Implementing a DAM isn’t a one-step solution. It requires ongoing commitment and effort to ensure that adoption and ROI are high. One of the most essential components of an impactful DAM implementation is building a strong taxonomy – the hierarchical categories you use in your library to ensure assets can be found.

In this post, you’ll learn the basics of taxonomy, its impact on DAM, and 5 steps to building a future-proof taxonomy for your organization.

What is a Taxonomy?

Let’s start with the basics: what does a taxonomy mean outside of the context of DAM? Cambridge Dictionary defines taxonomy as “a system for naming and organizing things, especially plants and animals, into groups that share similar qualities”. Simply put, it’s grouping things into multi-level categories, to highlight their similarities.

You’ve likely seen taxonomies used in other business cases, like building a website, but to understand taxonomy, we’re going back even further.

Does this look familiar?

Most people are first introduced to taxonomy in high school biology, where they learned how to name, define and classify living organisms. Using a series of classifications, they’re taught to identify animals, plants, fungi, and more.

For example, here’s the classification of a domestic house cat:

Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Felidae > Felis Domesticus

But now, look at the classification of a mountain lion:

Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Carnivora > Felidae > Felis Concolor

As you can see, a mountain lion and a domestic house cat are identical up until the very last classification. With this, even without any additional information, you could reasonably conclude that a house cat and a mountain lion are closely related. Using this biological taxonomy, you can easily identify the characteristics of living things and understand the relationships between them.

Where Does DAM fit in?

Building a taxonomy for digital asset management works similarly to a biological taxonomy. Using a hierarchical structure, you categorize and classify your assets to ease navigation, identify where any given asset can be used, and identify relationships between assets. It helps your users find assets in a way that makes sense to them.

Why Do We Need a Taxonomy?

Taxonomy is important, as it improves your users’ ability to browse through your DAM library, especially when they don’t know exactly what they’re looking for. You can overcome team siloes with your DAM taxonomy. A strong taxonomy ensures your users are able to quickly and intuitively find the assets they need by navigating through a category structure that’s been tailored to their use cases.

The mix of metadata and taxonomy makes a DAM stronger than a typical file-storage system. It upgrades a static, visual asset library into a fully functioning content hub for your organization.

5 Steps to Building a Strong Taxonomy

It’s time to start building your own taxonomy! This can take anywhere from a few hours to a few weeks, depending on the size of your organization, the complexity of your assets and the business cases you need to address.

But, regardless of your unique use case, there are 6 common steps to follow that will help you build a winning DAM taxonomy.

1. Get to Know the Users of Your DAM

The first step in building a strong taxonomy for your DAM is to understand how it will be used by each group – your various departments, offices, partners – the works! Book in time to talk with leaders of each group, working to understand their use case, specifically:

• The assets they want to store in the DAM
• Their overall business goals are and how a DAM can help achieve them
• How they can use a DAM for initiatives specific to their role

This will help create a scope for your taxonomy and inspire category decisions. You’ll also be able to identify common assets across users and get a clearer understanding of how each team is interconnected.

2. Take an Audit of Your Existing Assets

Just as important as the use of your assets, is the makeup of the assets themselves. Work with your various teams to consolidate all of the organization’s assets from personal drives, desktop folders, existing storage solutions, etc. into a single area.

Analyze these assets to identify:

• Popular formats (video, photos, PDFs, etc.),
• Common uses (social media, print, etc.), and
• Overarching themes.

From here, you can start to interpret how the assets can be grouped and re-arranged in a way that makes sense for each department.

This also lends the opportunity to decide which assets don’t need to be in the DAM at all. If there are assets that no longer provide value to your organization, it’s a great time to declutter.

3. Start to Brainstorm Taxonomy Options

It’s time to start brainstorming categories for your assets.

There are a few different approaches to creating categories for your taxonomy. Depending on the industry or use case, it can be done by the brand, product line, departments, location, or a mix. While taxonomies across organizations may have similarities, they’re ultimately customized to each individual organization.

Map out and group the asset needs of each stakeholder to get a basic idea of the categories and sub-categories you’ll need. From here, you can start to arrange them in a way that makes the most sense. And remember, less is more when it comes to sub-categories – you only want each parent company to expand about 3-5 sub-categories deep.

Keep in mind, that your taxonomy doesn’t have to follow the same approach throughout. A sales team would likely want their assets categorized by customer type, but a digital marketing team likely needs to find their assets by season or campaign.

4. Finalize and Document Your Proposed Taxonomy

Once you’ve landed on a taxonomy that you’re confident with, it’s time to document it!

We recommend using Microsoft Excel, or something similar, to build out your taxonomy before trying to implement it in your DAM. You’ll be able to catch errors and make edits more easily within Excel, ensuring your taxonomy is optimized.

Once you’ve built out your taxonomy into a document, send it over to your customer success manager. They’ll be able to take what you’ve visualized and make it a reality in your DAM!

5. Audit Your Taxonomy Regularly and Make Updates When Necessary

Your taxonomy is rarely static – it requires adaptations as needs develop, teams are added and use cases change. It’s important to audit your taxonomy regularly (often annually) to ensure it’s being used in the way you intended.

Your taxonomy is just one component of ensuring your DAM is easy to use and driving business value. To ensure your DAM is optimized, make sure you’re also applying best practices for your keywords and attributes.

DAM Taxonomy FAQs

Want to see a DAM taxonomy in action? Check out our free self-guided DAM tour here:

Implementing a DAM enables unlimited school departments and stakeholders to streamline their digital asset storage and distribution methods without compromising on security. Uncover the benefits of a DAM for higher education.

From Ivy League schools to community colleges, the education sector is becoming more competitive than ever, constantly battling for funding and new students. As competition increases, having a significant digital presence can be key in driving recruitment, engaging students, and attracting donors. But, the larger your digital presence, the more content you need to be creating, which often leads to an overflow of digital assets and no scalable way to manage them.

This is where a DAM comes in.

We’ll cover how DAM benefits higher education institutions by:

• Removing bottlenecks,
• Providing secure access,
• Enabling access to branded content,
• Tracking asset rights, and
• Preserving history

We’ll also explain how MediaValet has helped countless higher education customers.

DAM for Higher Education: What are the Benefits?

