Of course it can’t.
Let’s say your digital asset management system (DAM) has rigid controls in place, and your teams understand the importance of following those strict sets of processes when it comes to creating, editing, managing, approving, and distributing content. Nobody wants to be the accidental leaker that delivers the wrong version of an asset to the wrong place at worst possible time, or inadvertently violates usage rights, or triggers a compliance issue. Your DAM system’s policies and procedures are designed to keep your content secure – as long as everyone follows them to the letter and handles the assets as prescribed.
Right?
Just like Houdini seemed to defy physics in his escapes, so too will your content find ways out of any system of control you devise.
That bit of unsettling clarity comes courtesy of Nuxeo’s own Uri Kogan, our VP of product marketing.
When users have to fight with structures that force them into taking actions that are cumbersome, inconvenient, or just don’t make sense in terms of the task they’re attempting to complete, they’ll find a workaround. And when anyone has to circumvent a DAM product to get work done, big trouble awaits. DAM system workarounds will drown your best efforts at risk management.
Without question, meticulous asset control is absolutely critical for your enterprise. As content usage explodes, so do issues around rights management, permissions, and usage. Gatekeeping is essential – as is agility, resilience, ease of use, and flexible system content services architecture. Those qualities are missing from legacy DAM systems, which also lack the capacity to quickly and thoroughly identify and repair security gaps.
Imposing more processes on outdated technology won’t keep the floodgates closed, but if you insist on trying, think about this scenario:
Your brand ambassador just made a life choice that will damage the reputation you’ve spent years and vast sums of money to build. As you drop this ambassador like a hot rock, can your teams find and pull every shred of content related to them before that rock hits the ground? Can you be completely confident that you can quickly corral each version of every single asset that involves them existing in every silo, in every region and every country? Every campaign? Every download? Every snippet? Every preview?
You should be. If you’re not, it’s time to reassess your DAM choices.
Risk Management and Optimizing Flexibility Shouldn’t Be Opposing Goals
What sets leading edge DAM technology apart from last-generation tech is a robust balance of precision control and superb UX. Take permissions, for example. DAM products that require shared passwords, as-needed access, or pre-set permission levels with little flexibility to accommodate changing access levels for different users actually take control out of your hands. A modern DAM solution enables permissions to be fully configured at both the user and asset level. Your software doesn’t control the permissions routine – you do.
Risk identification is another area where legacy DAM products fall short of today’s needs. If your legacy DAM works with large quantities of user-generated content (which, truth be told, is still a big if - even in 2019) each potentially risky scrap of content must be manually moderated before you can add it to your system.
Nuxeo Digital Asset Management can leverage machine learning and AI to identify risks in user-generated content. When a digital asset risk pops up, the problematic asset can be sent directly to a moderation queue — with no need for manual intervention to start the process.
Creative thinkers break the rules. Your enterprise wouldn’t exist if they didn’t. The ability to meet compliance and regulatory standards while optimizing processes that hold your business back is indispensable … and that applies to your DAM, too.
If you can’t handle regulated content inside your DAM system, you’ll need to isolate it in a separate system from non-regulated content. Adding more systems and processes outside your DAM solution may actually add to your risk, diluting the certainty that every potential risk can be promptly found and managed.
It doesn’t matter how much or how little, or in what aspects your business is regulated; your DAM solution should operate seamlessly and invisibly within whatever security, regulatory, or compliance standards you need to meet. And when it’s time to integrate security solutions, brand protection, and anti-fraud technologies (such as digital watermarking from security vendors), your DAM system should work with the solutions of your choosing.
Earlier we introduced you to Uri Kogan, our DAM product marketing guru. He’s written some insightful blogs that can help you get a handle on what a truly modern DAM solution can do for your enterprise.