How to Navigate the Digital Asset Management (DAM) Demo Process

Choosing the right Digital Asset Management (DAM) software is a critical decision for organizations looking to streamline their digital asset workflows and creative processes. With numerous vendors in the market, each claiming to offer the best digital asset management software, navigating the demo process can be overwhelming. In this article, we'll explore the key steps to maximize the value of a DAM demo and ensure that your organization selects the most suitable solution to purchase.

Assess Your Needs Before the Demo:

Before diving into the demo process, it's essential to assess your organization's current and future needs for managing digital assets. Consider factors such as the types of assets you need to manage, the number and type of users, collaboration requirements, and integration needs with existing tools and systems. Define specific use cases and workflows where a DAM system will be utilized, such as marketing asset creation, product photography management, digital rights management, or content distribution. Have a list of the problems you’re trying to solve, and how you expect a DAM will help solve it. 

What to Ask For in a Demo:

During the demo, it's crucial to ask for demonstrations of scenarios that align with your organization's use cases and workflows. Don’t let vendors drone on through a cookie-cutter demo that doesn’t resonate with your team or their workflows. Provide them with your assets and data. Request demonstrations tailored to your specific requirements, rather than generic presentations. While a full-blown Proof of Concept (POC) may not be feasible during the demo, ensure that the vendor showcases enough functionality to prove they understand your requirements and can address your needs effectively.

Key Things to Look for in a Demo:

• Speed and Performance: Evaluate the speed and performance of the DAM solution. Pay attention to the loading times for searches and basic functions to ensure the system can keep up with the pace of how your team works. How long are images taking to load after a keyword search? Is there a noticeable lag between when a button is clicked and the action being performed? With cloud solutions today, even basic demos will give you a good understanding of the performance of the platform and what you can expect once you go live with a solution.
• Admin Area Accessibility: Request a demonstration of the admin area to assess its usability and functionality. Ask if your admins will be required to use a different interface that might be difficult to use or look and feel outdated. Can your business users configure download options, add new metadata fields or search facets, or do you need technical resources or the vendor’s aid to do that work? 
• User Experience (UX/UI): Prioritize user experience and ease of use when evaluating the DAM platform. Assess the user interface for its intuitiveness, customization options, and suitability for different user roles within your organization, not just how it looks. How many clicks are required to edit or download? Ask if you can personalize the experience for different users and teams, leading to better user adoption.  
• Configuration Opportunities: Inquire about the platform's configurability capabilities, particularly regarding workflows. Determine how easy it is to configure workflows according to your organization's needs and processes.

Tools: A lot of organizations are still under the assumption that they need a DAM, a media asset management tool for video, a project management solution, and digital preservation software that are all separate platforms they’ll try to stitch together to get the overall solution they’re searching for. Look for a vendor that has all of the tools you need in one intelligent solution. Try to find out if MAM, project management and digital preservation workflows are supported in the DAMs you’re reviewing. If not, ask if it's on their roadmap. Having all of these tools in one platform will increase user adoption and streamline workflows. 

• Reporting Capabilities: Evaluate the reporting capabilities of the DAM platform. Ensure that it offers robust reporting features to track asset usage, performance metrics, and other relevant analytics.

Questions to Ask During the Demo:

• Metadata and Search Capabilities: Inquire about the DAM platform's metadata tagging tools and search capabilities. Look for features that support robust metadata management and advanced search functionalities. AI tagging is a fantastic way to save time, but your organization should have a well thought out metadata taxonomy, including synonyms. Ask what types of metadata tools they have, besides AI that can help save your team time or increase findability. Questions to ask:
  • Are there limits to the number of metadata fields or search facets?
  • Are there easy ways to bulk tag assets?
  • Can your AI tools automatically transcribe videos?

• Integration Requirements: Determine the integration requirements of your organization and ensure that the DAM platform can seamlessly integrate with existing tools and systems, such as your CMS or PIM and content creation tools. If you’d rather have the functionality native to the DAM platform, make sure you have a list of functionality you need to see for your team to be successful. Questions to ask:
  • Do they have an integration roadmap?
  • Do they have integration partners?
  • Do you have the APIs for us to integrate with other platforms on our own? 

• Scalability and Flexibility: Assess the scalability and flexibility of the DAM solution to accommodate your organization's growing needs. Consider factors such as storage capacity, performance, and the ability to adapt to future changes and expansions. Your organization should be looking to grow, so be sure you’re accounting for future growth so you’re not setting your team up for an inevitable migration a year down the road. Questions to ask:
  • Are your workflows or ingests throttled in any way?
  • Are there limits to API calls?
  • Is there a cold storage option to manage our archived assets on cheaper storage?
• Permissions and Security: Evaluate the platform's capabilities for managing permissions and enforcing security measures. Look for features such as granular permissions, role-based access control, and digital rights management and file level permissions to protect your assets and intellectual property. If your organization requires additional compliances such as GDPR, HIPAA, and FINRA, be sure you’re creating your demo short list from a list of vendors who have those certifications. 
• Vendor Support and Training: Inquire about the vendor's support services and training offerings. Look for vendors that provide comprehensive training programs, responsive customer support, and ongoing updates and maintenance for the DAM platform. Questions to ask:
  • Would you have a dedicated customer support manager?

Conclusion:

The DAM demo process is a critical step in selecting the right solution for your organization's digital asset management needs. By assessing your requirements beforehand, asking targeted questions during the demo, and evaluating key features and functionalities, you can make an informed decision that aligns with your organization's goals and objectives. Don’t be afraid to ask for a test site or references of customers who are similar in size and scope. Remember to prioritize usability, workflow capabilities and security when evaluating DAM solutions to ensure long-term success and ROI.

To learn more about how we can help, schedule a demo of the Orange Logic DAM platform to learn how our intelligent DAM solution combines DAM, MAM, project management, MRM, digital preservation and more!