and hopes now will eventually turn into clear priorities, confident decisions, and, most importantly, a system that fits the way your organization actually works.

Focus the Vision for Your Digital Assets

With input from your stakeholders in hand, it’s time to define a shared vision for what the DAM is meant to accomplish. That vision comes to life through clear, outcome-driven business objectives. These objectives articulate the why behind the DAM: why it matters, what it will change, and how you’ll know it’s working.

Business objectives help you prioritize features, align teams, and communicate the system’s value to leadership. They keep the project focused, especially when you’re evaluating trade-offs or making decisions down the line.

Before diving into detailed requirements, ask: What does success look like with a digital asset management system in place? Are you aiming to reduce legal risk? Speed up campaign delivery? Preserve institutional knowledge? These goals shape every step of your selection and implementation process and are communicated through business objectives.

A strong business objective answers:

 “What are we trying to improve, fix, or enable with this system?”

Sample Business Objectives:

• Reduce time spent searching for assets by 50% to support faster content delivery Teams currently spend significant time locating approved visuals and files. Reducing this friction will help meet tight publishing timelines and improve responsiveness.
• Ensure only licensed assets are used in public materials Inconsistent tracking of usage rights increases legal and reputational risk. A DAM should help enforce compliance and make rights information visible and actionable.
• Consolidate digital assets created by different users and stored in disparate systems Assets are currently spread across local drives, cloud folders, and legacy tools. Centralizing them will support discoverability, collaboration, and long-term access.

Whenever possible, tie business objectives to measurable outcomes. For example: “Reduce asset search time by 50%” or “Ensure 100% of publicly used assets have visible rights metadata.” These goals can help you evaluate vendors—and later, your DAM’s performance.

Is a New Digital Asset Management System Actually Needed?

One of the goals of a good assessment is clarity. Sometimes that clarity reveals that a new DAM isn’t the right next step. You might discover that your existing system could work with better training, governance, or configuration. Or you may find that the real issue isn’t the technology, but the lack of shared standards or ownership. That’s still progress. A thoughtful assessment can help you solve the right problems, whether or not that includes replacing your DAM.

Next Steps: From Insight to Action

Whether your assessment points to the need for a new DAM or uncovers ways to improve the one you already have, the outcome is the same: you now know what you didn’t know before. It’s time to turn that insight into a plan.

Start by organizing what you’ve learned into something clear and shareable. A spreadsheet, a shared doc, or whatever helps your team keep track of it all. Consolidate data and priorities in one place to prepare for internal planning, vendor conversations, or decision-making.

As you move toward system selection or renewal, take a beat to assess your organizational readiness:

• Who will own the DAM long-term?
• Is IT prepared to support infrastructure, integrations, and identity management?
• Do you have staff or governance in place to manage the operation of the system?

A successful digital asset management system depends on more than just features. It also needs committed people, long-term support, and a structure that can grow with your organization. As you talk with stakeholders and gather input, make sure to document what you’re learning—key themes, priorities, pain points, and goals. Documenting these early insights will help shape shared understanding and keep things grounded as you move into planning and decision-making.

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Documenting your DAM Selection Criteria

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Documenting Your Digital Asset Management Criteria

Choosing a Digital Asset Management (DAM) system isn’t just about comparing feature lists from vendor websites. It starts with understanding your organization’s specific digital asset management criteria: what assets you manage, how your teams work, what’s not working, and where you’re headed. To make good decisions, you need clear documentation that captures those needs in a reusable, structured format.

This article offers practical guidance to help you build that foundation, with examples and templates you can reuse throughout your planning process, including RFP development, vendor evaluations, and internal alignment.

1. Start with a Centralized, Collaborative Document

Use a collaborative tool like Google Sheets, SharePoint, Excel, or AirTable to keep your documentation organized and visible to stakeholders. Create tabs that reflect the key areas in this article (e.g., Stakeholders, Usage Scenarios, Assets, Metadata), and structure your notes in a clear, sortable format. This makes it easier to spot patterns, prioritize shared needs, and track where each requirement came from. Your spreadsheet becomes a central source of truth for drafting your RFP, comparing vendors, and aligning internally.

2. Interview Stakeholders and Track Themes

Record short interviews (with permission) with stakeholders in marketing, creative, archives, IT, legal, and other teams that work with digital assets. Focus on what tools they use, where processes break down, and what they wish were easier.

Skip surveys. Interviews offer deeper insight into workflows, pain points, and expectations, and help you capture the language people actually use. These conversations will ground your future steps, ensuring the DAM supports real-world needs.

Tip: “Role” refers to the type of user experiencing the need (e.g., Designer, Archivist), while “Source” refers to the specific person or department who shared that insight during interviews (e.g., Design Lead, Archives Manager). This helps you see how broadly a need applies and trace it back to the original stakeholder if you need more context later.

3. Inventory Your Digital Assets (Rough Counts Are Fine)

You don’t need a full audit, just a rough idea of what you have, where it is, and who uses it. Include file types, volume estimates, and storage sizes:

This information is essential for planning migration and estimating storage needs, and vendors will need a summarized version to provide accurate costs in their proposals.

4. Look for Metadata (Even If You Don’t Call It That)

Even if you’re not using a formal metadata system yet, your team is probably tracking important information about your assets, like who created them, what they’re about, or how they can be used. That’s metadata.

Start by identifying what kind of information you already track and where it lives. It could be:

• In filenames or folder names
• In a spreadsheet
• Stored inside the file itself (like photo properties and technical information about the file)

You might also hear terms like:

• Metadata schema: This just means a consistent set of fields used to describe your assets, for example, “Photographer,” “Date Taken,” or “Usage Rights.” If you’re not using one yet, that’s okay. Start by listing what you are tracking.
• Embedded metadata: This is metadata that’s saved inside the file itself. For example, a photo might include the date it was taken, the camera model, or GPS location.

