Modern innovations have led to more convenience for businesses through the digitalization of files and processes. From invoices to inventory, most documents can now be sent and received online.
While this task has led to more efficiency in the workplace, businesses still need a unified system to ensure that all files are organized and placed in their proper places. This is where digital asset management comes in.
The basics
If you find yourself asking, “What is digital asset management?” then you’ve come to the right place. Digital Asset Management is a software that allows you to store, organize, manage, search, and distribute data in a central location. Digital assets when it comes to small business asset management includes all kinds of electronic files, such as images, videos, text documents, and audio.
Businesses typically use these types of content for their daily operations, advertising campaigns, and other sales-related efforts. Digital asset management programs create archives for all your electronic files and provide an infrastructure that makes searching for and retrieving data more efficient.
The benefits of digital asset management
Business owners in today’s modern world have to keep up with the times. You should invest in a digital asset management system because it offers the following benefits:
1. Centralized database
The primary benefit of digital asset management (DAM) software is that it provides a central location for all your company files. This factor makes collaboration among different departments more efficient and effortless.
Gone are the days when you have to send an email attachment back and forth for modifications. With this program, you just need to send the name of the file in question to your employee, give the instructions on the necessary revision, and wait for them to confirm that the task has been completed.
Digital asset management enables everyone in the organization to access the same updated version of the document simultaneously. Moreover, you can track the revisions made on each file, so there’s transparency.
2. Workflow automation
The point of modern tools such as digital asset management is to allow business owners and their staff to focus on tasks that require a higher level of thinking. Your employees no longer have to waste valuable work hours manually searching for a particular file because of the program’s advanced search function.
As mentioned above, you only have to modify a file once, and the system will automatically distribute the updated version to others. This process lessens the risk of errors and redundancies.
3. Enriched information
Aside from storing primary file data, such as name, date of creation, and file type, a digital asset management system records the metadata of each content. You can think of metadata as supplemental information on a document, image, or video.
Additional data that may be recorded by this software is author name, origin, copyright, permissions, technical specifications, and even keywords. Metadata makes it easier for you to sift through thousands of digital files because the in-depth information provided by the program allows for advanced search filters.
4. Cutting-Edge security and encryption
In this world, the one who holds the most knowledge has always been the most powerful. Protecting your assets, whether physical or intangible, is one of the things that entrepreneurs should learn to rule the business world.
An excellent way to defend your electronic files is through digital asset management. These programs are typically equipped with cutting-edge security functions.
One of these features is the permission levels, where you can assign different stages of access to your employees. With this, managers and supervisors know more information about your organization, while rank-and-file staff will only have access to data that they need to fulfill their job responsibilities.
Another feature is encryption, which is the process of encoding data in such a way that only the device or gadget with the right key can decrypt it.
The presence of these functions means that your database in a digital asset management program is safe from prying eyes outside your organization. The first level of protection is through permissions, while another line of defense is through encryption so that hackers can’t easily decode and abuse your business and client information for identity theft.
5. Cloud capabilities
Businesses nowadays prefer software with cloud storage because it saves money on maintaining a physical server to save their files. Most digital asset management programs are equipped with this feature to make back-ups and access more efficient and cost-effective for their clients.
Conclusion
Digital asset management is beneficial for businesses because it provides a central location where companies can store and access their electronic files. With this, some workflow processes can be automated, and you can enrich each content with in-depth information. Meanwhile, most programs have advanced security and encryption features as well as cloud capabilities for increased efficiency and cost-effectivity.
