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Another DAM Podcast interview with Julie Everett on Digital Asset Management

Julie Everett discusses Digital Asset Management

Here are the questions asked:

  • How are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
  • How does an auto insurance use Digital Asset Management?
  • You recently upgraded the DAM at your organization. Why was it important to upgrade and what was the most complex part you had to do in the upgrade process?
  • 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 as Another DAM Podcast about Digital Asset
Management. I’m Henrik de Gyor. Today, I’m speaking with Julie Everett. Julie,
how are you?
Julie Everett: [0:10] I’m good. Thanks.
Henrik: [0:12] Julie, how are you involved with Digital Asset Management?
Julie: [0:14] I am the Digital Asset Manager for the fourth largest auto insurance
company in the US. Just a little bit of background. In 2002, Progressive installed
our Digital Asset Management system in order to create a repository of assets
to share. Very unfortunately, user adoption at that point failed, because we did
not have a DAM, Digital Asset Manager, no one really overseeing and having
responsibility for the adoption of use. [0:39] In 2010, they hired me for the newly
created role of Digital Asset Manager. I came into this role with 23 years of
experience at Progressive Insurance, most of my experience being in private
management and marketing. I’m a photographer as well. This job at this point in
my career was like a perfect storm.
[0:59] I’ve spent the last year negotiating contracts with vendors, creating metadata
schemas, and doing company-wide inventory of assets, doing interviewing
of end-users and creating guidelines, interviewing stack houses, reviewing contracts.
The list goes on and on. In May of this year in 2011, we just installed our
new software and we have been very busy testing the system and are beginning
to ingest assets.
Henrik: [1:26] How does an auto insurance company use Digital Asset
Management?
Julie: [1:31] We use our DAM to build a repository of assets, like Flow. Flow’s
pretty well-known in commercials and print ads. We use our assets on the web,
in print, in training materials, customer communications, Internet, social media.
The list goes on and on. We also use it as a source to keep an inventory of our
marketing materials, like our commercials, our print ads, and radio spots. So we
use it for a multitude of things.
Henrik: [1:58] Great. You recently upgraded your DAM at your organization.
Why was it important to upgrade, and what was the most complex part of what
you had to do in that upgrade process?
Julie: [2:09] It was important for us to upgrade our old system. It was almost 10
years old at this point. Unfortunately because there was nobody in charge of
DAM, it never went through an upgrade. It was very outdated, and the assets
unfortunately were very outdated as well. Over the past several years, because
user adoption failed, everyone had gone off and created their own mini DAMs
on a variety of servers over the years. [2:35] We ended up having about 94,000
assets across the company on many different servers that we had to reign in.
[2:44] I think the most difficult part has been…I’ve been involved in the selection
of the vendor leading the IT portion of the project designing security, folders
and permissions, around security, metadata schemas, keyboarding guidelines,
the enterprise usage guidelines, copyright management and discovery, centralizing
the procurement of assets going forward. I had to wear many hats. At
times it could be very challenging.
[3:09] I think the most complex part, however, has been getting the inventory
organized, and doing the copyright discovery and then metadata attachment.
We had nothing tagged. We have a lot of assets that have little or no metadata
that we are in the process, now, of attaching metadata to as we’re adjusting and
getting things organized in the new DAM.
Henrik: [3:33] What advice would you like to give to DAM professionals and
people aspiring to become DAM professionals?
Julie: [3:38] I think having a passion for this is really important. I think those who
are, maybe, just starting off in their career, should consider degrees in library
science, or information science technology. I would also advise folks to join
LinkedIn, and other organizations and groups that share information on DAM.
[3:54] Introduce yourself to other Digital Asset Managers. Attend conferences,
like Henry Stewart and Createasphere, and other places where you can network
with folks in the industry. I spend a considerable amount of time talking to other
DAM professionals across the United States. We help each other with a variety
of issues. We meet regularly to discuss challenges and offer advice and solutions
to one another.
[4:16] I think in this type of role, there is a huge amount of satisfaction that you
can get when you make someone much more productive by delivering assets
quickly, so they can move on and finish the task that they need to complete. A
smooth running DAM will impact our productivity, immeasurably. It will save a
company a lot of money in the long run.
[4:35] I think it’s a great profession. I love what I do. I would highly recommend it
for those that may have an interest in it.
Henrik: [4:45] Thanks Julie.
Julie: [4:46] You’re welcome. It’s been a pleasure.
Henrik: [4:49] For more on Digital Asset Management, log onto
anotherdamblog.com. Another DAM Podcast is available on Audioboom,
Blubrry, iTunes and the Tech Podcast Network. Thanks, again.

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