A digital asset management system (DAM) helps universities and colleges to better manage their content and establish a solid foundation for their long-term digital strategy, acting as a central library for all of their visual assets such as photos, videos, graphics, logos, and more.

Here are 5 benefits of a DAM system that are allowing leading universities and colleges to maximize the ROI of their content and increase the overall productivity of their departments.

Removing Bottlenecks

With asset requests constantly coming in from the marketing department, the alumni association, and other departments, there are frequent bottlenecks for IT departments and digital teams, as they try to track down the correct assets in the formats requested. Many universities today, including the University of Windsor, are using a DAM to remove these bottlenecks by empowering departments and individual users to access a single media library, where they can easily search for and share approved photos, videos, and more, without having to contact the IT department. Some DAM systems have AI capabilities that allow you to optimize discoverability by automatically tagging assets with relevant keywords.

Providing Secure Access

Universities and colleges can have thousands of faculty members, staff, students, and partners, all based in different locations. Therefore, in most schools, there are countless different priorities and needs for the files and brand assets to keep up with. A DAM system allows administrators to set custom permission settings, ensuring that specific departments, seniorities, and other stakeholders will only have access to the assets that are relevant to them. You can manually set permissions or enable single-sign-on with Azure Active Directory or Okta.

Giving Immediate Access to Branded Content

Distribution can be a major challenge for universities, especially when they’re working across multiple locations and in different languages. Whenever a brochure or piece of content is updated, the marketing team needs to ensure the change is communicated to the necessary departments. A DAM allows universities, like the University of Wollongong, to make their content widely available while complying with security requirements, ensuring users can access the most up-to-date brochures, newsletters, reports, and recruitment material 24/7.

Tracking Individual Asset Rights

Each year, leading universities collect a flurry of photos and videos from fundraisers, speaker conferences, and commencement ceremonies. With so many digital assets being collected, it can be hard to keep track of what rights are attached to which photos or videos. With a DAM in place, schools are able to attach the photographer, expiration date, and usage rights directly to each asset, while also linking it to the appropriate model release form, ensuring that there’s no illegal use of assets.

Preserving History

Throughout a post-secondary’s lifespan, there are countless assets that have derived from different marketing channels, events, and faculties that all contribute to an extensive media library. While a DAM system can be primarily used to organize a current or growing library, it’s also a great tool to help preserve and archive assets. With DAM, universities can easily archive and store photos and videos from each year and event, all the while ensuring they are secure and in turn preserving the school’s legacy for years to come.

Why Choose a MediaValet DAM for Higher Education

According to the 2024 DAM Trends Report, MediaValet’s higher education customers are incredibly happy with their DAM.

• 92% of our higher education customers have achieved ROI in just 28 months!
• 80% of higher education customers at MediaValet save money on their asset creation!
• MediaValet’s higher education customers experience weekly time savings of 67%!

But sometimes numbers aren’t the most important thing to know about a platform. Do customers enjoy working with MediaValet? In short, yes!

Emory University discussed how much they’ve enjoyed using MediaValet.

“MediaValet is working really well for us and I’m excited to just continue to grow with it and take advantage of new features as they are introduced.”

UCSF told us that their DAM has massively impacted their organization.

“The DAM has become more than a central repository, it’s become like a brain for the neurosurgery department serving us in so many ways!”

We’ve helped dozens of universities streamline and improve their digital asset management, and bolster their online presence. Some of our partners include Saint Leo University, The University of Windsor, and Emory University.

These are only a few examples of the benefits of DAM for higher education institutions. If you’re ready to take a deeper look at digital asset management best practices and evaluate if you’re ready for a DAM, here’s how MediaValet enables schools to better manage their content: Digital Asset Management for Higher Education.

When it comes down to it, choosing a DAM for higher education institutes can be a daunting task. Finding and implementing a solution that truly fits your needs is imperative to your success. We break down 5 key steps for schools to follow when searching for a DAM solution.

Higher education institutes have the difficult task of marketing to an audience about arguably the most important and emotional decision of their lives. Whether they’re attending school for the first time, or heading back to improve their skill set, selecting a school is often knitted tightly with an individual’s educational values and personal goals.

In this competitive market, colleges and universities across the world compete for all levels of funding and to gain the attention of prospective new students. But, to stay ahead in this industry, organizations need to optimize their marketing strategies and messaging to create long-lasting connections with potential students.

In this blog post, we’ll cover:

• Why higher education institutions need DAM
• How to choose a DAM
• Why MediaValet is the right DAM for higher ed

Why Higher Education Institutes Need a DAM

Building emotional connections through marketing today requires the use of powerful visuals to grab the attention of prospective students, and this leads to an accumulation of digital files. Without managing these digital files, your organization can experience several challenges that will ultimately hinder your marketing efforts, and reduce the effectiveness of campaigns.

Many schools store their marketing and promotional content across departments, which can cause bottlenecks due to IT departments or digital teams being solely responsible for filling requests for the entire institution. Other, often smaller-sized schools, hold each department individually responsible for storing, managing, finding, and sharing assets. With this storage strategy, staff often spend excessive amounts of time searching for content that is stored on individual hard drives, and, in some cases, is never found.

Even when your assets are systematically managed on hard drives, local files, or even an outdated digital asset management (DAM) system, there’s often uncertainty about which versions are the most up-to-date and who has permission to use which assets for what purpose. This becomes a bigger problem when schools have tens of thousands of faculty members, staff, students, and partners with various needs, rights, and access levels. Without a permissions & controls structure, all groups potentially have access to assets that they shouldn’t be using. For many institutions with multiple users, providing access to the most current assets becomes a very sticky problem.

Choosing a DAM for Higher Education – 5 Tips for Success

As colleges start creating overwhelming amounts of content, they often start looking for a digital asset management solution but quickly find themselves overwhelmed by the process of choosing a DAM vendor.

After working with other organizations that have suffered similar pains, we wanted to share these 5 tips that will make choosing a DAM for your higher education institute much easier:

1. Learn the needs of your future users

When you’re dealing with an organization that’s made up of dozens of departments, offices, and groups and hundreds of individual users, it makes sense to systematically map out all potential uses and understand which permission levels are needed. Typically, marketing teams handle the “management” of the DAM and require admin access and training to make the most of the DAM system. Other individual academic departments and university offices will require more controlled permissions that ensure they use the most up-to-date assets.

