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INTRODUCTION
This article strives to expose the requirement for crucial components of DAM projects that are often neglected or avoided. These findings and an approach to fulfilling these requirements have derived from hands-on experience leading numerous DAM projects and corroborated by further anecdotal evidence from consultants, vendors and end-use firms in marketing, broadcast, media and publishing. The goals of this article are to:
Convince readers that firms must approach DAM as an operational capability - identifying the scope of issues that fall on program leaders and the impact of failing to recognize and address these requirements.
Demonstrate that building an operational capability is a complete solution compared to just implementing software - define operational design, the work it entails and highlight the ramifications if this work is not sufficiently addressed.
Outline the DAM services model for establishing the right resources to execute operational design during system implementation projects and post-deployment structuring and planning these projects and how a DAM services approach can grow DAM more quickly and at less expense than a series of phased IT projects.
Convey the imperative to garner support for operational design, including how to justify the perceived cost increase and schedule extensions compared to just implementing a system and more importantly securing organizational support essential to promote and coordinate fundamental changes in how teams execute their work.
WHAT CHARACTERISTICS DO UNSUCCESSFUL DAM PROJECTS SHARE?
DAM projects that fall short of objectives are almost universally characterized by insufficient or entirely absent operational design efforts. The root of the issue is the crucial distinction between implementing a DAM system and changing how teams accomplish their work. The gains firms seek from DAM, such as decreased cycle time or reducing redundant content licensing, are not produced by DAM system functionality. The gains are achieved by improving business processes, usually including greater integration and collaboration between multiple content-producing groups.
Figure 1 - See PDF, highlights what happens when operational design is insufficient. In the end, poor adoption is responsible for prohibiting business process changes that drive the gains firms seek from DAM.
The result of rolling out to users for which there has been insufficient operational design is poor adoption. A common outcome firms report is that the teams that chose to adopt...