What is Digital Asset Management?
Simplify your work with web-based Digital Asset Management software.
Our Digital Asset Management software makes your life a great deal easier. Use the web-based Image Library to control your digital media for your website and other channels. Store all your corporate photos, videos and other media files in one central place. MediaFiler’s image libraries help you to share these digital files in an easy and secure way with colleagues and customers. Increasingly Digital Asset Management (DAM) is becoming known as Media Asset Management (MAM) as other industries use DAM to manage the digital economy.
From now on you can manage, search, find and share all your media files in a jiffy!
Keep all your organisation’s media in one central place so everyone can find what they need and use it fast.
Manage access rights, controlled vocabularies, distribution and track the use of your media.
Eliminate mistakes, work faster by simplifying and automating all your repetitive and time-consuming tasks.
Securely share your media with colleagues and partners. Connect to social media and applications.
Any questions about working with a Digital Asset Management System?
Start with your Digital Asset Management System.
Once you have decided to organise and manage your digital assets in a web-based Image Library, you will have a number of questions. So below are the most common parts of getting started with a Digital Asset Management System.
MediaFiler has years of in-depth experience with Digital Asset Management which we are happy to share with you. Please contact us if you have a question.
Take stock: what media do you have already?
Make a list of the types of files that you have presently and any known file types you want to manage in the future with your media library. Consider photos, videos, documents, press releases, PDF’s, audio, artwork, Photoshop or InDesign files, etc.
List where these files are stored now within your organisation, and if possible the folder / disk sizes, so you may start to estimate the amount of storage you need to manage your media files.
MediaFiler’s Digital Asset Management System supports all the different file types. Together with sufficient – almost unlimited – scalable storage, ensuring you can continue to expand your media library as your needs grow in the future.
Users and access to the Digital Asset Management System.
There are two basic types of users; those that deliver media to the library and those that simply access and download material. List who you want to access the library; your own staff, customers, designers, the press, the general public. Do you want to access the library from anywhere via the internet or only through you company’s private network. Who will manage the library content, make decisions on the material uploaded and will you want external photographers or suppliers to upload too.
The MediaFiler Digital Asset Management System provides you with the right tools to manage all those different users and rights.
A media library must be able to grant different rights to different users.
- Who can upload files, who can caption or delete files in the library?
- Are some files to be publicly accessible?
- Will any files require (some) users to ask for permission before they can view or download a file?
- Ensure your image library can serve all the users that you need.
- Make sure you have a comprehensive secure access control policy to only let users access and download what you want them see
Create a metadata plan.
Digital Libraries work with metadata for identifying and finding files. Metadata is structured searchable additional information about the file, such as the caption, copyright, photographer / author, category or location. Some metadata is automatically provided by the file, an example is the EXIF data of a photograph which provides the camera settings and some cameras even provide the GPS position of where the image was taken. Consider what kind of information you need to add to your media files. Make sure your image library supports the international standard IPTC and XMP metadata.
Older DAM systems stored the metadata in a database, which could become corrupted, leading to downtime. MediaFiler stores metadata as part of the file, which is becoming increasingly more popular (and practical) which makes the files portable, readable in other digital libraries and allows you to easily change software in the future. In our Editors Training we will teach you all the ins and out about adding and editing metadata, setting up quick lists, keywords and markers. The advantage of shortcuts built into MediaFiler’s Digital Asset Management system.
What does a Digital Asset Management System cost?
In an ideal world, everyone wants a fully customized image library that completely meets their every requirement and specifications. Unfortunately, like most organisations, you probably don’t have an unlimited budget. MediaFilers Digital Asset Management System is a scalable library. The software in the basic version includes your immediate requirements.
Additionally the software provides an upgrade path to grow with your needs as you use and get to understand the library better. Take a look at our Digital Asset Management Software Solutions for healthcare, education, and marketing communication professionals and check out the different pricing plans.Advantages of our DAM solutions
- Ready-made solutions
- Affordable
- No installation and setup cost
- Flexible
- User friendly
Link the Digital Asset Management System to other software.
Linking the Digital Asset Management Software with other software ensures that you can work faster and more efficiently. Think, for example, of a linking with your Active Directory, allowing you to log in through Single Sign On to the image library with your own corporate login credentials. Perhaps you need to link with a geographical information system which can enrich your maps with photos from your image library.
Do you need to interact with your CMS, Adobe or Microsoft software? MediaFilers library software provides plug-ins to do this. Read more about Integrations.
Apple and Android apps
Busy working 24/7 or away from your office? Connect directly to MediaFiler with mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets or iPads. Browse and download files on the move, upload captioned images complete with geographical (GPS) data using the MediaFiler Mobile client app.
Want to know how to integrate MediaFiler Apps into your workflow? Please contact us. Your MediaFiler administrator will advise you if you need to download this app.
Hosting a Digital Asset Management System.
Choose whether you want to have your media library hosted, often a service provided by the software supplier (Software as a Service) or have the software installed on servers within your own IT infrastructure.
Hosting
A hosted library is accessible online anywhere via your browser. The costs for a hosted library are often much lower and you always have the assurance that you have the latest version of the software, monitored and managed by experts who understand the software In addition, you do not have train your own IT department to manage and update the software on your own servers or hunting through a manual should a problem occur. Over 80% of our customers choose a hosted Mediafiler. We take care of security and importantly backups, often an expensive extra.
In house Media Library.
If you opt for a local installation of the software you have the total control over your Digital Asset Management System, updates, access control and security. With a local installation, you are not dependent on an Internet connection to access your library.
Advantages of hosting by MediaFiler
- Safe and secure data centre
- Support by the developers
- Software as a Service
- Cost effective
- Confidential storage and access
- Fast connections
- Up and running fast
- MediaFiler is green
Let your Digital Asset Management System work for you.
With a media library you can manage far more than just your media files. The software can take over certain tasks from you by automating them into a workflow, for example: Adding metadata or a watermark to multiple files at once. Re-size photos automatically, crop or adjust the colours Move or export files Adding or removing information or branding on download.
By using workflows in your image library you work faster. Workflows also prevent errors and ensure consistency. Workflows can be conditional – if this, then that.
Tip: Start small.
Of course you can start with a huge project, get everyone together and brainstorm about the ideal media library for your business or organization. Make sure you do not have long wish list which ultimately leads to a very comprehensive and expensive media library but … so complex that still no one can quickly find the file. And because you’ve spent so much you throw good money after bad just to keep something that’s not quite working for you, going. Some companies, especially those which do not have any sort of library structure tend to involve as many employees and departments in setting up the library.
Of course it is good to involve people and create support for the Digital Asset Management System but ease of use and display speed, especially in the beginning is really more important than all the offered functionalities. Many of the functions will never ever be used and and others hardly ever. It is advisable to start small and then expand as needed, when you have had more experience working with the Digital Asset Management System.
So choose a library that is scalable and can offer everything you need now but allows you to scale up in the future for more features, storage and users. Feel free to contact us with all your questions about a Digital Asset Management System.