Some schools also benefit from allowing public access to the DAM system, encouraging individuals to upload images from campus events and fundraisers, or downloading the school’s logo and other brand material. When choosing a DAM you need to ensure all of these functions are accounted for from the start.

The University of Windsor achieved major success with a MediaValet DAM that’s used daily by almost 40 people. Read more about it here.

2. Hold meetings dedicated to planning a DAM initiative

Holding a series of planning meetings that define and strategize on the DAM initiative is the best way to ensure that all users are accounted for. Although it can be near impossible to meet with every possible DAM user, in the past our customers have nominated representatives from each department and/or location to represent them on a DAM committee to ensure their needs are heard and tended to. This process provides an informed understanding of the needs of everyone across the entire school and allows you to set up your DAM in a way that will accommodate everyone.

The University of Wollongong laid out a list of requirements that led them to choose a MediaValet DAM, since implementation, their initiatives have gone from strength to strength. Read more about it here.

3. Build a list of requirements

When planning a DAM initiative, it’s best to write out and prioritize a list of technology, security, and user interface requirements.

Universities and colleges vary widely in structure, so not every school will be using the DAM solution in the same way. For large institutions, it may be necessary to choose a DAM that’s cloud-based and can provide access to public users in addition to department representatives, with relevant permissions for each group. Some other schools won’t need public access but will require all departments and offices to have the same high-level access. Each scenario is completely dependent on each school’s strategy and workflow.

When you start with a clear list of requirements, you’ll more likely select a DAM that will work over the long haul. It also doesn’t hurt to structure your list in a hierarchy, so you know which items should hold more weight in the decision-making process.

4. Consider the cloud

The cloud is taking over, but some organizations are nervous to pick up this growing trend. There are often many fears that come with adopting a cloud-based solution – number one being security and number two being ownership. Won’t assets stored in the cloud be more susceptible to piracy? And does a school set itself up for asset loss by turning control over to an outside vendor?

There are a number of concerns regarding the cloud, but lots of organizations in higher education are making the switch and suggesting others do the same.

Emory University uses a MediaValet DAM to keep up with the demands of its 40 schools, academic units, and healthcare partners, without compromising on security. Read more about it here.

5. Schedule a DAM demo

Finally, every one of our customers in higher education (and other industries) has felt that they benefited from demoing several DAM solutions. This is not just because a demo will allow you to “try before you buy,” which is certainly one component, but because DAM vendors function incredibly differently.

Sitting through a demo will not only give you a sense of the product but will also give you a sense of the company that will be on the other end of your new tech solution. This is the group that will be there when you need additional services when a new group of users needs training, and when you need help with your metadata structure. Not only will a demo allow you to get a sense of the product itself, but it will also help determine whether the company and its style of customer service is a fit for your organization.

For a full breakdown on how to best choose and buy the right digital asset management system for your organization, read this complimentary guide: The 2024 DAM Buying Guide.

Why MediaValet is the Right DAM for Higher Education Institutions

According to the 2024 DAM Trends Report, MediaValet’s higher ed users:

• Achieve ROI in less than 18 months (92%)
• Save money on asset creation (80%), and
• Cut time searching for assets in half (54%)

If you’re currently in the market for a new DAM or hoping to elevate your digital asset management system to a cloud-based DAM we would love to help you on your journey.

In higher education, where securing future students depends on making deep and lasting connections, each and every marketing, advertising, and outreach campaign has to get it right. By taking the time to implement a well-thought-out DAM solution, your organization can keep your brand consistent across campus campaigns and ensure your audience only comes into contact with approved and up-to-date visual products.

Want to know more about whether MediaValet is the right DAM for you? Get a demo here to find out!

When it comes to understanding cloud-based systems like Google Drive vs DAM or Digital Asset Management, most people are left feeling a little confused. A frequent question we get from organizations looking to understand what value a DAM solution can offer their team is often: “What’s the difference?”.

While both Google Drive and DAM systems can technically store your digital assets, their capabilities vary greatly. With the amount of content being created by marketing teams today, it’s vital to not only secure your assets in the cloud but do so in a way that can improve efficiency for your entire team; that’s where a full-service DAM comes in.

In this post, we dive deep into the differences between the two systems so that you can better understand why a DAM may be the upgrade from Google Drive that you’re looking for. To compare and contrast the two systems, we’ll need to better understand each system individually.

Digital Asset Management

A DAM is a file management system focused on digital media used to store, organize, collaborate on and distribute visual content (photos, videos, graphics, etc.) all from within one central library. Typically focused on brand and marketing-related assets, a DAM is conventionally owned by the marketing team, but can also be used and accessed by many other teams within your organization to maximize productivity.

A DAM offers excellent features that allow users to manage any type of digital file and perform a variety of beneficial functions, including re-sizing and re-formatting their media, tracking usage history, and sharing large files easily. Additionally, a DAM provides organizations with increased media security, such as user permissions, compliance regulations, and watermarking.

Take a self-guided walk through the MediaValet DAM here!

Key Features of a DAM

1. Sophisticated Organization & Search: A DAM makes storing, managing, and finding brand and marketing material (photos, videos, etc.) easy with artificial intelligence, keywords, and advanced search capabilities.
2. Advanced Asset Security: Access permissions for internal and external users give organizations tighter rein on digital media. A DAM offers version control, history tracking, and watermarks, as well as enhanced security and compliance.
3. Better Media Sharing: A DAM includes features that enable easy sharing of large media files, such as high-resolution images, large-format videos, etc., over email, web galleries, or Branded Portals.

The Bottom Line

While a DAM allows for text-based file management, it’s best for companies that need a better way to produce, store, and distribute large amounts of rich media content (photos, videos, audio, etc.).

Google Drive

Google Drive is a free, cloud-based digital file storage and sharing platform available both on a desktop and as a smartphone app. Upgraded, paid plans are available for those who require storage capacity above and beyond the free version. Google Drive is used for individuals and organizations who need somewhere to store and organize their visual assets, documents, and other digital files that can be accessed and shared from anywhere.

Key Features of Google Drive

1. Easy File Sharing: You can create convenient shareable links for easy file sharing. When creating the link, users can choose the permission of the recipient as either an editor or a viewer of the file, determining who can comment, edit and review documents.
2. Convenient File Syncing: Google Drive provides file syncing performance using a sync folder on the user’s computer that connects with the cloud. It also offers a selective sync functionality that gives users the choice of which folders to sync to their hard drives and which to sync to the cloud.
3. Storage Scalability: Google Drive offers free versions and business plans that scale with price and storage, which means you don’t have to worry about running out of space (as long as you have the budget).

