Making sure your OpenAsset system is up to date and organized is key. It helps your team quickly find exactly what they need, ensuring your marketing materials are always good to go.
Think of this guide as your roadmap to setting up smart, proactive habits that will keep your DAM organized, ready to grow, and simple to look after.
Table of Contents:
✅ Section 1: Get set-up right
Decide which projects belong in OpenAsset
Firms vary in what they include, but typically use one of two approaches:
All projects (for proposals, resume-building, historical data)
Just the key, marketable projects: These are the projects you'll feature in proposals, on your website, in award submissions, and more.
When should you add new projects?
Set up internal cues that tell you it's time to add a project to OpenAsset. These triggers could be:
When a potential opportunity turns into a live project.
As soon as you start creating content like renderings or diagrams.
When construction begins, and you start getting photos from the job site.
Once the project is finished, and you have professional photos ready.
How do you add projects?
You can create projects in a couple of ways:
Manually within OpenAsset
Through Integrations with systems like Deltek, Unanet, or CMAP.
🔑 Tip: If you’re leveraging the integration with Unanet or Deltek, create a field in your CRM to flag which project should be synced over to OpenAsset.
👤 Section 2: Getting projects into the system
Who’s involved & how?
Typically, it's the marketing associates, working alongside the project teams, who handle this.
If you're using a CRM integration, projects might come in automatically, and marketing's role shifts more towards checking the quality.
Setting up a project:
Add important Project keywords like its location, sector, market, or the services involved.
🔑 Tip: We recommend starting by identifying what information is included in your standard project sheets.
Make sure to add a project location so you can use the map view feature.
Choose a Hero image to be the main picture representing the project.
📁 Section 3: Adding the right kinds of assets
What files should be included in OpenAsset?
Again, firms take different paths here:
All files: This includes everything from renderings and sketches to photos from the construction site and the final professional shots.
🔑 Tip: Use Categories, Access Levels, and Ranks to help people find the specific assets they need.
Only key visuals: This means just the high-quality, marketing-ready images and files.
Who's in charge of uploading?
Marketing teams usually take the lead on this.
However, project teams can also chip in, as long as there's a good system for it.
🔑 Tip: Use the Upload Approval setting to let others assets, with marketing reviewing and approving before they go live.
What About File Keywords and tagging?
The AI Visual Search feature automatically tags your files, so you usually don't need to worry about manual tagging.
Only use file-level keywords when you need very specific or niche filters.
🔁 Section 4: Maintaining Your DAM
Your DAM is only truly useful if it's accurate and up-to-date. It's all about building good habits to keep it clean.
Monthly
Make sure new projects are being added to the system.
Assign or update Hero images where needed.
Ensure location information is correct.
Quarterly
Go through content with your team. Ask yourselves: What’s proving hard to find? What information needs an update?
Look over your keywords and see if you can consolidate or improve them.
Try "daylighting": share project pages internally to get more eyes on them and gather feedback.
Annually
Archive projects and files that are outdated.
Take a look at your user licenses.
See if there are any new features you haven't started using yet.
💬 Section 5: Collecting feedback from your team
How useful your DAM is really comes down to how well people can use it. Gathering feedback is crucial to make sure OpenAsset keeps working for your team, not making things harder.
Make feedback a regular thing:
Add OpenAsset check-ins to your regular quarterly team or marketing meetings.
Set up monthly or quarterly audits where team members review certain areas (like a specific project, a set of files, or a portal).
Set up a shared feedback form or even a dedicated Teams channel just for OpenAsset ideas.
Share project pages or albums internally ("daylighting") and ask direct questions like, "Can you find what you need here?" or "Would you feel comfortable using this in a proposal?"
🧰 Need some help?
Don't hesitate to reach out:
Support (technical issues) – support@openasset.com
Customer Success Manager or Implementation Manager – Reach out to your CSM or IM for advice and help scaling your process