Digital Asset Management Goes Enterprisewide

Digital asset management (DAM), like many other technologies, had its origins as a point solution, targeted to the needs of media companies and marketing departments to effectively manage the images, video, audio and other digital material they created and used. Digital Asset Management technology has continued to evolve, and today it is being deployed not only in companies outside the media vertical, but also to user communities across multiple departments as part of companywide enterprise content management (ECM) strategies.

If the activity in the vendor community is any indication, this is a trend with staying power: Interwoven purchased MediaBin and Documentum acquired Bulldog, Adobe developed a media server designed to integrate with multiple enterprise content management systems, and both IBM and Stellent have developed internal Digital Asset Management tools while also allying with prominent third-party vendors. In the case studies that follow, we see how three prominent companies, Chrysler, Acuity and Reebok, are benefiting by taking an enterprisewide approach to Digital Asset Management.