You might be tracking more metadata than you realize. Look around, especially in shared drives, naming patterns, or that old spreadsheet someone still updates manually. This will help you decide what metadata to keep as-is, what to standardize, and what metadata to capture automatically (with AI) once your DAM is in place.

5. Document Integration Needs Across Systems

Most DAM systems won’t stand alone. They often need to connect to tools your team already uses. These could include your website CMS, creative tools from Adobe, or archives and records systems.

Think about what other tools or systems it should work with.

Start by making a list of all the software your team already uses—like design programs, content management systems, cloud storage, or social media tools. Then, for each one, ask:

 “What do we need the DAM to do with this system?”

For example:

• Your designers might want to pull images straight from the DAM while working in Adobe Creative Cloud, without switching between tools.
• Your marketing team might need the DAM to automatically send approved images to your website or social media platform.

Making this list now will help you choose a digital asset management (DAM) system that plays nicely with the rest of your tech setup—and saves your team time down the line.

Even if you’re not sure how the integration will work yet, noting your needs now gives vendors and IT something concrete to work with later.

6. Capture Technical Requirements Up Front

Before you choose a digital asset management system, it’s important to document any technical expectations your IT team or organization has. These might include how users will log in, where the system is hosted, or what kind of security and accessibility standards it needs to meet.

Start with questions like:

• Does your organization require Single Sign-On (SSO)?
• Do you prefer a cloud-based system or one hosted internally?
• Are there file size limits you need to support?
• Do you have accessibility or compliance requirements?

No need for a technical spec. Just capture the basics to share with vendors.

Final Thoughts

Take your time with documenting your digital asset management needs. It can be tempting to jump straight into vendor conversations, but a clear, well-documented foundation will save time, reduce confusion, and support better decisions later on.

And don’t try to do it alone. Involve the people who will use the DAM every day. Their input will save you from surprises later, and probably make the system better for everyone.

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Conducting Market Research and Shortlisting Vendors

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Appendix A. DAM Selection Planning Checklist

Once you’ve done some of this early prework, like interviewing stakeholders and identifying your assets, you can move on to this checklist. It’s comprehensive and may feel overwhelming at first, but you don’t have to tackle it all at once. Take it step by step. Collaborate with your main stakeholders. Check in with IT. Use this list to structure your planning, shape your RFP, and guide vendor conversations.

The good news is, if you’ve done the work above, this list will feel much more manageable and actionable.

Strategic Foundation

• What purpose will your DAM system serve, and what problems is it meant to solve?
• What does success look like, and how will you measure it?
• What does Phase 1 (Minimum Viable Product) look like?

Users & Stakeholders

• Who are your key users and stakeholders?
• Have you conducted recorded interviews with them?
• What pain points and needs did they share?
• Have you tracked themes across roles and prioritized them?
• Who will administer the DAM system?

Usage Scenarios & Requirements

• Have you written future-focused usage scenarios for core roles?
• Have you written user stories that describe desired functionality?
• Are your requirements categorized as Mandatory / Preferred / Nice to Have?
• Are sources (departments, individuals) attributed to each requirement?

Assets & Storage

• What types of digital assets do you manage? (e.g., images, videos, audio, 3D)
• Where are they stored now? (shared drives, cloud storage, hard drives)
• What’s the estimated volume (e.g., number of files) and storage size (e.g., in TB)?
• Who uses or owns each asset type?
• Are any assets at risk (e.g., no backups, fragile storage media)?

Metadata & Organization

• What metadata do you track, even informally (e.g., in file names or spreadsheets)?
• Where does that metadata live (e.g., embedded, folder structures, Excel)?
• Do you have consistent file naming conventions?
• Do you use any controlled vocabularies or taxonomies?

Workflow & Lifecycle

• Who creates, reviews, approves, and publishes digital assets?
• What do your current workflows look like, and where are the pain points?
• Do you distinguish between Work in Progress (WIP) and Final assets?
• How are assets currently tagged and ingested?
• Who will manage migration and tagging into the new DAM?

Digital Preservation

• Do any assets need long-term preservation beyond active use?
• Are there embargoing, archiving, or retention policy requirements?
• Will the DAM integrate with a preservation system or strategy?

Licensing & Rights

• Are you currently tracking usage rights and license information?
• Do you know which channels, regions, and formats assets are approved for?
• Are any licenses expired, missing, or uncertain?
• How will user roles, permissions, and security be defined in the DAM?

UX / UI

• What should the user experience be like for search, upload, and browsing?
• Do you need features like thumbnails, preview players, or 3D viewers?
• Do you need multilingual interface support?
• How will different user types (e.g., casual vs. power users) interact with the system?

Integration Requirements

• What systems should the DAM integrate with (e.g., CMS, PIM, Adobe CC)?
• What kind of integrations do you need (e.g., push/pull assets, metadata sync)?
• Are any integrations vendor-supported or likely to require customization?
• Which integrations are Mandatory, Preferred, or Nice to Have?

Technical Requirements

• Do you require SaaS (cloud-based) or on-premise deployment?
• Is SSO (Single Sign-On) required (e.g., via SAML or OAuth2)?
• Are there preferred storage providers or data residency requirements?
• What is the max file size or upload threshold?
• Do you need accessibility compliance (e.g., WCAG 2.1 AA)?
• Will the DAM need to support public delivery of assets with secure access?

Timeline & Budget

• What is your ideal timeline for selection, contracting, and go-live?
• What is your estimated first-year cost?
• What is your projected ongoing cost (e.g., storage, licensing, support)?
• Will implementation be phased or rolled out all at once?

