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Most Important DAM Integrations
Top Four Essential DAM Integrations
A digital asset management solution is a powerful tool to store, organize, share and manage the digital assets you use to conduct operations and grow your business. But what if your DAM could be made better – improved with a suite of tools that makes your team even more powerful? This guide has everything you need to choose the right DAM integrations for your business AND, most importantly, encourage your team to actually adopt them.
DAM Integrations: How They Work and Why You Need Them
The primary purpose of a digital asset management (DAM) solution is to act as a single source of truth, and centralize management of the digital assets (images, videos, PDFs, 3D renderings, etc.) your team needs to:
- Distribute content and digital media;
- Facilitate internal and external collaboration;
- Measure the ROI and performance of digital assets;
- Streamline the content and media lifecycle;
- Maintain brand consistency, and
- Manage content security, extensibility, and accessibility.
The value of that single source of truth is evident in the productivity of your team, the collaboration of departments and the steady growth of your brand as your DAM helps to facilitate your marketing efforts. Despite the advantages, AEC firms report a low rate of technology adoption among team members, especially those in the field. In fact, a 2019 Procore study found that 70% of companies have not created a technology roadmap.
Fortunately, an October 2020 survey by McKinsey found that the global pandemic may have pushed tech adoption across industries ahead by as much as six years in the last year. Thus, many AEC firms are now taking stock of the tools they use the most to determine how they extend the benefits of all their technology investments.
How to Connect Your DAM: # Ways to Connect Your DAM System
Before you can connect your DAM to existing tools, it’s best to evaluate the options that are available, and weigh them against the technology already in use by your team. This process should help to determine the functionality gaps that exist in your firm, as well as identify the tools that most enable your team to do their best work.
Fortunately, many integrations enable firms to connect their DAM solution with the technology they already use. This not only helps to improve the adoption of the platform, but also removes bottlenecks and ensures digital assets are properly utilized across all initiatives. In other words, the best way to ensure that your team actually adopts the integrations you pay for is to connect your DAM to the tools that they already use, such as your:
- Content Management System (CMS)
- Construction Project Management System (CPM)
- Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)
- Enterprise Resource Management System (ERP)
- Document Creation Tools and Design Software
- Marketing Automation
Essential DAM Integrations and Must Have DAM Tools
The true value of a DAM integration is not the functionality that it adds to your team, but the inefficiencies and bottlenecks it removes from your operation. It’s counterproductive to simply add integrations to your DAM hoping that they facilitate your business goals. To truly seize the advantage of your DAM, you need to be selective with the integrations that you add to your system.
Content Management System (CMS)
A CMS is a system used to manage and modify digital content for your organization, usually most associated with website management. The value of integrating your DAM with your CMS is the central location where you can make changes and additions to your web pages, all from within the platform.
Construction Project Management (CPM)
By combining construction project management with digital asset management, you enable the seamless upload of images from your CPM into your DAM, where images can be tagged with searchable keywords and shared across your organization. A CPM integration also enables marketing teams with access to images whenever they are needed, enabling them to tell the stories of your projects and helping your firm to win new business.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
A CRM is a system that helps firms manage their contacts and stay up to date on interactions with customers via email, phone, website, and more. It also tracks customer data from these interactions and stores it in one central place. Integrating a CRM with a DAM significantly reduces the time it takes for teams to share content with customers and prospects. It also provides your team with secure access to up-to-date assets without ever leaving the CRM, provides a single-source-of-truth for your team and eliminates the risk of using outdated or unapproved material by mistake.
Document Creation Tools and Design Software
Document creation tools and design software help your creative teams secure and manage their creative files while accelerating the creative process. Files for web design, creative content, vector graphics, and more are securely managed on this platform. By integrating your DAM with your design software, you ensure your creative team’s project files are always backed up and available. You also accelerate and secure the creative process without adding extra steps or changing anyone’s workflow.
How To Get Started
Integrations provide your team with the functionality they want and need: improved usability, convenience, collaboration, better security, and consistency. The Improved workflows these integrations provide also improve productivity and help your marketing team maintain control over the brand and distribution of your valuable digital assets.
The DAM integrations featured above have been designed to make the user experience as seamless and easy as possible and to help AEC firms do their best work. You’ve already invested in a DAM—so why not take advantage of the integrations that will help your team work smarter? Check out the OpenAsset integrations to get started, or read our guide How Connected Is Your DAM to evaluate your solution and learn more about DAM integrations. Don’t forget to follow OpenAsset on social media for exclusive offers and valuable insight for AEC firms.