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Another DAM Podcast interview with David Fuda on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • How does an organization focused on furniture use Digital Asset Management?
  • Tell me about your title.
  • What advice would you like to provide vendors when trying to approach and sell to a potential client?
  • What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Darth, Lord of the
DAM. I mean, David Fuda.
David [0:12] , how are you?
David Fuda: [0:13] Very good this morning, how are you?
Henrik: [0:15] Good. David, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management?
David: [0:19] I’m Digital Asset Manager for Ethan Allen Global. Ethan Allen is a
home furnishings company. We’re based in Connecticut. It’s a worldwide operation.
Out of our headquarters area is where the Digital Asset Management
system is based.
Henrik: [0:34] David, how does an organization focused on furniture use Digital
Asset Management?
David: [0:40] Many ways. Its key function right now is in the Style and
Advertising Departments. Digital photography was introduced in Ethan Allen
about three, four years ago. At the time, we realized, suddenly the volume of
images that was being photographed went up 10fold over what it was in film.
We had to get a handle on the amount of images that were being done. [1:07]
Digital Asset Management is what we needed to wrangle in what turned in from
a year’s shooting of 10,000 images to 100, 000 images.
Henrik: [1:14] Wow.
David: [1:15] Yes. At the time I was Senior Staff Photographer. I had been so
with Ethan Allen for 11 years. When they started talking about Digital Asset
Management, it peaked my interest as some type of field that would be something
new, and exciting and different, and definitely growing. So, I took on the
position as Digital Asset Manager. [1:36] I found one of the most useful ways,
once the DAM was up and running, was its ability to allow users and groups
that before had no access to print or web ready artwork, for instance, our PR
Department, Training Department, Merchandising Department.
[1:55] Before, if they had the need for a print or web ready image, they would
have to open a job ticket with Production, and go through a process of asking
them. Say, for instance, there was a particular sofa that a print magazine required
a shot of in the living room. It could start to involve two, three people to
look for a particular image.
[2:17] Nowadays, the PR individual can jump right into the DAM, do a search,
and find a multitude of room images featuring a particular sofa that was required
to be seen. They can draw their own print or web rendition right from
the DAM, and not involve the production department. It’s very quick, very easy.
They simply love it.
Henrik: [2:37] That’s a great example of self-service.
David: [2:39] Yes, it is. It’s a wonderful thing.
Henrik: [2:42] Tell me about your title.
David: [2:45] I came up with the title Darth, Lord of the DAM, because at the
time when the DAM was introduced, it was a totally new concept, at least to
Ethan Allen and all the departments. No one was really certain what a DAM
was. To make people look up from their desk and their daily task, when I would
walk into someone’s office and introduce myself, as opposed to Digital Asset
Manager, Darth Lord of the DAM, seemed to really make them look away from
their computer desktop and, “What? Excuse me, who are you?” [laughs] [3:18] It
was a nickname I chose to make people notice there was something new on the
block, and it happened to be the DAM.
Henrik: [3:27] What advice would you like to give to vendors when trying to
approach and sell to potential clients?
David: [3:33] I would like to say, as far as the vendors go, when approaching
a client, I noticed a couple of things that seemed to be a constant as we were
looking at different DAM systems offered by different vendors. They came in
with a preset presentation, a PowerPoint or whatever the case may be, of what
they envisioned a typical user might be for their product. [4:00] I’ve come to
learn that users for the DAM are as varied as the clients are. They would make
a presentation with, “OK , Ethan Allen’s in photography, they make a magazine.
Let’s show them something like a fashion magazine.” It was completely unrelated
to how we would use the DAM.
[4:18] I think it would be best if the vendor took some elements that a potential
client may be using as assets in their DAM, then mocked up some type
of, “This is what your DAM could look like,” as opposed to presenting something
generic.
[4:36] Of course on the other hand, looking back, hindsight, Ethan Allen could
have presented each vendor with a collection of images, mockups, and magazines,
saying “These are the type of assets we would be putting in a DAM. Show
us how we can make them relate.” So, a little advice for both.
[4:57] I had one particular vendor who had that had a very fine looking product,
we were very impressed with the user interface. It seemed like something that
was really designed more towards images, rather than documents, and really
wanted to succeed.
[5:12] But they failed, not once, but twice in the presentation. They insisted on