Creating a successful Digital Asset Management RFP

In the world of digital asset management (DAM) system selection, requests for proposals (RFP) are ubiquitous. This is for good reason. A strong RFP includes a user-centered approach outlining priorities, usage scenarios, and requirements. It also provides vendors with an explanation of and context for technology needs, and clear instructions for their proposals. The RFP brings all of the details together in a way for organizations to perform apples-to-apples comparisons of vendor proposals. 

In this post, we provide everything you need to get started on your RFP journey. You’ll learn what is unique about DAM RFPs, how to structure your RFP, and questions to ask vendors. Follow along on our downloadable DAM RFP checklist.

What is an RFP?

A Request for Proposal (RFP) is a business document, sometimes managed by a procurement or purchasing office (and sometimes not). RFPs announce an organization’s need for a new technology, detail the requirements for that technology, define its purpose, and solicit bids for the financial commitment for purchase.

RFPs allow qualified vendors to showcase their technology solutions and demonstrate how they align with those requirements. They act as a gateway for vendors to promote their expertise, capabilities, and innovative technologies to meet the needs of the organization. 

It is important to note that RFPs are not mandatory in all contexts. However, they are commonly used in government settings to counteract favoritism, prejudice, and nepotism. RFPs level the playing field. They ensure that vendors are evaluated solely based on the quality of their proposals and the cost of investment. This approach promotes fairness and impartiality, allowing all vendors to compete on an equal footing. By eliminating biases and providing a transparent evaluation process, RFPs enable organizations to make informed decisions that prioritize the best interests of their stakeholders.

How do I create an RFP?

The good news is there are lots of examples of RFPs on the web. And, if you have a procurement office, you can always reach out to get examples of how your organization creates them.

That said, the examples you’ll find online are often generic, not specific to DAM selection. While generic RFP templates can be helpful starting points, they do not always provide insights into how to gather the information to complete the RFP, including business objectives, functional, technical, and format requirements, usage scenarios, and user profiles. All of these are necessary to provide vendors with a comprehensive understanding of your organization’s needs for new DAM technology. 

What is unique about DAM RFPs?

Before we jump into the checklists, let’s take a moment to review what makes a DAM RFP unique. First, DAM selection projects will have many internal and external stakeholders. From marketing to creatives and archivists and their constituents, there are many perspectives to represent. It is key, then, that time is spent understanding their broad set of needs, through interviews, surveys, and focus groups.

The digital asset management market offers a multitude of options, with numerous systems available at varying price points and complexities. For organizations unfamiliar with the wide range of choices, sifting through these options can be a challenging endeavor, especially given the intricate nature of DAM systems. These systems often share common functionalities but also possess distinctive features that set them apart.

An RFP can provide your organization with a side-by-side comparison of the vendor proposals. This includes a qualitative comparison, but if done correctly, can offer a quantitative assessment, as well.

Factors to consider in DAM procurement

• Content-centric approach: DAMs focus on the challenges of organizing, managing, and distributing digital assets. By focusing on the content itself, DAM systems enhance the accessibility, searchability, and utilization of digital assets. DAMs make it easier for users to find and work with the specific content they need.
• Emphasis on metadata and taxonomy: A successful DAM will enable effective search, discovery, and retrieval of digital assets. It will categorize and describe assets with rich metadata and a structured taxonomy. This ensures users can quickly locate and make sense of their content. 
• Integration: DAMs are rarely standalone systems. They often integrate with content management systems (CMS), creative software (think Adobe products), e-commerce platforms, rights management systems, or workflow applications.
• UX and collaboration: Digital Asset Management systems (DAMs) play a pivotal role in facilitating the collaborative efforts of diverse teams and stakeholders both within and outside an organization. This includes enterprise-level DAMs, which may extend across international borders, necessitating support for multiple languages. As such, these systems should offer user-friendly interfaces and accessibility to accommodate the varied needs of their users.
• Permissions and security: Digital assets often have distinct rights that require strict security measures to regulate access and downloads. A robust DAM system safeguards digital content, ensuring that user permissions are securely managed to maintain data integrity and privacy. 
• Scalability and performance: When dealing with quickly growing digital collections, the efficiency of your DAM system becomes crucial. It needs to handle growth in the volume of files and accommodate the evolving needs of users without compromising speed and responsiveness. The choice of storage providers and methodologies significantly influences the system’s scalability, ensuring it can seamlessly adapt to increasing demands.
• Vendor expertise and support: Considering a vendor’s track record is an important component of the decision-making process. Hearing from current clients, and investigating reputation, customer support options (often defined in a Service Level Agreement, or SLA), training offerings, and ongoing product development are critical in identifying if their DAM solution is the right one for your organization.

Preparation

Before diving into RFP drafting, first take a step back and think about the complete RFP process. Start by gathering comprehensive requirements to clarify and document your organization’s needs. Establish a clear timeline, complete with milestones and deadlines that include the drafting phase. Finally, begin identifying and researching potential vendors — you might want to adjust your RFP based on what you find.

Administrative Tasks

To simplify your RFP process, begin by checking if your organization already has an appropriate digital asset management system in place or conduct a discovery process (as detailed in the section below). Secure written approval, establish a budget, put together a timeline, and consult with your procurement department to review RFPs and purchasing regulations. 

The timeline should cover all essential phases, including RFP creation, distribution, vendor demonstrations, evaluation, and the often-lengthy procurement phase. Practical considerations such as staff vacations and holidays should also be accounted for to mitigate potential disruptions. By addressing these elements, the timeline becomes a comprehensive and practical plan for the entire RFP and DAM selection process, reducing the risk of unforeseen delays.

Finally, consider hiring an experienced DAM sourcing consultant who can leverage their expertise and knowledge of the marketplace to match your organization with the most suitable system for your users.

