Providing employees with self-serve software boosts productivity and creates a greater sense of empowerment to do their jobs. Bottlenecks often form in workflows, such as sending requests for information and waiting for a response. This causes frustration for those affected when there is a delay that is outside of their control.
For customer-facing roles, these types of bottlenecks can also be detrimental to the customer experience. For example, if employees do not have instant access to the information or assets that they require to respond to customer queries.
In today’s digital-centric world, there is much greater opportunity to overcome these issues by having technology solutions in place that enable employees to self-serve. Intranet systems are one type of solution, but a few steps further, a DAM (digital asset management) system can be a powerful self-serve software tool.
A self-serve DAM system is a central platform that enables users to access and manage assets, without requiring a central administrator to grant access. Access levels can be assigned based on roles, which determine which assets can be accessed and which actions the user can take. Some users can be given viewer or download-only access, while other users can have higher levels of permissions, such as editing, approving and deleting.
Business assets such as documents, spreadsheets, images, videos and audio files can be securely stored in the DAM system. Internal stakeholders can then use the advanced search functionality to locate the assets they require.
Unlike an intranet, it is not just internal stakeholders that can access a DAM system, external stakeholders can also be provided with access. For example, a marketing team might work with a digital creative agency, and they can easily share the latest versions of marketing materials for a project. The external stakeholder can self-serve by accessing assets on the portal, without the requirement of requesting it from the marketing team.
All DAM systems will have some level of security built in. You wouldn’t buy a car you couldn’t lock, right? So why buy a storage system that isn’t secure? Security in a DAM is one of the most important factors to consider when choosing your system. You need something that can protect your files, preferably on the cloud.
A self-serve DAM portal unlocks significant business benefits including:
Improved efficiency and productivity – DAM helps to remove time-consuming tasks involved in requesting assets and responding to requests. With all the assets readily available to access, there is no need to email departments for information or assets.
Employee empowerment – Employees are empowered to find the assets they require without going through a gatekeeper. They can resolve problems faster, giving them confidence to take control of their own tasks. This empowerment can, in turn, boost their engagement and help them to take greater accountability for delivering their responsibilities.
Enhanced customer experience – Whether employees are answering customer queries, trying to secure sales or any other type of customer-centric activity, self-serve DAM can enhance the customer experience. By providing timely responses using stored documents or having real-time access to the latest marketing materials, the service delivered will be of better quality.
Improved collaboration – When both internal and external teams have access to the same assets, collaboration is much smoother. The turnaround time on project delivery decreases and brand consistency improves. Version control features ensure that the latest version is used and everyone working on a project can see the progression status in the asset creation process.
These are just a few examples of the benefits DAM can deliver but there are many more to explore. Book a demo for a walk-through of the additional benefits your business could gain.
