Qualifying cost savings of a DAM department

Abstract: There are numerous means to measure the success of a digital asset management system. Asset reuse and the resulting savings or cost avoidance are among the important measures. To properly gauge the size of the savings, one needs to know the media and extent in which the originally requested assets were used. Normally scheduled reporting, while very important, cannot always reveal answers to new questions that an ad-hoc report or survey can provide. This article presents a methodology for calculating the potential cost avoidance of visual assets as used in different media. A partial list of topics reviewed includes seasonality, scope and data cleansing. Signs of potential audits are discussed and the methods to address them are shown. Provided are the results of a recent survey using requests for visual assets from Chrysler Group’s visual asset management department.

Keywords: digital asset management, measurement, visual asset, use, reuse, cost avoidance, seasonality