Discovery

In the process of DAM selection, the discovery phase involves a comprehensive investigation of the organization’s digital asset management needs. This typically starts with in-depth discussions with stakeholders and decision-makers. These conversations help identify specific requirements, challenges, and objectives to manage digital assets.

The discovery process often includes a thorough examination of the organization’s current workflows, analysis of the volume and types of digital assets, and an evaluation of the existing systems and technology infrastructure. Data collection methods such as surveys and data analysis may also gather information on user expectations, content lifecycle, access requirements, metadata needs, user permissions, integration considerations, and long-term preservation strategies.

The active engagement of key stakeholders and thorough review of pertinent in-house documentation are pivotal aspects of the discovery process.

Following the completion of the discovery phase, you should be able to fine-tune the problem statement, establish measurable objectives, and rank your functional and non-functional requirements. At this stage, broaden your vendor research efforts by attending industry events such as Henry Stewart DAM, and by exploring resources like online vendor directories and seeking recommendations from peers and professional networks. 

Once you have a feel for vendors, try to narrow down your vendor list to just a handful for the most effective evaluation. A shorter list makes managing internal resources easier, allowing for a meaningful comparison of proposals and identification of strengths and weaknesses. With well-structured discovery and vendor selection processes, your DAM journey is off to a promising start!

RFP Structure

If you have a procurement department, it is likely they have an RFP format you must follow. In that case, consider how you can fit the following information into the existing structure. For those organizations that do not have an internal RFP format, use the following structure:

Overview

This is the initial point of contact and sets the tone for the entire RFP. Start with a concise introduction to your organization, capturing its essence in just a few sentences. Next, provide a brief background on the DAM selection project, highlighting the driving factors and context behind the need for a DAM solution.

A well-crafted problem statement is vital to ensure that vendors understand the challenges you face and the specific pain points you aim to address. Clearly articulate your business objectives, outlining the goals and outcomes you hope to achieve through the implementation of the DAM. 

The overview document should include key details such as the current number of digital assets, their size in terabytes (or gigabytes or petabytes), and the primary formats you work with. If possible, provide a growth estimate in percentages, e.g., year-by-year growth of 10%. These specifics will help vendors tailor their solutions to meet your unique needs.

The overview also serves as a guide to vendors on how to navigate the RFP process. Include a timeline with key dates such as the RFP issue date, the deadline for vendor questions, when your organization will respond to questions, when vendors are required to confirm their intent to submit proposals, and the proposal submission deadline. Also, mention the subsequent steps, such as the notification of selected offerors for potential demonstrations and presentations, and the final selection process.

Make sure to specify the preferred delivery format and method for proposals and the required deliverables. Additionally, provide an overview of the evaluation criteria and scoring process that will be used to assess the proposals.

Include relevant contact information for any inquiries, and consider including a glossary of terms specific to DAM and the RFP. Clarify aspects like incurred costs to vendors, retention of submitted documentation, external partnerships, market references, and the importance of confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements (NDA).

Requirements Spreadsheet

In the process of crafting your DAM RFP, it is essential to establish a well-organized structure for your requirements. To begin, let’s define some key terms. 

Functional requirements refer to specific capabilities or features that the digital asset management system must possess to meet your organization’s needs. These requirements can be structured as user stories, framing them in the context of “As an X, I need to Y, so that Z,” to clearly define who needs the functionality, what they need, and why. These functional requirements are essentially the building blocks that shape how the DAM system will operate, focusing on the user experience and the desired outcomes.

On the other hand, nonfunctional or technical requirements relate to the broader technical aspects that the DAM system should meet. These may include performance, security, scalability, and other technical considerations that are essential for the system’s effective operation. Additionally, format requirements specify the primary file formats and expectations for managing digital assets within the DAM. These include image formats (.jpg), videos (.mp4), documents (.pdf), and other file formats (e.g., Adobe and Microsoft file formats). They outline how the digital asset management system should handle and support these formats.

For further clarity, identify stakeholders and categorize them into three main types: DAM Administrators, Content Creators, and End Users. Defining their roles and capabilities, and noting the number of each, is particularly valuable for vendors, especially those who charge based on the number of user seats. 

This structured approach not only helps DAM vendors understand your needs, it enables them to provide comprehensive and customized responses to your RFP. A helpful tool for organizing this content is a simple spreadsheet with distinct tabs for each requirement category. This provides a clear distinction between functional, nonfunctional/technical, and format requirements. 

Usage Scenarios

Usage scenarios are your secret weapon! They prioritize the user and bring your requirements to life.

A usage scenario, sometimes referred to as a “use case,” is a detailed narrative describing how a system or product is used in a specific real-world context. These scenarios provide a human-readable representation of functional requirements, offering a comprehensive view of how the system behaves and responds within different situations. Use cases help stakeholders and vendors, including both technical and non-technical individuals, to grasp how the system’s features and functionalities align with practical user needs and operational processes.

We highly recommend including three to seven usage scenarios in your RFP. If you have more, consider combining and prioritizing them. Each usage scenario should have a brief title, an objective that explains its purpose, and actors identified from your User Descriptions in the Requirements Spreadsheet. Provide background context and describe the main steps or interactions that actors will perform in the future system. Remember to allow flexibility for different solutions to the same problem. Usage scenarios are the heart of your RFP, so craft them to effectively convey your requirements.

Vendor Questionnaire

As you delve deeper into crafting your RFP, don’t overlook the significance of your vendor questionnaire. The vendor questionnaire is a comprehensive list of questions that go beyond requirements and use cases, focusing on higher-level aspects of the DAM vendor company, their implementation and support procedures, and proposal costs, providing valuable insights into their capabilities and suitability for the project. 

The questionnaire serves as a vital component of your DAM RFP. It gathers in-depth information essential for the side-by-side evaluation of different systems. Number the questionnaire so that vendors can easily refer directly to the questions in their proposal.

