How DAM software can help Higher Education, organization wide

Universities are cities in microcosm, with the same municipal systems, businesses, and press that their larger counterparts have. 

The tricky bit is connecting the micro and macro — the departmental and enterprise support systems together. Digital Asset Management is uniquely positioned to fulfill all of these needs. So here’s a quick tour of a higher education “neighborhood”, connected by DAM.

• Recruitment & Other Marketing
• Libraries & Archives
• Academics
• Sports
• Alumni & Donor Relations
• IT
• Administration & Human Resources

Recruitment & Other Marketing

When it comes to colleges, recruiting is often a DAM’s primary purpose. So it’s important to get a platform that can handle complex workflows and a UI that’s intuitive and easy to learn.

DAM features that support college and university recruitment teams encompass:

• Strong integrations with editing software, like the Adobe Creative Cloud Suite
• Version controls that let you ensure users get the right asset when they need it
• Ways to identify brand-approved assets to share in recruitment collateral
• Ability to push content out to social media channels
• Workflows that support campaigns from planning through distribution
  
  

Library & Archives

Giving students and academics access to research is a key way a Digital Asset Management platform can provide value to your academic community.

For instance the University of Calgary uses its DAM to make the Glenbow, EMI Canada, and other digital archives accessible to researchers all over the world.

If you need a DAM that can support your university library or archive, look for:

• Granular permissions that allow professors to set up class sites
• Multiple taxonomies to cover the variety of topics housed in a college library

• Cart functionality give archivists or librarians the ability approve or deny access to assets
• The scalability to handle large volumes of assets
  
  

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Academics

Classes are probably the first thing you might think about when it comes to a university neighborhood. When it comes to Digital Asset Management, however, academic use cases need a robust solution to give you the most value.

DAM features to look for:

• Permissions that let professors to set up digital “classrooms” with packets of course materials
• Multiple taxonomies to manage the different disciplines taught at your institution
• Annotation capabilities that allow students to add comments to content housed in the DAM
• The ability to submit theses and other documents directly to the DAM and push important documents into collections.
  
  

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Sports

Athletic Departments often have their own budgets, technologies, creative teams, and use cases for your DAM that are independent of the university. And though they are often kept separate from the main university systems, they don’t have to be, and the benefits of eliminating unnecessary silos are countless.

With that in mind, here are some differentiating features to look for:

• Rights management to handle licensing
• Strong video capabilities so that content from games can be stored in and shared from the DAM
• Integrations with CMS systems to easily push out content
  
  

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Alumni & Donor Development

After enrolling new students, there are few things that are more important to a school’s success than staying connected with old students. 

Alumni development has a lot in common with marketing and recruitment. It requires on-brand assets, timely and accurate delivery of content, and the ability to connect to multiple platforms. 

Here are a few DAM features to look out for in donor development projects:

• Integrations with editing software and CRMs that manage the alumni database.
• Brand management features to ensure you’re using the latest on-brand assets
• Connections to social media and other channels within the ecosystem
• Workflows that support campaigns from planning through distribution
  
  

TV & Radio

The video- and radio-heavy assets produced by school radio and television stations need either a Media Asset Management system or a DAM that can support your unique needs.

So look for a platform that offers:

• Choose-your-own-storage options, so you can select your own vendors — and control which type of storage bucket assets are stored in
• Strong audio and video capabilities, including auto-captioning, facial recognition for video, and integrations with key media support tools and systems 
• Fast upload and download speeds to accommodate the large files needed by these services
  
  

IT

While IT should be involved in selecting a Digital Asset Management system, a good system won’t need constant supervision and IT-resource allocation. But beyond looking for a hands-off solution, what does an IT team need from a DAM?

• A solid security ratings to ensure the materials in your DAM are protected
• An API-first system can easily connect to your broader tech stack
• An intuitive UI that will result in fewer problems for the IT team or DAM Admin
• A responsive DAM vendor who can help the team address issues as they arise
  
  

Admin/Human Resources

Tracking the many employees at a university is a complicated endeavor. But that process can be made simpler using a Digital Asset Management System. Though it’s not a traditional use case, hospitals, for example, are using DAMs to keep employee records safe and accessible. 

Here’s what to look for if you want to do the same at a university:

• A DAM that complies with HIPAA to make sure records are kept in accordance with legal requirements
• Strong permissions that will keep HR information confidential, and separate from the rest of the user base.
  
  

To learn how Orange Logic can help your organization, schedule a call today!