Joel Warwick’s Resume Package

1. JOEL WARWICK joel@joelwarwick.com | www.linkedin.com/in/joelwarwick
Joel draws from 20 years of experience with digital media, publishing and marketing technologies. Over the last 10 years his consulting practice has guided firms’ digital media strategies, business
process design and implementation of digital media management and publishing systems – with an emphasis on rich-media and digital asset management (DAM).
POSITION SUMMARY CAPABILITIES & SKILLS MAJOR PROJECTS & PROGRAMS
2002-Present | President • Well versed in marketing, publishing and digital media creation, 2009-2010 Integrated Communications Project, AARP
JAW Consulting, San Rafael, CA production and distribution operations, including online, broadcast Designed and led DAM implementation and business process
video, social media, marketing analytics, content monetization design project achieving cost and cycle time reductions through
2007-2008 | Co-founder and the tremendous challenges organizations face as sourcing and enhanced content sharing and messaging alignment across three
Playdate Cafe, San Anselmo, CA distribution channels fragment and proliferate. business units: print magazines, online publications and member
• Expertise across multiple disciplines: strategic and financial analy- sites, and broadcast TV programs.
2000-2002 | Director of Product Management
E-Color Inc., San Francisco, CA sis, project, workflow and organizational design, and enterprise 2006-2011 Instructor, DAM Tutorials
system implementations - on-premise, SaaS and ‘cloud’ systems.
Instructor for over 20 half-day tutorials in the US and Europe
1999-2000 | Digital Technology Manager
• Superb customer engagement, earning trust, assuring satisfaction advising dozens of firms with how-to sessions and workbooks on
Pantone Inc., Carlstadt, NJ / San Rafael, CA DAM fundamentals, digital media and innovation services group
and converting clients, customers and partners into advocates.
1998-1999 | Engineering Manager design and candid content systems vendor assessments.
• Maintains in-depth knowledge of enterprise content systems (DAM/
Radius Inc. / Miro Displays, Mountain View, CA MAM, ECM, WCM, DRM, ESS/EC, MRM/MOM, BPM) and in- 2005-2006 Enterprise Media Services, CanWest & Infosys
1995-1998 | Senior Product Manager dustry-specific practices in media, entertainment, publishing, brand Strategic analyst and lead consultant for a large-scale project for
marketing, content aggregation, licensing & merchandising. Canada’s leading media firm (14 TV stations, 5 daily metro news-
X-Rite Inc. / LightSource, San Rafael, CA
papers, national news and Canada.com websites). Instrumental in
• Effective communicator, skilled presenter and accomplished writer
CLIENTS delivering an enterprise-wide, visionary content services platform
of both published work and compelling communications, experienced
forming a set of core services and processes driving all editorial,
End Use Firms engaging audiences across all organizational levels.
Vendors & Services Firms creation, production and distribution.
AARP Adobe • Draws from a significant pool of IP such as project plans, strategic
roadmaps, analysis tools, organizational and financial models, 2003-2005 Global Marketing Systems, Alticor / Amway
Alticor / Amway EMC / Documentum
and relationships with industry thought leaders and subject matter Lead consultant for a multi-year content strategy, publishing
CanWest (Shaw/Postmedia) IBM Global Services process re-design, and content management initiative. Developed
experts (taxonomy, IA, UI, workflow, BPM, analytics, BI, migration).
Capps Digital (Publicis) IGATE-Patni a complete content architecture (enterprise taxonomy, metadata
• Leader in promoting operational design – the workflows, policies, model, structured content design, portfolio alignment) and publishing
E & J Gallo Infosys
standards and accountabilities essential to produce genuine eco- workflow re-design (roles, workflows, standards, business rules,
General Motors OpenText / Artesia nomic gains from system deployments. Projects stall and fail ex- best practices) for marketing organizations in the US, Japan, Korea,
Ingram Books Getty Images pectations when process control and coordination is insufficiently Germany and the UK.
