From the beginning, it’s important to determine the resources you can dedicate to the implementation of OpenAsset. You need one owner/champion who will be responsible for driving the implementation, as well as achieving your vision and goals after the initial setup.

Clients with a proven track record of success dedicate a small team to work on the initial phases of the OA implementation. 

Setting deadlines and goals for completion of the various implementation stages is crucial.

Be realistic with your time and resources. 

What is your goal for having projects tagged? 

What is your goal for rolling out to core users? 

What is your goal for launching firm-wide? 

Outlining these time frames and meeting the desired deadlines is a great way to keep up the momentum of the project, and will ultimately result in a faster implementation. 

The initial upload of content is the hardest part of the implementation process!

Taking advantage of a Data Migration service can be very helpful and may drastically shorten your implementation timeframe. Data Migrations take planning, but they can also be a great way to get the majority of your content uploaded (with some keywords assigned as well) quickly.

If you decide to manually upload all content, be sure to dedicate time to allow staff to upload files. 

Remember, the goal of Keywords is to help you find a manageable view of files from which to work.

The goal is not to find one particular file in the system. 

Don’t create a huge file keyword structure that isn’t manageable based on your resources. Having underused keywords in your system reduces the overall quality of searches.

OpenAsset’s project-focused search requires minimal tagging to find your files.

For non-project related metadata, be selective when creating your keyword structure.

We recommend between 25-50 total file keywords.

The initial migration is important, but so is creating a process for new uploads moving forward. 

Having an owner of the DAM is important to ensure new content is uploaded and tagged appropriately.

Use features like reports, and saved searches to easily keep track of any content that needs to be tagged with keywords or reviewed and approved.

The more active users you have, the more you will get out of your investment with OpenAsset. 

Whether it’s sharing albums of images with colleagues, integrating with your company intranet, or housing images of company events that everyone can access, there are plenty of ways that users outside of just Marketing can take advantage of OpenAsset.

To get the most out of your investment, make sure users know how to use OpenAsset and highlight the prominent features like albums, branded PowerPoints, Drag/drop, etc.

Don’t forget to get users' feedback! If they are struggling with incorporating OpenAsset into their workflow then you need to know about it and address it. Otherwise they’ll just stop using the DAM.

Whether it’s monthly meetings or Quarterly lunch & learns, keeping users engaged by gathering their feedback and addressing questions or concerns helps users to stay involved.

When colleagues ask for files, send them a link to an album.

Create a link to OpenAsset somewhere obvious, like your company intranet. 

Implementing a DAM system is no small achievement.  Share this success with colleagues and management so they can recognize your hard work. 

Put OpenAsset on your resume or LinkedIn profile - you can include project management skills, DAM knowledge, etc. Since OpenAsset has a niche in the AEC industry, many firms are familiar with it.

Archive your old folder structure. This will push people to adopt a new workflow of adding content to OA, which will end up saving loads of space.

It is never easy to convince people to use a new tool, but you need to force the move so that you are not maintaining two libraries.

One method is to start by making the old folder structure “read only” for a period of time before you archive it completely.