having a presentation given to us via remote desktop. Both times the remote
desktop connection failed. It’s kind of hard to sell a product to people holding
the checkbook on something that won’t function. We had to pass on them.
[5:33] From the buyer end, if I could offer a little advice. Not only in presenting
particular types of assets to them to make a mockup for you, I’d also like to
suggest to any particular buyer to go ahead and look at the vendors’ service
department. Once the DAM is installed, the techs at the their customer service
are going to be your best friends for many months to come.
[6:02] We were fortunate, the product we chose, the tech support is outstanding.
I would suggest, possibly, if you’re in the market for a DAM, look at a
vendor, ask to talk to probably one or two if you could, of their users. Talk directly
to their IT department, if possible.
Henrik: [6:24] You mean the customer facing technical people?
David: [6:28] Yes, definitely.
Henrik: [6:29] From the vendor? As well as the customer service under
their VSLA?
David: [6:38] Yes, because if you’re not familiar with a DAM at all and once you
install it, it’s a big piece of software. It’s going to be something intimidating to
some people, some of your users. Other users are going to dive right in and
love it. [6:52] Also a piece of advice to buyers, once you purchase the DAM,
it’s not going to be set and you can walk away from it. Your DAM will always
be morphing, changing as new groups are added. As the needs of your users
expand, there’s going to be meta fields constantly be added. Others that are
now irrelevant, you might as well pull.
[7:16] The DAM’s never, “Build it and there it is and walk away.” It’s going to
be changing with your business needs. As far as that goes, our particular DAM
software, speaking of morphing, it’s only been installed three, four years. We’re
going to be facing an issue, coming up, with its compatibility with web browsers.
Most of our users are using a web based client.
[7:48] Regrettably, the version of our DAM software is already a version or two
old, being only four years old. It’s no longer updated and supported. Well, it is
supported, but it’s no longer updated to match and function with new, current
browsers coming out.
Henrik: [8:11] Hmm. There’s a lot of them.
David: [8:12] Yep, it’s all of them. Any new machines we install, or OS upgrades
that are done to users’ computers, all have to be backstepped with the browsers
to make sure they function with the DAM.
Henrik: [8:25] Hopefully they can support that by supporting back versions and
updating, as you suggested.
David: [8:32] Yeah, it would be nice. I suspect there are many customers of
there that are out there with a back version like we have.
Henrik: [8:40] What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals.
David: [8:45] As far as aspiring to be DAM professional, I can relate Ethan
Allen’s experience with it. When our exploratory committee was first looking
into software and the idea of building a DAM, they thought it was more important
to have an individual that knew the company, knew the departments
that would be involved in the DAM, being Photo Studio, Style Department,
Production Departments are the three key departments, and someone who
Another D 174 AM Podcast Transcribed
knew the product and the business model of the company. [9:18] So, as opposed
to looking for someone with the tech experience, they looked inside. I
seemed to fit the bill, they offered the position to me. I had been with the company
10, 11 years at the time. I went for it because of my knowledge of the individuals
that would be introduced to this new software, the DAM, how it would
be deployed, and its needs would be to meet our requirements as a company.
[9:47] I think it was a good choice on their part to choose from within, someone
who knew their business model, as opposed to someone who was formally
trained in the DAM aspect and introducing them to the company.
[9:59] It may be a good piece of advice to the company to look for their DAM
administrator, or the Lord of the DAM from within, as opposed from without,
because that individual may be with your company already.
[10:09] In addition, I’d like to offer a piece of advice that didn’t handicap us,
but it was an error on our part when we first started investigating a DAM. The
exploratory committee looked at the DAM as a piece of software that would
be used by the members of the departments, again the Style Department,
Photo Studio.
[10:34] They didn’t realize just how intertwined the software of the DAM would
be with the servers. The IT department wasn’t consulted until the project was
well underway. It was simply because of our unfamiliarity with the DAM, and not
realizing that it was such a database and application driven piece of software,
completely based on the servers.
[11:05] So, for anyone looking for a DAM, bring your IT boys right to the
first meeting.
Henrik: [11:09] Thanks David.
David: [11:10] OK .
Henrik: [11:12] For more on Digital Asset Management log onto
AnotherDAMblog.com. [11:16] Another DAM Podcast is available on Audioboom,
Blubrry, iTunes, and Tech Podcast Network. Thanks again.