Nokia (EU) NorthPlains Systems addressed. Proven operational design methods and tools accelerate
sales and implementation cycles, driving projects to completion with 2002-2011 GISTICS Partnership, Multiple Clients
Polo Ralph Lauren KIT Digital / ClearStory
fully-achieved success criteria. Long term partnership with the DAM industry’s leading research
TeliaSonera (EU) SAVVIS / WAM!NET firm. Developed numerous executive white papers, business
Sanoma (EU) • Firmly held belief that honesty and integrity are fundamental to
OnStream Media cases and ROI benchmarks, market strategies, execution road-
producing tangible and lasting business results.
maps, and analysis of the media management marketspace.
PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
“Why Good DAMs Go Bad - Building an Operational Capability” Journal of Digital Asset Management, July 2010 | Podcast interview on “Another DAM Podcast” November 2011
“Content Services: A comprehensive approach to realizing the vision of DAM” Journal of Digital Asset Management, Sept. 2006
“Common mistakes, pitfalls and misconceptions to avoid and overcome when launching your DAM initiative” Presentation at Henry Stewart DAM Conferences, NY & Chicago 2010
“Spotlight on Organizational Alignment” Presentation at Henry Stewart DAM Conferences NY & LA 2011
“Building the Business Case for DAM” Presentation at Early & Associates Webinar Feb 2009 & Henry Stewart DAM Conferences, NY & Chicago 2009, London 2005 & 2006
“Fundamentals of DAM, Buying & Deploying DAM and Enterprise DAM Operations” 4-hour tutorial sessions and 100 page workbook, Henry Stewart DAM Conferences, NY, LA, Chicago & London 2006-2010

2. Sample Model: Digital Media Services – operational functions
User Steering Committee Digital Media Services Director Executive Steering Committee
Library Management
& Services
Taxonomy & Metadata Content Promotion Ingest, Tagging & Error Library & Collections
Management & Collaboration Correction Management
Ad-hoc & Archiving & Expert
Metadata model Taxonomy Content Collaboration Content ingest Third-party Permanent
short-term legacy content
development & development& research & & promotion & tagging content ingest collections
collections metadata librarian
management management analysis programs support & rights tagging management
design analysis services
© 2010 Joel Warwick. All rights reserved
Content Strategy,
Analysis & Governance
Licensing & Rights
Digital Media Strategy Governance Business Modeling & Rules Design
Management
New
Content Messaging & Quality & Roles & Digital media Digital Contracts & Sales & Content Interaction Performanc
Business business
portfolio communications effectiveness accountabi services rights negotiation licensing requirements analysis & e metrics &
rules design model
management alignment management lities management strategy support support evaluation design reporting
support
© 2010 Joel Warwick. All rights reserved
Standards, Practices
& Workflow
Production Tool
Content Standards Policies, Guidelines & Training
Standards
Integration, Lifecycle Review &
Asset creation & Sourcing & Publishing & Desktop tool Reuse Construction
training & control approval
production reuse broadcasting analysis and practices & & assembly
change practices & protocol &
standards standards standards stragegy policies practices
support guidelines policies
© 2010 Joel Warwick. All rights reserved
DAM Systems
Management & Support
DAM Software Platform UI, Portals & External
Enterprise Integrations Infrastructure
Management Integrations
3rd party Vendor-
Core DAM Application Auxiliary DAM system Enterprise External
integration Admin UI & specific Network Hardware Storage
services layer services services interfaces & systems & repository
services & tools production operations operations operations
management management & tools portals platforms federation
APIs environments
© 2010 Joel Warwick. All rights reserved

3. Original Article
Why good DAMs go bad: Building
an operational capability
Joel Warwick
draws from 20 years of experience with media and publishing technology in his consulting practice. He has been leading project
teams for the last 10 years developing content strategies, business cases, and in the design and implementation of DAM systems
and related business processes. Joel brings deep expertise and hands-on knowledge to a broad range of work such as strategic
alignment, operational design, ROI benchmarking, systems implementation and building DAM services teams. His clients include,
AARP, Adobe, Amway, CanWest, Capps Digital, ClearStory, E&J Gallo, EMC, GM, Getty Images, Gistics, IBM, Infosys, Nokia,
NorthPlains, TeliaSonera and Savvis. He earned a BS in Electronic Publishing and Imaging from Cal Poly, SLO, California, while
also working as a pressman, retoucher ,cameraman and page assembler. He is a color management expert and managed product
development for Pantone, Radius, X-Rite and LightSource. More at: www.linkedin.com/in/joelwarwick.
