Who uses digital asset management software (DAM)? Is DAM the right solution for your company? In this article, we take a closer look at which industries use digital asset management, and the benefit of adopting a DAM solution.
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Digital asset management software is a cloud-based solution that enables companies to store, organize, find and use their digital assets. Stored in a centralized location, DAM enables your team to securely access images from anywhere, at any time. DAM also streamlines workflows and helps you collaborate across the organization.
Digital asset management improves brand consistency by ensuring the entire organization has access to the most recent, approved assets. You can archive old assets, and control who can access images both internally and externally.
Create efficiencies by reducing time spent searching for and managing digital assets. DAM software also improves workflows, so you&#;ll be able to spend more time on revenue-generating tasks.
Your company spends time and money creating images, digital assets and marketing collateral. DAM makes it easy to find and repurpose each asset, so you get the most out of your investment.
Companies rely on content, digital assets and high-quality images to showcase their work, drive leads and ultimately grow the bottom line. And in a digital-first environment, those assets are rapidly increasing. We surveyed 500 AEC firms, and 48% report having 20,000+ digital assets. Seventy-four percent say their firm will create more images this year than last year.
A dedicated DAM solution is critical to managing this large volume across the entire organization. To win new business, all teams need access to the best digital assets quickly and easily.
There are different types of DAM solutions, and it&#;s important to choose what&#;s best for your company. DAM software companies fall into two categories: brand-based DAMs and project-based DAMs.
You may be most familiar with brand-based DAM companies that are built for B2C organizations. Brand-based DAMs organize assets around brands or products.
The alternative is project-based DAM. Project-based DAM solutions, like OpenAsset, are built to store and organize assets for projects or properties and often work best for architecture, engineering, construction and real estate firms.
Both internal and external teams use DAM to collaborate, save time and reduce headaches. Internal teams use DAM to find the best, approved assets. They can also share those assets with external teams or agencies.
Marketers use digital asset management to store, organize and manage marketing collateral, including brand logos, whitepapers, sales slicks and images. They leverage DAM software to ensure that everyone in the organization can access the right digital assets, at the right time. Since everyone has access to the needed materials, DAM eliminates the need for marketing to be the middle man.
Marketing teams in the built world leverage project-based digital asset management solutions to store and organize project photos and respond to RFP requests. OpenAsset, the only project-based DAM company for the built world, even integrates with InDesign, further streamlining workflows for marketing teams that are under tight deadlines to complete proposals.
Sales and business development teams use digital asset management software to help close deals. With a sophisticated organizational structure, team members can find exactly what they are looking for when they have minimal time. They never have to ask marketing if images are approved to share, so they can spend more time making the final proposal or presentation perfect.
Business development teams for architecture, engineering and construction firms benefit more if they&#;re leveraging a project-based DAM. Winning new projects often comes down to pulling together the most relevant information for proposals, and having assets organized by project simplifies efforts.
Information technology (IT) teams keep the company running smoothly. However, this can be difficult when images are clogging up the server and team members, often marketers, are continuously asking them to fix broken links.
Digital asset management solutions solve this issue by storing images in the cloud, freeing up internal servers. DAM software also reduces the amount of time IT spends fixing broken links or giving team members access to the correct folders.
Many industries use digital asset management to store and organize their assets. Let&#;s look at a few and the different benefits DAM provides.
Manufacturing companies leverage DAM to access images, collaborate across the organization, improve operations and optimize workflows.
As manufacturers launch new products, they need a system for approved images and assets so the marketing teams can create campaigns quickly. They&#;re able to empower their team members and strengthen their brand through a library that enables search by SKU and product IDs.
A retail organization that uses digital asset management software is able to stay on brand and consistent across all channels. These companies typically leverage brand-based DAM solutions to store, organize and manage their materials across departments and teams.
Federal, state, and local government agencies have a plethora of digital assets they need to manage including images, videos, documents and official forms. A digital asset management system helps these agencies keep track of all their digital files in one place with data security. It can also help them share files internally and with the public.
In the healthcare industry, hospitals and clinics need to manage digital medical records, X-rays, and other images for example. They also need to be able to share files securely with patients and their families.
In education, digital asset management examples include keeping track of student records, transcripts, and ID photos, and sharing digital resources with students and teachers.
Architects rely on beautiful photography to showcase their projects in marketing collateral and proposals to win new business. But managing an ever-growing image library can be time-consuming and frustrating. Project-based DAMs, like OpenAsset, allow firms to store their images in a cloud-based solution and organize them by project. DAM ensures assets are easy to find when firms receive last-minute proposal requests and ensures the firm is only showcasing its best work. In addition, digital asset management helps architecture firms maximize their photography investment and repurpose their images.
Learn how architecture firms, like Foster + Partners, leverage digital asset management to create photo libraries available to staff anywhere, anytime here.
Like architects, engineers rely on project photos to win more business. DAM allows engineers to easily find images, improve efficiency and boost productivity. DAM solutions like OpenAsset integrate with ERP and CRM systems, allowing firms to retain a single source of truth and push data into OpenAsset. For example, Dewberry integrated their OpenAsset system with Deltek Vision, allowing them to easily find product information via OpenAsset search.