The Bottom Line

If you’re an organization that needs basic storage, sharing, and search capabilities as well as the option to scale up in storage space, Google Drive may be a fit. It’s also preferable for those already using the other features of Google Workplace (such as Gmail or Google Meet), as they’re sold within the same packages. However, if you’re working with massive amounts of assets and files, you’ll probably want to look at a system with unlimited storage at an affordable price, with more sophisticated security features and file discoverability, like a DAM.

Why Organizations Choose to Upgrade from Google Drive to a DAM

While many organizations begin with storing their files in a free cloud-based system like Google Drive, they often find that as they grow, they need a more robust solution to manage their content – especially their rich media. While organizations gain vast benefits from upgrading to a DAM, here are a few noteworthy features:

• Category Access Management: With a DAM you can set up custom access permissions for your team, which means only the right people have access to the right assets.
• Previewing: With a DAM, users can preview design files, PDFs, videos, 3D files, large format images, etc.
• Asset Rendering and Resizing: A DAM enables users to customize the format and size of each asset when they download or share them. Users no longer need help from the design team, they simply need permission to use the rendering feature.
• Advanced Search: A DAM offers additional advanced search features, including AI auto-tagging, that allow you to find what you’re looking for without the hassle of sifting through a large number of assets.
• Support and Training: A DAM (specifically, MediaValet) offers unlimited onboarding and training, meaning that if you’re ever having challenges or need a refresher, MediaValet will immediately help you, free of charge.
• Data Security: MediaValet is committed to delivering enterprise-level compliance and security, so you always feel confident your assets are protected.

Is it Time for an Upgrade?

After reviewing the main features that both Google Drive and a DAM offer, it’s clear why many organizations are choosing to upgrade to a digital asset management system. Teams with large amounts of rich media who are looking to improve efficiency, need advanced asset discoverability and increased security, and are looking to steadily scale up in terms of storage and users should look at choosing a DAM solution.

MediaValet is a digital asset management solution trusted by hundreds of leading brands worldwide to help them maximize their high-value digital assets. This G2 report compares MediaValet to other DAM vendors.

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.

In today’s digital-first world, where content creation grows exponentially, organizations find themselves drowning in an ever-expanding sea of digital files. With so many software options out there to help, how can you differentiate between Dropbox and a digital asset management (DAM) system?

When looking for new options and considering how to upgrade their file management systems, many organizations get caught wondering why bother?

According to GrandViewResearch, the global digital content creation market size was valued at USD 32.28 billion in 2024 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.9% from 2025 to 2030.

This significant growth rate underscores the increasing demand for engaging and visually appealing content and digital assets across various industries, but in order to understand which system your organization should choose, it’s important to compare and contrast. This blog post will cover the differences between Dropbox and DAM.

What is Digital Asset Management (DAM)?

A DAM is a file management system focused on digital media used to store, organize, collaborate on and distribute visual content (photos, videos, graphics, etc.) all from within one central library. Typically focused on brand and marketing-related assets, a DAM is conventionally owned by the marketing team, but can also be used and accessed by many other teams within your organization to maximize productivity.

A DAM offers features that allow users to manage any type of digital file and perform a variety of beneficial functions, including re-sizing and re-formatting their media, tracking usage history, and sharing large files easily.

Additionally, a DAM provides organizations with increased media security, such as user permissions, compliance regulations, and watermarking. Security features are becoming more and more important – your digital assets are an imperative part of your brand and should be protected.

Key Features of a DAM

1. Sophisticated Search Capabilities: A DAM makes storing, managing, and finding brand and marketing material (photos, videos, etc.) easy with artificial intelligence, keywords, and advanced search capabilities.
2. Permission Settings: Customized access permissions for internal and external users give organizations a tighter rein on digital media. A DAM offers version control, history tracking, and watermarks, as well as enhanced security and compliance.
3. Easy Distribution: A DAM includes features that enable easy sharing of large media files, such as high-resolution images, large-format videos, etc., over email, web galleries, or Branded Portals.
4. Robust Security Measures: Digital asset management systems such as MediaValet offer top-tier security measures to keep your previous brand assets safe and secure. In fact, MediaValet is the highest-rated DAM vendor, with an A rating from Security Scorecard (99/100).

Why a MediaValet DAM?

MediaValet is not a basic storage solution; it’s a powerhouse for managing, accessing, and sharing a wide range of digital media. MediaValet stands out in the DAM space, especially in security – it’s the top-rated DAM vendor on Security Scorecard. This is particularly relevant in light of Dropbox’s January 2024 data breach, which exposed the vulnerabilities in its security measures.

A MediaValet DAM is best for companies that need a better way to produce, store and distribute large amounts of rich media content (photos, videos, audio, etc.). Even if you are a smaller organization, as you scale, MediaValet can continue to serve you and keep your brand assets safe yet accessible.

Interested in how a MediaValet DAM looks in action? Take our free, self-guided tour here!

What is Dropbox?

Dropbox is one of the most popular online file-sharing services on the market. It provides a web-based library to store, organize and share digital files like PDFs, word documents, images, and videos. Dropbox has a free version with minimal storage, and upgraded, paid packages that scale with storage needs.

Dropbox can be an ideal file storage solution for organizations in their early stages, and has some easy-to-use features that can make it a great foundation for housing and managing smaller file libraries.

It’s worth noting, however, that in January 2024 the mother of all data breaches, as Forbes called it, was reported. These types of security issues are becoming increasingly prevalent; 26 billion leaked records, including Dropbox data, were found in a database highlighting the vulnerabilities and potential risks for growing organizations considering an option that cannot provide true security.

Key Features of Dropbox

1. Enhanced Search: Dropbox offers refined search capabilities with file type filtering and advanced sorting.
2. Easy Sharing: Dropbox creates shareable links for convenient and easy file sharing. When creating the link, users can choose the permission of the recipient as an editor or viewer of the file, and offers password protection on shareable links.
3. Effortless Syncing: Dropbox has a sync folder on the user’s computer that syncs with the cloud. It offers a selective sync functionality that gives users the choice of which folders to sync to their hard drive and which to only sync to the cloud.

