Whether you’re new to Digital Asset Management (DAM) or you’ve been shopping around for a while, you’re most certainly thinking about costs. Weighing up the benefits of purchasing a DAM system and the reality of budgets is essential to understanding how much you’ll gain with your shiny new tech.
Why should you invest in a DAM platform?
If you’ve got this far in your DAM journey, you probably already know why you need a DAM system. Digital assets are the lifeblood of your organisation. A repository for all the approved materials should be accessible to your teams, 24/7, to ensure you fully leverage your brand in a managed and consistent way. Investing in a solution that allows you to manage, share and access brand assets is not only going to save your teams time, but it’ll encourage collaboration, productivity and give them the creative freedom they need to propel your business forward.
If you’re not convinced that you need a DAM solution, make sure to download our Digital Asset Management checklist to decide whether it’s time to move away from your shared drives.
The next step is to understand the pricing and, ultimately, decide whether it’s worth the investment.
(Spoiler: we think it is!)
How much is a standard DAM solution?
Most Digital Asset Management vendors will offer standard features that are expected across the industry. The primary use of a DAM is to provide one centralised location for brand assets including images, videos and documents. Think of the basic package as a shared drive on steroids. It’s got added security, permission-based access to any user with an internet connection, powerful search features and with plenty of room to expand.
At Bright, we are incredibly transparent about pricing. We even have a section on our website which you’ll fail to find on many competitor sites. Here, you can browse through the different levels of tiers. From the £379 per month Essential package that includes all basic functions such as 100GB of storage, flexible metadata and single branding; all the way up to the £1299 a month Enterprise package that starts with 1TB of storage and provides a host of integrations and additional features.
What additional features can I add?
As your business grows, your team expands and DAM needs change, you’ll need to make sure your solution evolves with you. With many DAM systems, you’ll have the option to add integrations that are essential to your working day. Whether you use a CMS or a stock image tool such as Shutterstock, capacity for additional software support is something to consider when researching your new DAM solution. While this will most certainly affect your total spend, just imagine the time your teams will save when they don’t need to flick back and forth between systems and they no longer need to download and re-upload images. It’s all accessible within one single solution.
What’s more, as you hire new members into your team, you’ll very likely need additional users added to your DAM. With Asset Bank you can start on any tier and then add more users and storage as you grow. If you get to a point where you feel that the features in the next tier up will be of value, you can contact us to move up a tier at that point.
What support can I get?
You’re not just investing in a DAM solution. You’re investing in a piece of software that’s going to support you for years to come. Here are just a handful of extras you can expect from your software:
Customer support
This is not just the software you are investing in. A good DAM vendor should have a five-star rated customer support team who are there to provide training for optimum use and ongoing support whenever issues crop up.
Account reviews
Asset Bank health checks and reviews are a regular part of the process. At Bright, our team will ensure your DAM platform is continuing to work the way you need it to.
New features and enhancements
At Bright, there’s no guessing. We design feature and functionality upgrades based directly on client feedback and common needs. This means your software will continue to deliver you value as time passes, ultimately saving you time and money in the long run.
Every solution should be considered on a case-by-case basis. No business is the same and your needs will be different from everybody else. However, here are just a few things to consider as you’re shopping around:
- What is the size of your business? Remember, not every user will need access to your DAM platform, so take this into consideration when you’re considering the number of logins you’ll need. It’s also important to speak to all key groups in your organisation, such as marketing, sales and IT, to gather the main requirements.
- Work out how much storage you’ll need to start with, e.g 500GB or 1TB.
These key points will help ensure the demos you get from vendors are as useful as possible. In return, it’ll make it easier for them to give you a bespoke quotation, helping you with your selection process.
