You know you need a digital asset management system, but you don’t know which solution is best for your business. In this DAM buyer’s guide, we do our best to provide a candid analysis of two top-rated platforms – OpenAsset and Brandfolder – so you can easily compare and make the right choice for your business.
OpenAsset
OpenAsset is a cloud-based digital asset management (DAM) solution that enables architecture, engineering, construction, and real estate businesses of any size with an intuitive way to store, organize, utilize, and share their digital assets on a single platform.
Key features include a project-based structure, AI-enabled search, marketing asset creation, categorization, image sharing, workflow management, and an employee module that enables users to create resumes, store employee data, and sync employee assets between HR or ERP systems and OpenAsset. This functionality is highly valuable to anyone looking to highlight their team’s skills and experience.
- Human Resources – Manage employee data directly with customizable data fields.
- Proposal Managers – Create employee resumes for individuals or whole teams with minimal effort.
- Marketers and Creatives – Store, find, and use all the digital assets tied to individual team members and projects.
- Sales and Business Development – Store employee data, such as their role and time worked, against projects.
Brandfolder
Brandfolder is a cloud-based SaaS that provides digital asset and identity management (DAM) for brand-conscious businesses right up to Enterprise-level. Built to help brands improve the organization, and consistency of digital assets, Brandfolder allows promotional materials to be stored and manipulated within one coherent space.
Key features include a visually-elegant and user-friendly interface, advanced AI-powered smart search, asset editing and manipulation, annotated workflow with approvals and notifications, and actionable brand insights.
OpenAsset vs. Brandfolder: Capabilities
Your DAM should keep you organized, increase efficiency, improve collaboration and enable your team to focus on important revenue-generating tasks. Here we compare how OpenAsset and Brandfolder perform across some of these capabilities.
Cloud-based Access
The DAM solution you choose should make it easy for users to find the digital assets they need to do their jobs. This is especially true for businesses that employ remote team members or have multiple offices.
The best way to ensure your team has access to the files they need when they need them is to invest in a cloud-based DAM system. Fortunately, both Brandfolder and OpenAsset are cloud-based DAMs, which enable their users with complete control over their assets on any internet-ready device.
OpenAsset
OpenAsset offers users a safe and secure way to store their digital assets in a cloud-based repository, making them easily accessible across multiple business locations. When paired with mobile and bulk upload functionality, this feature provides numerous advantages to any firm that uses project photos in its branded content and marketing material.
Useful Features:
- Image similarity search, powered by AI
- Web shares
- Custom downloads
Brandfolder
By storing assets in the cloud, Brandfolder enables easy and secure access to assets from anywhere with an internet connection. Users can also collaborate with team members, control access to assets, and track usage and performance metrics.
Useful Features:
- REST API
- Single-source-of-truth
- Scalable, cloud storage
- Duplicate file notification
- Built-in AEC-centric connectors
Organization
With thousands of digital assets stored in your DAM, metadata tagging is crucial to locate files seamlessly. The best DAM systems utilize robust metadata and tagging options to enable users to organize files that make sense to their business. That means you don’t have to waste time and resources scouring your drive looking for files with inconsistent naming conventions.
OpenAsset
The most notable feature of the OpenAsset digital asset management system is project-based organization. This feature makes it easy to pair assets to their associated project, which enables your proposal, marketing, and creative teams with a digital asset library they can actually utilize to create proposals, content, and marketing collateral.
Useful Features:
- Customizable taxonomy
- Batch editing
- File access and ranking system
- Custom metadata storage
- File metadata extraction
- User permissions
Brandfolder
Brandfolder digital asset management software allows companies to customize their brand management platform to suit their needs. Organizations can categorize and organize their digital assets in a way that makes them easy to find, share, and use. Users can also create folders and tags, add metadata, and apply permissions and access controls to keep assets organized and secure.
Useful Features:
- Customizable branding
- Collaboration tools
- Content library
- Content publishing options
Distribution
The right DAM solution will make it easy for your team to easily use digital assets through private download links and public-facing galleries, otherwise known as brand portals. You can then share these galleries with anyone you’d like, and they can request download access to the specific files they want.
OpenAsset
OpenAsset makes it easy to securely share your images and digital assets with the right people, at the right time. Access permissions grant you full control over which people can view, edit, or share your digital assets. OpenAsset users also benefit from full control over assets with features like Download Monitoring and external Access Control.
Additionally, with OpenAsset’s Portal feature, users can effortlessly create a Portal and provide access to colleagues, partners, and clients through a unique link. This link showcases a preview of images, accompanying contextual information, and, if desired, download links—eliminating the need for third-party file-sharing services like WeTransfer or Dropbox.
