Upgrading Your Portfolio
Preparation and experience determine which printers and trade shops most readily reap Digital Asset Management's benefits.
by Terri McConnell, PrePress Editor
Digital Asset Management (DAM) has been described as an emerging billion-dollar industry. Estimates from the California-based market research firm GISTICS suggest revenues from DAM software development could reach $3.2 billion by the end of 2001.
That's an enticement certain to create frenzy within today's opportunistic investment community. But, in this case, the buzz surrounding DAM is both legitimate and well deserved. It really is an important issue for every business to address, and what both large corporations and small businesses alike will find of particular interest is not necessarily the money to be made, but rather, the money to be saved.
Many businesses underestimate the value of having control over their digital assets—which can simply be defined as those items representing value to the company that are currently stored in a digital format. Every document, every graphic, every file produced or modified in a digital format is technically an asset, and if it can be reused by a different department or re-purposed for another project, then its value only increases.
In her article "Digital Asset Management, The Art of Archiving," published on www.tech-exchange.com, consultant Teri Ross quantifies the benefits of asset management. Citing data from Canto Software, a company with more than 120,000 licensed DAM seats worldwide, Ross writes the average creative professional looks for a media file 83 times a week and fails to find it 35 percent of the time. A DAM solution could drop that figure to 5 percent. Her research shows the ROI on a digital asset management system is between 8:1 to 14:1, due to labor savings in file searching and retrieval, extended use and re-use of digital assets, faster turnarounds, and workflow efficiency.
Benefits and barriers
The package printing industry in particular stands to benefit from DAM. Consumer product companies, along with their ad agencies, trade shops, and printers and converters, are actively pursuing more effective ways of storing and disseminating the massive volumes of digital material generated in the design, packaging, and promotion of a product.
The product manufacturer has invested financially in logos, artwork, descriptive copy, SKU numbers, ingredient listings, copyrights, etc. By making these digital assets easily accessible, the manufacturer can save considerable time and money in the development of re-designs, line extensions, advertisements, presentations, and promotional campaigns. More importantly, by managing these assets, the manufacturer can ensure the integrity of brand equity, and exercise much stricter control over product reproduction.
In practice, implementing an effective DAM solution has proven to be a difficult challenge for many companies. Added to the sheer volume of product packaging data is the reality that most of it is developed or supplied by outside sources. Art, regulatory information, and production specifications may be stored in several separate locations, either exclusively or redundantly. Even within companies that attempt to account for such materials internally, it's not uncommon to find files scattered amongst different departments, or even between completely different branches.
Naturally, the transition has been a smoother process for companies already involved to some extent in a digital field. But failed attempts at developing their own DAM programs have led many to seek outside assistance.
One printer's transition
Consumer product companies often look to their prepress houses and print shops as a first option because they've been controlling client materials for years. Leading prepress providers are investing in a DAM infrastructure to accommodate their customers.
Phototype, headquartered in Cincinnati, is a global provider of digital imaging and prepress services. In 1997 Phototype first began examining the possibility of introducing DAM services. They were already armed with years of production experience in manipulating, printing, and distributing digital materials, and had a pre-existing and well tested method for archiving client work. Extending their services to DAM seemed a natural and logical progression.
As Phototype President Steve Olberding readily admits, it was a bit more complicated than they anticipated. "Some of our competitors were already experimenting with it, but it was a relatively new concept. Not much was known about it yet, and there weren't many shrink-wrapped solutions. In spite of that, we realized the significance of the need, and made the commitment to build a solution."
Recognizing that DAM required specific IT disciplines beyond the scope of graphics applications, Olberding established an entirely new division within the company, staffed with personnel dedicated solely to database management.
Recalls Dan Vosel, director of operations and leader of Phototype's DAM efforts, "We tried at least two off-the-shelf asset management software applications before ultimately discarding them due to their inherent limitations. After a lot of frustration, it became evident that the only way we could successfully implement the kind of system we were looking for was to develop it for ourselves. It took us more than 3 years and an investment of over $500,000."
What they developed would become Photoscope, a custom-engineered, proprietary software solution that now serves as Phototype's core Digital Asset Management system. Based upon existing Internet technology, Photoscope is a kind of "glorified and extremely advanced Web site," capable of distributing both on-line and near-line information 24-hours a day to anyone in the world with Internet access.
Continues Vosel, "It made the most sense to make use of the extensive and extremely efficient network already in place for the Web. The language allowed for highly customizable search strings; the interface was familiar and easily navigated; and it also helped us to avoid cross-platform compatibility issues."
The backbone of Photoscope consists of an extensive, fiber-channel Storage Area Network (SAN) that boasts an online storage capacity of several terabytes. That storage is further supplemented by Photoscope's automated near-line capabilities, including AIT and DVD jukebox archiving solutions. State-of-the-art firewalls and redundant back-up systems secure the environment.
After years of planning, Phototype's commitment and dedication are paying dividends. Phototype's consumer goods clients, who fill the shelves of grocery store aisles, were the first clients to take advantage of the Photoscope system. For these and other such companies, taking the Digital Asset Management initiative has resulted in far-reaching benefits, including the preservation and extension of brand equity, more productive man-hours, greatly accelerated approval processes, and simple savings in shipping and handling costs.
