To maximize your team’s performance, it’s essential that all of your employees are working in unison towards a common goal. This might sound obvious, but in large companies with siloed teams, the bigger picture can easily be forgotten. Each team has a different set of priorities which can put wider communication and collaboration on the back-burner. To break down these siloes, a firm needs a set of strategies to pull everyone in the same direction. This could be as simple as a firm’s mission statement or set of brand values, but more tangible tactics, such as implementing software tools, can also make a big difference. If you can encourage adoption of a platform that facilitates collaboration, empowers individuals to take ownership, and gives users the tools to learn more about your firm’s activities, this can be a huge step in the right direction.
OpenAsset can help in all of these departments, and more. When many teams across a firm use OpenAsset you’ll improve firm-wide visibility of assets, give users the tools to use these assets to win business, and enable more transparent knowledge-sharing across all of your employees. What’s more, getting buy-in across your whole company can actually help keep your system organized and up-to-date. For these reasons, when we’re asked who within a firm should be using OpenAsset, we say the more the merrier. In this blog, we’ll dig into the benefits listed above, and give some specific workflows that can be improved with firm-wide buy-in.
Increasing visibility across your assets
When more of your employees have access to OpenAsset, you have more visibility across your assets and therefore a higher chance your assets are actually utilized. All too often we see firms investing thousands of dollars on professional photography, only to use a select few favorite images across their marketing and bid documents. With a wider set of eyes on your assets you’ll be likely to utilize your full library better, find the perfect imagery for different scenarios, and generally get more value from your asset investments.
Certain features ensure that members of your firm can easily get digging through your assets with few barriers. One feature, which is at OpenAsset’s core is faceted search. By filtering at a Project level and then refining the search at a File-level, users can find any given asset in seconds – even for an OpenAsset beginner. This process is outlined in the ‘Layering Project and File data..’ paragraph in this blog. Another feature, Access Levels ensure users know which assets are approved for external use and which aren’t. To go one step further, Permissions can be applied so that users only see assets from a certain Access Level. This means new users can quickly scan the system and pluck files without any back-and-forth between them and your marketing or brand team.
One more example of removing barriers is when it comes to viewing InDesign files. Within OpenAsset, these INDD files can easily be viewed by all users – whether they have an InDesign license or not. This means your wider team can preview the file content directly within OpenAsset, without the license-holder needing to export to PDF and share via email. What’s more, the user can download these documents in PDF – again with no Adobe license required.
Creating a firm of designers
Not only does wider-business involvement increase asset visibility, but it also increases the ability to use these files in productive ways. When usage of OpenAsset is spread across your firm, it allows wider members of the team to be proactive when creating bid documents, presentations, or other collateral. Not only does this empower your team to get their work done faster – which is vital when a quick turnaround is needed – but it also reduces the reliance on marketing.
This is all made possible through OpenAsset templates. Templates ensure any member of your team can create stylish customer-facing documents that are already approved for use. While our InDesign templates are the most powerful – allowing anyone to build out Project and Employee documents in seconds – OpenAsset also supports PowerPoint templates, allowing you to quickly pull together a branded presentation filled with assets quickly. By putting these tools in the hands of employees across your company, you’re effectively building a firm of designers!
Knowledge sharing
Another benefit of firm-wide OpenAsset usage is streamlined knowledge sharing. When users have access to OpenAsset they have access to all of your firm’s projects, images, and employee information. This has a number of use-cases that can ensure your employees are well-informed about your business.
One key use-case is employee onboarding. With all your projects hosted in one platform, a new employee can get a visual overview of the firm’s past work, and can easily filter for specific projects that would interest them. This means they can get up to speed quickly and engage in a wider variety of projects. Another example is learning from fellow employees. When all of your projects are connected to the employees who worked on them, there are valuable knowledge-sharing benefits. For instance, an architect joining a new project team can quickly get a grasp on their colleagues’ past experiences and then lean into this knowledge to get insights and tips. An additional use-case is users having access to bid documents or sales presentations. Being able to read through these documents allows users to educate themselves on how your firm markets its services and allows them to get even more familiar with the firm’s value proposition. We cover this topic of knowledge sharing in much greater detail in this blog.
Crowd-sourcing system upkeep
While the examples we’ve discussed so far concern how firm-wide usage improves wider business workflows, increasing OpenAsset usage can also help with the system itself. With more users uploading files, tagging projects and images, and updating their employee profiles, you can ensure your system is kept organized and up-to-date. This takes the onus off one or two individuals, instead allowing everyone to pitch in. Of course, a system where every user has complete freedom to upload and tag could cause confusion, and that’s where Permissions, such as Upload Approvals can be utilized.
Getting Started
In today’s hybrid-first working environment it can be increasingly difficult to get your team working in unison, and using the same tools and systems to drive growth. But, as we’ve highlighted above, it can create tangible value when more of your team is working from OpenAsset. Check out this blog if you want some tips and tricks on how to drive adoption at your firm to realize the benefits listed above. Also, our Customer Success Managers are experts at driving adoption across your firm, so if you need any tips and tricks to encourage firm-wide use, please get in touch with them.
