Even though there is a variety of acronyms for DAM, and there are slight differences in functionality for each category. This article, however, will focus mainly on regular DAM functionality, including rich media files and types.
Magan Arthur of Arthur Consulting Group, explains that organizations can take three different approaches when contrasting DM and DAM:
* Tools and processes
* File and content types
* Business use
This article will leverage these approaches to explore the difference between DM and DAM.
Tools and Processes
Both DM and DAM use functionality common to content management solutions. These functionalities include the repository, metadata indexing, search capabilities, user- and role-defined accessibility, and workflow.
The repository stores the content and can either be a relational database or a simple file system. It includes standard features, such as check in and check out, versioning, and taxonomy. It will also allow metadata to be defined, so it includes all relevant descriptions of the different documents and files. This metadata then can be used by the search engine for indexing. The workflow takes care of the different tasks and roles that are involved within the process, whether serial or parallel.
Besides these similarities, there are essential differences in the respective tools and processes of DM and DAM.
DM, on one hand, focuses on capturing text content through optical character recognition (OCR), it is integrated with text processing tools, and is able to define different elements within a document as content. DM is capable of reusing this content either in parts or as the whole document. In the repository, DM can store document elements in different formats, such as extensible markup language (XML).
DAM, on the other hand, integrates with applications that focus on the creative design of assets, such as Quark, AutoCAD, Flash, and three dimensional animation. DAM solutions are capable of linking, disassembling, and reassembling complex and combined assets. DAM is also able to change images directly by either resizing or changing colors, and can handle large files, especially video files. Its search capabilities extend beyond standard search to permit visual searches using image recognition. Besides text indexing, which DM solutions also provide, DAM is able to index speech-to-text videos, closed caption videos, and more.
File and Content Types
The tools, as described above, allow different file types to be stored, which is another way to differentiate DM with DAM. DM files are mostly text based such as, paper documents, files from office tools, PDF, HTML files etc. DAM systems capture rich media files which can be images; logos; audio; video; CAD; animation (including GIFs and Flash); and design files.
DM systems are often capable of storing these kinds of files as well, but provide little more than storage, which is not sufficient for organizations that handle large quantities of digital asset files.
Business Use
Each solution can also be used for different types of business processes. Business processes are automated by these solutions, which help with the creation, collaboration, review, and approval of content throughout different departments within the organization. Below are some examples of the business processes in which DM and DAM can be used.
DM is often used in contract negotiations, documentation creation, policy and procedures, articles, reports, or statement processes. DAM solutions focus on the collaboration and management of advertising or marketing material, multimedia kits, corporate presentations, or video on demand. Libraries created by the system include image libraries, video libraries, and font and logo libraries.
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