Related Articles

Listen to Another DAM Podcast on Apple Podcasts, AudioBoom, CastBox, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic, Spotify, TuneIn, and wherever you find podcasts.

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Another DAM Podcast interview with Richard Buchanan on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • How does a media company use Digital Asset Management?
  • Do you use specific standards and do you feel there are enough in Digital Asset Management?
  • What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:01] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Richard Buchanan.
Richard, how are you?
Richard Buchanan: [0:10] I’m fine today. How are you?
Henrik: [0:12] Good. Richard, how are you involved with Digital Asset
Management?
Richard: [0:15] I work with the Comcast Media Center in Denver, Colorado. We
are a technical facility that supports Comcast and NBCUniversal and commercial
clients throughout North America. We specialize in delivery of file assets, such
as video on demand. We do live events. We do content aggregation and distribution.
We do channel origination, and we do production and post-production.
Henrik: [0:45] Excellent. Richard, how does a media company use Digital Asset
Management?
Richard: [0:52] A media company like ours has a huge inventory of assets with
multiple platforms and routes for delivery. To keep track of all that and be able
to do it efficiently, with high quality, and consistently deliver the customer experience
that’s expected, you have to be able to find your assets and deploy them
in a very rapid turn time. [1:17] For example, we pitch about 10,000 video on
demand assets every 30 days. This comes in from 297 different sources and is
delivered in Canada and the US to 97 percent of the VOD enabled households
available.
Henrik: [1:38] VOD, video on demand.
Richard: [1:40] Video on demand. That’s correct.
Henrik: [1:42] Excellent. Do you use specific standards, and do you feel there
are enough in Digital Asset Management?
Richard: [1:47] In the case of video on demand, we use specific standards that
have been exacted by what’s called CableLabs. A consortium of cable companies
came together about 20 years ago and established a group to test, analyze,
and publish standards so that the industry could share content more easily.
[2:10] This specifically affected how set top boxes were developed, how VOIP
was rolled out over cable MSOs, and now how video on demand is delivered
and managed. There are specifications not only for the file type and the signal
quality, but also the metadata that goes with it.
[2:30] In the Digital Asset Management field, this is a wide open opportunity for
someone to take the reins and form a group to start to define what the standards
are in order to create more interoperability among vendors and more
efficiency for users.
Henrik: [2:52] We would hope that some of those entities may possibly be in
existence such as the DAM Foundation, which was started a few months ago.
Time will tell, for sure.
Richard: [3:02] Yeah.
Henrik: [3:04] Let me finish with the last question I ask individuals that I interview.
What advice would you like to share with DAM professionals and people
aspiring to become DAM professionals?
Richard: [3:12] I would say focus on one of three areas. You can be a technologist,
you can be a leader, or you can be a designer. I think that all three of those
disciplines are very important if you can learn more than one or all three. But I
think the important message is it’s not just technology.
Henrik: [3:39] True.
Richard: [3:40] There has to be some creative thinking, especially around defining
problems, being able to decide what it is you can solve and how you
can solve it and prevent scope creep. So that you know how you’re going to
deliver what, and what it’s going to cost. [3:56] So the benefit to the company
is well demonstrated at the end of the project, and the leaders who are able
to manage these different disciplines and apply the traditional thinking that’s
necessary to deal with legacy libraries and bring them into contemporary digital
multi-platform distribution environments.
[4:19] I think that what I would say is be clear on what your objectives are, define
the problem you’re trying to solve and don’t get distracted from that.
Henrik: [4:29] Great advice. Thanks, Richard.
Richard: [4:32] You’re welcome.
Henrik: [4:35] For more on Digital Asset Management, log on to
AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast is also available on Audioboom,
Blubrry, iTunes and the Tech Podcast Network. Thanks again.

Related Articles

Listen to Another DAM Podcast on Apple Podcasts, AudioBoom, CastBox, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic, Spotify, TuneIn, and wherever you find podcasts.

Need Digital Asset Management advice and assistance?

