There are so many considerations that factor into selecting new software. After all, you’re making a considerable investment in your organization. Therefore, you want to weigh who will use it, their technology needs, and even what the ramp-up process will look like as you implement and learn your new solution.

If you’re on the hunt for the best DAM (that’s digital asset management to you) software solution, you may have already done quite a bit of research and asked a lot of questions. Indeed, the average sales cycle for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions is between 3 and 6 months.

But you’re not just anybody. You’re a DAM professional, and you know many options on the market today. The secret to finding the right solution lies in knowing what you need, what your team requires, what your operations are, and how your new technology aligns with your current digital ecosystem. Here’s what you need to know.

Step One: Organise yourself systematically

When starting your search, it’s time to get organised. To find the right fit, you need to understand your team’s needs fully now and in the future. Not just for one team or a few team members – but for your whole DAM team. This understanding allows multiple stakeholders to have a say in what features you’ll need and what system will work best for your organisation. Don’t forget people like your system administrator, who will be integral in integrating your new DAM into your workflow.

Identify Use Cases

What outcomes are your team after, and how can these solutions help you achieve them? Consider about common DAM system use cases and note what’s most important to your operations. You’ll want to identify the team needs for your organization, as well as the features to address these needs. Use cases may include:

• Filtering content into a single system
• Eliminating redundancies and features you don’t need
• Sharing and publishing brand content
• Integrating your martech stack
• Repurposing high-performing content
• Tracking content efficacy
• Unifying your content workflow
• Bringing products to market faster
• Launching into new E-Commerce channels 

Take note of your Must-Have features & functionalities

From these use cases, you can start to pinpoint the capabilities you just DAM well cannot live without. These may be very basic, like organizing your content, or more specifically, like integrating your company’s individual workflow. Popular DAM features include:

• In-depth search functionalities
• An open API framework to foster integration
• Configurations for permission and access control
• In-app conversion of images
• Zero code needed for automation
• Mapping of metadata
• Analytics at the whole asset level
• Support for multiple file formats

By comparing your use cases and the features you know you’ll need first, researching the DAM systems will be much clearer, and you’ll be able to select the best system for your team.

Step Two: Evaluate the software solutions in more detail

Now it’s time to start evaluating solutions to discover which is right for you. With so many DAM system options available, it can be overwhelming until you remember that you only need the features applicable to your operations.

Researching solutions & comparing features

Once you know what your team needs, researching different systems with their varying DAM capabilities will be much straightforward. First, however, now is the time to get going – and see the features you’re looking for in action. After all, just because a vendor offers a particular feature, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will function the way you want or need it to.

Keep in mind every system can provide some value, but you’re looking to see that the system you choose is indeed the right fit for you and your team so you can do your best work. So, how do you go about this?

One way would be to include the use cases you send to vendors in your request for proposal so that you can evaluate each vendor, rating how well their features suit your unique use cases.

Another tip: Sort the capabilities you’re looking for by preference level so you can better discern which features you can’t live without and which ones you might be willing to let go of if you find the right DAM for your most preferred functionalities. Also, be sure to read reviews as you go through your research. Not only will this give you better insight into how each DAM system performs, but it may also give you some inspiration for how different organizations make the most of the system within their operations. You may find some great ideas! 

Keep an eye on the whole investment

Choosing a new DAM system is not a decision you can make in one day or even a few weeks. But that’s by design. After all, you’re making a significant investment in your organization. So, you’ll want to take your time, research, and look deep into all the features and functionalities to find the solution.

Step Three: Make the Best DAM Choice You Can

Now comes the hard-but-exciting part: Making a choice.

As you evaluate your options, be sure to request demos so you can see how your new DAM will perform. For example? LAGO by Comosoft is one solution you’ll want to see in action to fully understand just what all it can do for you.

LAGO isn’t just a DAM. Instead, it’s a multichannel marketing platform that integrates DAM and product information management (PIM) functionalities, plus an entire host of features that can transform your marketing production capabilities to take your operations to a brand new level.

Additionally, LAGO offers:

• Secure user access to digital assets from any web browser
• Integrated image selection for better marketing communication
• Collaborative workflow tools to stay connected
• Automatic substitution of updated/replaced assets in any active media campaign
• Tracking of digital and branded assets for effective brand marketing

Tips on Decision-Making

Making the right decision can feel challenging – especially when you want to come up with the best possible solution to serve your organization to the fullest. Some thoughts to help in the decision-making process?

• Identify all the possible options and anticipate possible outcomes for each one
• Consider the needs and wants of your entire team and how they will be impacted
• Understand the long-term impact on projects, on each department, and your company