Your organisation invested in a digital asset management (DAM) system. You spent months evaluating platforms, migrating files, organising folders and metadata, and training employees.
The system is live. The assets are there. Everything should be running smoothly.
Except there's one problem.
Your marketing team is still sharing files through Google Drive. Sales keeps asking for images via email. And half the organisation doesn't even know where to find the DAM.
Sound familiar?
Part 3 of our Why Your DAM Isn't Working series — exploring the common problems that prevent organisations from getting the full value of their digital asset management investment.
It's one of the most frustrating situations for organisations that have invested in digital asset management. The technology is in place, but people continue working the way they always have.
And the natural reaction is to ask: Why won't people just use the system?
But perhaps that's the wrong question.
A better question is: What's stopping people from using it?
The short answer is that people use the tools that make their jobs easiest.
SharePoint, Google Drive and shared folders are familiar. Employees know where to click, how to share a link and how to find the files they've saved themselves.
A DAM system might offer far more powerful capabilities, but if using it feels slower, more complicated or unfamiliar, people will naturally return to their existing tools.
This doesn't necessarily mean your DAM software is inadequate.
It may mean the system hasn't been successfully integrated into the way your organisation works.
Let's look at seven common reasons why DAM adoption struggles.
One of the biggest mistakes organisations make is treating DAM implementation as a technical exercise.
The project focuses on selecting software, configuring permissions, migrating assets and making sure everything works.
Then comes the launch announcement:
Our new digital asset management system is now available!
And everyone is expected to start using it.
But changing technology doesn't automatically change behaviour.
Employees have established habits, preferred tools and ways of collaborating. If those habits aren't addressed during implementation, the DAM can become another system alongside the ones people already use.
Treat DAM adoption as an organisational change initiative.
Before and after launch, consider:
Successful adoption starts with understanding people, not just configuring software.
Management may have approved the DAM investment to improve brand consistency, governance, efficiency or compliance.
Those are important organisational benefits.
But they aren't necessarily the things that motivate an individual employee.
A salesperson might simply want the latest product brochure.
A designer wants to find approved photography without searching through dozens of folders.
A communications officer needs confidence that an image can legally be published.
If employees don't understand how the DAM makes these everyday tasks easier, they have little reason to change their habits.
Communicate the benefits in terms of specific jobs and frustrations.
Rather than saying:
The DAM will improve organisational efficiency and digital asset governance.
Try:
Need the latest approved product images? Find them in one place without asking marketing.
Or:
Not sure whether you can use that photograph? Check its usage information before publishing.
Show employees how the DAM solves their problems, not just the organisation's.
Imagine an employee needs an image for a presentation.
They have two options:
Option A: Open a familiar shared folder, locate the image and download it.
Option B: Log into the DAM, navigate an unfamiliar interface, work out which search terms to use, apply filters and determine which version is correct.
Even if Option B is technically more sophisticated, employees may choose Option A.
This is particularly common when DAM systems have been configured around the needs of administrators rather than everyday users.
Complicated metadata, confusing folder structures, excessive permissions and poorly organised collections can all create friction.
Test the DAM using real tasks with real users.
Ask someone who isn't involved in administering the system to:
Watch what happens.
If employees struggle with these basic tasks, the problem may be usability rather than resistance to change.
Sometimes relatively small adjustments to metadata, collections, permissions or search configuration can make a substantial difference.
For a deeper look at this issue, read our article Why Can't Anyone Find Anything in Your DAM?
Here's a common scenario.
Your organisation launches a DAM and migrates thousands of images, videos and documents into it.
But the original files remain in SharePoint, Google Drive or shared network folders.
Employees can still access them.
New versions continue appearing in multiple locations.
Eventually, nobody is quite sure which system contains the latest approved file.
The organisation now has more places to search than before implementing DAM.
The problem isn't that SharePoint or Google Drive exist. It's that nobody has defined which system is responsible for what.
SharePoint and Google Drive are useful collaboration platforms. They serve legitimate purposes, including document creation, team collaboration and everyday file sharing.
A DAM serves a different purpose: managing, organising, governing and distributing approved digital assets for reuse.
These systems can coexist successfully, but their roles need to be clear.
Establish a simple set of rules.
For example:
| System | Primary purpose |
|---|---|
| SharePoint or Google Drive | Working documents, team collaboration and drafts |
| DAM | Approved images, videos, brand assets and reusable content |
| CMS or publishing tools | Publishing approved content to websites and other channels |
The exact arrangement will depend on your organisation.
The important thing is that employees understand where assets belong and which system is the authoritative source.
Where appropriate, integrations and shared links can help people access DAM assets without duplicating files across multiple platforms.
For a closer look at how these platforms can work together, read our article DAM vs SharePoint: What's the Difference and When Do You Need Both?
Many DAM implementations include an initial training session.
Employees attend a demonstration, learn the basics and receive a recording or user guide.
Then everyone returns to their normal workload.