A vendor questionnaire should cover general company information, product details, technical support, and references from comparable organizations. It should also include specific questions about the costs associated with the system, including license fees, implementation costs, and support expenses.

Conclusion

The Request for Proposal is a key component of the DAMS procurement process. RFPs provide structured and transparent frameworks for evaluating and selecting a new DAM system. They enable a fair and consistent evaluation process by clearly defining requirements and usage scenarios, evaluation criteria, and submission guidelines. This allows organizations to compare proposals from multiple DAM vendors objectively, ensuring that the selected vendor best aligns with their needs and objectives. RFPs help mitigate risks by providing a systematic approach to DAM vendor selection, fostering accountability, and minimizing subjective decision-making.

Are you ready to embark on your own DAM RFP process? We’ve got you covered! [Click here] to download our comprehensive DAM RFP checklists. 

These valuable resources will guide you through planning, development, and distribution of your RFP, ensuring you achieve the best possible outcome. Don’t miss out on this essential tool to streamline your RFP journey.

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Managing DAM Software Demos and POCs

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Getting Started with AI for Digital Asset Management & Digital Collections

Talk of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and large language models (LLMs) is everywhere these days. With the increasing availability and decreasing cost of high-performance AI technologies, you may be wondering how you could apply AI to your digital assets or digital collections to help enhance their discoverability and utility.

Maybe you work in a library and wonder whether AI could help catalog collections. Or you manage a large marketing DAM and wonder how AI could help tag your stock images for better discovery. Maybe you have started to dabble with AI tools, but aren’t sure how to evaluate their performance.

Or maybe you have no idea where to even begin.

In this post, we discuss what artificial intelligence can do for libraries, museums, archives, company DAMs, or any other organization with digital assets to manage, and how to assess and select tools that will meet your needs.

Examples of AI in Libraries and Digital Asset Management

Wherever you are in the process of learning about AI tools, you’re not alone. We’ve seen many organizations beginning to experiment with AI and machine learning to enrich their digital asset collections. We helped the Library of Congress explore ways of combining AI with crowdsourcing to extract structured data from the content of digitized historical documents. We also worked with Indiana University to develop an extensible platform for applying AI tools, like speech-to-text transcription, to audiovisual materials in order to improve discoverability. 

What kinds of tasks can AI do with my digital assets?

Which AI methods work for digital assets or collections depends largely on the type of asset. Text-based, still image, audio, and video assets all have different techniques available to them. This section highlights the most popular machine learning-based methods for working with different types of digital material. This will help you determine which artificial intelligence tasks are relevant to your collections before diving deep into specific tools.

AI for processing text – Natural Language Processing

Most AI tools that work with text fall under the umbrella of Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP encompasses many different tasks, including:

• Named-Entity Recognition (NER) – NER is the process of identifying significant categories of things (“entities”) named in text. Usually these categories include people, places, organizations, and dates, but might also include nationalities, monetary values, times, or other concepts. Libraries or digital asset management systems can use named-entity recognition to aid cataloging and search.
• Sentiment analysis – Sentiment analysis is the automatic determination of the emotional valence (“sentiment”) of text. For example, determining whether a product review is positive, negative, or neutral.
• Topic modeling – Topic modeling is a way of determining what general topic(s) the text is discussing. The primary topics are determined by clustering words related to the same subjects and observing their relative frequencies. Topic modeling can be used in DAM systems to determine tags for assets. It could also be used in library catalogs to determine subject headings.
• Machine translation – Machine translation is the automated translation of text from one language to another–think Google Translate!
• Language detection – Language detection is about determining what language or languages are present in a text. 

AI for processing images and video – Computer Vision

Using AI for images and videos involves a subfield of artificial intelligence called Computer Vision. Many more tools are available for working with still images than with video. However, the methods used for images can often be adapted to work with video as well. AI tasks that are most useful for managing collections of digital image and video assets include:

• Image classification – Image classification applies labels to images based on their contents. For example, image classification tools will label a picture of a dog with “dog.”
• Object detection – Object detection goes one step further than image classification. It both locates and labels particular objects in an image. For example, a model trained to detect dogs could locate a dog in a photo full of other animals. Object detection is also sometimes referred to as image recognition.
• Face detection/face recognition – Face detection models can tell whether a human face is present in an image or not. Face recognition goes a step further and identifies whether the face is someone it knows.
• Optical Character Recognition (OCR) – OCR is the process of extracting machine-readable text from an image. Imagine the difference between having a Word document and a picture of a printed document–in the latter, you can’t copy/paste or edit the text. OCR turns pictures of text into digital text.

AI for processing audio – Machine Listening

AI tools for working with audio are much fewer and farther between. The time-based nature of audio, as opposed to more static images and text, makes working with audio a bit more difficult. But there are still methods available!

• Speech-to-text (STT) – Speech-to-text, also called automatic speech recognition, transcribes speech into text. STT is used in applications like automatic caption generation and dictation. Transcripts created with speech-to-text can be sent through text-based processing workflows (like sentiment analysis) for further enrichment.
• Music/speech detection – Speech, music, silence, applause, and other kinds of content detection can tell you which sounds occur at which timestamps in an audio clip. 
• Speaker identification / diarization – Speaker identification or diarization is the process of identifying the unique speakers in a piece of audio. For example, in a clip of an interview, speaker diarization tools would identify the interviewer and the interviewee as speakers. It would also tell you where in the audio each speaks.

What is AI training, and do I need to do it?

Training is the process of “teaching” an algorithm how to perform its task. 

Creating a trained machine learning model involves developing a set of training data, putting that data through a learning algorithm, and tweaking parameters until it produces desirable results.

You can think of training data as the “answer key” to a test you want the computer to take. 

