Tip #32

Many cloud based platforms have an API or application programming interface available so that they can be seamlessly integrated with other systems.  WebDAM is no exception. Learn about the WebDAM API on our developer’s page.

Ladies and gentlemen…

Drumroll please….

[Envelope Opens]

And the winner of our DAM Customer Contest is our very valued customer, Roy Kaltschmidt who also works at Lawrence Berkley Labs, a national organization that brings science solutions to the world.  Congratulations on being the winner of a brand new iPad 2! As a senior photographer and WebDAM admin Roy noted WebDAM as “a well thought out, user friendly database” and “easy to use for even the most novice person.”  Thanks for the kind words Roy, and now you have one of the latest sought after devices where you can stay updated with all our posts in DAM-it! The Blog and whatever else you’d like to use it for.

Cheers!

Stay tuned for more DAM customer contests.

Tip #28

Require your users to read and agree to your custom Terms of Use before they can register a user account.  Simply enter your terms from the General Preferences Users & Groups tab.

Tip #24

Want to track your DAM usage and traffic patterns?  Integrate Google Analytics into your account.  Simply go to the Edit Footer page under Templates and insert your analytics code.

With our quickly expanding team we’ve moved to our awesome new headquarters and are settling into our new digs.  Don’t worry, we haven’t gone too far, we’re still in the heart of silicon valley home to many of your favorite tech companies like WebDAM!  Just be sure to update WebDAM’s address in your system.

Old Address:

1710 S. Amphlett Blvd. Suite 360
San Mateo, CA 94402

Our Fabulous New Address:

1700 S. Amphlett Blvd. Suite 220
San Mateo, CA 94402

Tip #22

Feature your favorite brand assets or photography on your homepage by creating a folder dedicated to your best images.  Configure your homepage to randomly display these images from your Template options.

Q:  How many people need to be on the DAM team?

A:  It isn’t really about the number of people but rather who is represented.  If your DAM is just for the Communications team, then you may only have a couple of people on your DAM team.  But if you have an enterprise implementation across teams, you will want to include representative from each of those teams.  Especially if you have geographically dispersed teams, it is important to include their feedback.

Q:  When you talk about gathering feedback and integrating it back into your digital asset management system, what kind of feedback are you referring to?  We have a vendor that we work with for our DAM and can’t easily make changes to the software.

A:  Whether you work with a vendor or have a home-grown system, software isn’t easy to change.  But remember, DAM isn’t just software.  It is also about people and processes.  The feedback that will likely be collected from users will be things like their ability to find the assets they need, issues with any of the workflows you have built-into the system, incomplete controlled vocabularies or metadata schema – information that users would like to be able to search on – availability of certain assets, and so on – a lot of the “business process” type of feedback.  And keep in mind, many systems are highly configurable so even software-related feedback make be able to be incorporated easily.

Q:  We have a really public DAM – available for any guests on the web. How do you recommend communicating changes to so many users?

A:  This question is probably most applicable to WebDAM users since WebDAM provides a way to setup your account for public access.  Speaking specifically about WebDAM, I have seen customers build custom pages right in their DAM with FAQs, best practices and terms of use – all of the important information that users need access to.  In this scenario, it would also be important to make contact information readily available should users have questions or issues.

Q: We launched two years ago, but have continual adoption problems. What tips are good for adoption issues when your system is not brand new?

A: If you’re having adoption issues two years later, have a re-launch.  All of the tips and ideas we provided in the webinar about launching your DAM are just as applicable to a re-launch.  A re-launch can get people excited about the project all over again and get you thinking about ways to make improvements.  Gather feedback from both active users and the inactive ones to see if you can identify a source of the adoption problems:  Are there usability challenges, have people been properly educated on the system, do you have a means of communicating easily with your users, and so on.

Q: One thing we do is to send a weekly email to our main users listing the new assets added to the sytem in that week. Is this a good way to handle keeping users active and involved?

A: Absolutely.  Engagement of any kind is key to getting users coming back.  Repeat communication is incredibly powerful.  You may also want to explore RSS feeds in WebDAM which allows users to subscribe to feeds at the folder level and be automatically updated when new assets are added.

Q: What suggestions do you have to encourage DAM use by vendors who belong to companies outside of my own?  The situation is made more challenging because new vendors are brought on after DAM implementation.

A: For vendors, you will want to create a brief training or vendor guide, specific for their roles and responsibilities with the DAM since they will likely have limiited functions in the system and won’t want to invest much time in sifting through training materials. When you bring new vendors on, communicate to them that this process is required and have them complete the brief training as part of your on-boarding with them.  It is often actually easier working with new vendors than ones that have used the old system because you don’t have any old habits to break.  Just be very concise in your instructions to them and be sure to train them right from the start.

Q: We are still having some problems getting our agency partners to remember to upload new images and assets to the DAM system.  They rely on their own FTP to send files to our printer and don’t seem to post to DAM until specifically requested.  Any tips to change that behavior?

