Why you don’t need an enterprise DAM

Digital asset management (DAM) is the home for your brand’s images and videos. You already know that. That’s why you’re here.

But if you’re a growing brand, the question is: should you really be paying thousands for an enterprise DAM?

The answer is: no.

An enterprise digital asset management system is for large companies and corporations. For smaller brands, a DAM like Dash should be the home for your visual content. It’ll give you all the features, support and scalability you need - without the price tag.

Interested? Let’s dive in.

What are enterprise digital asset management solutions?

A DAM is a software tool that helps brands manage and share their digital assets. That’s everything from images, video content and graphics, to brand guidelines, logos and podcasts. It’s often used by marketing teams to share content with teams and resellers around the world.

An enterprise DAM solution is specifically for large, multinational companies. They need more complex features like project workflow management, advanced permission structures and separate attributes that they can assign to different teams around the world. It’s functionality that growing brands just don’t need (and can’t afford).

Historically, small businesses haven’t been served well by DAM solutions. Enterprise vendors have been the dominating choice, forcing smaller brands to shoulder the costs of features they don’t need. Or make do with inefficient file management systems like Google Drive that waste time (and money).

Dash is here to change that. 💪

What’s the difference between enterprise DAMs and Dash?

There are two differences between enterprise DAMs and Dash that you’ll notice off the bat: pricing and onboarding.

Pricing

Have you noticed that many DAM vendors don’t show pricing on their websites? There’s a reason for that. As Kailtyn from Kelly Wynne (one of Dash’s customers) discovered when she was searching for a DAM:

“It was killing me having to reach out to each vendor and sit through a sales call, only to find out that the solution was going to be $10,000+ — just because of the sheer number of assets we have.”

$10,000! 🤯No wonder enterprise DAM pricing isn't transparent. Kelly Wynne sells handbags and accessories online so, naturally, they have loads of product images and marketing content. But why does that mean they should fork out for an expensive solution?

Well here’s a secret: you don’t need to pay thousands for a good DAM. 👀

Take Dash, as an example. 😇 Pricing starts at just £49 /$59 per month. You unlock every feature and get unlimited users from day one. Instead, the pricing changes depending on how many assets you want to store in Dash, and what your average monthly download rate is. In other words, you only pay for what you use.

Dash was voted for having the best ROI for small businesses on G2 so you can be sure you’re getting the most out of your money. Luckily, our customers agree. Take this review which calls Dash the “#1 in value for small business”. 💫

“Dash's customer support and features are an incredible value for the price. It is by far the best DAM provider for a small but growing business that doesn't have a dedicated IT or marketing team yet.”

Onboarding

Onboarding is important for any business purchasing a DAM. This is the process of getting set up with your new DAM. You’ll decide your folder structure, custom fields, permission groups and more. If needed, you’ll also get help moving your assets across from your previous system; whether that’s Google Drive, Dropbox, Sharepoint, your network drive or another DAM vendor.

At Dash, we want you to get going ASAP. The quicker you onboard, the quicker you’ll start recouping that ROI.

You can book an onboarding call with a customer success manager who’ll guide you through the steps to get started. Dash is easy to use, so there’s no need for any intense training sessions or lengthy onboarding calls that many enterprise DAMs require you to sit through. You can also visit the Dash Academy to learn everything you need to know about Dash.

If you need to migrate your assets from another system, our customer success managers can do it for you. ✨

Onboarding with an enterprise DAM is not as simple. As one Bynder customer testifies:

“Drawn out onboarding process. Could have probably been condensed into 4 fewer weeks of regular meetings.”

4 weeks?! Yikes! 😬

💡If you'd like an in-depth comparison of Bynder and Dash, take a look at Barney's blog post that offers pros, cons and alternatives to Bynder. 

Enterprise DAM vs Dash: features

Wondering how other features compare? Here are some core DAM features and how Dash stacks up against its enterprise competitors.

Search

Searching for your assets quickly and easily is a must for any DAM solution. After all, it’s the reason many businesses opt for digital asset management software. Especially when Google Drive and Dropbox are no longer serving their needs.

Dash uses a combination of auto-tagging and custom attributes to make searching super-fast. Will use our fake brand, Planto, as an example.

If you type ‘rubber plant’ into the search bar you’ll get relevant assets in seconds.

You can also filter your search results by folder and file type, or with custom fields you can set up yourself. 🪴

If we compare this to enterprise DAMs, it’s clear that often search isn’t as straightforward as you’d hope. A G2 review of Bynder says:

“The one thing I dislike with Bynder is that its search is not the greatest, and finding an asset is sometimes very difficult.”