Useful Features:
- Album creation
- Drag-and-drop
- Downloads with metadata
- Embeddable asset links
- Download link monitoring
- Secure file sharing
Brandfolder
Brandfolder makes it easy for users to embed or share digital assets. The software provides embeddable asset links to enable companies to insert assets from Brandfolder directly into their website. Managers can update the file type, size, or attachment using a content delivery network (CDN).
Useful Features:
- Collections
- Secure file sharing
- Embeddable asset links
- Drag-and-drop
Security
The difference between a simple storage system and a digital asset management system is access permissions. Access permissions are essential for any organization, but especially global companies, educational institutions, and government organizations that require high security to ensure assets remain secure.
OpenAsset
OpenAsset provides users with the ability to control access to the content they’ve uploaded, with access permissions categorized into a red, green, and yellow “stoplight” system. This intuitive system gives administrators peace of mind knowing that the content they store in their DAM is completely safe from unauthorized access.
Useful Features:
- Intuitive “stoplight system”
- Category permissions
- Security notifications
- Upload approvals
Brandfolder
Brandfolder provides users with a powerful underlying storage architecture powered by the Google Cloud Storage (GCS) cloud service provider, which redundantly stores all data on multiple devices across three availability zones. Users also benefit from automated backups of transaction logs and the database, which enables point-in-time recovery for all Brandfolder customers.
Useful Features:
- Automated backup
- User management and permissions
- Privacy and stealth mode settings
Integration
To increase productivity, streamline workflows, and secure brand compliance, your DAM system should work cohesively with your existing work infrastructures with minimal deviation from current workflows.
The best DAM systems provide integration capability across MarTech stacks, content management systems, and review & approval processes, which makes it easier to create efficient work processes, reduce the likelihood of error, and enable your team to focus on core work and business growth.
OpenAsset
With a host of valuable integrations, OpenAsset provides users with an array of useful tools, including project-based ERP & CRM, construction project management, and document creation platforms.
Useful Integrations:
- Procore
- AEC 360
- Deltek Vision
- Deltek Vantagepoint
- Affinity
- Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, and Excel
- Unanet/ Cosential CRM
- Templafy
- InDesign
Brandfolder
Brandfolder offers users a number of intuitive and useful integrations that make it easier to collaborate across systems and strengthen your digital asset management capabilities.
Useful Integrations:
- Adobe
- Canva
- Chrome
- HubSpot
- Microsoft Word
Scalability
Scalability is essential for organizations that require easily expandable storage. It’s also the reason why cloud platforms are in high demand. Some DAM vendors provide additional offline storage for larger raw or complex files before transcoding them into content-ready formats.
The best DAMs, however, come with automatic file formatting, which enables your team to upload a vector file to your DAM and automatically convert it into a JPEG, PNG, etc. That way, you always have the right file type when you need it without expending extra effort.
OpenAsset
With easy file sharing, convenient file synching, storage scalability, and dozens of integrations, OpenAsset provides users with an easy way to manage their digital assets as they grow. OpenAsset users can also upgrade their plan or add features as needed.
Useful Features:
- Additional Features
- Single-source-of-truth
- Scalable Storage
Brandfolder
Brandfolder offers a host of integrations and partnerships, which enables users to connect tools as their business needs change. Users can also upgrade their plan to Premium and Enterprise, which include a litany of useful features for growing brands.
Useful Features:
- Scalable Storage
- Cloud storage
- Additional Features
OpenAsset: Best DAM for AEC Firms
As digital asset management systems, OpenAsset and Brandfolder both come with an array of standard DAM features but differ in the way that they present those features to their customers. As a project-based DAM, OpenAsset is the preferred option for architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) firms that index their digital assets according to project or property.
This type of functionality makes it easier for AEC marketers to find and share the project photos they need to create marketing materials and on-brand content. OpenAsset also comes with a useful employee module, which enables proposal managers to quickly update resumes and show off their team’s skills when creating proposals and answering RFPs.
Brandfolder: Best DAM for Creative Teams
When compared to OpenAsset, Brandfolder is the better option for creatives, brand departments, and content production teams. The platform allows materials to be stored and edited within one space, making it easier for creative teams to create and share logos, images, fonts, flyers, business cards, jingles, videos, and even corporate color tones.
What Else Can a DAM Do for My Firm?
The AEC marketing professionals who trust OpenAsset to organize their files and images often ask “What else can a DAM do for my firm?” This guide on digital asset management explores how marketing professionals use our DAM, and the tools we integrate with, to simplify their workflows. Or if you read this comparison and know OpenAsset is for you, feel free to schedule a demo.
