When Birmingham Museums Trust wanted to improve its management of digital assets, their Digital Development Manager turned to us.
Mapped the creation and use of digital assets
Birmingham Museums Trust holds a range of digital assets across its nine sites – not only photographs and films, but 3D scans, X-rays and spectrography, oral histories, exhibition software and more. As well as assessing current systems and processes, we identified current and future storage needs.
The pace of digital asset creation is only accelerating. We ensured that BMT ‘future-proofed’ their thinking, considering the impact of the explosion in 3D scanning technology and the need for future accession of digital artwork.
Shaped a vision and business case
Through a workshop we involved senior stakeholders in creating a vision for digital asset management. This was based on key strategic drivers including reputation and public access, sustainability in a context of decreased funding, corporate memory and collections preservation.
Our business case identified potential staff time savings that could cover the cost of a DAM system.
Next steps
Our report included a detailed brief for potential suppliers of a DAMS – making it easy for BMT to move on to procurement.
Alongside this we offered a roadmap for implementation, highlighting the wider actions – including IP management, information standards and resourcing – needed to make the DAMS a success.