For example, if the task you want to perform is image classification–dividing images into different categories based on their contents–the training data will consist of images labeled with their appropriate category. During the training process, the computer examines that training data to determine what features are likely to be found in which categories, and subsequently uses that information to make guesses about the appropriate label for images it’s never seen before.

In addition to the labeled data given to the algorithm for learning, some data has to be held back to evaluate the performance of the model. This is sometimes called “ground truth” testing, which we’ll discuss more below.

Developing training and testing data is often the most time-consuming and labor-intensive part of working with machine learning tools. Getting accurate results often requires thousands of sample inputs, which may (depending on the starting state of your data) need to be manually processed by humans before they can be used for training. 

Training AI tools sounds costly, is it always necessary?

Custom training may not be required in all cases. Many tools come with “pre-trained” models you can use. Before investing loads of resources into custom training, determine whether these out-of-the-box options meet your quality standards. 

Keep in mind that all machine learning models are trained on some particular set of data. 

The data used for training will impact which types of data the model is well-suited for—for example, a speech-to-text model trained on American English may struggle to accurately transcribe British English, and will be completely useless at transcribing French. 

Researching the data used to train out-of-the-box models, and determining its similarity to your data can help set your expectations for the tool’s performance.

Choose the right AI tool for your use case

Before you embark on any AI project, it’s important to articulate the problem you want to solve and consider the users that this AI solution will serve. Clearly defining your purpose will help you assess the risks involved with the AI, help you measure the success of the tools you use, and help you determine the best way to present or make use of the results for your users in your access system. 

All AI tools are trained on a limited set of content for a specific use case, which may or may not match your own. Even “general purpose” AI tools may not produce results at the right level of specificity for your purpose. Be cautious of accuracy benchmarks provided by AI services, especially if there is little information on the testing process.

The best way to determine if an AI tool will be a good fit for your use case is to test it yourself on your own digital collections.

How to evaluate AI tools

Ground truth testing is a standard method for testing AI tools. In ground truth testing, you create examples of the ideal AI output (ground truth) for samples of your content and check them against the actual output of the AI to measure the tool’s accuracy. 

For instance, comparing the results of an object recognition tool against the list of objects you expect the tool to recognize in a sample of images in your digital asset management system can show you the strengths of the AI in correctly identifying objects in your assets (true positives) and its weaknesses in either not detecting objects it should have (false negatives) or misidentifying objects (false positives). 

Common quantitative measures for ground truth testing include precision and recall, which can help you better calculate these risks of omission and misidentification. You can also examine these errors qualitatively to better understand the nature of the mistakes an AI tool might make with your content, so you can make informed decisions about what kind of quality control you may need to apply or if you want to use the tool at all.

Ground truth testing, however, can be costly to implement.

Creating ground truth samples is time-consuming, and the process of calculating comparison metrics requires specialized knowledge. It’s also important to keep in mind that ground truth can be subjective, depending on the type of tool—the results you’d expect to see may differ in granularity or terminology from the outputs the AI was trained to produce. 

In the absence of ground truth, you can visually scan results for false positives and false negatives to get a sense of what kinds of errors an AI might make on your content and how they might impact your users. 

Is it important that the AI finds all of the correct results? How dangerous are false positives to the user experience?

Seeing how AI results align with your answers to questions like these can help to quickly decide whether an AI tool is worth pursuing more seriously. 

In addition to the quality of results, it is also important to consider other criteria when evaluating AI tools. What are the costs of the tool, both paid services and staff time needed to implement the tool and review or correct results? Will you need to train or fine-tune the AI to meet the needs of your use case? How will the AI integrate with your existing technical infrastructure? 

To learn more about how you can evaluate AI tools for your digital assets with users in mind, check out AVP’s Human-Centered Evaluation Framework webinar, which includes a quick reference guide to these and many other questions to ask vendors or your implementation team.

When not to use artificial intelligence

With all of the potential for error, how can you decide if AI is really worth it? Articulating your goals and expectations for AI at the start of your explorations can help you assess the value of the AI tools you test. 

Do you want AI to replace the work of humans or to enhance it by adding value that humans cannot or do not have the time to do? What is your threshold for error? Will a hybrid human and AI process be more efficient or help relieve the tedium for human workers? What are the costs of integrating AI into your existing workflows and are they outweighed by the benefits the AI will bring?

If your ground truth tests show that commercial AI tools are not quite accurate enough to be worth the trouble, consider testing again with the same data in 6 months or a year to see if the tools have improved. It’s also important to consider that tools may change in a way that erodes accuracy for your use case. For that reason, it’s a good idea to regularly test commercial AI tools against your baseline ground truth test scores to ensure that AI outputs continue to meet your standards. 

Now what?

The topics we’ve covered in this post are only the beginning! Now that you’ve upped your AI literacy and have a basic handle on how AI might be useful for enhancing your digital assets or collections, start putting these ideas into action. 

Learn how AVP can help with your AI selection or evaluation project

Preserving Digital Assets: A Gap in the DAM Marketplace

Cultural heritage organizations increasingly seek out a digital asset management system (DAM) that integrates robust digital preservation capabilities for preserving digital assets. They often recognize the importance of investing in digital preservation but struggle with the challenge of maintaining separate DAM and digital preservation systems due to limited resources.

While DAM systems typically prioritize security, permissions, and utilize cloud storage—all found in digital preservation systems as well—they still lack the comprehensive functionality that cultural heritage organizations and others consistently seek to help with preserving digital assets.

Despite the maturity of the DAM market, there remains a persistent gap between the preservation functionality that cultural heritage organizations desire and the systems currently available. 

At AVP, we have witnessed this shift in what organizations are seeking first-hand through our work assisting organizations in finding the perfect technology solutions to meet their unique requirements, from digital asset management and media asset management (MAM) to digital preservation systems and records management systems. 

