Digital Asset Management consists of tasks and decisions surrounding ingesting, annotating, cataloguing, storage and retrieval of digital assets, such as digital photographs, animations, videos and music. Digital asset management systems are computer software and/or hardware systems that aid in the process of digital asset management.

The term "digital asset management" (DAM) also refers to the protocol for downloading, renaming, backing up, rating, grouping, archiving, optimizing, maintaining, thinning, and exporting files. "There are two primary types of DAM software: browsers and cataloging software. A browser reads information from a file but does not store it separately. Cataloging software stores information in its own separate file, however, the software and the catalog document it makes are distinct from the photos themselves."

Uses

Many businesses and organizations are adopting Digital Asset Management as a business strategy because managing image, video and other media assets presents unique challenges and requires solutions designed specifically to streamline the acquisition, storage and retrieval of digital media. Effective implementation of a DAM system should reduce the time and cost of content production, maximize the return on investment (ROI) from media assets, bring new products and services to market faster and streamline compliance. This system should be designed in such a way that enables cost-effective optimization of media asset management across an organization.

Types of Digital Asset Management systems

The following broad categories of digital asset management systems may be distinguished:

Brand asset management systems, with a centre on facilitation of content re-use within large organizations.

Library asset management systems, with a centre on storage and retrieval of large amounts of infrequently changing media assets, for example in video or photo archiving.

Production asset management systems, with a centre on storage, organization and revision control of frequently changing digital assets, for example in digital media production.

Digital supply chain services, pushing digital content out to digital retailers (e.g. music, videos and games).

Providers

Enterprise-level solutions often involve scalable, reliable, configurable products that can handle vast numbers of assets (files) as well as large numbers of simultaneous users, workflows, or use cases (multiple applications simultaneously operating against the system). Enterprise systems may, but do not necessarily, include customized products or features added on to the base system or custom developed to match an organization's workflow. Enterprise class systems are also applicable to small to medium businesses (SMBs), or departments or work groups within an organization. In many cases these systems enter a company in one department and eventually expand to others or the entire enterprise as its utility becomes proven, understood and valued. Enterprise systems are offered as installed software or as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) -- hosted, web-based offers that are managed and maintained externally. Primary providers of enterprise class digital asset management solutions include: ADAM (Adam Software NV), Getty Images Media Management Services (Getty Images), Brandworkz (GlobusMedia), Cumulus (Canto), Artesia DAM (Open Text's Artesia Digital Media Group), Telescope Enterprise (North Plains Systems) and the Xinet WebNative Suite (Xinet Inc.).

For single departments, work groups, or small businesses products and vendors include: Brandworkz (GlobusMedia), Celum Imagine, Cumulus (Canto), Portfolio (Extensis), Image Portal (NetXposure), Insight (Luna Imaging), Expression Media (Microsoft, formerly iView Media Pro), TeleScope Professional (North Plains Systems), and TeleScope Studio (North Plains Systems).

For individuals either proprietary or open source applications like ViewMinder can be adequate for digital asset management. Some Image Viewers provide management functionality, including backing up, organizing, and reading/writing metadata and keywords. The Photography-specific applications Adobe Lightroom and Apple's Aperture also have this functionality.