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How to secure team buy-in for a DAM system

13th January 2020

Introducing a DAM into your business may seem like an obvious decision: your digital assets will finally all be in one place and this will improve efficiency throughout your organisation.

As with most new tools, however, the adoption process can be challenging for the various teams within your business. They'll have to buy into the proposed Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, and each will have their own set of concerns.

The key people to win over:

• your executive management team;
• your marketing team;
• the people who will be using the DAM.

Let's take a look at the different approaches you should adopt when trying to get everyone on board.

READ MORE: The Digital Asset Management Comparison Checklist

The executive management team

Whether it's your CEO or board of directors, at this level the primary concern will be cost to the business and return on investment.

It's crucial to convey the value that a digital asset management system will bring to your organisation. You should point out that when digital assets are scattered throughout the company's devices and servers, it's not only detrimental to your business from a confidentiality and security perspective, but it also makes collaboration and effective project management a time-consuming task.

A DAM system helps you stay competitive. By simplifying how employees manage, organise, share and store files, it'll improve productivity, efficiency and results.

Your marketing team

Taking care of branding, advertising and promotions, your marketing team are likely to make the most use of the DAM.

Making sure the marketing team know the benefits of a DAM and how it can make their life easier will motivate them to use it. With up-to-date record keeping, usage monitoring and better management of assets it'll save them time and improve efficiency.

Your sales and creative teams

The other teams who benefit from a digital asset management platform are your sales and creative department.

To get the best out of your creative teams, it's essential to eliminate any time consuming or distracting hurdles. The same applies to your sales team. Often, their interactions with customers are time-sensitive; they need instant access to the right files, in a format that's easily adaptable and can be shared quickly. You don't want calls to the office with requests for files to be sent out by gatekeepers and administrators.

Paradoxically, these may also be the individuals who show some resistance when it comes to adopting a DAM. This is because it may signify a disruption to their routines or a lengthy conversion period which impacts their deadlines.

The best way to translate the value of a DAM to these teams is to set up a transparent process that will educate them on how to use the tool. Initially, you may want to start off with just one person on the team and address the pain points that he or she may have when managing a sale or a project - then you can demonstrate how integrating a DAM into their process will tackle the challenge more effectively.

Soon, news of the success will spread, and more people in that department will start to recognise the benefits of an optimised system for storing the company's digital assets.

Keep in mind that you'll probably encounter opposition whenever proposing organisational changes. This is human nature. Particularly if individuals already have an entrenched process - although your offer may seem more practical, their primary concern will be the disruption and learning curve that ensues.

Before you dive in with all the benefits of a DAM, have a checklist for how to address the potential objections that will inevitably arise. To give reassurance, you should be able to talk everyone through the roll-out plan and show how you will support and train employees through the transition.

From then on, it's important to use case studies and demonstrations that show how a DAM can have a transformative effect on the business as a whole, helping the organisation to be more agile and responsive to changes in the future.

If you'd like more help and advice on how to get your team on board with a digital asset management system, give us a call. We are experts in implementation and integration.