A: Breaking old habits is always hard.  If possible, the best thing you can do is remove the old process from their options.  As Leigh Ann mentioned, this is a Big Bang launch.  In your example, this may not be possible since it involves another vendor.  However, the next best thing is to correct the behavior everytime it happens (ie – nag).  Repeat communication is incredibly powerful.  As we covered in the webinar, it is often important to communicate very clearly why you implemented the DAM in the first place and be clear about its benefits in order to get them on-board.  Don’t be afraid to directly ask them why they are not using the system.  They will either reveal an issue you weren’t aware of (don’t know how, hard to use, to slow, etc) or, if there is no issue, you are at least reinforcing your process to them and reminding them that they need to follow it.

Have another question?  Ask away and email info@webdamsolutions.com or just leave a comment in the comment box.  User adoption does not have to be on your indefinite to-do-list. With some planning, energy, and excitement, you’ll have your DAM adopted in no time.

The overall attendance and participation in the Summer Webinar Series far exceeded our expectations and we got a lot of valuable feedback that will be incorporating into our next series (stay tuned for more information).  Thank you again to all who participated!  See you next time!

Custom pages are flexible and easy to use! Use them to communicate all types of information that will help your users such as:

• DAM Important contacts
• Getting started tips
• Best practices guide
• Business process
• User guides
• Usage terms

Click to Enlarge

WebDAM’s Custom Pages feature, also has an easy-to-use editing tool built in.  This WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor includes a variety of familiar icons that are available for use so you don’t need to learn HTML to build a page like a pro. But if you do know HTML or have an existing HTML layout you’d like to use, feel free to utilize your design skills.

How to get started:

From the admin homepage, under the Templates menu, click on “Edit custom pages.” Choose “New Custom Page” to build a new page.

Create your document or paste text from an existing document. Use the editing tools to customize to the look-and-feel.  To insert HTML rather than using the editing tools, click on the Source button and add your code.  Save and you’re done!

Just building a draft and not ready to publish yet? No problem! You can make the page inactive until you are ready. You can change the status of any page from active to inactive from the Manage Custom Pages screen.

Click to Enlarge

Making customizable pages has never been easier!  WebDAM provides the essential tools for great digital asset management.  To learn more about our DAM features, you can visit the WebDAM Features section in DAM-it! The Blog and browse our feature and focus articles and announcements about the newest WebDAM features.

So how do you know if your system is gaining user adoption? We’ll provide the metrics you’ll need to monitor and gauge usage of your web-based digital asset management system so you can see if your campaigns and promotions have caught on. Here are different key performance indicators (KPIs) for measuring user adoption.

Number of Downloads

On the surface, this is a simple number — how many downloads occurred. Look further, though, and you’ll see a greater amount of information for analysis. Based on download quantity, date, and interval, you’ll be able to gauge how many users are downloading and if there are any usage spikes related to events or promotional campaigns.  And be sure to check the average number of downloads per user.  You may have a high volume of downloads, but is that spread evenly across your user base or is it coming from just a few people? The volume that each user downloads indicates where different people stand with DAM, and since we’re all individuals with thoughts, feelings, and opinions about DAM, you’ll know who the avid users are.

Number of Uploads

When you know the volume of uploads on your DAM, you’ll know how well users are engaging both sides of the DAM interface (upload and download). The more uploads, the more DAM users are staying up-to-date with the latest versions of photos, PDFs, graphics, etc., and thus, you’ll have data showing how well your organization is embracing digital asset management. Now, this isn’t necessarily a hard-and-fast metric, as some DAMs may have limited upload-capable (or upload-willing) users. However, the basic tenant of “more uploads means more acceptance” can be applied fairly broadly to almost any situation.

Login Frequency

The easiest way to see if users are actively using a system is by monitoring their login activity.  If half your department hasn’t logged-in in the past month, you may have a problem.  Keep in mind, not all users will need regular access to a DAM so be sure to set your expectations before analyzing this metric.  For instance, your graphic design team should likely be accessing your DAM on a regular basis, but external users, customers, or contractors may only need access for one-off projects.

Asset Requests

Some digital asset management systems allow for users to request access to assets, rather than providing unlimited download access.  This may be an important metric for you if you leverage this functionality and allow such requests to be made.  The more requests that are made, the most interest and usage your system is getting.  So how does this differ from downloads?  The downloads report tracks all assets that have been downloaded from the system, whereas the asset requests report (called the Request Manager in WebDAM) may or may not result in an actual download.  Confused? See how download requests work in WebDAM.

Web Traffic

Monitor how well your DAM is doing easily through your web traffic patterns. This detailed look breaks down the popularity of individual pages (ie- assets), how long people used the system during a visit, even what hours of the day are most popular.  When you do your next push to promote your DAM through the company newsletter or an email blast, what type of promotion caused the biggest spike? Did it create a long-term positive impact?

Get your users excited, ready and willing for DAM to improve workflows like they’ve never experienced before. Getting started is easy — we’ll help you out.  Check out our DAM webinars including User Adoption as the finale webinar to the Summer Webinar Series.

Conducting reports can be time consuming — heck, that’s why most people avoid them all together, but WebDAM’s metrics are available in exportable formats.  Stay tuned for more user adoption metrics available in WebDAM in 2012…

Tip #17

Digital photos are packed full of detailed information called EXIF metadata such as image resolution and camera information.  WebDAM administrators can enable this information from the Metadata Schema page.