Another DAM Consultancy can help. Schedule a call today


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Another DAM Podcast interview with Karuana Gatimu on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • Why does a footwear company use Digital Asset Management?
  • Is it about the technology or strategy when it comes to Digital Asset Management?
  • What advice would you like to share with DAM Professionals and people aspiring to become DAM Professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:02] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with Karuana Gatimu.
Karuana, how are you?
Karuana Gatimu: [0:11] I’m excellent. Thank you for inviting me.
Henrik: [0:14] Karuana, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Karuana: [0:17] Digital Asset Management came into my life actually as an offshoot
of Enterprise Content Management. I’m an Enterprise Content Certified
Practitioner. I spent about 20 years in the business doing different sorts of
custom apps and helping organizations find their information. As I moved into
the video world and live events and doing web production and print, Digital
Asset Management was a logical offshoot of all of my history.
Henrik: [0:44] Excellent. Why does a footwear company use Digital Asset
Management?
Karuana: [0:49] Skechers USA, which is a global footwear company, needs
Digital Asset Management because we produce literally thousands of product
images. We have commercials. We have archive clips of conferences and events.
[1:02] A lot of content that we used to tell the story of our company, at different
times during the year. Being able to locate that information, put it together to
be able to create new content, and keep people getting to the information efficiently,
is really important to us.
Henrik: [1:19] Sounds like it. Karuana, is it about the technology or the strategy,
when it comes to Digital Asset Management?
Karuana: [1:24] You know that’s my favorite subject.
Henrik: [1:26] Of course.
Karuana: [1:27] I know that’s why you asked me that question. I really feel it is
about the strategy. Every day, I get about 50 vendor voice mails on my line at
work. They’re all telling me about how they can increase my revenue or give
me this wonderful piece of technology that I desperately need for my customer
experience. [1:48] At the end of the day, I’m in charge of knowing what the business
needs actually are. I think that for anybody in the DAM community, it’s very
important for us to be able to separate what are true services and features that
we need to deliver to the enterprise, and what is the fluff.
[2:05] Nobody can define that. A vendor can’t define that for you. A consultant
can help you. A research agency can help you but the vendors themselves, have
their own agenda. It’s very important that you plug those very worthwhile vendors
into your over reaching strategy.
[2:22] For a company like Skechers, for instance, because we don’t have a monetization
model, we’re not a broadcast network. Consequently, the information
and the services I’m trying to deliver are different than if I was A&E or HBO or
somebody like that.
[2:36] I think it’s really important that we have to know our own business. Devise
our strategy based on the needs of business and the evolution of our business
and partner with people out there in the partner ecosystem, that understand
those needs as we articulate them.
[2:53] I think in that, it really gives us a good foundation in which to continue to
build because it’s never done. The work is never done. There’s always more to
do. There’s always more services I can deliver, and the technology is evolving. If
you take a look at what’s happened recently over the last few years with social,
and how that’s changed marketing operations and the needs for assets and
what have you, we can anticipate that more of that is coming.
[3:17] So knowing our strategy is a really good thing.
Henrik: [3:20] What advice would you like to give to DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
Karuana: [3:26] If you are an existing DAM professional, keep the faith. We’re
moving. Don’t lose your enthusiasm. This is an iterative process, and we just
have to keep moving forward. Because as more user generated content, corporate
generated content, and social generated content comes to us, it’s going to
become very important for us to build really well thought out systems. [3:50] So
if you’re already here, then stay. Because the people who are coming are going
to need our experience, strength and hope, as we move forward. I think that if
you’re interested into getting into Digital Asset Management, you have to think
about what you are really passionate about.
[4:07] Is it the technology side, in terms of for instance, database architecture or
technological implementations? Is it the strategy side, in terms of how Digital
[4:16] Asset Management affects business and can be used by business? Or is
it the marketing and creative side, or licensing in the sense of the monetization
and reuse and repurpose of creative content?
[4:28] I think it’s really important to know where you fall within the different layers
of DAM, and then develop your expertise as you move forward. It’s a great segment
to be in. It’s growing by leaps and bounds. There’s a tremendous amount
of exciting content, and vendors out there are doing unique things. It’s a real
great time to be involved in DAM.
Henrik: [4:49] Great. Thank you so much.
Karuana: [4:52] I appreciate it. Thank you for inviting me, and we will see
you later.
Henrik: [4:55] Great. For more on Digital Asset Management, log onto
AnotherDAMblog.com. Another DAM Podcast is also available on Audioboom,
Blubrry, iTunes and the Tech Podcast Network. Thanks again.

