DAM Business Case Development

With the benefit of hindsight though many DAM projects, and even more business cases, the most profound lesson I’ve learned is akin to ‘money can’t buy you love’. The business case must be more than just a tool to fund your project. There’s both the ROI aspect and strategic rationale.

The gains firms realize from DAM derive from fundamental changes to business processes, in an environment of complex, highly variable workflows. While DAM systems enable these improved processes, the organizational support required to make these transitions is the crucial factor in how quickly the gains from DAM are realized. Yep, we have to figure out exactly how those users should use the system, then make sure they do it.

The presentation of the business case if often the best opportunity to secure this level of support from the right people. Teams often narrowly focus on ROI achieved through cost savings, to narrowly focus on securing funding for the DAM system implementation. The big gains, and typically what’s really behind a firm’s interest in DAM, are strategic and eventually drive increased revenues. Cogent, visually-depicted business cases often become the master from which project “marketing” is derived – whether securing funding for system implementation projects, fostering executive sponsorship support or marshalling the numerous resources that make the transition to new, improved business processes actually come true.