Are New Content Services Platforms Ready for Video and Digital Asset Management?

Over the past several years, businesses have begun to move away from using traditional ECM (Enterprise Content Management). Instead, seeking to address the ever-growing challenges—and opportunities—created by modern content realities, businesses have increasingly gravitated toward the adoption of Content Services platforms.

Both ECM and Content Services platforms enable businesses to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content. However, the flexible, modular nature of Content Services may offer a more practical solution for handling content in modern-day enterprises.

Video and Digital Asset Management in the Modern Content World

How does this shift affect Digital Asset Management (DAM)? DAM certainly shares many the fundamental tenets of Content Services with ECM. DAM can also realize some of the benefits provided by new Content Services platforms. Nonetheless, there remains a need for DAM applications to support the unique characteristics of many digital assets.

ECM—like the new Content Services platforms—typically focuses on business information and operational content. DAM, however, specifically focuses on handling digital assets or rich media elements for outbound media channels. DAM facilitates the creation, collaboration, delivery, and tracking of assets like product images, promotional videos, logos, sales collateral, social media post, and podcasts. It is the central hub for content, ensuring brand consistency, enforcing rights management, and sourcing other systems with content, such as supplying a Product Information Management (PIM) system with up-to-date product images or a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system with collateral for the sales team.

Making Sense of DAM's Alphabet Soup

DAM is still a fragmented market, with many vendors offering many different types of solutions. Potential clients are faced with a veritable alphabet soup of options: DAM, EVCM (Enterprise Video Content Management), MAM (Media Asset Management), BAM (Brand Asset Management), MRM (Marketing Resource Management), and PIM. Adding to the confusion, vendors often offer solutions with overlapping capabilities, making it difficult for prospective buyers to differentiate between them.

To determine the option that’s the best fit for your business, it’s critical to first understand your content, how your users interact with that content, and which use cases will best support the growth of your organization. Then, look for a partner who has experience working with video and digital assets at the enterprise level. This will allow you to gain the understanding you need to put your content to work for your business—regardless of the system that powers it.