6 Steps to DAM Success will assess and align your needs and requirements before establishing or changing the infrastructure on which your DAM will run to ensure that your governance policies and company ethos are reflected in the strategy.
This allows you to approach vendors well informed and with your company prepared for implementation / digital transformation.
1. Gap Analysis
A tool which uses the DAM Maturity Model to assess the digital maturity of your organisation, it identifies shortfalls or gaps in the business and provides you with broad insights into the people, information, systems and processes you have in place.
Gap analysis is carried out using the DAM Maturity Model. It allows you to identify gaps within the business, your company’s current knowledge of data-driven systems and understanding of digital strategy, whilst gaining an overall understanding of how the business currently operates.
Understanding the gaps within your company allows you to identify areas for improvement and lead you to your desired outcome when implementing DAM. People, processes, systems and data must be considered:
PEOPLE
Technical Expertise, Business Expertise, AlignmentINFORMATION
Assets, Metadata, Reuse, Findability, Use CasesSYSTEMS
Prevalence, Security, Usability, InfrastructurePROCESSES
Workflow, Governance, Integration
The model is based on five competency levels, placing proficiency in a certain area at increasing categories of sophistication/functionality:
AD HOC
Some exposure to DAMINCIPIENT
A casual understanding of DAMFORMATIVE
Demonstrated experience of DAMOPERATIONAL
In-depth knowledge of DAM operation, but abilities not yet optimalOPTIMAL
Effective, demonstrable experience in DAM operations
A business can carry out its own gap analysis using our free resource, DAM Maturity Model. IQ Equity can also supply a bespoke report on businesses in your vertical / sector so you can benchmark your maturity against levels within the industry. If you require more information on what your level of maturity means and what strategies you can implement to improve the digital maturity of your business, please contact us via The DAM Playbook website.
2. Resource Audit
A survey which focuses in on and gathers the specific resources you have available in the organization in terms of people, information, processes and systems. It allows you to identify the resources which require preservation, can be replaced, can be improved and where resources can be shared or repurposed.
Resource audits are guided by the information contained within The DAM Playbook database, which includes requirements data, 10 Core Characteristics data educational resources provided by IQ Equity and DAM vendors. The first two contain information that is relevant to nearly all DAM implementations, gathered by experts and corroborated by vendors from across the industry. The latter offers guidance from vendors and their customers on the journey that an organisation needs to take to implement a DAM Strategy.
Resource auditing is an exercise which involves connecting with stakeholders, investigating the current technological landscape of the business and aligning shared roles and functionality across the business. Data from The DAM Playbook can guide you to identify what you have in terms of a range of resources including assets, metadata, systems, processes and people.
This includes identifying the key stakeholders who will drive the strategy and then help manage the DAM post-implementation. IQ Equity can develop bespoke surveys, analyses and can provide extensive documentation to support this process. With the full consultation package, IQ Equity comes on site, interviews stakeholders and carries out a full resource audit on your behalf.
3. Requirements Builder
A tool which allows you to collate resource audit information, prioritise must have functionality, create requirements documents for RFIs/RFPs/RFQs and prepare the data for vendor analysis. The database contains an extensive list of common DAM requirements including basic DAM functionality, administrative tools, workflow options and user management.
The DAM Playbook Requirements Builder utilises a rich database built by DAM experts of relevant information on our 10 Core accredited vendors, where common DAM requirements are mapped to vendor capabilities. The database is unique in the industry; it contains hundreds of data points, combining functional requirements, measurements of proficiency in DAM and crowd sourced data from the voice of the customer. It was designed to inform the user of the current DAM vendor landscape, encourage best practice and establish standards for DAM operation.
The requirements gathering process can be fully automated using the Requirements Builder. Alternatively the Requirements Builder can be used as a basis for building your requirements document. This allows you to focus more on niche functionality and less common features which might be useful to your company, workflows or industry vertical when you approach vendors. Rather than wasting time assessing common functionality, you can immediately look at complex workflows and have vendors demonstrate workarounds to functionality that is lacking.
The requirements builder is a replacement for the RFP/RFI/RFQ, which has a huge and often unnecessary impact on the workload, for you and vendor alike. With the full consultation package, IQ Equity will come on site, create bespoke requirements, align your company’s must haves and nice to haves and create a global requirements document on your behalf.
4. DAM Governance / Business Case Builder
A resource which contains guidance on common governance issues and provides you with a starting point on which to build a governance strategy. We provide a wealth of information and advice on governance attributes such as rights management, data management, roles and permissions, change management, talent identification and acquisition, administration, support and maintenance.
