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Before answering that, let’s just talk about what it actually means and the advantages and disadvantages of digital asset management. Asset is something we own. ‘property’ could be the best word to describe. Digital asset is something that we own digitally. It could be pictures, videos, documents, pdfs, etc. If our asset is something personal, we can keep it in a personal desktop computer, pen-drive or hard-drive. If the storage space in our device won’t cooperate, we have Google drive, which is a best example for digital asset management platform.

What if the assets are public and for a few eyes only? Imagine you are a part of a 10 member group and your company gives your group a project. One of them will be collecting raw data, another one will be converting the data into attractive sentences, another one will be creating ideas to print it and there will be so much work on it. But all should work on a single project which might contain different kinds of digital assets. That’s where the digital asset management software is useful. Using digital asset management software, we can work privately for our own research or work on the project your company gave you.

Examples for digital asset management software:

1. Pimcore digital asset management
2. ResourceSpace digital asset management
3. Nuxeo digital asset management

 what if the company itself is using digital asset management software and gives access to its employers? Digital asset management allows storing data in a large amount, it will be very helpful for the employers and the asset will be safe within the company’s digital walls, which is exactly what the company wants. Now-a-days, most of the companies or organisations use digital marketing agency usa.

Advantages of digital asset management platforms

1. The basic advantage of digital asset management platforms is they allow us to store large amounts of data. Taking the previous example, google drive sells storage space, like 300/month for 100gb space.
2. We can access the assets from anywhere, anytime. This makes users work whenever an idea strikes them, especially for programmers.
3. Not only will we, all those employees of the company have access to the assets so that group work will be easier to do. Also, digital asset management supports communication and collaboration.
4. If the assets are managed, by giving access to the assets to employees, varying positions, or by protecting it with a pin or password, they are extremely secure. Digital asset management platforms provide better security and encryption to digital assets.
5. They can work along with a product information management system, which will be helpful to integrate the details of the product with another product.
6. Digital asset management solutions help ensure all team members are using the same on brand files. By directing all to a single content writing repository with just simple search tools.
7. This all makes digital asset management more efficient, time saving, user friendly and secure.

As we all know, each and everything has its pros and cons, so does digital asset management platforms. 

Disadvantages of digital asset management platforms

1. Digital asset management uses metadata. That means, even if storing is easy, we should organize the assets to access it without searching. If we are storing many files, we can’t just remember each and every file’s name, can we? So we should name it and store it properly to get the file without searching. 
2. Digital asset management costs a lot. Taking the previous example, google drive has plans for cloud storage, just like we recharge our data plan periodically.

This picture provides the plan for storage space in google drive. They give 15gb without cost. But if we need more than that we should pay them periodically, like paying rent for a digital house. The rent is a bit costly to afford

3. The last one is more of a practical disadvantage, which is ownership access. If all the users could access the digital asset management like the owner does, it could bring a nerve wracking effect in development of the company. Sherlock Holmes, a fictional character once said, ‘if one could access each and every data in the world, he could be the most dangerous man or he could be a god.  It is entirely based on his mindset. The latter is most probably impossible so we shouldn’t risk it’. So the owner will only believe in himself and no one. That’s why it is a practical disadvantage.

4. A digital asset management is at its best when integrated with other systems and applications that you already use. Integration  ensures consistency and saves time when managing assets across multiple systems. A digital asset management system also needs an application programming interface, meaning it can ‘talk’ to, and transfer data between systems. Without an application programming interface,  you will need to transfer data manually, transferring files manually is a time and money consideration, particularly as the digital asset library grows.

Even though digital asset management has its cons, its better than nothing. The truth is, digital asset management is more efficient, time saving, user friendly and secure.

Times before digital asset management

As digital asset management provides all the key things that a company wants, can you imagine those times where the digital asset management platform wasn’t there? 

Digital asset management originated in the 1990s, luckily near the same time when the internet was originated. Before digital asset management was started, all the companies had to use their own storage and internal servers to work. In fast developing companies’, the internal servers were always crowded because of too much usage. The internal servers can respond to a certain number of users only. The employers had to wait for a long time for the server to respond, which made the employers wait longer than work.

Also, they can only work when they are in the office. They can’t access the assets anywhere anytime like we do now. Now we work as we stay at home.  Some companies hire employees just to work from home. Using digital asset management, we can work efficiently.

Best digital asset management platforms of 2022

1. Monday.com (4.7 out of 5)
2. Canto (4.3 out of 5)
3. Brandfolder (4.5 out of 5)
4. Bynder (4.5 out of 5)

Does my organisation need a digital asset management platform?

Definitely it does. Without a digital asset management platform, our work will not be done quickly and we will be back to the 1990s, times when the digital asset management platform didn’t exist, which makes our work extremely difficult.

Not only my organisation, all the companies and organisations need digital asset management platforms as the digital world has developed. Even if they don’t have a Digital asset management platform, in future the company will need it to compete with other companies. Everyone should grow according to the time.

Even if I don’t work for a company, as a programmer, while working on a team, I will use a digital asset management platform, like GitHub, to save my time and make my work more efficient. Then only I can compete with other programmers and win them eventually.