ABSTRACT Post-mortem analysis of under-performing DAM efforts reveal nearly uni-
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versal points of failure and disconnects among user populations and support functions.
Targeted toward DAM program leaders and executives, this article surfaces the missing
elements, typical challenges and how to identify and fulfill these requirements, gleaned
from experience leading many DAM projects. Methodologies for properly structuring
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DAM projects are introduced along with candid examples of do’s and don’ts. DAM
projects often flounder because of the misconception that the firm will realize strategic
C
and process efficiency gains simply by rolling out a DAM system and training users on
its functionality, only to discover teams don’t understand how they should use it in their
normal operations. DAM operations that produce real gains, whether realized straight
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away or in fits and starts, are distinguished by prime focus on operational design. Suc-
cessful DAM projects are approached as fundamentally operational design efforts with
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DAM system implementation a crucial but separately scoped and staffed component of
the project.
TH
• Learn what stalls DAM projects, why and how to ensure you will avoid these threats
• Focus on business process design – approaching DAM as an operational capability
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versus functionality of DAM software.
• Establish permanent DAM services to manage and grow DAM operations to
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achieve the long-term gains promised in the business case that demands
governance, standardization and structure in a complex network of user teams
among a content development ecosystem.
• Gain confidence you have scoped and set up your DAM project properly, backed by
a sound business case with the organizational support and accountabilities
essential to DAM-enable complete business processes and ensure the deployment
is well received and adopted.
• Collect the ammunition needed to build unassailable arguments to support and
fund on operational design project that reaches above and beyond typical IT
Correspondence: system implementation activities, resources and schedules.
Joel Warwick
JWA Consulting, 7
Kinross Dr, San Rafael, Journal of Digital Asset Management (2010) 6, 216–224. doi:10.1057/dam.2010.24
California 94901, USA
E-mail: jwarwick@
joelwarwick.com; Keywords: organizational alignment; DAM; business case; operational design; business
Website: http://www
.linkedin.com/in/
rules; metadata; life cycle
joelwarwick
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743–6540 Journal of Digital Asset Management Vol. 6, 4, 216–224
www.palgrave-journals.com/dam/

4. Why good DAMs go bad?
INTRODUCTION decreased cycle time or reducing redundant
This article strives to expose the requirement content licensing, are not produced by DAM
for crucial components of DAM projects system functionality. The gains are achieved by
that are often neglected or avoided. These improving business processes, usually including
findings and an approach to fulfilling these greater integration and collaboration between
requirements have derived from hands-on multiple content-producing groups.
experience leading numerous DAM projects and Figure 1 highlights what happens when
corroborated by further anecdotal evidence from operational design is insufficient. In the end,
consultants, vendors and end-use firms in poor adoption is responsible for prohibiting
marketing, broadcast, media and publishing. The business process changes that drive the gains
goals of this article are to: firms seek from DAM.
The result of rolling out to users for which
• Convince readers that firms must approach there has been insufficient operational design is
DAM as an operational capability – poor adoption. A common outcome firms
identifying the scope of issues that fall report is that the teams that chose to adopt the
on program leaders and the impact of system at all end up using it as their own
failing to recognize and address these independent DAM system. In the absence of
requirements. coordination or standardization across teams,
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• Demonstrate that building an operational one team may use it as a finished work library
capability is a complete solution compared containing only final form PDFs while another
to just implementing software – define uses it as the photo archive containing only the
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operational design, the work it entails raw source images from photo shoots. They tag
and highlight the ramifications if this work is C and organize assets differently, likely modeling it
not sufficiently addressed. after their existing operations and of course put
• Outline the DAM services model for no thought into what content would be useful
establishing the right resources to execute and relevant to other teams.
