DAM stakeholders and how to get their buy-in

17th December 2024

A Digital Asset Management system is an organisation-wide tool that offers benefits beyond the marketing and sales departments. That’s undoubtedly a good thing—after all, a siloed DAM isn’t an effective DAM—but what it does mean is that there’s a lot of stakeholders that need to be consulted during the evaluation process.

In this article we’re going to look at five stakeholder groups, and how to get their buy-in for a DAM implementation.

The importance of stakeholder management in DAM implementation

As mentioned above, your Digital Asset Management will impact multiple departments across the organisation. A DAM will ultimately provide benefits across all of these departments, but any kind of change can cause some disruption, particularly during the implementation process.

Without engaging with the various stakeholders from the outset, it can be a struggle to anticipate and prepare for this distruption and this can jeopordise the implementation and long-term buy-in of your new DAM system..

This is why stakeholder management in DAM is so important. This involves working with each department at every step of the process, including explaining the objectives of the project, providing a clear timeline and outlining the potential challenges along the way.

However, you need to go further than simply informing each stakeholder of what’s planned, and actually involve them in the DAM evaluation and DAM decision-making process. This might complicate things at first, but long-term you’ll secure greater buy-in and support for the project, and make the transition smoother for everyone involved.

READ MORE: The Digital Asset Management Comparison Checklist

Identifying key DAM stakeholders

The number of stakeholders that will be impacted by a new DAM implementation depends on the size of your organisation, but typically they’ll fall into one of five categories:

1. C-Suite/Executive team
2. IT and technology
3. Marketing and brand management
4. Legal and compliance
5. External agencies and partners

Let’s take a closer look at how you should manage each of these five groups.

C-Suite/Executive team

The C-suite will include executives from across the business, including directors of marketing, sales, operations and finance, meaning without buy-in at this level, your implementation project is dead in the water.

How to secure their buy-in

These are the people you’ll have to work hardest to impress and prove the benefits of the new DAM, not least because they also hold the purse strings. The C-suite will be the most commercially-driven people within the organisation, which means you need to be ready to show real, tangible benefits to the business and a healthy ROI.

Regardless of whether you’re replacing your previous Digital Asset Management platform, or investing in one for the first time, to get sign-off by the CEO and CFO you’ll need some of the C-suite on your side already. To do that, you’re going to have to demonstrate the value to each specific department first…

IT & Technology

Your IT team won’t interact with your DAM much once it’s implemented, but as the ones responsible for ensuring all software is secure, reliable and compatible with the organisation’s wider IT infrastructure, it’s essential to get them on board with the project.

How to secure their buy-in

The IT team won’t be as focused on DAM functionality, but instead will need to know that the system you want to implement is robust and secure. If you’re not technical yourself, this might require setting up a call with a vendor so IT can ask them the necessary questions directly. 

Once IT are satisfied that the DAM system won’t pose a security threat and that it can be integrated into the wider tech stack, that should be enough for them to give the project the green light.

Marketing & Brand Management

Marketing and Brand Managers will be the primary users of the DAM system—indeed, you might be the Head of Marketing or Brand yourself.

However, for the implementation to be successful, you’re still going to need Digital Asset Management buy-in from the whole team, including graphic designers, marketing executives and any other stakeholders with a key role in producing sales, marketing and brand collateral.

How to secure their buy-in

Unlike the C-suite and IT team, your marketing and brand team will care about functionality the most. How is this new DAM going to improve their day-to-day job and make managing assets easier?

Request a marketing-specific demo from the vendor so they can demonstrate the features and tools the team will be using most often. This should show how much the new system will support them in their role.

Legal & Compliance

Legal and compliance teams aren’t necessarily DAM users, but, like the IT team, they’re going to have a keen interest in the evaluation process.

This team will have to ensure that the new platform will support the organisation’s legal obligations around privacy and data security.

How to secure their buy-in

Unless it’s a subject you’re already familiar with, you won’t be best-placed to convince your legal and compliance team that any particular DAM will have you covered. With this in mind, set up a call between the Head of Compliance (or other suitable stakeholder) and the DAM vendor so they can ask the questions they need answering directly.

However, ahead of that call it’d be worth you spending some time to get an overview of how the DAM supports compliance so you can get your legal team tentatively onboard beforehand, leaving the call as an opportunity for them to put to bed any final concerns.

External agencies & partners

You won’t need to secure permission from external agencies and partners before implementing a new DAM system, but it’s still worth keeping them in the loop so they know what’s happening and when. This is particularly important if you work with external partners to produce sales and marketing assets, as they will be some of the main DAM users once it’s up-and-running.

How to secure their buy-in

Explain how the DAM is going to fit into the asset management workflow, as well as how it will improve it and make it more efficient. If it’s a DAM they’re not familiar with, you should also put in place some training sessions and demos so they understand how to use the system and get the most out of it.

Ongoing engagement and communication for DAM success

Successfully implementing a new Digital Asset Management platform isn’t a set-and-forget activity. Earning stakeholder buy-in is an ongoing process, and requires continuous engagement and communication to ensure the system is working well for everyone across the organisation.

This is especially true for the first three-to-six months following go-live. Request feedback from each department and consider how workflows and processes need to be refined over time. If each stakeholder and user feels listened to and that their suggestions are being actioned, they’re much more likely to stay engaged with the DAM.

So if you’re in the market for a new Digital Asset Management system, why not book a no obligation demo by clicking below? Alternatively, launch your own ResourceSpace instance for free and start exploring the features for yourself.