Too many assets all over the place? Emails and folders looking cluttered? Can’t really master organizing and storing your assets? Well, we’re here to help you find how you can really master your asset and brand game. 

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In today’s digital age, if managing and storing your brand assets and digital files is not done right it can quickly lead to inconsistency in brand identity — a nightmare for your brand and creative teams. 

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With ceaseless advancements in data and increasing demands of marketing professionals, most marketers stand at the crossroads of picking between Microsoft OneDrive and Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems as their asset management platform.

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In this article, we delve into the features, benefits, and limitations of both these prominent platforms and help you make an informed choice on the one that is aligned with your organization’s specific needs. 

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What is Microsoft OneDrive? 

Developed by the Microsoft team, OneDrive is a cloud storage solution that helps individuals store, share, and collaborate from any device. It is an online cloud service that helps you to store all files, saving space on physical devices. OneDrive comes pre-installed in most Windows computers and smartphones that are powered by Microsoft. 

What is digital asset management (DAM)? ‍

Digital asset management systems are designed to centralize, organize, store, and distribute digital assets, including images, videos, audio files, documents, and other creative content. For brands, digital asset management is great to store digital assets like images, videos, photographs, audio files, documents, and all other digital assets. Artwork Flow offers digital asset management system modules, including advanced metadata management and version control, making it a powerful creative automation tool for marketing, brand, and creative teams that enable in building streamlined workflows, efficient collaboration, and brand consistency.

Unlike other traditional storage systems, where all your assets are jumbled across different tabs, digital asset management software acts like a centralized hub where you can store, organize, and manage all your digital assets with the right naming and specification, allowing instant search for users.  Artwork Flow offers digital asset management system modules that are tailored to the specific needs of marketing, brand, and creative teams that enable in building streamlined workflows, efficient collaboration, and brand consistency.

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What are the features of Microsoft OneDrive? 

• Online storage: OneDrive offers you a personal storage facility of up to 1TB, with each file having a size limit of 100GB. You can also easily access them whenever needed. 
• Access from anywhere: OneDrive offers versatile capabilities giving you the freedom to edit and share files on the go on different devices. 
• Instant sharing and collaboration: OneDrive is great for sharing documents, images, and photographs, while allowing you to collaborate in real time. It also lets you easily collaborate with other applications that are offered as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. 
• Integrations: OneDrive is also deeply integrated with all of Microsoft Office applications enabling you to easily edit and save files directly from applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and much more. 
• Security: OneDrive provides robust security features, including encryption, two-factor authentication, and compliance with industry standards.

What are the features of digital asset management (DAM)? 

• Centralized asset management: All digital asset management software acts as a centralized repository to all your digital assets. A digital asset management software removes the mess of scattered files across multiple devices and keeps them all organized and unified on a single platform enabling easy access. 
• Advanced metadata management: Digital asset management systems allow users to add metadata to assets, such as tags, descriptions, keywords, and copyright information. This metadata improves searchability and ensures assets are correctly identified and used. For example, a designer can tag images with relevant keywords, making it easier to find the right assets for a specific campaign.
• Version control: Most digital assets management tools include version control features that help manage different versions of assets, preventing confusion and ensuring teams are using the most up-to-date content.
• Brand consistency: Most traditional software helps with storing creative content. At the same time, digital asset management systems help maintain brand consistency by offering tools to enforce brand guidelines and ensuring that only approved assets are used. This becomes crucial for marketing and brand professionals to maintain a consistent brand image across campaigns and channels.
• Automated workflows: Most digital asset management systems offer workflow automation features that help you to create workflows that help in asset approval, distribution, and publishing. For example, a growth marketing lead can set up an automated workflow to get image approvals from the designers before using them in a campaign.

What’s better for markets – OneDrive or DAM? 

While Microsoft OneDrive is a solid option for individual and small-scale file storage and sharing needs. It can be beneficial for marketing professionals working on simple projects like creating and editing documents together. 

While for marketing professionals who deal with a volume of creatives, a dedicated digital management system can be a superior choice. A DAM software is designed in such a way that it addresses the intricate needs of marketing and brand teams, offering a host of features like custom metadata, version control, advanced search, and so much more, including a robust Brand Compliance tool. A DAM system is much more efficient in helping you discover assets, improve collaboration, and increase brand consistency.

What are some limitations of using Microsoft OneDrive and digital asset management? 

Microsoft OneDrive

1. OneDrive acts as a more general file storage solution and does not offer the features compared to other digital asset management tools which can simplify the lives of marketing and creative professionals. 
2. OneDrive is not a very scalable solution, especially for organizations working with siloed or remote teams. The software is lacking when dealing with higher asset volumes which can bring about challenges in storing, organizing, or retrieval of assets. 

Digital asset management 

1. Some digital asset management software can turn out to be expensive  although this can be justified by the benefits they have to offer to teams. 
2. Implementing a digital asset management system can require some learning and adjustments.  

Finalizing your pick

When it comes to managing your digital assets, keeping track of everything can be a real challenge. While Microsoft OneDrive serves primarily for general file storage and sharing solutions, it does not necessarily address the needs of marketing professionals. For marketing and brand professionals who aim to streamline creative workflows, optimize collaboration, and ensure brand consistency a dedicated digital asset system turns out to be the clear winner. We understand that every business is unique and we offer a solution that caters to all the needs. Book a free demo and know how Artwork Flow can create a seamless workflow and unlock your brand’s creative potential. 

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