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operational design during system When poor or inappropriate adoption occurs,
implementation projects and post-deployment garnering support for follow-on or next-phase
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structuring and planning these projects and projects is often very difficult. Gaining support
how a DAM services approach can grow for improvements to a system that is widely
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DAM more quickly and at less expense than a perceived to not work, while asking teams using
series of phased IT projects. the system incorrectly to abandon their methods
• Convey the imperative to garner support for and reform their practices present more
operational design, including how to justify difficulty than implementing a DAM project
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the perceived cost increase and schedule from scratch. Communicating these risks to
extensions compared to just implementing a executive stakeholders is crucial to securing
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system and more importantly securing support for operational design from the start and
organizational support essential to promote to justify deployment to a narrower scope of
and coordinate fundamental changes in how users than the whole user population.
teams execute their work. DAM offers a range of potential gains, most
commonly increased production efficiency and
reduced operating costs, faster time to market
WHAT CHARACTERISTICS and message synchronization, or to drive new
DO UNSUCCESSFUL DAM media channels generating new revenue or to
PROJECTS SHARE? expand offerings. Although these are distinctly
DAM projects that fall short of objectives are different benefits all are realized by changes to
almost universally characterized by insufficient business process fundamental to how content-
or entirely absent operational design efforts. The producing groups conduct their operations.
root of the issue is the crucial distinction How does DAM functionality lead toward
between implementing a DAM system and achieving these gains then?
changing how teams accomplish their work. DAM facilitates new, improved business
The gains firms seek from DAM, such as processes. In many cases the new process is
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743–6540 Journal of Digital Asset Management Vol. 6, 4, 216–224 217

5. Warwick
Fragmented strategy - Misaligned objectives - Insufficient controls
Difficult to find assets from... Difficult to use assets from...
Inconsistent, incomplete, inaccurate Conflicting asset and tool specs
metadata
Inappropriate, irrelevant content
Absence of logical relationships
Improper asset construction and assembly
Inconsistent versioning, bundling
Wrong workflow stage, version, rendition
Overwhelming search results
No rights to use or unintended infringement
Poor or inappropriate adoption results in...
Reversion to ad-hoc workflows, abandoning DAM
Maintain insular, informal local-team workflows within DAM
Reluctance to catalog, submit, ingest - lack of confidence, perception of unfair burdens
Limited cross-operational utility
Unreliable visibility and reporting
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Poor ROI - Unintended evolution - Stalled initiatives
Figure 1: Insufficient operational design.
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C
simply not possible without DAM capabilities, figure out these concerns and make it all work
while in other situations DAM offers faster, less effectively.
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error-prone methods than existing processes. A Most project leaders and executives recognize
business process is the entire chain of activities that technology by itself does not create a
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that must be executed to produce content solution, rather it is about how the systems are
outputs. For a publisher it might be creating an implemented and used in practice. Despite
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issue of a magazine or updating a section of a understanding this principle when we look at
website. For marketers it could be producing how firms actually approach DAM the projects
and distributing materials for a campaign or that result are almost exclusively focused on
product launch. A business process is much system implementation. The DAM project is the
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more than just a workflow – it is everything DAM system implementation project. This
that needs to happen, including all the inputs, article argues that DAM leaders must structure
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activity and outputs needed to fulfill the purpose DAM projects to focus on designing how teams
and function of the operation. In order to should execute their work by leveraging the
realize benefits, such as reduced cycle time or capabilities of DAM with success measured by
decreased production costs, the entire business improvements in business processes.
process must ‘perform better’. Some of the issues are exposed as DAM
Operational design includes all the elements project teams seek requirements that directly
required to transition to new business processes. inform design of the system, such as the
This includes implementing a DAM system but metadata model or inputs to trigger automation
also the standards, policies, structured workflows through business rules. These aspects of
and all the other aspects that affect content operational design will be exposed and satisfied;
operations and the business processes employed. however, there are many other components of
Unsuccessful projects do not sufficiently address operations that, when not considered in the
many of these issues often because those driving design of the system and processes for using it,
the project, executive sponsors, IT personnel create barriers to sound use and adoption. A
the DAM project team are not aware of the simple example is supporting increased sharing
issues and assume some other group will and collaboration between teams, such as print
218 © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743–6540 Journal of Digital Asset Management Vol. 6, 4, 216–224

6. Why good DAMs go bad?
and online. Despite the fact that DAM system This perspective into operations is typically not
offers robust sharing capabilities, such as offered by any existing role - and why a role
notifications and routings, review and approval with this accountability must be explicitly
environments and soft proofing, these teams assigned and fulfilled.
