Great DAM Vendors Don't Sell Systems, They Partner for Growth

Photo by Akil Mazumder

As a business seeking to flourish, we're always keen to find new clients. If we are to grow, and prosper, we need sales. So far, so normal. Client purchases our system. We notch up a sale. End of story, right?

For some companies, it may indeed be as simple as installing a piece of software and 'voila' the pain point it was designed to solve magically evaporates. The vendor logs a sale, and moves on.

When it comes to digital asset management, however, it's best to think long term. Purchasing a DAM system should never be a fire-and-forget transaction. Rather, it should be viewed as the beginning of a collaborative partnership that is likely to last many years.

At LightRocket, making a sale isn't just a coordinate on our sales chart, it's the beginning of a relationship that will involve exchanges between real people. It's about understanding corporate cultures and systems, about designing workflows to meet specific organisational needs.

Digital Asset Management is a Long-Term Investment

You see, the thing about digital asset management systems is that while they come in a myriad of shapes and forms, the core concepts are quite universal: think centralisation, controlled distribution, streamlined workflows and accurate file retrieval.

Looking beyond these headline features, and once you've peeled away the veil of slick marketing, you'll eventually work your way through to the human realities of software. Because when all is said and done, software is (still) written by humans and companies are created and run by individuals.

So, when you think of buying a DAM system, it's always best to look beyond the enticing lists of features (though these are important too) and make sure that the company who created the software is truly committed to delivering a personalised service and consultancy for as long as you intend to use the system.

A DAM system may be turn-key when it comes to installation, but trust me that when it comes to the process of designing workflows and establishing best practices, it's important to make sure your provider isn't going to leave you high and dry you once the sale is done.

This doesn't just mean providing someone to help you with 'onboarding' and training. It means finding a provider who will work with you and grow with you. A DAM system is a long-term investment. It needs to evolve to keep up with changing technology and your evolving needs.

Photo by Junior Teixeira

An Adaptive DAM is a Good DAM

Advice and consultancy are vital to getting full value from your DAM. At LightRocket, we understand that each industry and each client have their own specificities and idiosyncrasies.

You can design the best DAM system on the planet, but to release the value of any software solution, it comes down to how it can be adapted to match the workflows of the end user, and how it can respond to highly specific use-case scenarios.

A great example of how we've adapted LightRocket to meet our clients' needs is our dual description field.

As a result of talking with various clients (especially those with high volumes of editorial imagery) we realised that it would boost efficiency to have two description fields: one for a general descriptive paragraph that can be applied to a set of images, and another allowing for specific descriptions of each picture, file by file.

It's a simple innovation that has delivered significant increases in productivity - and yet allows for flexibility and speed when editing and correcting batches of images. And best of all, it's unique to LightRocket.

Another case in point is how we handle something as essential and seemingly basic as consent form management, a feature which reflects the growing importance of privacy in all our lives, and the need for organisations and companies to gather consent when they take people's picture.

The LightRocket Enterprise team has developed functionality that links consent forms with the files they relate to. It sounds simple but you'd be amazed at how many DAM platforms still haven't responded to the growing importance of consent and the need to manage and link consent forms.

We Don't Just Sell DAM Systems, We Partner for Growth

Partnership, collaboration, cooperation, integration, and innovation are all key concepts for our company.

We don't just sell, we partner. We don't just train and onboard, we collaborate and cooperate with our clients. We don't just deliver a platform designed to operate in splendid isolation, we are seeking to ensure that LightRocket can integrate with a whole galaxy of apps. And we are always exploring new avenues of innovation, responding to the changing needs of our clients, while leveraging the opportunities presented by the advent of new technologies, like AI.

These are just some of the ways we continue to uplift the lives of the clients we partner with.

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Written by Yvan Cohen | Yvan is a Co-Founder of LightRocket Enterprise and has spent the past two decades immersed in the challenges and realities of digital asset management. As a professional photojournalist, Yvan uses his decades of media experience to help shape LightRocket's world-class DAM platform; focusing on collaboration, intuitive workflows and continuous innovation.

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