Digital Management of Printing and Publishing (II)

In fact, the use of external resources or internal DAM methods is not absolute. It depends on the specific users of the unit to do so because they believe that there is no great need for digital asset management and it is not worth establishing their own DAM system.

Second: Larger corporate organizations often need to establish their own DAM systems. However, due to the complexity of technologies, consultants need to be hired to do maintenance and management. In this situation, some prepress companies acted as advisors, working with customers to determine their DAM requirements: from the initial workflow to the type of system, the hardware and software required, and a training program; consultants also Should help customers obtain, inspect, install and test equipment. In some cases, it is often the first year that prepress companies provide professionals to manage the maintenance system. Later, these larger companies manage their own DAM systems.

Prepress companies can also enter into 2 to 3 year contracts with customers, of course, and establish and manage DAMs at customer sites in accordance with customer requirements. This DAM system mainly includes asset content management, scanning, proofing and output, and other specific services required by customers. Of course, this kind of cooperation with prepress companies to establish and manage DAM needs to pay the necessary expenses for prepress companies.

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The DAM system began to appear in the 1990s, but it has not been widely used. In the past 5 to 10 years, due to the lack of high-speed data processing infrastructure, but also due to expensive data storage costs and expensive software, the popularization and application of DAM systems have been hindered. Of course, in some large and medium-sized enterprises, DAM applications are still relatively common. Some large companies, their digital assets such as photographs, illustrations, engineering drawings, images, display slides, CDs, and documents are all very impressive in type and quantity, even more urgent than DAM demand in the printing and publishing industry. Promote use conditions. Generally speaking, commercial printers and publishers mostly belong to small and medium-sized enterprises. Most of them are also medium-level. They mainly configure medium-sized DAM systems; a few high-end publishers and printers may need higher-end DAM systems, depending on the Their work needs.

In recent years, foreign seminars on DAM technology have frequently been held. Several articles on DAM have been published, which shows that DAM is indeed a hot technology that is continuously developing. Related to DAM, there followed such things as content management. Information management, trademark management, knowledge management, network management, social management, copyright management and other new terms. In recent years, Beyond DAM, we have also developed new management technologies for enterprise content integration (ECI) that are applicable to large-scale institutional organizations. This is beyond the basics of printing and publishing industries that focus on the storage, retrieval, and access of digital assets. Claim.

Adopting the DAM system does bring many benefits to printing and publishing companies. In the past, it took a few hours to look for film and copy damaged film. Now it takes only 10 to 20 minutes to complete. Some printers estimate that they can save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. The use of the DAM system by larger printing houses and publishers is nothing new, but it is still difficult for smaller printers. A prepress manager said bluntly: “Small units can't make DAM because they don’t have technical resources, they can't afford to invest 500,000 dollars in hardware and software, they can’t afford to spend expensive management fees, and they can’t develop. Continue to invest."

In addition to expensive investment, there are many other issues that must be considered in establishing a DAM system. For example, how do you index your database? If the indexing method is not suitable at the beginning, it will bring a lot of trouble later and it will be difficult to correct. Then how do you manage your digital assets? How does it play its role? How does the copyright issue of the content stored in the DAM system be solved? In fact, who actually owns an image, who has the right to use it, and what are the consequences of misuse? How is the cost? You may also have questions about converting from print publishing to CD or Web multimedia publishing, how to do format conversion in DAM, how to ask customers to pay for fees, and of course database security issues throughout the world. All of these are not easily solved. Some industry insiders require the printing press to carefully consider, consider and reconsider before setting up the DAM system.

Of course, we must consider the issue of establishing a DAM system from a positive perspective. The application of DAM in the printing industry should continue to grow. The printing and publishing industry's commercial printers and publishers are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises. Most customers are also medium-level and are suitable for medium-sized DAM systems. Some industry insiders believe that the unit that feels that it is necessary to establish a DAM system may wish to consider the aforementioned first method. In this way, the investment and risks are not large. After accumulating experience, consider establishing a separate DAM system suitable for the needs.

It should be noted that the role of DAM in the printing and publishing industry will also continue to grow. According to industry analysts, the financial risks involved in the promotion and application of DAM are mainly found in the establishment of a large-scale DAM infrastructure; if it is initially targeted at some of the more basic DAM services, it does not actually require large investments. The key is to start as early as possible and may not have obvious benefits in the short term, but it does have real development potential through the improvement of internal production efficiency, while nurturing the technological power of its own units, and developing closer relationships with customers.