have not coordinated their sourcing practices Some of the operational design challenges
and no cross-channel rights are secured so that that arise directly affect the apparent
they cannot share the content. This one issue performance of the DAM system, whereas
negates the benefits of all the other elements others do not affect the system directly but
that support sharing and prohibits application of impact the ability to implement the business
new business processes, and in practice presents process. When operational design is neglected,
a frustrating experience that inhibits adoption. some of the issues will be exposed by the DAM
Many aspects of operational design do not project team, however others may not be
require complex solutions nor even difficult revealed until users try to adopt DAM-enabled
trade-offs for content teams but just need to be operations. When teams belatedly recognize the
properly understood, and agreement reached on need for operational design work that they do
a coordinated way to work together. not have the time or resources to execute, they
Projects that have not been structured to have a couple of choices, both of which involve
include operational design work run into sacrifices and will fail to meet all prior
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trouble primarily because they simply do not expectations. How teams choose to respond has
have the time and resources to investigate and a major impact on the future of the DAM
determine appropriate solutions for the many initiative, and exemplifies the concept that if a
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elements of a business process. Experience team skirts the issue now, then they will pay for
leading numerous DAM projects, in addition to C it later.
anecdotal information about other project The ideal solution is to secure additional
outcomes, indicates that operational design work resources, expand the schedule and perform the
often demands as much resource commitment as operational design work. As one might guess,
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system implementation work. It is simply this this is rarely how firms respond as acquiring
lack of planning and expectation setting that additional funds for a project is difficult and
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forces DAM project teams to work around all DAM leaders are loathe to disappoint
the issues they do not have resource to address. stakeholders they have just convinced to fund
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One should not put all the blame on the DAM and support the project. The scale of the
project team however. In most cases it is the problem often is not clear either, with teams
confluence of a number of factors, one of which thinking they only have a few aberrant, one-off
is a lack of clarity about who is responsible for issues like a rights or workflow snag, and thus
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operational design. It is attractive, especially for restructuring the project may seem excessive.
IT teams, to seek to separate software Another response is to scale back the
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implementation work from non-technical or deployment scope, such as less content, fewer
business-side work. This distinction is valid, users and workflows to match the level of
especially considering the different skill sets operational design work the team can
needed to perform each, however the sufficiently complete. This involves less risk but
relationships between technical functionality and requires greater upfront sacrifice. The principle
how it’s integrated with processes is extremely here is that a firm should not deploy to
intertwined and laden with dependencies. This operations that have not been properly studied
means that the operational design work needs to and redesigned for DAM, meaning thoroughly
be executed along with the system understanding teams’ content, users and
implementation work – to the degree that it is workflows then coordinating them across
essentially the same project. The root cause of multiple teams through policies, standards,
insufficient operational design is the lack of structured workflows and so on. DAM teams
accountability to ensure business processes are scale back the scope to the limits of what has
achieved and that the gains sought are actually been properly evaluated and the level of agreed
achieved. No one is responsible for making sure upon coordination between teams. The
the project results in change that render value. drawback is simply that many of the expected
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743–6540 Journal of Digital Asset Management Vol. 6, 4, 216–224 219

7. Warwick
benefits would not be realized or will be WHAT IS OPERATIONAL DESIGN?
insignificant because of the narrow volume of Figure 2 illustrates the major components of
work being supported by DAM. Experience operational design. Some outcomes of this work
developing DAM projects indicates that directly inform system design, such as the
choosing a narrower deployment scope then metadata model. Other aspects of this work
thoroughly evaluating and designing operations defines how users will properly use the system
within that scope ensures that the system will as part of new business processes. While some
perform well and carries the least risk of operational design work has no relation to the
adoption failures. The challenge is convincing system it defines other aspects of operations that
stakeholders to accept a narrower scope than if not evaluated and could bring the intended
the previous expectations. In fact, sound business processes to a halt. The level of effort
DAM project design reflects the notion that and timing of when to perform each activity
scope of the deployment will be defined varies depending on the goals for DAM and
but the scope of operational design regardless nature of the firms operations, such as DAM for
of what scope the software implementation can marketing versus DAM for magazine publishing.
support. All these activities and designs are highly
The most common response, unfortunately, is interdependent and the sequencing of when
to simply ignore the missing operational design teams tackle each is important to minimize
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work. This typically results from focusing only design reworks. Likewise, some issues, especially
on the system implementation and escaping in the area of organizational alignment, require
responsibility for business process changes and a significant amount of time to engage senior
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whether overall gains will be realized. System- leaders and conduct cross-team negotiations and
focused IT deployment teams often exhibit this C agreements.
