DAM: Changing The Way We Work - digital asset management systems

Alex Brown

DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS MAKE IT FAST AND EASY TO FIND FILES, KEEP THEM SECURE, TRACK OWNERSHIP OF RIGHTS AND MANAGE WORKFLOW TASKS. IDENTIFYING YOUR COMPANY'S PARTICULAR NEEDS IS THE FIRST STEP TO DEVELOPING A SYSTEM OF YOUR OWN.

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE TYPI-cal creative professional spends one out of every 10 hours on file management? A third of that time is spent on searches, and--as if those wasted man-hours aren't frustrating enough--35 percent of the time the person never finds the file that he or she is searching for.

Digital asset management is about to change all that and more.

In simple terms, a digital asset management system allows you to store, browse and quickly locate files of text, images or sound. The consequences of swift, consistent, company-wide access to files extend to four areas: finding images and data, systematizing workflow, collaborating on pages and managing rights. And it is these four tasks that are about to be radically transformed by DAM.

DAM systems consist of software (for sorting, searching and retrieving) and hardware (for storing, accessing and distributing). These broad applications put DAM only a small step away from an operating system or the fundamental components of network software. Future operating systems may very well include DAM elements, and network systems may ultimately integrate conventional file sharing with database structures for file management. Until they do, we begin with the database at the heart of DAM.

The database makes use of metadata--data describing the data. It uses keywords for searches, and thumbnails to represent images during browsing, as well as pointers to the location of each file.

In high-level systems, which can cost $100,000 and up, the database is an asset repository, a secure collection of the source files themselves. The other approach, which costs a great deal less ($2,000 to $20,000), is a media catalog that stores proxies alone, indexed to the source files.

In an asset repository, the files enjoy all the advantages of a database: security, replication, backup safeguards, disaster recovery, referential integrity, centralized data management and a hierarchical storage structure. Such a system lends itself to workflows that require access security, including management of rights or permissions and access for suppliers or customers. These systems require a high performance server, a fast network and significant online storage capacity.

In contrast, in a media catalog structure the source files remain accessible. This means anyone can view, change, move or delete files unless the files are otherwise secured. Therefore, while a media catalog can address rights management and version control by user privileges and check-in/check-out logs, it cannot prevent access to files through other retrieval methods.

When storing files, DAM systems will automatically identify the file based on characteristics evident from the file itself, such as size and type. You can further automate the tagging process by batching files with common properties that you'd like used as keywords for later searches. Finally, you'll want to anticipate future searches by answering some prompts with keywords. For a photograph of a wheat field, for example, the photographer's name, "John Deere," "Iowa" and "heartland" might all describe the same image.

Choosing a system

The DAM product landscape is already densely populated. (For a list of available products and their costs, see FOLIO:, December 1,2000, page 67.) Navigating it is easier once you've identified your core objectives. Is your emphasis on helping individuals search for files and browse thumbnail images, or on creating a collaborative environment? Will the DAM systematize workflow and aid in project management? Is there an e-commerce application? How about managing rights?

Kathy Sandler, manager of training and information services at Hearst, says, "The choice of vendor or software is secondary. The most important aspect of implementing digital asset management is accurately assessing the need for it by including a complete range of end users." Include the whole team in the process of defining needs and developing the scope of the project, she says; that way you create the user buy-in that is essential for the system to succeed. "From there, you can determine which vendors, products or services are likely to serve you best."

To construct your needs assessment, evaluate both the volume of files and the time spent managing them, then plan your usage requirements. (See sidebar, page 26.) A close examination of your existing workflow and file storage routines will help you identify points for enhancement.

Successful implementation owes more to people than to software. A systems( integrator can assist with needs assessment, as well as implementation and training. But outsiders can only go so far. Look for an in-house DAM champion, or develop a task force that will encourage adoption of new procedures. "Responsibility is key to a successful system," Sandier says. "You should designate an owner of the system. This could be, for example, a librarian/archivist, or a company department."

Cost justification for a DAM system requires a leap of faith. Specifically, the expense of lost productivity associated with searching for, converting and transferring files will be reduced by DAM, but these are quite well-hidden costs. Gistics Research has a benchmark, and it's a big number: The average annual cost per employee for file searching, verification, organization and backup is $8,200. As noted earlier, your typical creative professional spends ) one out of every 10 working hours on file management, with searches accounting for a third of that time.

Canto Software, purveyors of Cumulus DAM software, has research revealing that, without DAM, the average creative person fails to find the file they're looking for 35 percent of the time. Gistics pegs the productivity gain from DAM at seven to 14 times the cost of the system, counting in labor savings plus the revpurposing of content and increased revenue from faster project turnaround time.

That's an ROI you can drive a truck through, but magazine publishers won't realize gains quite as glorious as, say, ad agencies, since they aren't selling employees' time as directly, nor are they able to resell creative content as neatly.

Still, these benchmarks indicate that file management requires major resources. Finding things is often dependent on idiosyncratic conventions of memory--and it's fair to say that without DAM, a publishing operation is really rather ignorant about what it owns.

