November 14, 2016 by Cooper Whitescarver
Big Data. We’ve all read reports that the majority of companies plan to incorporate it into their marketing plan in the near future, or already have. Maybe your organization is one of the many who are making the improvement. But how useful is Big Data in the enterprise and how can you start implementing it into your workflow today? And, more importantly, how does a Big Data strategy fit into digital asset management?
IBM defines big data as: "Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data- so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction records, and cell phone GPS signals to name a few. This data is big data."
Yes, we are creating a TON of data every day. The data alone isn't very useful though. It becomes much more powerful when we know how to interpret that data and start analyzing it.
A recent report stated that 52% of companies surveyed saw opportunity in Big Data, and more than a quarter have a moderate or greater Big Data strategy. Take a quick look at the top four actions companies have taken with Big Data. All four mesh perfectly with the benefits of DAM
27.6% enhancing information management 24.8% implementing/integrating new technologies & methods 16.0% making changes to culture and organization 15.4% creating new business models & go-to-market strategies
Digital Asset Management has quickly become the central hub of communication for the creative process and often facilitates daily work across the entire organization. DAM is no longer just the repository for completed work, but facilitates work-in-progress and encourages collaboration.
A snapshot in time of the DAM hub would reveal a complex map of communication and production transactions among all departments that touch a creative digital asset, from strategy through design through compliance. But that snapshot wouldn’t tell the whole story.
Where DAM is concerned, Big Data analytics can turn the "snapshot" into a kind of three-dimensional image, with a cross-functional view across time into the incredible number of transactions happening every day around the production and creative processes.
"DAM is no longer just the repository for completed work, but facilitates work-in-progress and encourages collaboration."
Every single digital action performed within your organization can be captured, retained and analyzed for trends, improvement and streamlining. Downloads, file searches, work created, updates, and more can all be tracked, graphed and improved upon. Thus, transactional logs are no longer for IT only.
With live visibility into the status of initiatives, down to a single piece of content, project owners can clearly see and analyze the lifecycle of each component. This allows you to identify trending patterns and focus on strong and weak spots in the process. And this, in turn, allows for more efficient management of the creative workflow and results in better work and less rework.
Let’s look at some quick examples of Big Data and DAM and then dive deeper into them.
Data searchers can see the most popular queries and the returned results, focusing and fine tuning information for the consumer.
Administrators can see content as it moves across departments and statuses, providing support at the critical places required.
Executive level can capture ROI driven by the Creative Team by pulling in data from multiple sources and comparing real marketing initiatives against revenue data.
Making sure your organization gets the most it can from a single asset is the most cost effective strategy. By analyzing what users in your organization are searching for, you can identify the language they’re using to find assets. If you notice a common search term returning low or no results, you have a few routes to take to improve the in-need resource: either create more content that satisfies the search (and the need it represents) or, if such content already exists, tag it appropriately so it can be found.
"Efficient management of the creative workflow results in better work and less rework."
More globally, by analyzing the download counts of your assets, you can identify issues and adjust your tags or associated metadata appropriately. This produces the most efficient outcome, ensuring assets aren’t lost or forgotten. And gradually the language will begin to shift within your organization, making communication overall more effective.
Monitoring files created can show the work value of a team or individual user. Combine the user metric with download or usage statistics and you can identify standout users or teams that are creating the valuable content your organization is utilizing. This is a powerful learning point, and approaching it strategically can empower that creator to share their methodology with the extended team, making your organization more successful.
By introducing a financial metric into the mix, you can begin to identify ROI on your individual assets and the teams that created them. By tracking how much an asset cost to create, based on time invested, salaries of those involved, resources needed, etc, you can identify if you’re getting your money’s worth.
Identifying how to begin implementing Big Data into your enterprise DAM strategy is an important first step. Reach out to your Digital Asset Management provider if they offer any metrics, Big Data, or data analysis solutions. Trying to bolt one onto an existing DAM probably won’t produce the best results, especially if your provider already has a solution.
It doesn't matter if you don't currently use MediaBeacon Solutions or aren't even on the market right now, we want to help. Please let us know if you have any questions about Digital Asset Management, Big Data, or our Solutions. We would love to share with you what we have learned in the last 20 years and help you navigate the next 20.
Take all the great information on this page with you by downloading a helpful PDF that you can take with you!