approach without realizing the extent of the A good deal of operational design work
problem and ramifications. These IT teams comes down to achieving alignment and
deploy to the target user base regardless of coordination between distinct content
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whether their operations will actually be operations. Most DAM initiatives focus to
improved by using the system and whether they increase access and collaboration across
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are capable of transitioning to DAM-based operations as a primary goal and source of
operations. The focus is on providing the new expected gains. Here many firms fall into a
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tool rather than on determining exactly how common misconception that DAM will be the
to use the tool to execute the work. IT driving force behind creating these new
teams often do not realize that users will interactions. In truth DAM systems simply
experience some of the problems when actually support these exchanges, in which most
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using the DAM system and which they perceive activities along the process chain occur outside
as poor system performance. So, even if the DAM. Firms often carry an enormous
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IT teams claim no responsibility for overall assumption that by designing the new creative
business process improvement, there is still a and production workflows based on DAM all
good deal of operational design required to the other issues of how organizations work
ensure that the system is well received and together will naturally be resolved in that
adopted. When users cannot find or cannot use process. The fact is that explicit study,
the content they seek, they see it as a problem agreement and definition of the new business
with the system because it is not giving them processes is the required approach and in the
what they need. Ironically, end users, such as end saves a tremendous amount of cost and
executives, IT and DAM teams, often get time.
caught up in the misconception that DAM One important area of operational design
software provides the solution. This perspective work is content analysis, described here in
is both one of the reasons why operational greater detail as an example of the type of work
design is overlooked in the first place and involved in operational design and the skills
reinforces why users feel the system faulty when required. DAM teams must understand all
in fact the implementation is sound and aspects of the content used and produced by the
functioning perfectly. target user teams. Some info is required for
220 © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743–6540 Journal of Digital Asset Management Vol. 6, 4, 216–224

8. Why good DAMs go bad?
STANDARDS WORKFLOW RIGHTS
• Asset specs & formats • Process integration & • Sourcing practices & controls
• Desktop tool alignment organizational interactions • Cross-operational agreements
• Asset construction & assembly • Peripheral process redesign • Clearance processes
practices • Accelerate existing workflows, • Reuse planning & validation
• Metadata: taxonomies, foster new exchanges
vocabularies, UI pick lists • Process controls & safeguards
• Vendor sourcing standards
USER / ASSET SCOPE ORGANIZATIONAL ALIGNMENT CAPTURE & MIGRATION
• Content discovery & analysis • Budget alignment, subsidies, • Legacy systems & file stores
• Content ops relationship metrics, management insight • Variability Assessment &
mapping & scoping • Multi-project management & normalization processes
• Asset mix – volume, relevance, coordination • Migration & cataloging
legacy vs. new • Cross-operational negotiations & processes & support
• Visibility & access control accountabilities • Metadata accuracy,
• Portfolio alignment • Strategic alignment & completeness & consistency
commitments to organizational
change
Figure 2: Major components of operational design.
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software implementation such as sources of into the work of operational design hopefully
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metadata, file specs and existing organizational highlights that it is a lot of work and results in a
heirarchy. Then there are aspects of how users C significant amount of documentation – workflow
categorize content and the relationships between diagrams, content analysis spreadsheets, sharing
it and the different versions, renditions, strategy maps and a number of other materials
derivatives and work products generated at each needed to communicate and track the findings
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workflow stage. Capturing the relationships and solutions designed.
between content is crucial and quite powerful if
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it can be reflected in the system. For example, a WHY IS OPERATIONAL DESIGN
magazine publisher will want all the assets NEGLECTED?