Search is a crucial part of any DAM solution. If you can’t find your assets easily, you may as well save your money and stick with Google Drive. 🤷

Share

Whether sharing your latest product shots with your marketing agency or receiving brand graphics from your designers — DAM makes sharing totally painless. 🧘

In Dash, you can share by URL or via email. Send individual assets or create a collection that you can invite your teammates to. The best part is you can share up to 500 assets at a time, and you won’t have to worry about the dreaded ‘your file is over 25MB’ notification (thanks Gmail 🙄).

When you receive files from external teams you can approve the ones you like and reject the ones that need more work. This cuts down any back and forth over email. 🙌

If you work with resellers or agencies, you can create a public Portal. This is where your external teams can go to search and find different types of content without the need for a login or access to your entire Dash.

Here’s a portal made by one of our customers, Filling Pieces:

Resellers can use the search bar and custom fields to quickly find model shots and product photos. Alberto, the brand’s Marketing Manager, says:

“When you land into our Portal, everything is branded and looks really neat. It gives it more of a premium feel. We are mirroring some of the content we have in the Dash Filling Pieces. It’s really convenient.”

We keep sharing streamlined and easy to use in Dash. That’s not always the case with enterprise DAMs, where advanced features can start to make the experience more complex. A G2 review of Widen’s enterprise DAM shows that sharing isn’t as easy as it could be:

“Overall navigation can be tricky sometimes, such as the Search filters, or lacking notification grouping and asset share (I want to share multiple assets easily and I can't).”

Deploy

Another important DAM feature is being able to deploy content to your marketing channels. Whether that’s product shots to your content management system or graphics to your social channels, DAM cuts out the endless downloading and uploading you probably experience with your current solution.

In Dash, you can connect with tools such as Hootsuite and Shopify to send marketing materials directly to your channels. Take a look at our full list of integrations and see if you spot any tools you’re already using.
You’ll also have the option to download images with custom crop sizes and file formats so that they meet the dimension requirements of your chosen channel. This is what Alberto particularly loves about Dash:

“Anyone producing content, like the social team, are able to download specific sizes without relying on a graphic designer. For example, IGTV and Pinterest. It’s very convenient.”

Looking at some Bynder reviews, it’s clear that enterprise DAM’s don’t always offer this type of download. As one customer says:

“It would be great if there were file types, image size customizations, etc. to select upon download. Currently, Derivatives are made upon upload, but those are decided on upfront when the system is set up, and those may not meet everyone's specific needs, at the time of download.”

Interface and user experience (UX)

DAMs are for your visual content. They should be easy to navigate, intuitive and look visually inspiring. 😎
If you’re currently using tools like SharePoint or Dropbox, you’ll know that clicking around the system isn’t the best experience. Their interfaces are clunky and you have to open each individual file to see if it’s actually the image that you thought it was - this is not a great UX in our opinion.

This is what it looks like when you log in to Planto’s Dash.

When you log in you’ll see your latest assets and folders. You can also add a logo, background image and colour scheme. This is also the theme your freelancers, agencies and resellers will see when you share content with them. 😍

A couple of reviews about Widen’s user interface suggest that it’s not as inspiring as a DAM should be:

“In general, it is not an attractive interface, even after some branding. A lot of the security and permissions features are difficult to disable if not needed and become very burdensome.”

And:

“The interface - though I understand the difficulty of an update like that, it's pretty outdated in appearance and lacks an enticing user experience.”

😬

Choosing an easy-to-use DAM means less hassle searching, and more time on content creation and the stuff you were actually hired to do. 🙌

Feature comparison table

For a quick summary of enterprise DAMs vs Dash features, check out this table:

What solution is best for storing my digital assets?

When it comes to your business's DAM preference, you need to consider what you and your team need it for.

It's easy to pick out an enterprise DAM. They're the ones featuring massive companies as their clients, hiding their pricing, and cooing over Forrester reports.

They’re not always the best choice for you and your brand. After all, you’re looking for a home for your digital assets. You don’t want anything complicated or with a hefty price tag.

If you need some help comparing your options, download our free comparison worksheet.

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Resource

The Digital Asset Management Comparison Worksheet

Whittle down your choices and pick the right digital asset management tool for your brand

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If you’re ready to give Dash a go, you can sign up for a 14-day free trial, no strings attached. Simply pop in your email and you can get started straight away. ✨