Bottom Line

Dropbox is an easy-to-use online file-sharing system that would be a great choice for a small-to-medium organization that has a smaller budget for file storage.

It would not be a fit for organizations actively growing and scaling up their content creation and storage needs, as it would make the price tag increase considerably. It is best for those who don’t need advanced security and user permission settings, but instead, a general hub for storing and sharing files with some basic password protection options.

Why Organizations Choose to Upgrade from Dropbox to DAM

Many organizations begin by using Dropbox or a similar file-sharing system, only to find that as they grow, they need a more robust solution to manage their content—especially their rich media.

However, many organizations find that while an option like Dropbox works for a time, it simply can’t support their growth. With significant issues in security, many companies find that its more beneficial to move from Dropbox to a dedicated DAM system.

The recent Dropbox breach serves as a wake-up call. Organizations that once relied on Dropbox are now turning to DAM systems for enhanced security, scalability, and functionality. A DAM system like MediaValet not only addresses the growing digital asset needs but also provides:

• Previewing: With a DAM, users can preview design files, PDFs, videos, 3D files, large format images, etc. whereas Dropbox has more limited file review capabilities, depending on the file type.
• Asset Rendering and Resizing: A DAM enables users to customize the format and size of each asset when they download or share them. Users no longer need help from the design team, they simply need permission to use the rendering feature.
• Searching: A DAM offers additional advanced search features, including AI auto-tagging, that allow you to find what you’re looking for without the hassle of sifting through a large number of assets.
• Support and Training: A DAM (specifically, MediaValet) offers unlimited onboarding and training, meaning that if you’re ever having challenges or need a refresher, MediaValet will immediately help you, free of charge.

You can learn more about digital asset management pricing options here!

Outgrown Your Digital Storage Needs?

After a closer look at both Dropbox and DAM, it’s clear why many organizations are choosing to upgrade to a digital asset management system. Basic file-sharing systems like Dropbox often serve as a starting point, and as organizations grow, their content creation grows with them—meaning their file storage and sharing needs to scale as well.

Only a DAM can truly scale with a company and meet ongoing needs, not only for storage but for advanced security, search functionality, support, and training. Your digital files need to be safe, easily discoverable when needed, and easily shared. See how MediaValet compares to other DAM vendors in this G2 report.

The tremendous growth of web-based collaborative tools and file-sharing platforms has led to people wondering what exactly the difference is between these kinds of solutions. More specifically, what’s the difference between a cloud digital asset management solution (DAM) and a tool like Microsoft SharePoint? Secondary to that: if you have one, do you need the other? With some overlapping features and capabilities, it’s understandable that there’s some confusion.

In this post, we’ll cover the differences between the two systems and answer various questions you may have when considering these platforms. Specifically, we’ll touch on the definition of a DAM and SharePoint, the key features of each solution, and how to choose which is best for you.

Microsoft SharePoint Explained

TechTerms describes SharePoint as “a web-based platform used for sharing files and information. It is designed for teams and provides collaboration features, such as project management, messaging, and shared document storage.” As a Microsoft-designed file sharing platform, what makes SharePoint stand out is its collaboration features for teams. SharePoint generates pages and subpages to be used collaboratively by multiple teams at an organization. The main page or SharePoint Site (SPS) is where users collaborate, share, and access digital assets and information—using it as a dashboard. A typical use-case for SharePoint would be geo-dispersed teams who need to work together on a project, access information, communicate and track projects and tasks. It is not, however, recommended for primarily managing large amounts of media files, like photos or videos.

Three Key Benefits of Using SharePoint

1. Collaboration: It offers one place to easily share documents and information while working simultaneously with colleagues.
2. Communication: It acts as a company intranet, encouraging effective communication throughout the entire team, boosting engagement, and helping project coordination.
3. Productivity: Subsites help smaller teams within the organization working on projects to keep track of tasks and deadlines—getting more work done on time.

The Bottom Line

SharePoint is a great solution for project-based teams who need to be updated on tasks in real-time, communicate and collaborate simultaneously, but don’t need to navigate vast amounts of company media. If you’re a larger team that requires more features to support the amount of media you have, using a DAM might be a better solution.

Digital Asset Management (DAM) Explained

TechTarget defines digital asset management solutions as “system[s] for organizing, storing and retrieving rich media and managing digital rights and permissions.” A DAM system is used to help marketing teams organize, collaborate on, and distribute their visual media (photos, videos, graphics, etc.) from within one central library. Typically focused on brand and marketing-related assets, it’s conventionally owned by the marketing team, but can be accessed by many other teams.

A DAM allows users to manage any type of digital file from within the system and perform a variety of beneficial functions, including re-sizing and re-formatting their media, tracking usage history, and sharing large files easily. Additionally, a DAM provides organizations with increased media security, such as user permissions, compliance regulations, and watermarking.

Want to see a MediaValet DAM in action? Check out our free, self-guided DAM tour here!

Three Key Benefits of Using DAM

1. Asset Organization & Discovery: It makes storing, managing, and finding brand and marketing material (photos, videos, etc.) easy with artificial intelligence, keywords, and advanced searches.
2. Asset Control: Access permissions for internal and external users give organizations tighter rein on their digital media, plus it offers version control and history tracking.
3. Easy Sharing: A DAM includes features that enable easy sharing of large media files, such as high- res images, large-format videos, etc., over email or branded portals.

The Bottom Line

While a DAM allows for text-based file management, it’s best for companies that need a better way to produce, store, collaborate, share and distribute large amounts of marketing content (photos, videos, audio, etc.) If you’re a smaller team looking for a narrower solution in storing, organizing, and distributing documents alone, you may not need all of the features a DAM provides.

So, What’s the Difference?

The main differences between SharePoint and a digital asset management system are seen when there’s a demand for storing and sharing vast amounts of visual assets. Where SharePoint is a great platform to provide a shared workspace for team members, a DAM extends this workspace to another level by incorporating the ability to share media assets, files and information with everyone in one place. Only using SharePoint limits the efficiency and productivity levels that a DAM is able to provide.

