Today we released a new white paper about managing and costing DAM projects.

We have written the report partly in response to the narrow focus of many of the RFPs we have to review (either in a consultative capacity or when responding to them ourselves).  So often we see RFPs that are merely wish-lists of technical features presented as a ‘scorecard’ style quantative evaluation that consists of either highly specific feature requests or glibly summarised, close-ended questions such as “Easy to use: yes/no?   Although this approach may suffice for ‘phase one’ or simple DAM systems, it is a blunt instrument if the requirements are more specialist or involve larger enterprise solutions. We often find insufficient consideration is given to the overall DAM delivery and implementation process and managers can be unprepared as a result.

It’s easy to see why these situations occur with RFPs; many of the prospective buyers are asked to prepare them by procurement departments as part of the due diligence process that they have to carry out to obtain funds and commence implementation.  The need for a DAM solution is usually fairly well advanced by this point and there is pressure from the business to get a solution into operation quickly, so a list of requirements is hastily brainstormed by some of the stakeholders without full consideration of how the DAM solution will be used across its entire lifespan.

Our aim with this report is to arm project managers charged with more demanding DAM projects with the information they need to bring their projects to a successful conclusion.  The report describes 8 steps within a phased implementation plan that managers can use as a framework for organising DAM projects and, most importantly, costing them accurately also.  The paper is available on request via the DAM reports area on our website.