A relational database permits a new class of inquiries about files. For example, if a photo is identified with both the subject and the setting, a search for either locates it-9which means you'll discover that you not only have 22 pictures of men's rooms, but one with Zsa Zsa Gabor standing outside. To suit your requirements, look for ability to customize the data entry and search interface to make unique user defined search fields available.

Rent or buy?

Many in-house/outsource questions are settled by evaluating the advantages of building versus buying. With a DAM system, however, it's renting versus owning. An offsite DAM system eliminates ownership and maintenance of hardware and replaces them with transaction fees or fixed monthly charges based on the volume of data stored. This may be a particularly sound approach, given the rapid pace of change in technology.

Off-site systems also offer the potential for outsourcing certain tasks. A vendor can digitize and annotate your images as well as store them. Eliminating the hardware and software investment and systems administration overhead offers a low cost-of-entry into DAM. This cost advantage may continue over many years as scalability and upgrade issues are neatly sidestepped.

However, an on-site system also has advantages. Renting hardware means that costs are low but constant. There is never an opportunity to reduce them as equipment depreciates, and service fees may rise over time more rapidly than any onsite upgrade or maintenance costs would.

Outsourcing some or all digitization, annotation and systems administration tasks can mean that the DAM system is poorly understood, with only its most obvious features being used. As workflows evolve, it would be easy to overlook potential new uses for DAM if the majority of system knowledge resides in an outside provider. Finally, an on-site system ensures security, total control and faster access.

Bandwidth will affect your choice about the location. Joyce Vogt of Banta Integrate Media says, "The original model was that you would buy bandwidth to move data from a remote repository. The assumption was that the costs for bandwidth would be coming down, but this hasn't proved to be true, and moving files is still very costly. If you disconnect, you own nothing. At least a server has an ongoing real value."

Vogt also points out that moving data across a T-1 line is 1/10th the speed of moving it on a LAN. "For this reason, I believe content belongs close to the customer, she says.

A little uniformity goes a long way

We've all had to master a host of little routines for locating, moving and transferring files. But just as a standardized interface simplifies adoption and daily use of different applications, a consistent method for handling files containing text and images adds welcome efficiency. The benefits are easy to discount, because it's not as if we're currently prevented from having our way with our files. But a little dose of uniformity goes a long way toward streamlining workflow.

Handling digital ad files is a good example of the impact of a DAM system. Consider the life span of an ad file: It's preflighted, gets a unique number or other identification, is placed in a page, is transmitted to the printer or prep house, and might be picked up for a subsequent issue.

With a DAM system, you can know the status of all ads, search for them without looking up their ID numbers, drag and drop them into place the moment you locate them, and search for pickups without a reference list.

Font management can also be improved with DAM. In most environments, fonts live on local disk drives with unhappy consequences, such as dueling versions of Garamond and that rogue True Type rendition of Wide Latin. The noblest systems administrator will never police this thoroughly, since many applications dump their little font cargoes right into your System Folder, unbeknownst to you. With a DAM system, all we need to do is clean out those local font folders and work exclusively with suitcases, using single files of typefaces located on the DAM server.

Collaboration made simple

To place the computer in a group process, we should recall a comment by Marshall McLuhan, author of Understanding Media: that labor-saving devices, like the vacuum cleaner, don't save labor at all--they make it possible for us to attempt labors otherwise beyond our reach. In the same way, a computer loaded with Word, Photoshop and QuarkXPress allows a single person to consider-seriously--producing a magazine solo.

You're laughing because you have a staff of dozens, but the fact is, their computers are no help in collaborating--in fact, they're a hindrance. Computer files are notoriously silent about what's last happened to them, including who has approved what. It is the network, not the computer, that makes collaboration possible.

Project management tools, such as Quark Publishing System (QPS), and homegrown network flourishes, such as file locations and naming conventions that signal completion status, have been the principal methods of simplifying collaboration. DAM systems are the next level of project management and can complement QPS or other applications.

To understand where DAM fits, consider the difference between the document file and its constituent parts. QPS affords version control on the page, but not its elements; a DAM system assures you that once your company's logo is updated, everyone uses the new logo, since its file exists in only one place.

Data and images can point back to the documents that incorporated them in some DAM systems, but QPS can tell you nothing about where the pieces came from, and can let you find them only if you already know what completed page contains them.

Collaboration and approval are facilitated both by a consistent workflow and Internet access. You can give access to the files themselves, or make PDF versions available for comment and approval. Collaboration extends to suppliers and clients, as well. With appropriate access privileges, you and your printer can exchange editorial and ad files, and jointly monitor aspects of job progress, such as ad preflight status and page transmissions.

Transactions with clients for Web sales of reprints or other items may also be enhanced with DAM. But as networks increasingly link you in stronger relationships with vendors, ad agencies and contributors, the lines of data ownership can become blurred. A DAM system sorts out many ownership questions by including information on the rights owned with each file. As Hearst's Sandler says, "Rights management is key, because if you don't have the rights, there's a question as to whether you actually have an asset."

