Think of when you host a party at your house. First, you make the guest list, select a date, and decide what you’ll serve. Next, you send out invitations, clean the house, and go to the grocery store. Doing these things ensures that when the day of the party arrives, you aren’t overwhelmed and your guests have the experience you want them to have.
Similarly, before moving into a new DAM platform, you’ll need to do some prep work to prevent overwhelming yourself and your team. The most important part of that preparation is establishing your DAM standards and answering the technical questions to ensure a smooth migration. Some examples of DAM standards and technical questions are below.
DAM Standards
- Metadata Taxonomy
- File Naming Conventions
- Folder Structure
- Permissions Hierarchy (By folder, asset, and user group)
- Core DAM Workflows (Ingestion, Approval, Archiving, External Sharing)
Technical Questions
- What other systems will the DAM need to integrate with?
- Will assets be moved directly from one DAM system to the new DAM platform or will they need to be stored in a separate repository as they are enriched and organized?
- Do integrations and scripts need to be developed to handle large-scale metadata enrichment or asset upload?
- Who will own the publication of assets to the DAM platform when they are ready?
- Who will quality control freshly-uploaded assets to ensure they meet the established standards?
Make Moving Easy
As you sort through your things and pack them up, it’s always a best practice to organize your boxes by how they'll be unpacked and sorted, making it easier to find the pots, pans, documents, and clothes you’ll want or need the most. Each box needs a label like “small kitchen appliances,” “winter coats/sweaters,” or “books/games.” This not only makes arranging boxes on the moving truck easier but also allows you to stay organized as things get unpacked and put away.
The same principle applies to migrations. Rather than labeling boxes to make things easier to find, however, you’ll need to develop organization standards —a metadata taxonomy that includes folder and file names as well as robust keyword and description standards—and a permissions hierarchy that ensures ease of use and security for your assets and end-users.
If you need help establishing these standards or answering any of the questions above, contact Stacks! We've assisted and owned many migrations across DAM systems of all shapes and sizes.
