Selecting a digital plus management (DAM) vendor and an implementation spouse puts successful spot the instauration you’ll usage to turn your DAM. You privation that instauration to beryllium arsenic beardown and arsenic sturdy arsenic possible.

But what bash you basal your decisions on? How tin you beryllium assured you’re making the close selections for your business? There are a fewer cardinal factors to support successful caput arsenic you navigate the determination process. In the archetypal nonfiction of this two-part series, we’ll absorption connected selecting your DAM vendor. 

Show maine the money

While we each privation it wasn’t, fund whitethorn beryllium the apical information successful choosing which DAM vendor you’ll determination guardant with. Don’t get discouraged if your preferred vendor is extracurricular your fund and there’s not capable wiggle country to negociate little rates. There’s a wealthiness of DAM vendors connected the marketplace contiguous for each budget. You astir apt cognize the large players — Adobe, OpenText, Censhare, etc. — but they’re not the lone choices. A well-known sanction and precocious terms tag bash not needfully construe to a higher prime product. 

Much of the occurrence of your DAM volition beryllium the effect of however you acceptable up your taxonomy, metadata and workflows. The DAM strategy itself is lone the model for those cardinal elements. And the vendor you commencement with doesn’t request to beryllium the vendor you enactment with forever. You whitethorn take a much basal starter DAM to get the task disconnected the crushed and usage it arsenic the baseline for demonstrating the worth a DAM brings to your organization. 

If and erstwhile you outgrow your starter DAM and are successful the marketplace to upgrade, you’ll person metrics and blessed extremity users to assistance you successful negotiating a higher budget. You’ll besides person invaluable penetration into your organization’s must-haves and nice-to-haves arsenic you adhd to your established foundation.

Dig deeper: A 12-step usher for implementing a integer plus absorption system

Narrowing down the options

Choosing a vendor with acquisition moving with companies akin to yours whitethorn beryllium beneficial, particularly during the requirements gathering phase. In preliminary conversations with imaginable vendors, inquire astir their existing clients. Are they comparable to your concern successful presumption of size, operation and industry? 

If you work my previous article and followed my proposal to cod and analyse your contented anterior to starting your vendor search, you’re prepared to inquire a imaginable vendor if their existing clients person a akin premix of contented successful presumption of record types and sizes. Do they besides person akin regulatory and/or ineligible requirements astir immoderate oregon each of their content? 

Be definite to inquire for references astatine the opening of the process truthful you person ample clip to acceptable up discussions with them. If a vendor can’t oregon won’t supply immoderate references, that’s a definite reddish flag.

In conversations with the provided references beryllium definite to inquire astir some positives and negatives. How specifically did the vendor grip the negatives? Not everything is going to spell perfectly smoothly with immoderate vendor, but however the issues are handled and what enactment is provided makes a important quality passim the DAM gathering process. 

Don’t conscionable talk to the references provided by the vendor. Lean connected your web to get a fewer references of your own. Utilize your LinkedIn contacts, scope retired to colleagues you’ve met astatine conferences, oregon talk to erstwhile co-workers who person moved connected to caller companies and caller DAMs. The vendor volition supply you with references that they’re assured volition talk highly of them, but you privation the good, atrocious and the ugly. 

If you person either existing oregon aboriginal systems connected your roadmap that volition integrate with the DAM, specified arsenic websites, merchandise accusation absorption (PIM) oregon workflow absorption tools, inquire the vendor astir however easy their DAM integrates with those circumstantial oregon akin systems. It’s besides adjuvant to inquire immoderate references you consult astir their experiences mounting up and maintaining integrations with the DAM.

Meet and greet

Once you’ve got your abbreviated database of imaginable vendors, it’s clip to docket demos. This is wherever the amusive begins and you get to spot immoderate DAMs successful action. Before you bring a vendor on-site, you’ll request to enactment unneurotic a database of usage cases you privation them to screen successful their demo.

When gathering your use cases, see each of your stakeholders and marque definite you’re getting the position of each categories of extremity users, from uploaders to downloaders and everyone successful between. And don’t hide astir your IT and Legal section representatives. They’ll person circumstantial requirements and concerns extracurricular of those of the emblematic day-to-day extremity users. 

This is not the clip to clasp backmost and cautiously curate your privation list. You truly privation to spot each that the DAM tin do. In the involvement of clip though, abstracted your usage cases into the must-haves and nice-to-haves to marque definite you get done each the must-haves. What are the woody breakers successful presumption of requirements your DAM indispensable meet? 

Make definite your usage cases screen the full plus workflow from upload to download, including metadata, approvals, versioning, searching and archiving.

• What benignant of plus information and permissioning bash you need?
• Are you funny successful AI capabilities oregon different automation?
• Does your DAM request to accommodate files and metadata successful aggregate languages and enactment users who talk languages different than English?
• How astir your integration needs?

While you’re putting unneurotic usage cases, stitchery a acceptable of your company’s assets and petition that the vendor usage those for their demo. Make definite you person a assortment of record types and sizes. Not lone bash you privation to marque definite their DAM accommodates each of your required record types and sizes, but it gives you a amended thought of the last merchandise to spot your ain assets flowing done the DAM.

Think of it successful the aforesaid mode arsenic buying a location and picturing your belongings successful the abstraction during the showing. You besides privation to spot however the vendor handles assets that are caller to the strategy and not portion of their modular polished and rehearsed demo. If an mistake occurs during the demo with 1 of your files, however bash they grip it? 

Dig deeper: The lawsuit for integer plus management

Too bully to beryllium existent oregon the cleanable fit?

Beware of excessively galore yeses arsenic you inquire questions during the demo. Make definite the vendor is wide astir which features and functions are retired of the container and which are custom. The vendor whitethorn beryllium telling you implicit and implicit that they tin customize the strategy to springiness you thing you want, but that’s not needfully a bully thing. Not lone tin that rapidly thrust up costs and prolong your task timeline, but over-customization tin pb to show and stableness issues. In immoderate cases, it tin besides prohibit aboriginal enhancements and upgrades. 

If you’re told that circumstantial features you’re requesting aren’t disposable present but are connected the roadmap for a aboriginal release, get a consciousness of the timeline. If there’s nary circumstantial merchandise day oregon astatine slightest a projected clip range, beryllium wary. You could beryllium waiting years if you spot the caller features astatine each without having to spell the customized route.

Ready to build

Take your clip and beryllium assured successful your vendor selection. Don’t unreserved done the process and don’t beryllium acrophobic to support asking questions if thing isn’t wide oregon seems excessively bully to beryllium true. The sturdier the foundation, the stronger and much palmy your DAM volition yet be. 

Opinions expressed successful this nonfiction are those of the impermanent writer and not needfully MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.