Digital asset management also solves time and cost challenges for construction firms. Our research shows that nearly 75% of firms currently leverage a DAM solution to manage their growing image library. Ninety-two percent of those firms report an increase in overall efficiency.
Some DAM solutions integrate with Construction Management Platforms to streamline workflows and strengthen collaboration. Follow the link to see how JHL Constructors leverages the OpenAsset-Procore integration to empower their marketing teams with prioritized project photos.
Your company needs digital asset management software if you have a growing image or digital asset library, and your images aren&#;t easily accessible.
Here&#;s a quick checklist to help you evaluate if DAM software could help your organization. If you can answer &#;yes&#; to any of the below, your company needs DAM.
Once you&#;ve identified that your company needs DAM software, it&#;s time to make a business case for your leadership team. We&#;ve created a guide to making your digital asset management business case to make that process easier. It covers how to get the buy-in, shows who uses digital asset management software and showcases your return on investment. You can download it for free here.
OpenAsset is the only project-based DAM solution built for architecture, engineering and construction firms. If you&#;re interested in learning more, let&#;s chat!
Water is one of our most precious resources; our lives depend on it. Throughout the history of humankind, people have built dams to maximize use of this vital resource.
Dams provide a life-sustaining resource to people in all regions of the United States. They are an extremely important part of this nation&#;s infrastructure&#;equal in importance to bridges, roads, airports, and other major elements of the infrastructure. They can serve several functions at once, including water supply for domestic, agricultural, industrial, and community use; flood control; recreation; and clean, renewable energy through hydropower.
As populations have grown and moved to arid or flood-prone locations, the need for dams has increased.
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Renewable, clean energy: According to the U.S. Department of Energy, in , hydropower accounted for more than 7% of U.S. electricity generation and nearly 37% of U.S. renewable electricity generation.
Flood control: Dams built with the assistance of the Natural Resources Conservation Service provide an estimated $1.7 billion in annual benefits in reduced flooding and erosion damage, recreation, water supplies, and wildlife habitat. Dams owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority produce electricity and prevent an average of about $280 million in flood damage each year.
Water storage: Dams create reservoirs that supply water for a multitude of uses, including fire control, irrigation, recreation, domestic and industrial water supply, and more.
Irrigation: Ten percent of American cropland is irrigated using water stored behind dams.
Navigation: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers navigation projects in the U.S. serve 41 states, maintain 12,000 miles of channels, carry 15% of U.S. freight carried by inland waterways, operate 275 locks, and maintain 926 harbors.
Recreation: Dams provide prime recreational facilities throughout the U.S. Ten percent of the U.S. population visits at least one U.S. Army Corps of Engineers facility each year.
The purpose of a dam is to impound (store) water, wastewater or liquid borne materials for any of several reasons, such as flood control, human water supply, irrigation, livestock water supply, energy generation, containment of mine tailings, recreation, or pollution control. Many dams fulfill a combination of the above functions.
Manmade dams may be classified according to the type of construction material used, the methods used in construction, the slope or cross-section of the dam, the way the dam resists the forces of the water pressure behind it, the means used for controlling seepage and, occasionally, according to the purpose of the dam.
The materials used for construction of dams include earth, rock, tailings from mining or milling, concrete, masonry, steel, timber, miscellaneous materials (such as plastic or rubber) and any combination of these materials.
Embankment Dam
Forces Acting on an Embankment Dam
Gravity Dam
Forces Acting on a Concrete Gravity Dam
Buttress Dam
Forces Acting on a Buttress Dam
Arch Dam
Forces Acting on an Arch Dam
Types of Dams
Embankment Dams: Embankment dams are the most common type of dam in use today. Materials used for embankment dams include natural soil or rock, or waste materials obtained from mining or milling operations. An embankment dam is termed an &#;earthfill&#; or &#;rockfill&#; dam depending on whether it is comprised of compacted earth or mostly compacted or dumped rock. The ability of an embankment dam to resist the reservoir water pressure is primarily a result of the mass weight, type and strength of the materials from which the dam is made.
Concrete Dams: Concrete dams may be categorized according to the designs used to resist the stress due to reservoir water pressure. Three common types of concrete dams are: gravity, buttress and arch.
Gravity: Concrete gravity dams are the most common form of concrete dam. The mass weight of concrete and friction resist the reservoir water pressure. Gravity dams are constructed of vertical blocks of concrete with flexible seals in the joints between the blocks.
Buttress: A buttress dam is a specific type of gravity dam in which the large mass of concrete is reduced, and the forces are diverted to the dam foundation through vertical or sloping buttresses.
Arch: Concrete arch dams are typically rather thin in cross-section. The reservoir water forces acting on an arch dam are carried laterally into the abutments.The shape of the arch may resemble a segment of a circle or an ellipse, and the arch may be curved in the vertical plane as well. Such dams are usually constructed of a series of thin vertical blocks that are keyed together; barriers to stop water from flowing are provided between blocks. Variations of arch dams include multi-arch dams in which more than one curved section is used, and arch-gravity dams which combine some features of the two types of dams.
