What are the most important considerations when planning the introduction of a digital asset management system?
Rather than ask how long is a piece of string I was hoping that as a
non-techie the community might give their top piece(s) of advice of do's
and don'ts. Not just to recommend particular pieces of software but, for
example, it might be about the business process (eg make sure you have
appropriate metadata for your assets) or about being realistic about
what any one piece of software might achieve. If you do recommend one
system over another it would be helpful to know why.
Rachel
Comments
Answer by dsalo
My favorite piece of advice is "pick software LAST." I say this after
seeing horrendous mismatches between what people thought software would
do -- what they wanted it to do -- and what it actually did in practice.
Some things to do and questions to ask before you go software-hunting:
- What kinds of content will you be working with?
- How are you planning to get hold of content? Doodle up the workflows
you think you'll need, paying especial attention to listing the
people who will be doing the work, and to the sequence in which work
events are likely to happen in your shop. (Don't forget batch work!
One-item-at-a-time is deadly when the software makes it your only
option.)
- How would you like to present the content to end-users? Doodle up
some wireframes.
- What security/access-control needs do you have for (any or all of)
the content?
- What will you be doing by way of metadata? Are there standards you
need your software to support? What if anything do you plan to do
about missing metadata, bad metadata, Other People's Metadata?
Good luck!
Comments
- Trevor Owens: upvoted for "pick software last"
- walker: +1 for getting clear on your batch work needs and what the software will
provide - both out of box and with some coding or ancillary tools. Batch
import, export, editing, selecting, and so on. So important to have a
clear grip on those workflows.