Related Articles

Listen to Another DAM Podcast on Apple Podcasts, AudioBoom, CastBox, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic, Spotify, TuneIn, and wherever you find podcasts.

Need Digital Asset Management advice and assistance?

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Another DAM Podcast interview with William Bitunjac on Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • Why does a national chain of merchandise stores use Digital Asset Management?
  • What advice would you like to give to DAM professionals and people aspiring to become DAM professionals?

Transcript:

Henrik de Gyor: [0:00] This is Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today I’m speaking with William Bitunjac.
William, how are you?
William Bitunjac: [0:09] Very good.
Henrik: [0:10] William, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
William: [0:12] At my company, I’m the Program Manager for all content management
tools for a large ecommerce program currently. I actually built the
Digital Asset Management content management strategy for our print marketing
lines prior to this, so converging on an enterprise view of content management
and Digital Asset Management. Picking apart the individual pieces, both
print and online individually, but now with an opportunity to look at converging
into single enterprise vision for it. Really, more heavily on the business side, in
terms of driving out strategy and then some of the delivery team responsibilities
as well.
Henrik: [0:52] Why does a national chain of merchandise stores use Digital
Asset Management?
William: [0:57] There’s a lot of numbers of reasons. Some of them are very similar.
It’s money savings. You only need to shoot a photo once, and you can reuse
it a lot of times. A lot of the reasons that have always been in the business case
for Digital Asset Management, not reshooting assets, photography that you’ve
lost, not spending time looking for things, some tighter control of brands, so
you’re only working on approved assets, approved content. [1:31] As I’ve looked
at it, beyond the initial benefits of creating libraries, centralization of knowledge,
and sharing, I’ve found incredible opportunity throughout automation. Tying
it with other content so some of the manual production work of getting assets
into layouts or to websites, managing workflows, managing approvals, the act
of centralizing assets and metadata has been an incredible benefit to further
automation.
[2:04] Getting the centralized library offers money savings on the business case
is giving tens of millions of dollars to the organization through asset reuse,
speed to market, and delivery of marketing materials. Instead of spending all of
your time trying to find the things that you need, creating new experiences has
become almost turnkey. The level of effort goes into creating incredible experiences,
not finding the materials that you need.
Henrik: [2:32] What advice would you like to give to DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
William: [2:37] My advice really comes from how I came to the position, into the
industry. I didn’t come as a career technologist. It really wasn’t my vision and my
dream to spend my entire life creating content management platforms. I was an
end user. I was a creative director. I was a photographer. I had a lot of passion
around knowledge management, but I was initially in a position to be one of the
beneficiaries of a system like these. [3:13] Staying close to your users, monitoring
what they’re using, keeping track of the strategic direction of the organization.
Again, the big benefit that I’ve seen has been turnkey generation of incredible
new experiences. If you know, strategy wise, where the business is going,
where the assets are coming from, you can actually turn your asset management
system into an innovation engine.
[3:38] In order to do that, you almost have to be less interested in the technology
and more interested in the business and the business users. The technology
becomes a tool to drive out people’s dreams. For me, my teams come from the
business, I spend my time with the business, and I have really, really, really, good
delivery partners who take care of the technology bits for me.
[4:01] Playing with the technology and learning about as many platforms as
possible is the second piece of advice. There are a lot of different ways to get
things done. The framework in most of the enterprise applications allows you a
lot of different ways to do things. If you know what’s in the toolbox, you can put
together just about any toy you want.
Henrik: [4:23] Thanks, William.
William: [4:25] Sure.
Henrik: [4:25] For more on Digital Asset Management, log onto
AnotherDAMblog.com. Thanks, again.

Related Articles

Listen to Another DAM Podcast on Apple Podcasts, AudioBoom, CastBox, Google Podcasts, RadioPublic, Spotify, TuneIn, and wherever you find podcasts.

Need Digital Asset Management advice and assistance?

Another DAM Consultancy can help. Schedule a call today