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associated to the story they were developed for. This work is often neglected due to a number
Users can then search for stories and be of conspiring problems with the project
presented with a collection of assets, perhaps structure and accountabilities, the resources
organized by different stages of development conducting the work and the level of
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such as, for images, raw source candidates, final organizational support for DAM.
edited and press-ready. Understanding these Successful initiatives require clarity on what
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relationships also provides inputs to support team is responsible for working out all the non-
batch tagging processes and for developing the technical, business-oriented considerations.
asset migration process. System implementation teams (often IT) assume
In practice DAM staff must actually look at that the end-user teams remain responsible for
the content in each location, categorize it, define changing their processes to leverage the DAM
each category’s attributes, map each group to the system, while in many cases no one is
points in the workflows where it is created and responsible to ensure that different end-user
used, and map each category in terms of teams can share assets and collaborate among
usefulness for other teams as part of the asset themselves effectively. Technical and IT people
sharing and distribution strategy. The skills and are often resistant to what they may perceive as
experience required is less about enterprise system mixing up implementation work with business
implementation and more reliant on a sufficient issues specifically how end-user teams choose to
understanding of magazine editorial and structure their operations.
production practices along with the ability to Figure 3 depicts a common scenario where
conduct detailed analysis along the lines of a project teams are decommissioned after the
business analyst at a consulting firm. This glimpse system is deployed. This leaves no one focused
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743–6540 Journal of Digital Asset Management Vol. 6, 4, 216–224 221

9. Warwick
on DAM operations, especially coordination Project Ongoing
between teams. Typically each user team Projected
manages their own adoption and operational gains
design, to varying degrees of success given that Staffed Gains
DAM maintained
these teams rarely have resources available not project or decline
to mention the right skill set. However, the
Project
larger problem is that no personnel are team
Isolated,
fragmented
positioned to develop solutions across multiple disbanded
management
teams, with accountability for ensuring cross-
6 mos. Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
$
team benefits and that they consistently adopt
the new business processes defined. The graphic Figure 3: Scenario where project teams are
shows that a certain level of gains are achieved decommissioned after the system is deployed.
based on the scope of operations supported in
the initial deployment. This assumes that
operational design was sufficiently addressed, but is based on massive assumption that the content-
only for those operations in the initial rollout producing teams will properly manage and
scope. Nearly all ROI models and business cases expand their use of DAM. Feedback from
assume increased benefits over time as the countless DAM initiatives rolled out and
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systems are applied to more aspects of operations managed in this way reports that management
and to a greater depth of capability. Expanding of the system becomes fragmented and
DAM to support more of the firm’s operations, insufficient. Expanding the scope of DAM
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meaning more users, content, workflows, requires additional operational design work.
practices and controls, obviously requires C Even just maintaining DAM as organizations
additional operational design work and resources and operations naturally change requires
available to perform it. In the absence of dedicated resources that hold accountability for
personnel at the right organizational and overall results and are positioned in the
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political position to oversee multiple teams’ organization to operate independently of any of
operations, expansion of DAM does not occur the user teams. The ability to design and change
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and therefore the growth of gains projected in processes, often leveraging the functionality of
the business plan are never realized. In fact the DAM system, must become an ongoing
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gains achieved during initial roll out often operational capability.
become diminished without such ongoing DAM Another factor that leads to project challenges
management as a result of changes implemented is insufficient support from the leadership from
by teams independently from insular teams being asked to change how they conduct
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requirements. This leads to inconsistent metadata their work. Firms often dive into a DAM
fouling the database or new practices that conflict project without really understanding, nor
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across teams and actually create new barriers both securing agreement on the level of
of which can squelch some of the original gains. organizational and operational change required
DAM projects, in association to a system to achieve target gains. Demanding significant
implementation focus, are often approached as changes to the way groups operate involves
efforts that will be executed by a team executive-level decisions, many of which affect
temporarily assigned to the project until it is groups’ autonomy and often create new
completed. This view aligns with an IT-driven accountabilities and dependencies across
approach in which the IT team builds the previously independent teams. Clearly the
system on behalf of content-producing teams. benefits of greater coordination and
Figure 3 demonstrates the concept that when collaboration across content-producing teams
projects are finished and teams decommissioned justify these changes; however, there are indeed
the projected increases in benefits cease or limits on how quickly and dramatically teams
actually decline. The business case usually relies can change, especially for groups that work in a
on a multi-year roadmap based on assumptions deadline-driven environment. When these
that the scope of users, content and workflows groups are unprepared for the need to make
will continue to increase after deployment. This dramatic operational changes and achieve
222 © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743–6540 Journal of Digital Asset Management Vol. 6, 4, 216–224

10. Why good DAMs go bad?
agreement on the processes, policies, controls, an issue of user error and poor training. The
standards and rules between teams, DAM teams question is what to train the users to do?