In light of this issue, I would like to delve into the reasons behind this disparity and share AVP’s recommendations on how organizations can navigate the technical landscape for preserving digital assets effectively. Let’s explore the evolving needs of organizations and uncover strategies for achieving their goals within the realm of digital asset management and digital preservation.

Why can’t Digital Asset Management just “do Digital Preservation”?

It is crucial to grasp the fundamental differences between these two types of systems and their respective functionalities.

According to IBM, a DAM is “a comprehensive solution that streamlines the storage, organization, management, retrieval, and distribution of an organization’s digital assets.”

The lending library

To paint a visual picture, envision a DAM as a lending library.

Just like books neatly arranged on shelves, digital assets are meticulously organized, described, and managed within the DAM. Library users can navigate the catalog using various criteria such as subject, author, or date to locate specific assets, just as they can in the DAM. And, similar to needing a library card to borrow books, access to the DAM requires registered users to have appropriate permissions to access and utilize the digital assets.

Essentially, a well-managed DAM ensures that your digital assets are securely stored, easily searchable, and readily accessible. It functions as a virtual library, providing efficient organization and control over your organization’s valuable digital resources. 

The offsite storage

Building upon the library analogy, let’s delve into the unique characteristics of a digital preservation system.

Imagine the library books that are not frequently accessed. Instead of occupying valuable space on the main shelves, they are often relocated to a secure, climate-controlled warehouse. These books are packed in containers on tall shelving units, accessible to only a select few individuals. Browsing becomes nearly impossible, searching becomes challenging, and obtaining one of these books typically requires assistance from a librarian.

In the digital realm, a digital preservation system serves as the digital counterpart to this offsite storage. It replaces physical locked warehouses with secure user permissions, ensures file verification and fixity testing to maintain data integrity, employs packaging mechanisms called “bags,” and utilizes cold data storage for long-term preservation.

While a digital preservation system focuses primarily on safeguarding and preserving digital assets, it also prioritizes security and protection over immediate accessibility.

Same-same but different?

From these descriptions, it is evident that the fundamental purposes of DAM and digital preservation systems are significantly different, although there are areas of overlap. For instance, both the library and warehouse prioritize secure storage of their respective materials. (Ever walked out of a library without checking out your book only to set the alarm off?) 

Likewise, both DAM and digital preservation systems maintain strong user permissions to ensure security. Similarly, while libraries may employ climate control measures — albeit less stringent than those governing the warehouse’s temperature and humidity levels — some DAMs may also implement “lightweight” functionality for preserving digital assets, such as fixity testing upon upload.

This distinction emphasizes the intrinsically divergent purposes of DAM and digital preservation system. 

DAMs primarily excel in efficient asset management and user accessibility, allowing organizations to easily organize, retrieve, and distribute their digital assets. On the other hand, digital preservation system places paramount importance on long-term preservation and data integrity, safeguarding valuable assets for future generations. 

How can I use a DAM system for preserving digital assets today?

Increasingly, DAM vendors are adding digital preservation functionality to their systems. At a minimum, most DAM systems perform:

• Checksum hash values (e.g., MD5) creation on ingest
• Event logging (whenever an action is taken on a file)

Some DAM systems can also do the following:

• Virus checking on ingest
• Hybrid (tiered) storage (a combination of hot and cold storage or online, nearline, and offline storage)

Only a very small number of DAM systems may also:

• Make checksum values visible to users
• Test existing checksum values on ingest
• Enable manual and/or regular fixity testing
• Run reports on or export event logs

And at the time of writing, no DAM performs automated obsolescence monitoring of file formats (to our knowledge).

With this in mind, the question to consider is: what’s good enough when it comes to digital preservation functionality in DAMS?

“Good enough” digital preservation

The concept of “Good enough” digital preservation has been circulating since at least 2014, thanks to groups like Digital POWRR. Essentially, it recognizes that not everyone can achieve or maintain the highest levels of digital preservation, such those defined by level four of the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation or full conformance with ISO 16363 (Audit and certification of trustworthy digital repositories), for all digital assets (for all eternity).

For many, these guidelines can feel overwhelming and unattainable. When organizations search for a DAM solution, they often have an expectation that it will solve all digital preservation planning challenges and result in a perfect A+ in digital preservation. However, as we have come to realize, this expectation is not in line with reality.

So, what should you do?

Let’s dive into some ideas on how we can tackle these issues.

Understand the difference between DAM system and Digital Preservation system functionality

First and foremost, organizations should focus on developing a clear understanding of the distinctions between a DAM and a digital preservation system. This knowledge forms the foundation for informed decision-making and empowers organizations to choose the right path.

Clarify your appetite for risk

Next, organizations need to assess their risk comfort levels. What functionalities are essential for their peace of mind? Are there specific data management or digital preservation regulations they must comply with? Can a DAM system meet these requirements effectively? If not, organizations must determine the functionalities that take precedence and decide whether a DAM or digital preservation system is more suitable for their needs.

DAM vendors play a crucial role in this process. It is essential for them to familiarize themselves with basic digital preservation software functionality. This understanding enables them to respond effectively to client requirements and deliver solutions that align with their specific needs.

Request standards compliance

DAM vendors should actively consider aligning with some guidelines from the NDSA Levels of Digital Preservation, for example. By doing so, vendors not only benefit clients with a need for digital preservation but also contribute to the long-term accessibility of assets within the DAM for all users. This alignment has the potential to promote industry-wide best practices and ensures the preservation and availability of digital assets beyond individual client needs.

However, it is essential to recognize that not all DAM systems need to encompass complete digital preservation functionality.

 The reality is, some organizations heavily invested in digital preservation may have a particularly low risk tolerance for loss and, despite DAM’s other capabilities, may choose not to depend on it alone to achieve their preservation objectives.