Not only will DAM inform you of the rights associated with a file, it can lock files so they're not inadvertently used without appropriate permissions.

You'd be hard pressed to think of anything less systematized than creating pages for a magazine or a Web site. Late ads, late approvals and late revisions all require their own special attention. DAM won't cure all the woes associated with commissioning, editing and reshooting art; nor will it resolve copyfit problems that create a last-minute need for new info-graphics or text cuts. But DAM will make responding to these pressures a good bit easier by providing fast access to all the elements that make up a page.

IMPLEMENTING A NEEDS ASSESSMENT

What do you want from a data asset management system? Publishers contemplating buying or renting a system need to identify and define the needs of the people who will be using it. To begin this process, study your current file management procedures to determine:

VOLUME ASSESSMENT

* How many people share data

* How they are linked by a network and by location

* How many files are stored

* How many files are duplicated

* How many versions of a file occur

* How many separate workstations store files

* How many images or elements are re-created because no one knows something similar already exists

* How many files have the potential for reuse

TIME ASSESSMENT

* How long people spend looking for files

* How-long people spend managing files

* How long people spend transferring files

REVENUE/EXPENSE ASSESSMENT

* How much is spent on overnight delivery or prep house rush charges to cope with late or changed material

* How much it costs to create files of an image, a page, a story

* What's the value of time saved in reduced costs or increased revenue potential

USAGE ASSESSMENT

* Which files must be online for immediate access; which can be nearline for prompt retrieval; which can be offline

* Which file formats will you store

* Will you maintain iterations of same or all files; will you maintain interim components, like the word processing file that will later be imported into a page-makeup application

* For a workflow dependent on PDF, will you convert legacy material to PDF

SEARCH AND KEYWORD ASSESSMENT

* What categories of keywords are essential (examples: business unit, type of asset, rights and permissions, photographer or illustrator, issue/page of usage)

* What structure for content description will be useful (examples: subject mailer, design elements, color, texture, period, technique/style)

* Which searchable keywords are suitable for drop-down lists or radio button selection

HOW YOUR WORK WILL CHANGE

Comparison of current practices with potential application of digital asset management system:

TYPICAL CURRENT PRACTICES

PAGE CREATION AND APPROVAL

* Hierarchical file structure

* File structure based on issue, year, type of file, creator

* File is opened to examine and confirm contents

* Original creator more likely to make use of existing files, as the contents and structure are individually remembered

* Images, fonts, ads and page files filed separately

* Certain available images and illustrations idiosyncratically recalled

* Photos occasionally purchased that duplicate images already owned

* History of rights and permissions for artwork is sporadically recalled

* Images occasionally used without appropriate rights or permissions

* Pages in progress are routed for approval and proofing as laser proofs

* Approval and correction status is maintained manually, and locally

* Latest version of page is stored on designer's Macintosh

POTENTIAL PRACTICES WITH DAM

* Database of files and metadata

* Access to file based on keywords, such as color, resolution, content, format, designer, ownership, etc.

* Thumbnail of file visible for browsing; thumbnails can be printed as reports

* Anyone may use existing files, as files are located by a variety of properties

* Images, fonts, ads and page files stored separately; a search for page file reveals and collects all elements used in the file

* All available images and illustrations accessible through keyword or other attribute searches

* Images reused judiciously, with insight as to prior use and no duplication of existing images

* Artwork tagged with rights; potentially locked if rights are unavailable

* Images locked based on rights and permissions

* Pages in progress are routed for approval/proofing as PDF documents

* Approval and correction status is automatically updated and accessible to anyone

* Latest version of page is accessible for browsing at all times, with contents locked

PRODUCTION

* File is conveyed to prep house or printer via media

* Limited vendor contact on job status before page release

* Manual naming and filing of documents and elements on server

* Old files are archived for company-wide access; current files belong to designer

* File is conveyed to prep house or printer via Internet

* Vendors may access job status via internet, with password

* Hot folders sort and file material based on content definitions

* All files, in all stages of completion, are accessible company-wide, with controlled viewing and revision privileges

AD FILES

* Digital ad files manually identified with ad numbers

* To place an ad, its number must be looked up from run sheet, with a Find File command on the ad number

* Production list of digital ads maintained manually

* Status of digital ad file conversion and preflight checks maintained manually

* Digital ad placed by opening the file in the appropriate application, then copying the ad to QuarkXpress

* The benefit of assigning ads unique numbers is balanced against the impossibility of identifying an ad without consulting a reference for its number

* Manual entry of ad numbers on tearsheets to facilitate pickups

* Digital ads automatically given unique ad numbers; manually given descriptive names

* Digital ads may be located based on descriptive names and keywords

* Thumbnail report of digital ads ready for placement

* Hot folders, status reports and job tickets allow automatic tracking of ad status

* Digital ad dragged and dropped into QuarkXpress from database view

* Ads can be retrieved, moved, filed or purged based on knowledge of the advertiser, ad size, issue or publication date, without an intermediate reference

* Report showing ad thumbnails is created with a few simple search criteria

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