9 Digital Asset Management Challenges: The Most Complete Guide

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Written By Haisam Abdel Malak
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As digital asset management (DAM) solutions continue to proliferate, it is critical that providers of these solutions identify and address common challenges. This article provides a brief overview of some of the most common digital asset management challenges and how providers are addressing them.


There are many challenges that come with digital asset management. One of them is keeping track of all the files on a computer or network. Another challenge is keeping track of all the different versions of a file. A third challenge is making sure that everyone who needs access to a file has it.


There are many reasons why it is important to effectively manage digital assets. One reason is that digital assets can be very valuable, and if they are not managed properly, they can be lost or stolen. Another reason is that digital assets can be used to create new products or services, and if they are not managed properly, they can be misused or misappropriated.

Finally, digital assets can be a source of competitive advantage, and if they are not managed properly, they can be used by competitors to gain an advantage over your company.

digital asset management challenges

Top 9 Digital Asset Management Challenges

With an increasing amount of digital assets and the requirement to keep them structured and accessible, it can be tough to keep up with these challenges. Organizations must, however, do their best to overcome these digital asset management challenges in order to get the most out of them.

The top 9 challenges of digital asset management are:

1- Lack of governance and standards

Organizations often lack governance around digital asset management (DAM), which can lead to inconsistent or no standards for storing, organizing, and tagging assets. This can make it difficult for users to find the assets they need and can lead to duplicate assets and versioning issues.

2- Lack of visibility and control

A lack of visibility and control over the digital assets in your business is a huge problem. It can lead to data loss, duplicate content, copyright infringement, and more. When you use a DAM system, you gain complete visibility into your digital assets as well as the ability to control who accesses them and when.

Content can be managed with granularity and precision, which reduces the workload on your digital asset teams. You also avoid the risks of duplication and copyright infringement.

Among the list of digital asset management challenges, this is considered the most critical.

3- Lack of integration

Managing your digital assets can be a challenge because you have to keep track of all of the platforms you’re using. This is especially difficult when there’s no integration between them.

It is critical that your DAM system integrates with various business line applications inside your company in order to provide a virtual feeling of having one platform to access, manage, and edit your digital assets.

Employees will be less productive if they must use several systems to manage their digital assets. It will take time to seek across different repositories to find the requested digital asset.

4- Lack of asset lifecycle management (ALM)

Managing digital content is difficult. The lack of structure in many organizations can lead to redundant work and wasted time because employees are constantly modifying and developing the same asset again and again.

The process of developing, using, and managing digital assets is referred to as ALM. It begins with the creation of the asset and concludes with its disposal or archival.

Among the list of digital asset management challenges, the lack of an ALM is the most critical.

5- Lack of security and compliance

One of the most important aspects of managing digital assets is ensuring that there is a secure environment for them. Unfortunately, many companies fail to address this critical aspect in their management practices. In addition, many companies are not in compliance with even basic security requirements and standards.

Organizations should prioritize properly securing digital assets since they may include sensitive information that should not fall into the wrong hands.

Using DAM systems allows you to granular control who has access to the digital asset, who may alter or delete it, and so on.

Among the list of digital asset management challenges, this one should be the highest priority to plan for and overcome.

6- Lack of processes

Because most companies do not have a formalized process for managing digital assets, it is common for them to make mistakes that result in data loss, improperly de-identifying data, or destruction of sensitive data.

Financial institutions are not the only ones who experience these types of problems, but they are a frequent target. The key to preventing data loss is to implement a process for managing digital assets that include:

  • Formalized data management policies and guidelines.
  • Data vaults for storing digital assets in a secure manner. If you don’t document your data management policies and guidelines, the process will be less efficient in the long run.

7- Lack of scalability

One of the digital asset management challenges is the lack of scalability.

Scalability is a key challenge for digital asset managers. Problems can arise when an organization has over 100,000 assets, or when the number of users exceeds 50. Any more than that and it becomes difficult to maintain efficiency.

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) provide a number of opportunities for digital asset managers. The ability to automate some tasks or use these tools to better analyze data is among them.

8- Lack of skilled resources

One of the digital asset management challenges is a lack of skilled resources. I see the lack of skilled resources as a challenge for the digital asset management team to find people with the right skills, who can work in a way that works for their company.

Employees should be trained on best practices and kept up to date on the newest standards in order for businesses to efficiently manage their digital assets.

9- Maintaining version control of assets

Organizations lose a lot of money every year by replicating digital assets that have previously been created because employees are overriding their work without even realizing it.

This problem can be solved by implementing a DAM system that maintains digital asset version control automatically. By version control, we imply that each change to a digital asset should be recorded as a new version in order to preserve history and trace the production process through time.

What is digital asset management strategy?

Digital asset management strategy is a process of managing digital assets in an organized fashion. This can be done by using various tools and software. The process of using these tools and software allows a company to be more productive, collaborative, and secure.

What is the purpose of a digital asset management system?

The purpose of a digital asset management system is to make it easier for content creators to store, manage, and access their digital assets. It can be used by any individual, company or organization that needs to store and manage large amounts of files.

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