Choosing a solution for preserving digital assets

In light of these considerations, it is crucial for organizations to engage in internal discussions to determine their specific needs and priorities. These conversations should address risk levels and the functionalities that are essential for their peace of mind and compliance with their data management requirements. 

By having these dialogues, organizations can collectively define an acceptable level of preservation within the realm of DAM. Although reaching a consensus may present challenges, the goal is to find a comfortable middle ground that satisfies the needs of everyone in the organization. This process not only addresses their requirements effectively but also has the potential to drive innovation within the DAM industry as a whole.

If you are considering acquiring a DAM in the near future and have digital preservation requirements, we are excited to discuss the possibilities with you. AVP is here to assist you in exploring your options and finding the ideal system for your organization. We eagerly await the opportunity to assist you on this journey.

The Importance of Choosing the Right Digital Asset Management System 

As organizations grow and their workflows evolve, so does their need for the right technology. But identifying which tools will meet your needs now — and as your business scales — can be a major undertaking. 

Investing in a digital asset management (DAM) solution is no different. While DAM systems are designed to simplify how digital content is organized and managed, selecting the right solution can actually be really complicated. After all, there are dozens of vendors to choose from, all with a unique combination of functionality, features, and services. On the flip side, being able to identify and prioritize your business requirements requires a lot of due diligence.

And unfortunately, if you select a solution that doesn’t meet your needs there are a range of significant consequences. Let’s take a look at the risks entailed in making the wrong- DAM software investment — and how to avoid them.

The Risks of Getting it Wrong

Unwanted Expenses

By the time you realize that you’ve selected a a digital asset management solution or system that won’t support your use cases as expected, you will likely be deep into software implementation. This includes configuration, content migration, piloting, and possibly even the beginning of system launch. Many stakeholders will have committed significant time to this initiative.

At this point, it is pretty hard to cut your losses and change course. Not only will there be the hard costs of ending the current contract — but there will be further hefty staffing expenses. Scrapping plan A means starting from scratch with another procurement process and then spending months configuring, migrating, and preparing for roll out — a second time. We all know that time means money, and this redundant work will be costly.

It is not easy to let go of those sunk costs, so most likely, you will continue to persevere. You may not be able to tell the difference between poor implementation, and the wrong system. Either way the challenges will continue to grow in significance and complexity.

Broken Trust

While the technical part of a software launch can be complicated, with numerous timelines and milestones, getting people to embrace the new system can be even more challenging. After all, change is hard — even when it’s for the better. And when the solution doesn’t meet expectations, you risk damaging the trust between you and your stakeholders. 

And once this trust is broken, it is difficult to repair. Stakeholders that feel burned or frustrated may not be interested in engaging in the process again, which can have a chilling effect on system adoption and even create a self-fulfilling prophecy that the project is doomed to failure. 

Lost Opportunity

In addition to unwanted staffing expenses and damaged trust, investing in the wrong digital asset management system will delay your time to value. In other words, it extends the time needed to realize all of the gains that you were hoping for when you invested in a digital asset management system.

While delays and pivots play out, all of the original challenges that were drivers for making this technology investment continue to grow, such as workflow efficiencies, poor user experience, brand inconsistencies, and general content chaos. For organizations that manage archival assets, every month can bring the permanent loss of materials due to decay or obsolescence.

Not choosing the right DAM system means that these challenges continue to balloon — greatly prolonging the time until you realize DAM ROI.

Project Viability

A final risk inherent in choosing the wrong digital asset management system is the possibility that it sinks the project entirely. The decision to implement a new DAM system is often part of a larger technology strategy endorsed by executive leadership. And if the initial selection is a failure, it can create waves that cast doubt on the value of the investment. 

This loss of confidence can threaten the existence of the entire DAM project — putting careers at risk and leaving a legacy that is difficult to overcome.

How to Choose the Right Digital Asset Management System, the First Time

Clearly, with any major technology investment the stakes are high. And righting the ship after a wrong decision entails considerable work and expense.

That’s why many organizations wondering how to choose a digital asset management system turn to a DAM consultant to guide their selection process. Including a consultant on your team can add clarity and efficiency at every stage of the process and sets the project up for success: from identifying specification requirements and drafting a request for proposal (RFP) all the way through vendor evaluation. 

In addition to avoiding the risks outlined above, the benefits of working with a top digital asset management systems consultant include:

• Confidence that you’ve uncovered, defined, and prioritized all of your content workflow and business needs
• The ability to articulate these needs to avoid disconnects or miscommunications with your vendor, down the road
• Access to a data-driven, systematic approach that allows for informed and clear decisions, based on the right criteria

In many ways, working with a digital asset management consultant is like an insurance policy against going down the wrong path — allowing you to minimize your risk and maximize your reward. 

AVP’s Approach to DAM Selection

At AVP, we offer DAM selection services that can be tailored to the needs of every organization. DAM is anything but a one-size-fits all investment, and our people-first approach allows us to provide the right level of support, every time. 

AVP Select services are organized into two options:

• Full Service Technology Consulting (aka Managed Select): We offer three bundles of consulting services that all begin with a stakeholder alignment workshop. From there, you can decide how long you’d like us to lead the process.
• Technology Selection Training (aka Self Select): Our training option often appeals to customers who have the right team assembled but could benefit from step-by-step guidance on how to choose a digital asset management system.

All of our DAM consulting services are rooted in a proven technology selection process that has helped our customers make the correct DAM investment, with confidence. 

Make the Best DAM Decision, with AVP

With support from AVP’s digital asset management consultants, you can begin your DAM journey on the path to success.

We’d love to learn about your unique content workflows and technology needs. Contact us to learn more about AVP Select — and how we can work together to achieve your DAM goals, faster.

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