Three months later, a new employee joins. Another team member has forgotten how to use the system. Someone encounters a problem and discovers it's easier to ask a colleague for the file.
Gradually, old habits return.
This isn't unusual. Learning a new system requires repetition, particularly when employees don't use it every day.
Think of DAM training as an ongoing process rather than a launch activity.
Consider introducing:
Most importantly, make it easy for employees to ask questions and get help.
A five-minute explanation at the right time can be more valuable than a lengthy training session six months earlier.
Many of these challenges can be avoided by planning user adoption during DAM implementation, rather than treating training as a final project milestone.
During implementation, there's usually a project manager, implementation partner or dedicated team driving progress.
But what happens when the project ends?
Who checks whether employees are using the system?
Who reviews feedback?
Who notices that a department has quietly returned to shared folders?
Who makes improvements when workflows aren't working?
If nobody owns these responsibilities, DAM adoption can gradually lose momentum.
This is why DAM governance needs to extend beyond permissions, metadata and asset management.
Clear ownership is part of effective DAM governance, which helps keep your asset library reliable and useful over time.
It also needs to include people and processes.
Assign clear ownership for ongoing DAM success.
Depending on the size of the organisation, this might involve a DAM administrator, a digital asset manager, a marketing operations team or a cross-functional governance group.
Their responsibilities should include monitoring adoption, gathering feedback, coordinating training and identifying opportunities for improvement.
And don't measure success only by how many assets have been uploaded.
A library containing 100,000 files isn't necessarily successful if employees aren't using them.
Even when employees understand the benefits of DAM, they may still avoid it if accessing assets interrupts their normal work.
Consider a designer working in Adobe Creative Cloud, a marketer building a webpage or a salesperson preparing a presentation.
If using DAM requires repeatedly switching applications, downloading files and manually uploading them somewhere else, the process can feel cumbersome.
Employees may decide it's easier to keep local copies or use shared folders.
Over time, this creates exactly the problem the DAM was supposed to solve: duplicate files, outdated versions and uncertainty about which assets are approved.
Look for opportunities to bring DAM into the tools employees already use.
Depending on your DAM platform, integrations may be available for design software, content management systems, collaboration platforms and other business applications.
But integration isn't always the answer.
Sometimes the solution is simply to redesign a workflow so that approved assets are easier to access and share.
The goal shouldn't be to force every employee to spend more time inside the DAM.
The goal should be to make the right assets available wherever people need them.
Low adoption isn't always obvious.
Your DAM administrator might see regular logins and new uploads, while employees continue using alternative systems for much of their everyday work.
Look for these warning signs:
If several of these sound familiar, your organisation may have an adoption problem rather than a software problem.
The good news is that poor adoption doesn't automatically mean you've chosen the wrong DAM platform. There are reasons your DAM isn't working.
In many cases, organisations can improve adoption by making better use of the technology they already own.
Before considering replacement software, start with a practical review.
Talk to employees across different departments.
Find out where they look for assets, which tools they prefer and what frustrates them about the DAM.
Avoid assuming that employees are simply unwilling to change.
Their workarounds may reveal genuine problems with the current setup.
Look for patterns in the feedback.
Are employees struggling with search? Are permissions too restrictive? Is training inadequate? Are approved assets missing?
Focus on the issues that have the greatest impact on everyday work.
Don't try to redesign the entire DAM at once.
Choose two or three common tasks that employees find frustrating and make them easier.
For example, create a straightforward way for sales teams to access current brochures, or simplify how marketing staff locate approved campaign imagery.
Once you've addressed the biggest frustrations, give people a reason to try again.
Demonstrate the improvements using familiar tasks.
Show what has changed and explain how it will save them time.
Monitor adoption over time.
Useful indicators may include active users, searches, downloads, shared assets, repeat usage and engagement across departments, depending on what your platform can report.
Combine these measures with employee feedback.
The real question isn't simply whether people are logging in.
It's whether the DAM is making it easier for them to find, manage and use digital assets.
One final point is worth emphasising.
The objective of digital asset management isn't necessarily to eliminate SharePoint, Google Drive or every other file-sharing tool.
Different systems have different strengths.
The objective is to create a reliable, well-governed source of approved digital assets that supports the way your organisation works.
When the DAM is easy to use, employees understand its value and workflows are clearly defined, adoption becomes much easier.
And when adoption improves, the organisation is better positioned to realise the benefits it originally invested in: less duplicated work, better brand consistency, improved control and greater reuse of existing content.
If your organisation has invested in digital asset management but employees are still relying on shared drives, the answer may not be another software purchase.
It may be time to review how your DAM has been implemented, configured and adopted.
At databasics, we help organisations across Australia and New Zealand get more value from their digital asset management systems.
From reviewing existing workflows and improving metadata to supporting governance, training and adoption, our DAM consulting services focus on making digital asset management work in practice.
Already have a DAM but not getting the results you expected?
Explore our DAM consulting services or talk to our team about what's getting in the way.