run into significant resistance. System Training users on the features and functions of
implementation teams often argue that user the software does not address the problem.
groups should determine how they want to Rather what is required is a clear understanding
work together before DAM is implemented. of how personnel in content operations
This is rarely the situation and, in the absence accomplish their work in a DAM-enabled
of anyone else working on it, the responsibility environment, with much of the work involved
falls on the DAM project if gains are to be occurring outside the DAM system. Operational
achieved. design defines the what, where and how of new
One team uses the system as a library of business processes that forms the basis of what
source images, such as files from photo shoot, personnel must be trained to do.
whereas another team uses the system as a
historical archive of finished projects, such as WHAT ARE DAM SERVICES?
final form PDFs of publications or marketing DAM services represents a model for ongoing
pieces. This is an example of unintended DAM management and growth (Figure 4). The
adoption resulting from the absence of cross- director position represents a full-time role,
team design, often the result of the DAM while the other activities listed are job functions
PY
implementation teams leaving all the operational that may be performed by various resources
design for end-user teams to figure out their scattered among the user teams and from other
own. departments. For example, workflow design
O
Implementing DAM involves much more requires intimate knowledge of a team’s
than implementing a DAM system. Most C processes and must be performed by staff from
managers and executives realize that operations those teams, while developing sourcing standards
must change to realize benefits. However the and policies requires thorough understanding of
projects are IT teams must be convinced that the licensing contracts and the explicit approval
R
neglecting this work will have an effect on the requires work with the legal department.
perceived performance of the system. A Many firms, even those with large DAM
O
straightforward way to explain it is to ask how implementations, maintain only one dedicated
the project team will train the users – will the staff member for DAM (the director position)
TH
trainers be able to teach users what content to but have achieved the organizational support
post, how to tag it, how to find it, when to needed to engage and leverage resources from
perform these actions, what policies and other teams. The job functions listed are
standards must be adhered to? The system may oriented toward post-implementation
U
function beautifully, but if people use it the management however they map fairly well to
wrong way, it will appear not to function the activities performed in operational design in
A
properly, such as the inability to find useful Figure 2.
content, the inability to use what is found and The ideal scenario for building an operational
perceptions of the system requiring more work capability from the start creates a DAM services
to use rather than saving time. System group, run by a DAM director, with oversight
implementation does indeed comprise a of resources to conduct both operational design
significant portion of the overall effort for a and system implementation. The initial DAM
DAM project that includes a new system; project is executed as a component of building
however, the project must be approached as a out an operational capability delivered through
business process improvement initiative where DAM services. After the system is deployed,
system implementation is one of the major many of the system-implementation resources
components. can leave but expansion involves more
Issues such as capturing the wrong content, operational design work from DAM services.
poor tagging, absent rights, unclear policies, Compare this to a typical phased roadmap
mismatched standards and so on are all where each phase is a full IT project, with
experienced as ‘I can’t find it or I can’t use it’. major costs and major hurdles to overcome to
To many implementation-focused personnel it is secure management attention and funding –
© 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743–6540 Journal of Digital Asset Management Vol. 6, 4, 216–224 223

11. Warwick
Director, DAM Operations
Library Services Strategy & Standards & DAM Systems
Management Governance Practices Management
Taxonomy & Content operations Asset standards User management &
metadata analysis support
Desktop apps &
Content promotion & Strategy alignment production tools IT Infrastructure
portfolio aggregation
Licensing, Workflow design & Core systems, DB &
Capture, migration & clearance & rights integration web services
cataloging support management
Construction, Enterprise integration
Enterprise libraries Business rules, assembly &
management policies & controls bundling Portals, UI & delivery
Figure 4: A model for ongoing DAM management and growth.
PY
often resulting in delays between phases. A services should prove useful tools for DAM
DAM services group can grow DAM for a program leaders to secure support for them.
fraction of the costs involved in phased, It is never too late to tackle operational design
O
IT-driven project roadmaps. or start up a DAM services group, and any
The arguments in this article for focusing C firm’s DAM efforts will greatly benefit from
on operational design and building DAM them.
R
O
TH
U
A
224 © 2010 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 1743–6540 Journal of Digital Asset Management Vol. 6, 4, 216–224