Key Differences Between SharePoint and a DAM

• SharePoint is more of a document-focused system designed for collaboration and communication amongst team members, where a DAM focuses primarily on the organization and control of media files (photos, videos, etc.)
• Team members are able to share media files amongst each other within SharePoint, but not nearly to the same degree as a DAM. A DAM is a much broader tool that allows users to perform a variety of functions within the system while also making it easy to share digital files both internally and externally.
• A DAM allows users to distribute their assets across multiple different applications, through integration, while SharePoint offers one primary location where only those included in the system have access.

To simply answer the question: If I already have SharePoint, do I still need a DAM? The answer is YES!

Complementary, Not Competing

After a deeper look at the functionalities of both a DAM and SharePoint, it becomes clear that the systems are complementary to each other, rather than competing solutions. Integrating these two tools can help organizations streamline their workflows and increase productivity. Having a DAM as a single-source-of-truth for all assets while tapping into the effective project management and communication capabilities of SharePoint, offers a more complete solution.

With a DAM and SharePoint integration, users have access to video, 3D and creative files from within SharePoint, simplifying workflows and securing assets. Learn more about how MediaValet integrates with SharePoint here.

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.

As content creation continues to grow exponentially, many companies are struggling to keep up with the number of digital files that they’re creating and managing on a day-to-day basis. Even those who have digital file management solutions in place are now finding that they’ve outgrown them way faster than anticipated and are now revisiting their digital asset needs. When looking for new options and considering how to upgrade their file management systems, organizations get caught wondering what the difference is between popular cloud-based systems, like Box, and digital asset management solutions (DAM), like MediaValet.

To understand the difference between Box and DAM, let’s take a look at each in more depth.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

TechTarget explains digital asset management solutions by defining them as “system[s] for organizing, storing, and retrieving rich media and managing digital rights and permissions”. As a file management system focused on digital media, a cloud digital asset management system is a great solutions for teams looking to organize, collaborate on and distribute their visual content (photos, videos, graphics, etc.) all from within one central library. Typically focused on brand and marketing-related assets, a DAM is conventionally owned by the marketing team, but can also be used and accessed by many other teams within your organization in order to maximize productivity.

A DAM offers excellent features that allow users to manage any type of digital file and perform a variety of beneficial functions, including re-sizing and re-formatting their media, tracking usage history, and sharing large files easily. Additionally, a DAM provides organizations with increased media security, such as user permissions, compliance regulations and watermarking.

Key Features of a DAM

1. File Discoverability: A DAM makes storing, managing, and finding brand and marketing material (photos, videos, etc.) easy with artificial intelligence, keywords and advanced search capabilities.
2. Access Security: Access permissions for internal and external users give organizations tighter rein on digital media. A DAM offers version control, history tracking and watermarks, as well as enhanced security and compliance.
3. Easy Sharing: A DAM includes features that enable easy sharing of large media files, such as high-resolution images, large format videos, etc., over email, web galleries or Branded Portals.

The Bottom Line

While a DAM allows for text-based file management, it’s best for companies that need a better way to produce, store and distribute large amounts of rich media content (photos, videos, audio, etc.). If you’re a smaller team, looking for a lighter solution that stores documents alone, you may not need all the features a DAM provides.

Box

According to ITONICS, “Box is a cloud-hosted file storage service that supports file sharing and collaboration through a robust set of synced editing, commenting, and task assignment functions, along with delegated file and folder security.” Box focuses on building out the collaborative features of their platform, and many departments could benefit from using this solution, as they’re able to work on documents simultaneously from anywhere.

As a cloud-based file storage system, Box offers several great features, such as collaboration capabilities (for multiple stakeholders) and flexible security controls. It was designed for teams to use from anywhere and has over 1500 app integrations. Box also offers automated workflows, metadata tags and portals.

Key Features of Box

1. Simultaneous Collaboration: Users, including external partners, can work on files simultaneously and from anywhere, using messaging and task assignment features.
2. Improved Workflow: Integrations, automations, and approval features aid teams in accelerate their workflow and productivity.
3. Access Security: Box offers cloud-native security and compliance capabilities. The system has granular access controls, watermarking and classification of files.

The Bottom Line

Although Box is a handy cloud-based file storage solution with collaboration and security features, it is not the best solution for dealing with vast amounts of media assets. Companies with more document-focused work may find that Box is enough as a storage and collaborative work solution. Companies with larger amounts of media assets, however, likely require complete solutions and long-term strategies for their ever-growing digital asset management needs.

Why Organizations Choose to Upgrade from Box to DAM

While many organizations begin with using Box (or something similar), they often find that as they grow, they need a more robust solution to manage their content – especially their rich media. While organizations gain vast benefits from upgrading to a DAM, here are a few noteworthy features:

• Previewing: With a DAM, users can preview design files, PDFs, video, 3D files, large format images, etc. where Box has more limited file preview capabilities, and can only preview files that are 500MB or smaller.
• Asset Rendering and Resizing: A DAM enables users to customize the format and size of each asset when they download or share them. Users no longer need help from the design team, they simply need permission to use the rendering feature.
• Searching: A DAM offers additional advanced search features, including AI auto tagging, that allow you to find what you’re looking for without the hassle of sifting through a large number of assets.
• Sharing: Not only can users share all popular formats and sizes of files, but a DAM allows them to instantly send files of up to 200 GBs to anyone, anywhere in the world, no matter what browser or operating system they’re using. Firewalls aren’t an issue as only links are used, eliminating the need for attachments.
• Support and Training: A DAM (specifically, MediaValet) offers unlimited onboarding and training, meaning that if you’re ever having challenges or need a refresher, MediaValet will immediately help you, free of charge.

Is it Time for an Upgrade?

After reviewing the main features that both Box and a DAM have to offer, it’s clear why many organizations are choosing to upgrade to a digital asset management system. MediaValet is a digital asset management solution that’s trusted by hundreds of leading brands around the globe to help them make the most of their high-value digital assets.

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.

With Henry Stewart DAM New York 2024 just around the corner, we’ve put together a complete guide to ensure you make the most of it!

From October 23 – 24, 2024, Digital Asset Management (DAM) novices and veterans will gather at the New York Hilton Midtown Hotel to explore the art and practice of managing digital media.

This year’s event features more than 60 experienced and expert speakers across 40+ sessions.

From navigating the modern marketing ecosystem, to metadata, and artificial intelligence to mastering data management, this year’s event is going to explore the evolution of DAM to a major enterprise strategic application.

