According to a recent ABI Research ( News - Alert) study, the global market for digital asset management (DAM) solutions is expected to exceed $1 billion in 2013.
DAM consists of tasks and decisions surrounding consuming, annotating, cataloging, storage and retrieval of digital assets, such as digital photographs, animations, videos and music.
ABI Research believes the increase in DAM deployments is due to the ongoing explosion of audio, video, photos, and text being generated or converted in digital formats.
Zippy Aima, industry analyst for ABI Research, explained that there are a number of reasons contributing to the growth of the DAM market, but the DAM also has to overcome some significant challenges.
“Large quantities of digital media content require collaboration across all personnel and departments, from creation to delivery,” said Aima. “DAM systems’ ability to enable integration is driving demand.”
In the past, the different operations concerned with rich media content were siloed and isolated. Today, DAM solutions can integrate with existing third-party applications and systems, such as ERP and enterprise content management (ECM) applications.
Additionally, organizations are motivated to implement DAM because they improve operational efficiency and demonstrate a clear ROI.
Falling storage costs and ever-increasing bandwidth also mean that digital assets can be easily moved around, and this capability too demands powerful management tools.
However, there are still issues that need to be resolved. One issue is that there is a lingering confusion about the very definition of digital asset management.
“There is still a lack of clarity around defining the system,” cautioned Aima. “DAM systems are often confused with ECMs. Currently, DAM is considered to be a subset of ECM.”
Other obstacles to DAM adoption include high price, with the average cost of a DAM system ranging from $100,000 to $150,000, and a lack of interest on the part of C-level executives.
ABI Research’s recent report, “Digital Asset Management,” focuses on the role of DAM solutions in the enterprise and media/entertainment markets. It also highlights factors driving and restraining the growth of these markets. Current trends are discussed, and the report includes profiles of vendors offering DAM solutions, analysis of pricing, and market forecasts by region and by market segment.
Michelle Robart is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Michelle's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Michelle Robart
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