Managing Digital Assets is Very European

My latest Vendor Selection Matrix reports focus on the management of digital assets. The software market for automating this process has been energized by an explosion in the volumes of digital assets, particularly rich media assets such as photos and video, driven by digital marketing and eCommerce. In some industries such as apparel and retail, this explosion can even include the management of new, dynamic assets created by customers during their buying behavior.

The Digital Asset Management (DAM) process is the storage and management of digital files, in particular digital media files like graphics, videos, sound and text components needed for digital content production. DAM systems can catalog and retrieve the digital assets for various types of users working in marketing, product management, sales, service, design, and manufacturing departments of an organization. 

I found some 40 active vendors offering DAM solutions, including open-source providers and vendors active only in their local markets. In 2018, the total global annual software license, maintenance and SaaS revenues for DAM totaled around $ 2.5 billion, growing annually at around 20%. Although DAM is a mature technology, there is high demand for new DAM projects as more businesses need a management system for the expensive rich media content they now create for digital marketing programs and eCommerce projects.   

I also found a new market driver: companies who enable prospects/customers to configure their products using digital technology on websites, kiosks or other point-of-sale platforms also need to manage those dynamic assets – to support a sales order or just to provide feedback to product designers. This trend, where DAM expands from static digital files to include variants and instances created in the customer-facing delivery phases, which also need to be stored, logged, tagged and retrieved, is most apparent in the apparel and retail industries but I expect it to impact other industries as well in the next years.  I would call this “outside-in” DAM as opposed to the traditional “inside-out” DAM projects. 

EUROPEAN VENDORS DOMINATE DAM

Of particular interest to me, living here in Europe, was that the list of leading global suppliers included several European vendors who have significant worldwide presence. European businesses tend to be much more process-oriented than North American firms. As the demands of digital marketing and rich media increase the need to install more rigorous business process around digital assets (compliance, security, privacy), vendors who have developed products for the needs of European companies are able to take advantage of their functional leadership in international markets as well.

The top five vendors rated by the users are (listed alphabetically) Adobe, Bynder, censhare, Nuxeo, and Sitecore. The vendors CELUM, Cloudinary, Cognizant (yes, a service provider was named by the respondents), OpenText, and Widen complete the top ten. In positions 11 thru 20 are vendors Aprimo, Canto, Cumulus, Digizuite, Extensis, Media Valet, MediaBeacon, Northplains, Picturepark, and Wedia. 

An abridged version of the report can be viewed here. 

DAM VENDORS IN GERMANY

I also did a separate survey of 750 DAM practitioners in Germany and discovered that the top 15 vendors as selected by those respondents included just six non-German companies which is far fewer than usual. The top five vendors in Germany are (listed alphabetically) Adobe, Bynder, censhare, Eyebase (CMB), and Sitecore. The vendors Cavok (Peak-14), Canto, CELUM, Contentserv, and Nuxeo complete the top ten. In positions 11 thru 15 are vendors Aprimo, Coremedia, Eikona-Media, OpenText, plus open source vendors. 

That report is available here. We have adopted a new format with this report and written it in both English and German – hope you like that. 

Always keeping you informed! Peter