But with so many topics and speakers, how can you make the most of the show?

First things first, Henry Stewart is offering pre-event tutorials covering DAM metadata, taxonomy, and leadership. You can register for them here!

To help you manage the tradeshow process from start to finish, we’ve assembled this complete guide to surviving Henry Stewart DAM NY. Check it out for ideas to implement before, during, and after DAM New York 2024.

Before the DAM New York Show

1. Understand Your Company’s Needs

If you’re heading to DAM NY to explore potential DAM solutions, make sure you have an outline of your company’s use case and requirements. Some factors to understand are:

• How much storage you need,
• Which types of files you have,
• What key features you need,
• Which departments will use the platform,
• Possible integrations into other IT or MarTech solutions,
• The business outcomes you’re hoping to achieve, and
• An implementation timeline.

Working with your company to get a clear understanding of your digital asset management needs is crucial to having meaningful conversations with vendors at DAM NY and navigating the DAM landscape.

2. Set Your Goals

Before attending (or even registering for) a tradeshow, it’s important to understand what your goals are. Take the time to write out what you want to achieve from DAM NY 2024—and be specific! Try to avoid generic phrases like “learn more about digital asset management”. Here are some examples of possible goals:

• Create a shortlist of 3 DAM vendors to further explore after the show
• Connect with consultants that understand my industry and use case
• Learn best practices around artificial intelligence in my DAM system

Tradeshows are always more overwhelming than originally anticipated, but it’s important to stay on track. Creating goals adds clarity to what presentations you should attend and which vendors you should visit in the exhibit hall.

3. Come Up with a Game Plan

With recognized industry experts and thought leaders, like Laura Curk, Director of Product Marketing at MediaValet, Jennifer White, the Senior Manager of Digital Assets at the Philadelphia Eagles and David Lipsey, there are plenty of amazing sessions at Henry Stewart DAM New York, but sadly, you can’t attend all of them.

Prioritize your sessions from must-sees to nice-to-sees. From there you can set a schedule for yourself to make sure you don’t miss anything. Be sure to also leave yourself enough time to hit the exhibit hall—you can learn just as much from networking with consultants and vendors, especially if you have a specific use-case or highly technical questions.

4. Research Ahead of Time

The exhibit hall isn’t where you should be first learning about the vendors – it’s where you should be asking the tough questions, getting to know the people behind the product, and understanding which vendors are the best fit for your team. Review vendors that will be at DAM New York 2024 (like MediaValet) and research them ahead of time. Knowing the general scope of their offerings will help you get the most from your conversations at the booths.

You can see how some of the big DAM platforms compare against each other in our free DAM comparison guide here!

5. Book Meetings In Advance

Is there a vendor or a speaker that you want to learn from? Shoot them a message and see if they’re available for a one-on-one! A quick coffee meeting is a casual way to learn more about their history, ask questions about their expertise, and get their opinion on important topics. Many of them will be flattered to be asked and more than happy to meet up.

6. Leverage Social Media

If you have a specific topic you want to discuss or an industry you want to connect with, make sure to follow Henry Stewart on X and on LinkedIn to find people or companies with answers. Most Henry Stewart DAM attendees will be following the hashtag, making it a great way to interact with other attendees before the show.

During the DAM New York Show

7. Double Check the Schedule

The first thing to do after getting your registration badge is to double-check the schedule. Last-minute changes are rare—but they do happen! Review your schedule and make changes to your game plan, as needed.

8. Spend Your Time Efficiently

You have your schedule—stick to it! Only attend the presentations you’re interested in and that will help you meet your goals, as outlined before the show. It’s easy to pass time at a trade show but before you know it, you’ll run yourself ragged before you’ve ticked off your to-dos for the day.

Also, make sure you also leave some time open for impromptu meetings that come up with the attendees you meet.

9. Learn from Others’ Expertise

Networking can be one of the most valuable things to do at a tradeshow, yet people get shy or busy and end up coming back home with no new contacts, besides vendors that want their business.

At DAM New York, there are plenty of opportunities to meet new people during breakfast and lunch, in the exhibit room, or between sessions. Take the time to find people who have similar use cases to your own and learn from their experiences.

10. Get to Know the Vendors

DAM New York is the perfect time to get a feel for the different vendors and their personalities. Check out each vendor as you’re wandering the exhibit and analyze how “keen” they are on the floor. Are they actively engaging the people at the show or just waiting for someone to approach them? It will allow you to get to know each vendor and their ability to build lasting relationships.

11. Set Post-Show Meetings

At tradeshows, especially ones like DAM New York, it’s common to arrange a follow-up meeting. If you meet someone that you’d like to reconnect with, don’t wait to book a follow-up call when you get back. Take out your calendar (we all have our phones nowadays) and book one at the show! You can always move it around when you get back, but having a set day and time on the record makes it much easier to touch base.

Make sure you give a realistic timeline for when you’ll be ready to jump on a call. The first week back after a tradeshow is always a little hectic, so give yourself at least a week to play catch up.

12. Don’t Just Collect Brochures

When you’re walking the exhibit hall, sometimes it can be tempting to grab every brochure you can, then review each vendor later. But brochures are meant to be supplementary to the conversations you have with each exhibitor. The information found on a company’s brochures can usually be found online, so if you solely focus on brochure collecting, you won’t take advantage of the additional knowledge you can gain by having personalized, one-to-one conversations at each booth. Save the brochures for after you’ve had a chance to talk to them.

13. Request to Have Info Emailed to You

You’re at a tradeshow for digital asset management! That means, hypothetically, everything should be available to you in a digital format. Save yourself the trouble of carrying around brochures (and other collateral) and request to have them emailed to you instead. Many vendors will just send them via their DAM system, which will also give you a chance to see the solution in action. Make sure you’re organizing the brochures as you go, so you can easily find them after the show.

14. Take Notes as You Go

While sometimes it can be inconvenient to take a journal around with you, taking notes is a must! At DAM New York, you’ll be attending 5+ sessions each day, meeting new people, and visiting different booths, so you’ll probably overestimate how much you can actually remember. By jotting down a few key points from each presentation or interaction, you’ll be able to head home with clear, concise points of action that you can bring to your team.

