THE ABCs OF DAM

Here's what Digital Asset Management (DAM) really means, and how your shop can find its place in it.

by Susan Friedman, Editor

When it comes to pursuing Digital Asset Management (DAM), the challenge for our industry is two-fold: Converters and trade shops must first determine their place in the overall image-management scheme, and then sort out which DAM solution best suits their operations.

A good no-frills definition of DAM, from consultants Cognizant Technology Solutions, pegs it as "the archival, retrieval, tracking, manipulation, re-purposing, interaction with, and transaction of all types of digital media."

DAM architectures and interfaces provide valuable controls for the issues of digital asset ownership, production workflow, version tracking, and image access. "It's really a process improvement tool involving the elements of software, consulting, and customer workflow," explains Paul Foszcz, director of sales at InterchangeDigital, a provider of DAM and workflow solutions to consumer products and pharmaceutical markets.

But DAM is more than a route to production efficiency, or a vehicle for generating new business with re-purposed images. It is emerging as a pivotal component in establishing solid, long-term customer relationships. According to Lee Stocking, marketing director for Kodak Polychrome Graphics Marketing and Branding Services, DAM provides a competitive advantage by positioning the user as a better marketing provider to its business partners.

Todd Eckler, VP at solutions provider North Plains Systems, describes DAM as "an important hook in staying engaged with customers." But at what angle should it be approached?

Is DAM a fit for your operation?

First, it should be determined if image volume is high enough to merit setting up a DAM system in the first place. Next, a shop must zero in on the best technology solution. Among the considerations: A workgroup (which typically links one department) or enterprise (which typically links multiple departments or divisions) system? A system that interfaces with an internal database, or is powered exclusively by a Web server? An off-the-shelf or a custom-designed system?

North Plains aims to make DAM implementation more digestible by separating it out. User communities are typically broken down into "creators" (designers/artists), "editors" (reviewers/approvers), and "content consumers" (printers, trade shops, etc.).

North Plains Systems' Eckler recommends first investing in an off-the-shelf DAM platform that solves initial workflow problems. "The next step is growing this platform out to other users; this is where customization comes in," he explains. North Plains Systems' TeleScope Enterprise offers customers a software development kit that does just that. The architecture supports Windows, Unix, and multiple database types. A typical TeleScope customer is a consumer product company who invests in the system, and then integrates printers, trade shops, and other business partners as "consumers." Installation costs range from $150,000 to several million dollars.

InterchangeDigital's PaRTS™ (Production and Resource Tracking System), launched in 1998, includes a Web-enabled digital asset library, a secure distribution system, and an online proofing toolset and project manager.

PaRTS provides interconnectivity of existing databases—a critical factor in DAM's implementation and ultimate life cycle, Foszcz notes. Multiple elements of a job, e.g., a label, carton, and a logo, can be saved as a "supergroup" of files. PaRTs installations can run from $150,000 to over $500,000.

Canto Cumulus, released nine years ago, is gaining a more broad-based user profile as a result of its reputation as "an inexpensive, robust DAM system that can track workflow and publish assets quickly to the Web," says Product Manager Uli Knocke. The workgroup version, he says, suits printers and trade shops best. Users can catalog an almost unlimited number of images for around $3,500 with the program, which is said to offer complete scriptability and customization. The $35,000 enterprise edition offers a more complex system that controls access to viewing and altering images. Both editions can run on a Cumulus proprietary database, but the enterprise edition can also be integrated with an Oracle database. New Cumulus 5.5 features the ability to write back copyright and usage information into the original image.

Kodak Polychrome Graphics' Marketing and Branding Services (formerly part of Imation) helps customers—typically consumer product companies—create a "virtual corporation" to help increase speed, consistency, and cost-effectiveness in the creation and production of brand messages. Imation formerly offered Media Manager, an off-the-shelf media database program, but thought it could serve customers more effectively by moving upstream and offering DAM consulting services. According to Stocking, the Kodak team first determines if a customer's workflow problem is big enough to solve with DAM. Once this is established, and the existing workflow is assessed, the team maps a new workflow and integrates the best technology solution.

The main desired result, says Stocking, is to achieve consistent color across all vendors. "To do this, you must first manage media assets, characterize color, and then ensure that everyone accessing the assets is doing so through a workflow that connects everyone. You need to link color to media through a workflow that makes sense."

Selective "leadership"

The variables to consider in choosing a DAM installation are many. Foszcz says shops must look at the number of files they need to manage, file size, the amount of information to be attached, and, the number of people involved and how dispersed they are.

A selection must also be made, he points out, among the three types of tools typically used to manage assets: adaptive, configurable, and custom. Configurable systems combine aspects of adaptive and custom tools, and use building blocks of a DAM system to match a variety of needs. These can be realigned or expanded as the workflow changes.

Converters and trade shops who take the lead in integrating DAM stand to gain stronger customer loyalty and a simplified workflow from the get-go. "If I'm a service bureau," says Eckler, "the best thing for me to do is to get up and running in an enterprise environment, get the workflow solid, and then be the influencer. By influencing customers' technology decisions, I can eliminate the inefficiencies of working with different customer interfaces."