Assets are valuable possessions owned by a company, and there are two types: tangible assets, such as computers and furniture that can be physically touched, and intangible assets, like software and ideas that cannot be physically touched.
What is IT or digital asset management (DAM)?
IT or Digital Asset Management (DAM) is the management of a company’s technological assets, including computers, software, and other technology-related equipment.
By utilizing IT asset management software and best practices, a business can ensure that its technology is up-to-date and functioning effectively, resulting in cost savings and maximizing the value of technology assets.
IT asset management also helps businesses keep track of their technology equipment, enabling them to determine what they have and what they need.
By utilizing software for IT asset management, businesses can easily manage their technology assets and turn them into valuable resources.
Digital Asset Management (DAM) refers to both a business process and a type of information management technology, where an organization systematically stores, organizes, manages, retrieves, and distributes its digital assets.
DAM provides a centralized location for accessing media assets, such as images, audio content, media files, graphics, videos, animations, presentations, and documents, with the help of metadata and access and usage rights.
Why is Digital Asset Management important?
Digital Asset Management is important because it streamlines asset management and enhances the production of rich media, especially in sales and marketing departments.
It ensures brand consistency through automated asset updates and reinforcement of brand guidelines, providing a single source of truth for businesses and a consistent user experience for external audiences.
DAM also enables content repurposing, reducing unnecessary production costs and redundant workstreams with its powerful search capabilities, which are crucial for maintaining consistency in imagery and messaging across digital channels, such as social media, to establish brand authority and promote business growth.
As a result, digital asset management platforms are increasingly becoming essential components of digital transformation initiatives.
Top 6 Benefits of IT or Digital Asset Management (DAM) for Your Business
1. Efficiently Manage All Digital Assets
Managing various digital assets such as documents, images, sounds, and videos can be challenging for businesses. However, with effective digital asset management, it becomes easy to manage all these assets from a central location.
This saves time and effort as many tasks can be automated in real-time.
2. Repurpose Successful Content to Save Time and Resources
DAM systems allow businesses to extend the value of their assets by reusing and repurposing content through a comprehensive view of available assets. This involves reimagining content for new purposes, not just repurposing it.
By leveraging existing assets, teams can save time, money, and resources while giving past initiatives new life with easy access to both historical and current content.
3. Ensure Brand Consistency by Aligning with Brand Guidelines
DAM solutions ensure that all team members use the same brand-compliant files by directing them to a centralized content repository with easy search capabilities.
This consistent use of appropriate content ensures brand messaging cohesion across all consumer touchpoints.
4. Facilitate Collaboration
Digital Asset Management (DAM) enables faster employee collaboration as multiple people can work on digital assets as a group, contributing at different times.
This is beneficial for large projects where workload can be divided or when different skills are needed.
5. Evaluate Content Effectiveness
Many DAM systems include analytics tools that track asset usage, providing valuable data on who uses which assets, when, where, and how.
This information can be used to improve the system and make important content strategy decisions. By using data to guide content strategy, teams can identify opportunities to reuse their most successful content, saving time and resources.
6. Consolidate Redundant Tools
Centralizing content through DAM often reveals redundant tools used across different teams and departments, leading to wasteful spending and inconsistent assets and data.
Consolidating these tools saves money, simplifies content management, and helps maintain brand consistency.
Best Practices for Digital Asset Management (DAM)
By implementing simple DAM best practices, businesses can lower costs, ensure their technology is up-to-date, and maintain smooth operations.
These best practices help with tracking technology assets, ensuring their proper use, and updating or replacing them as needed.
By following these best practices, companies can extract the most value from their technology assets.
1. Select the Right ITAM Software
IT asset management can be complex, involving various processes, from cataloging assets to disposal.
Manual methods such as spreadsheets are time-consuming and inefficient. Implementing IT asset management software can centralize hardware and software inventory, and provide features such as batch vendor import and contract management.
It’s important to choose ITAM software that aligns with your organization’s needs and scalability requirements.
2. Manage IT Assets Throughout Their Lifecycle
IT assets have a lifecycle and their value decreases over time. Managing assets throughout their lifecycle is crucial.
Taking a lifecycle approach helps monitor asset usage and value, and determines when new assets are needed and when old assets should be disposed of.
3. Embrace Automation When Possible
Automation can significantly enhance the efficiency of ITAM processes. Tasks like application deployment and reporting can be automated to reduce manual labor.
Service centers are constantly adopting new automation techniques to improve efficiency and accuracy.
4. Align Asset Management with the ITIL Framework
IT asset management cannot exist in isolation; it needs to align with other processes to be effective.
Integrating with a service desk provides a comprehensive view of assets and a deeper understanding of issues, incidents, and changes that may impact assets. Alignment reduces business risks, such as security and compliance.
5. Determine the Need for a CMDB (Configuration Management Database)
For larger organizations, having a database of all hardware and software assets in use is crucial.
A CMDB may also be beneficial for smaller organizations with plans for growth. It consolidates information from multiple sources, providing a comprehensive list of hardware, software, and services they support.
Related: What Is CMDB (Configuration Management Database)?
In Summary
IT asset management is a critical component of any organization’s technology strategy. By incorporating IT asset management software and adhering to best practices, businesses can optimize their technology assets, reduce costs, and ensure smooth operations.
Proper management of technology assets can fuel growth and success in today’s fast-paced technological landscape.
Therefore, it is highly recommended for companies to integrate IT asset management into their organizational strategy to maximize the value of their technology assets.
Improve your team collaboration and asset management with LarkSuite now
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