Digital Asset Management Systems

Data processing helps the businesses and industries whereas calculations are more important in research work. The by-product of speed and accuracy is faster management information for quick decision making resulting in higher growth and profitability.

The computer basically consists of a hardware and software componets. Hardware is brick and mortar part of a computer system whereas software is programming instructions driving the hardware. Both the hardware and software have to coexist for the system to function.

Software is a computer program developed by the IT companies to make the computer function in a particular manner. There are various types of software available for computers; broadly they can be classified as system software, programming software and application software.

System/programming software is normally in the domain of computer professionals who have the capability to understand and use them. Application software allows end users to accomplish one or more specific (non-computer related) tasks.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) is one such application software that facilitates management of visually rich files in a proper manner.

The DAM (acronym for Digital Asset Management) consists of tasks and decisions surrounding ingesting, annotating, cataloguing, storage and retrieval of digital assets, such as digital photographs, animations, videos and music. They also are useful for storing documents created using MS word, HTML, Power point, logos etc.

The Digital asset management system is a business tool used mainly in the media industries such as newspapers and magazines, Television production, radio, advertising agencies etc. This system is very easy to use and can be customized easily to fit the requirements of the users. By using this system, the productivity in the media industries has increased considerably. These are also used in places such as marketing companies, factories, photo studios, BPO’S etc.

The DAM consists of the following two types of software,

	browser software
	cataloging software

Both the above software has its own use in the digital asset management system. The browser software is designed to facilitate reading all the information from any file and viewing the file by anybody in the organization that is authorized to do that; however this software does not permit any editing or saving edited file. On the contrary, the cataloging software cannot read the information from a file but can store it separately in its own file. DAM helps in gaining more value from the digital media or files owned by the organization. The following benefits result by using DAM.

	Improvement in operational efficiency
	Reduction cost of operation
	Reduction in the cycle time for retrieving digital assets
	Reduction in copyright frauds
	ensures proper usage of the asset
	helps to identify the better performing assets
	identifies non-performing assets (NPA) with a view to eliminate them
	facilitates easy searching of any specific asset