Because the purpose of a dam is to retain water effectively and safely, the water retention ability of a dam is of prime importance. Water may pass from the reservoir to the downstream side of a dam by any of the following:
Overtopping of an embankment dam is very undesirable because the embankment materials may be eroded away (See Video Example). Additionally, only a small number of concrete dams have been designed to be overtopped. Water normally passes through the main spillway or outlet works; it should pass over an auxiliary spillway only during periods of high reservoir levels and high water inflow. All embankment and most concrete dams have some seepage. However, it is important to control the seepage to prevent internal erosion and instability. Proper dam construction, and maintenance and monitoring of seepage provide this control.
Intentional release of water is confined to water releases through outlet works and spillways. A dam typically has a principal or mechanical spillway and a drawdown facility. Additionally, some dams are equipped with auxiliary spillways to manage extreme floods.
Outlet Works: In addition to spillways that ensure that the reservoir does not overtop the dam, outlet works may be provided so that water can be drawn continuously, or as needed, from the reservoir. They also provide a way to draw down the reservoir for repair or safety concerns. Water withdrawn may be discharged into the river below the dam, run through generators to provide hydroelectric power, or used for irrigation. Dam outlets usually consist of pipes, box culverts or tunnels with intake inverts near minimum reservoir level. Such outlets are provided with gates or valves to regulate the flow rate.
Spillways: The most common type of spillway is an ungated concrete chute. This chute may be located over the dam or through the abutment. To permit maximum use of storage volume, movable gates are sometimes installed above the crest to control discharge. Many smaller dams have a pipe and riser spillway, used to carry most flows, and a vegetated earth or rockcut spillway through an abutment to carry infrequent high flood flows. In dams such as those on the Mississippi River, flood discharges are of such magnitude that the spillway occupies the entire width of the dam and the overall structure appears as a succession of vertical piers supporting movable gates. High arch-type dams in rock canyons usually have downstream faces too steep for an overflow spillway. In Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, for example, a shaft spillway is used. In shaft spillways, a vertical shaft upstream from the dam drains water from the reservoir when the water level becomes high enough to enter the shaft or riser; the vertical shaft connects to a horizontal conduit through the dam or abutment into the river below.
The National Inventory of Dams (NID) has catalogued the more than 90,000 dams on America's waterways according to their hazard classification. Hazard classification is determined by the extent of damage a failure would cause downstream, with high-hazard potential dams resulting in loss of life and significant-hazard potential indicating a failure would not necessarily cause a loss of life, but could result in significant economic losses. As you can see on this map from the NID, there are numerous dams across America and ensuring their safety is a critical goal.
Safety is key to the effectiveness of a dam. Dam failures can be devastating for the dam owners, to the dam&#;s intended purpose and, especially, for downstream populations and property. Property damage can range in the thousands to billions of dollars. No price can be put on the lives that have been lost and could be lost in the future due to dam failure. Failures know no state boundaries&#;inundation from a dam failure could affect several states and large populations.
Early in this century, as many dams failed due to lack of proper engineering and maintenance, it was recognized that some form of regulation was needed. One of the earliest state programs was enacted in California in the s. Federal agencies, such as the Corps of Engineers and the Department of Interior, Bureau of Reclamation built many dams during the early part of the twentieth century and established safety standards during this time. Slowly, other states began regulatory programs. But it was not until the string of significant dam failures in the s that awareness was raised to a new level among the states and the federal government.
Today, every state except Alabama has a dam safety regulatory program. State governments have regulatory responsibility for 70% of the approximately 90,000 dams within the National Inventory of Dams. These programs vary in authority but, typically, the program activities include:
There are several federal government agencies involved with dam safety. Together, these federal agencies are responsible for five percent of the dams in the U.S. They construct, own and operate, regulate or provide technical assistance and research for dams. Included in this list are the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, Energy, Interior, Labor and State (International Boundary and Water Commission), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Tennessee Valley Authority. The Federal Emergency Management Agency administers the National Dam Safety Program, a program established by law in to coordinate the federal effort through the Interagency Committee on Dam Safety, to assist state dam safety programs through financial grants, and to provide research funding and coordination of technology transfer.
Federal agency representatives make up about 16% of the ASDSO membership. About 14% of dams in the USA are owned or regulated by federal agencies.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), part of the Department of Homeland Security, does not own or regulate dams itself but administers the National Dam Safety Program, which coordinates all federal dam safety programs and assists states in improving their dam safety regulatory programs. The Office of Infrastructure Protection, also within the Department of Homeland Security, leads a coordinated national program to reduce risks to the nation's critical infrastructure, including dams, posed by acts of terrorism.
Federal agencies involved with dam safety, either as owners and/or regulators, include the following:
Together the agencies listed above make up the Interagency Committee on Dam Safety (ICODS), overseen by FEMA as head of the National Dam Safety Program.
Other federal agencies that stay involved with ASDSO and the dam safety community are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), National Weather Service and the U.S. Geological Survey.
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