As businesses continue to grow their digital footprint, Digital Asset Management has become a new buzzword. In my time in Software and IT Asset Management, I’ve had people ask me about DAM and sometimes people think it’s synonymous with SAM. I thought it would be useful to write a quick article explaining the differences between the two would be helpful.
Read on to learn everything you need to know about the differences between digital asset management and software asset management.
Related article: Different types of software licensing
What is Digital Asset Management?
Before we define digital asset management, it helps to understand what digital assets are. Put simply, the term “digital assets” refers to any digital property a business owns. It might include things like pictures, files, and videos.
Digital asset management (DAM for short) involves managing these assets to ensure nothing gets lost or gets into the wrong hands. Digital asset management is crucial to a lot of businesses these days, especially those that are starting to go paperless and rely more heavily on digital storage tools.
A good digital asset management system helps businesses store all of their digital assets in a centralized location. This, in turn, increases company assets’ security. It also makes files and other assets more searchable so that employees and clients can access what they need in a timely manner.
What is Software Asset Management?
Software asset management (SAM for short) is another, but completely different best practice that can benefit businesses in 2019 and beyond. It deals specifically with software programs and software licenses.
The purpose of software asset management is to help businesses get the most out of their IT budget and save money by controlling and automating the processes of procuring, using, and deploying different software licenses.
It also helps businesses ensure they’re using their software in the most appropriate way in all stages of the software lifecycle, beginning with approval and procurement and ending with software retirement.
Similarities and Differences
SAM and DAM are both processes used to help businesses stay organized and maximize the value they get from the assets they’ve invested in. They both have their place within a well-organized, well-rounded company looking to improve their security, reduce their overall spending, and increase their ROI. They have same key differences, though.
Have you ever been working on a project and needed to put in your company logo, but you couldn’t find it anywhere? That is an example of poor digital asset management. With a central repository or clearly defined process for digital assets, employees know where to find everything they need, when they need it.
Digital asset management is the processes involved with handling a variety of digital assets. These can be documents, image files, logos, video content, etc. If your business has a lot of digital files and documents, as well as images and videos floating around — with no process in place to help you organize them — the right DAM software is going to do you a world of good.
SAM has very little to do with how many different software programs that your company is relying on, though. Where DAM focuses on the company’s owned digital assets, Software Asset Management is the management of software that is owned by another company, and licensed to yours.
SAM will help you manage your different software assets (including your digital asset management software) and ensure you’re using them in a way that best suits your business. It’ll also help you ensure you’re abiding by the terms and conditions laid out in your different software licensing agreements.
Curious about your company’s software asset management? Check out what Look Licensing has to offer!
DAM Benefits and Challenges
For many businesses, a solid digital asset management solution provides a lot of benefits. There are some hurdles that must be overcome to be successful and implementing a DAM program, though. Listed below are some essential Benefits and challenges you ought to keep in mind:
Benefits
Digital asset management software, when used in the correct way, can help employees and clients save a lot of time. They’ll be able to find exactly what they need when they need it. Because finding digital assets is easier for employees, DAM in turn reduces storage requirements, because employees are not saving assets locally or making copies of them in different locations.
DAM improves workflows and makes it easier to use and reuse certain digital assets. It’s also scalable (assuming you’re using a good DAM software) and will grow and evolve with your business.
Don’t forget that DAM can also help to improve your business’s security and ensure certain digital assets are only available to those who are supposed to access them.
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Challenges
As with most new process implementations, user adoption is the most difficult part! This issue is exacerbated if you have a lot of employees or clients who are not particularly tech-savvy. There can be a bit of a learning curve with the DAM solution itself, and it can be difficult to enforce policies.
Another challenge is getting a solution in place, and cleaning up the previous, disorganized file system that was in use. If you can get an API to communicate with your other systems in an effective way, that can save you a lot of work. Otherwise, you’ll simply have to spend a great deal of time setting things up yourself.
Curious about your company’s software asset management? Check out what services Look Licensing has to offer!
SAM Benefits and Challenges
SAM also has its own pros and cons. If you’re thinking about utilizing SAM to help you keep track of all your software licenses, be sure to consider these pros and cons first:
Benefits
One of the main benefits of software asset management is that it can help businesses to save a lot of money.
Many businesses cut software spending costs in a significant way (up to 30% in some cases) when they make good use of SAM tools and processes.
Like DAM, SAM can also help to reduce security risks. It helps you ensure that all of your software assets are configured in a way that prevents malware and misuse.
Challenges
As with DAM, one of the main drawbacks of SAM is the fact that there’s a learning curve you and your employees will have to get over when you start using it.
User readiness (or lack thereof) can hold businesses back and make it harder for them to integrate the new system in a seamless way.
Related article: Software Asset Management: Compliance and Management
DAM vs SAM
As you can see, there are some key differences between digital asset management and software management. Many organizations start their DAM journey on the team level, with each team making their own policies about how to structure their folders, and where important documents will be located. As a business matures though, it may actually bring Digital Asset Management under the IT Asset Management umbrella, to achieve a more unified approach to DAM.
If you ever need help or have any questions about these, just LOOK.
