5 signs your team needs a digital asset management solution

Companies come to us every day with different goals and challenges, but they all have one thing in common: They’re motivated to step up their game, and they know that managing their digital assets will help them do that.

How, exactly? Let’s look at the most common issues one at a time. Here are the top five reasons teams decide to take control of their media libraries and get serious about digital asset management.

1. Assets are too hard to find

Many teams store their assets in multiple places, including servers, hard drives, cloud storage and email attachments. This makes it hard to find what you’re looking for, especially on large teams with growing media libraries.

This was the reason Seattle Housing Authority began looking for a digital asset management solution. Their scattered system of storing assets was slowing the team down.

“We had thousands of images in numerous files and folders on our internal network and in a cloud storage drive,” explains SHA Communications Manager Susanna Linse. “It could take us hours to find photos.”

2. Asset requests are becoming a bottleneck

With a piecemeal system or a disorganized library, one person or team usually becomes the go-to for everyone else to get the files they need. This can be extremely frustrating for the person fielding these requests and dealing with the constant interruptions they create. It’s also not a great system for the people requesting assets, since they’re stuck waiting for someone else to find and retrieve what they need.

That was the dynamic that made Sean Kagawa, Senior Graphic Designer at Yard House, realize his team needed a more sophisticated system. Working with physical lookbooks of the brand’s photo library, Sean was spending hours fielding asset requests for the Yard House marketing team. The team can now self-serve with Canto, eliminating that bottleneck.

“Canto really fulfilled that big wishlist item of having robust ways to download. It allows a lot of people who used to have to work with a designer to get assets to just do it themselves,” says Sean.

3. Your team is growing (and producing more content)

A good digital asset management system makes it easy to keep up with your content and future-proof your media library as your team grows.

Delivery service Favor has relied on Canto throughout their growth from early-stage startup to quickly growing company.

“Canto works smoothly and seamlessly and it’s never been an issue,” explains Nicolai McCrary, Photo Editor at Favor. “As we’ve grown over the past few years, we’ve had to replace a number of other software and services that were too slow. But Canto hasn’t needed to be replaced.”

4. You need to keep track of important metadata

What campaign is this image from, again? Do we have permission to use it?

To get the most out of your assets, you need more than just access to the file. You need information about copyright, approval status, version history and more. A digital asset management solution puts your assets in context, so everyone on your team knows when and how to use them.

Seattle Aquarium decided to invest in digital asset management to make it easier to keep track of digital rights.

“Canto has really helped us in terms of search functionality and metadata. A big thing for me was understanding permission rights for those assets,” explains Pam Lamon, Digital Marketing Manager at the aquarium.

5. Your current system is holding your team back

Ultimately, your digital assets should act as, well… assets, helping to power your team’s success. But if any of the above apply, your digital assets are likely holding your team back. The average team wastes weeks – even months – each year looking for files.

That was the challenge that inspired Falcon Structures to get organized and up their digital asset management game. The company’s marketing team made tons of useful collateral for the sales team, but it was too difficult for sales reps to find what they needed in the company’s disorganized Google Drive.

“It would take us up to half an hour to find the right folder and image in Google Drive, and it added up. Oftentimes, the sales team would just give up searching for an asset,” says Krista Short, Falcon’s Marketing Director.

Now that the team has implemented Canto, the sales team can self-serve and grab assets on the go, even in the field.

By making it easy for people to get the content they need, when they need it, digital asset management helps teams work together and realize their full potential.

Ready to take control of your media library? Get started with our free eBook: Digital asset management for beginners