The DAM Governance / Business case builder contains guidance on common governance issues and provides you with a starting point on which to build a governance strategy. We provide a wealth of information and advice on governance attributes such as rights management, data management, roles and permissions, change management, talent identification and acquisition, administration, support and maintenance.
Governance policies should be adapted as part of building a DAM strategy. The eventual implemented DAM should reflect and enforce governance policies which already exist in the company. It’s important to consider issues such as rights management, roles, permissions, access and customer relationships prior to vendor selection as it’s probable that such issues will be reflected in the selection process.
The DAM Governance / Business case builder provides the basis to build governance policies which takes into account DAM and your digital footprint. Guidance is also available in the IQ Equity and vendor-provided educational resources on The DAM Playbook website. This includes user stories, where other DAM users speak of their experiences in acquiring and setting up their DAM.
Governance, as it relates to data, storage and company policies, tends to be fairly unique to your organization. Therefore adapting governance requires a bespoke approach. Shared considerations exist across all industries, however the implementation of DAM-specific governance policy must be driven by the individual needs of the company. Achieving change to governance policies which complements DAM, likely requires change management or the reallocation of resources and staff to perform DAM-specific roles. Thus the main thrust of governance from a DAM-perspective must be driven internally. With the full consultation package, IQ Equity will consult businesses on governance practices, produce bespoke documentation and guidance documents and can offer advisory calls or on-site consultation if required.
5. Use Case Scenarios
A tool which serves as a framework to build use case scenarios based on relevant requirements data. The database contains a list of common DAM use cases, with associated user stories, allowing you to understand how requirements/functionality impact stakeholders in different user roles.
Understanding what your users want from the DAM and how the DAM will improve their experience is key to selecting the right vendor. We encourage the development of company-specific use cases to map out your user requirements into a narrative. Use Case Scenarios help you and the vendor to envisage the future state of digital operations at your company. Without the alignment of business and technical knowledge across departments, efforts are likely to remain siloed in nature. Use Case Scenarios help you to map out these interactions and ensure that you have a ‘story’ which describes the asset lifecycle in your company.
With DAM, when it comes to people, we see a lot of commonalities across the industry, and similar roles required across verticals. As such we have built Use Case Stories around common DAM user personas and mapped them to user requirements, allowing The DAM Playbook users to identify the best vendors for their particular Use Cases/Workflows.
With The DAM Playbook access, you can view the predefined user roles and associated user stories, and look at 10 Core Accredited vendor capabilities mapped to the Use Cases. You can also use the scenarios on The DAM Playbook as a framework to build your own. With the full consultancy package, IQ Equity will help you create your own Use Cases and map them to the Requirements database so that you can get highly specific data on which vendors are fit for purpose.
6. Vendor Analysis
A tool which combines gap analysis data, requirements data, technical attributes data and 10 Core characteristics scores to calculate the best fit vendors. Users can map out their specific requirements, denote must haves and nice to haves, filter results by other technical considerations, group vendors together by price, usability and customer service proficiency and produce a personalised report on our 37, 10 Core accredited vendors.
Vendor selection should only be carried out once you have built and implemented a DAM strategy from the bottom up, in your company. By following the 6 Steps to DAM Success you should be in a position to make well informed decisions when choosing a vendor and fully understanding what you expect from them. Rather than sitting through endless product demos and talking to vendors who are inappropriate for your requirements, you have taken the time to identify a shortlist of vendors who suit your needs.
All too often companies select a vendor without strategic planning, putting the framework in place to support the implementation or identifying stakeholders and encouraging user buy-in. We see these companies failing to implement DAM several times before they get it right; with a well constructed and realised strategy you will get it right the first time.
Armed with the extensive vendor data from The DAM Playbook database, there’s no need to send lengthy RFIs to vendors hoping they will respond. Many of your questions will have already been answered and you can focus in on complex functionality and workflow and have vendors demonstrate your Use Cases to see how the system will deliver what you need.
It’s important that you have a vendor bake off, it allows you to get a feel for the product but also allows the vendor to demonstrate how they would work around gaps in their functionality. Make sure to bring in stakeholders identified during resource auditing; at the end of the day it is they who will use the product, encourage user buy in and deliver a successful implementation. With the full consultancy package IQ Equity will come on site, help guide you through the 6 Steps to DAM Success and map your requirements to you Use Cases to prepare you for vendor selection.