After the DAM New York Show

15. Summarize and Share Your Learnings

The ROI on attending Henry Stewart DAM New York can increase exponentially if you share what you learned across your team (or company). One of the first things to do when you get back is to summarize your learnings into a concise and easy-to-read format (PowerPoint, Word document, email – whatever you choose), so it can be shared with relevant teams and individuals. This can include points from sessions you attended, vendors you met – anything you think is worth noting!

If you’re buying a DAM, it’s even more important to share your findings with potential decision-makers, as it’ll allow you to discuss the findings and set clear next steps for the evaluation process.

Interested in a more in-depth guide to finding and buying the right DAM for your organization? Check out our free eBook here!

16. Request Your Favorite Presentation Decks

If there were any presentations you found particularly useful or interesting, don’t be afraid to reach out and ask the organizers from DAM New York or the speaker for the presentation slides! It’ll refresh your own memory of details from the presentation, and you’ll be able to share the slides with others on your team.

17. Read Henry Stewart DAM New York Summary Posts

Tradeshow summaries can be useful for getting the “spark notes” on sessions you didn’t attend and refreshing your memory on sessions you did. They’re the perfect way to realize the key trends in digital asset management for 2025 and see some of the highlights you may have overlooked.

Let’s Meet at Henry Stewart DAM NY!

We hope this guide helps you have a successful two days at DAM NY, and we hope to meet you there! Make sure to stop by one of our sessions:

Video Mastery in DAM: Unlocking the Potential of Your Digital Assets with MediaValet Director of Product Marketing, Laura Curk, and

Honoring Jackie Robinson: How a small team’s strategic approach implemented a DAM System worthy of the legacy it honours with MediaValet’s Director of Customer Success and Support, Lina Smith.

Organizations across many industries struggle to find effective ways to store the large number of digital files they acquire. The sheer amount of content that’s being created every single day, coupled with the boom in the remote workforce, has led most companies to look for cloud-based solutions that offer collaborative features for their geographically dispersed teams.

With so many options, managers are finding themselves trying to learn the differences between tools like digital asset management software (DAM) and cloud-based file-sharing services like OneDrive. We’ve detailed digital asset management vs document management solutions here.

In this post, we’ll run through the main differences between DAM solutions and OneDrive document management, explaining how the addition of either of these solutions would be beneficial to your team.

To fully understand the difference between OneDrive and DAM, let’s take a look at each in more depth:

OneDrive

Microsoft OneDrive is a leading cloud-based file-sharing sync service where users can securely store important files and access them from almost anywhere. Part of the Microsoft 365 platform, it can be used for personal or work purposes. The collaborative appeal of easily sharing work documents with colleagues makes OneDrive a popular choice for geographically dispersed teams. It is typically used for sharing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, etc., and is enjoyed by 365 users for the seamless experience it provides. Additionally, the productivity features like project tracking and automatic file syncing make OneDrive a valuable tool for professionals.

Three Key Benefits of Using OneDrive

1. File Security – The file access settings in OneDrive give control over who can view, edit and share important files. Users can also set passwords or expiration dates.

2. File Collaboration – Geographically dispersed team members can work on the same documents simultaneously, increasing productivity on projects.

3. Centralized Storage – The use of the cloud allows users to free up device storage by centralizing data into one place where it can be accessed from anywhere at any time.

The Bottom Line

This cloud-based solution offers many features that benefit teams that often use and collaborate on the same files. While it does allow for media uploads and sharing, it’s ultimately best for text-based file collaboration, such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Word, Excel, etc., as mentioned above. If you’re a large team looking for a broader solution for storing, organizing, and distributing vast amounts of media files, you may want to look into a DAM.

Digital Asset Management (DAM)

A digital asset management system is an essential part of the media content creation process and is used to help marketing teams organize, collaborate on, and distribute their digital assets all from within one central library. Typically focused on brand and marketing-related assets, it is conventionally owned by the marketing team but can be accessed by many other teams including sales, product management, communications, and partners. By providing a single source of truth for all the important content within an organization, a DAM reduces internal bottlenecks and improves brand consistency across all channels. Additionally, a DAM allows users to manage any type of digital file (videos, 3D files, documents, etc.) from within the system and perform a variety of beneficial functions. These functions include re-sizing and re-formatting media, tracking usage history, and sharing large files easily with external parties.

Three Key Benefits of Using DAM

1. Asset Organization & Discovery: A DAM makes storing, managing, and finding brand and marketing material (photos, videos, etc.) easy with artificial intelligence, keywords and advanced searches.

2. Asset Control: Access permissions for internal and external users give organizations tighter rein on their digital media, plus a DAM offers version control and history tracking.

3. Easy Sharing: A DAM includes features that enable easy sharing of large media files, such as high-resolution images and videos, etc., via email, branded portals, and more.

Check out this self-guided tour of a MediaValet DAM:

The Bottom Line

While DAM allows for text-based file collaboration, it is best for companies that need a better way to produce, store, collaborate, share, and distribute large amounts of media content (photos, videos, audio, etc.) If you’re a smaller organization looking for a narrower solution in storing, organizing, and distributing text-based files, you may not need all the features a DAM provides.

So, What’s the Difference?

The main difference between OneDrive and a digital asset management system can be seen in the types of files they specialize in. OneDrive is a great platform to collaborate on document-based content (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and provide a central workspace for team members. DAM, on the other hand, extends this workspace to a greater degree by adding the ability to better manage large, media-based files in a single, centralized library, secured through access rights and permissions.

Key Differences

• OneDrive is more document-focused, designed for collaboration and communication among team members, where DAM focuses on the organization and control of digital assets (photos, videos, etc.)
• DAM is a much broader tool than OneDrive, as it allows users to perform a variety of functions within the system while also making it easy to share digital files internally and externally.
• OneDrive offers only one primary location for users to share and edit their assets, where DAM allows users to share and edit their assets in multiple different applications through integrations.

What About Both?

To answer the question: If I already have OneDrive, do I still need a DAM? The answer is YES! A DAM complements OneDrive by providing a much larger variety of functions and features. In fact, many organizations will have both, as they offer specialization in different areas. Use our self-assessment quiz to analyze your organization’s need for a digital asset management system.

Interested in which DAM platform is right for your organization? We detail how 5 of the top digital asset management vendors compare to help you find the right fit. Check out our free resource:

MediaValet is a leader in cloud-based digital asset management that helps organizations manage, organize and share their digital assets, improving productivity and increasing ROI.