Although management may agree that investing in a DAM (Digital Assessment Management) system makes financial sense and is a logical solution for any business – how can the power of DAM be maximised if the change is not welcomed by employees of the company?
For user adoption to be truly successful, it has to be properly planned, encouraged, well managed, and consistently monitored. Unfortunately, because many enterprise processes and products do not fall into the of ‘set-and-forget’ category, some work will have to be done. Below we set out 5 steps that will help ensure that your investment in a DAM system will be worthwhile in the long run.
1. Planning
Any significant change needs ‘Change Management’. Asking questions and trying to understand how your staff is currently working with digital assets before any changes are implemented will help to ensure that they are more likely to adapt to changes and accept new systems. Implementing a ‘Change Management Strategy’ will not only expose current gaps in the system but will also highlight those elements that are really loved by employees and should be retained. It will be much easier to get employees to adopt something new that will solve a problem rather than asking them to give up something that they believe works.
Asking staff about how their processes work is important as it will help get them involved early on in the Digital Asset Management project and create a sense of ownership and involvement in the project. Managing change in this way means that when the solution becomes ready for implementation, these input providers will become super-users and testers who will not only help to identify and fix problems but also encourage feedback from other employees in the organization.
2. Setting Clear Guidelines For Product Use
To ensure staff buy-in, product use training is essential. Trainers must explain to employees why a DAM system is important for the organization, how it will make things easier for them, and teach them how to use the system effectively. Management has to acknowledge the fact that people have different ways of learning and provide the necessary support to meet individual learning needs and demands.
A good change management strategy will need to include Template Management. To learn how Template Management can take the brand compliance in your organisation to a new level, download the free guide available online at:
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For successful adoption of the system, it is especially important to establish protocols on how to search for, tag (News - Alert), and update assets. In order to render a meaningful and intuitive search function, assets will have to be tagged with the right metadata. If there is no one in the organisation with the skills required to develop metadata governance, it is best to seek the help of experts. You do not want poor taxonomy that guarantees deficient search functions, leading to frustrated users.
3. Work Where Your Users Work
This is pretty straightforward. It makes sense that if DAM software is supposed to help make thing easier by streamlining processes, it should not include additional work or require great changes in habits from users. Of course, some initial education and behavioural change will need to take place, however, once the learning phase is complete, processes should have improved and there should be no additional work required on the part of the user.
For example, if a Digital Management System requires constant log-in to an external portal for retrieval of company assets will not have as much success as a system that allows users to continue working on platforms that are already familiar to them.
Many DAM systems that integrate Adobe (News - Alert) Creative Suite are mostly relevant only for marketing teams that are familiar with working with that type of software. Most enterprise staff utilise office applications like Google (News - Alert) Drive or Microsoft Office to create presentations and new documents. Therefore making assets available in these environments will be key to ensuring that they will actually be used and are essential for DAM user buy-in. Contact Intelligence Bank to ensure that your DAM is fully integrated to your systems.
4. Measure and Learn From Outcomes
Successfully introducing and implementing a DAM system is the first step. Thereafter it is important that genuine user-adoption be measured over the long term. In the early stages it is important to monitor:
- How many times users log into the system
- How many uploads and downloads there have been by how many users and at what times
- How much time is spent by users searching for assets
Pairing qualitative feedback from the super-users of the system with this data will help determine what is working and what isn’t. With this information on hand simple methods like email updates or additional training can be implemented to target gaps and support users rather than having them give up on the system due to frustration and uncertainty.
5. Promoting the System
Constantly promoting the system and reminding users why it is so great will ensure that certain employees who need to access assets more often will become regular users while other users may only need to sporadically access company assets. Promoting the system will help ensure initial training and implementation is not forgotten that could eventually result in user numbers dropping off over time. Even regular users will benefit from communicating updates and occasional tips to improve processes and will aid retention and buy-in.
