Summary
- The design team struggled with time-consuming asset management tasks, impeding their efficiency and productivity.
- Integrated DAM with Adobe Creative Cloud, significantly reducing asset management time and streamlining the design process.
- Realized a 60% increase in capacity, with a 33% improvement in efficiency per hour and a 50% increase in the number of design files produced.
- Enabled the team to handle a workload increase of 59%, contributing to the business's resilience and modest revenue growth in a challenging economic environment.
Problem
The business, amidst a strong average revenue growth rate of 62% year-over-year (YoY) over the past three years, faced significant operational and economic challenges. Inflationary pressures were driving up production costs, eroding already thin margins. Compounding this issue was a 2% reduction in active customers, which, despite an improvement in Average Revenue Per Customer (ARPC), led to a 34% reduction in the rate of revenue growth. The strategic response to these challenges involved two main objectives: restoring profitability by offsetting margin losses and slowing revenue growth, and enhancing customer engagement. This strategy required a reduction in operational costs through the consolidation of operations and an expansion of the product portfolio to improve market penetration.
One of the critical operational challenges lay in the inefficient use of Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems by the design team. Designers were spending 5-10 hours per week on asset management for each design, a significant drain on productivity. The process was complicated by the need to manage multiple images for hundreds of designs each week, with designers having to navigate between the DAM, their local resource libraries, and another shared resource library. The inefficiency was further exacerbated by the CMS team's avoidance of the DAM for certain image types in favor of the shared resource library. The DAM system itself was underutilized by designers as it did not store images resized for designs, leading to a cumbersome process of searching and downloading assets from multiple locations. Each design project necessitated the creation of a new folder structure containing resource copies and versions. Additionally, the unreliability of metadata within the DAM required a separate workflow for tagging assets correctly, further complicating the designers’ workflow. These operational inefficiencies not only increased workload but also hindered the team’s capacity to support the new strategic initiatives aimed at reducing costs and improving customer engagement.
Solution
To address the challenge of inefficient asset management in the design process, a strategic solution was implemented to integrate the Digital Asset Management (DAM) system with creative tooling, specifically Adobe Creative Cloud (Adobe CC). This initiative aimed to streamline the workflow, reduce the time spent on asset management, and enhance design efficiency.
Streamlining Design Workflow through DAM Integration:
- Leveraging System Tools for Efficiency: The primary focus was on reducing the design effort by utilizing existing system tools more effectively. This involved assessing the current asset management process and identifying areas where system tools could alleviate the workload. The disproportionate amount of time spent on finding, downloading, renaming, resizing, and uploading files was identified as a key area for improvement.
- Seamless DAM and Adobe CC Integration: A crucial part of the solution was the seamless integration of the DAM system with Adobe Creative Cloud. This integration was designed to provide designers with direct access to digital assets within their creative environment, eliminating the need for multiple steps in asset management. By enabling designers to access and manipulate assets directly in Adobe CC, the integration significantly streamlined the design process.
- Documenting Spec Requirements and Tailoring Integration: To ensure the integration met the diverse needs of various design projects, a thorough process of collecting and documenting spec requirements for each design type was undertaken. This detailed understanding of design requirements allowed for the customization of the DAM integration, ensuring it was fit for purpose and catered to the specific needs of different projects and design types.
- Implementing Necessary Changes in DAM and Processes: The integration required a series of changes in the DAM system and other related processes. These changes were meticulously planned and implemented, focusing on enhancing the usability of the DAM system for the design team. Modifications included adjusting the DAM system to better align with the workflows in Adobe CC and ensuring that file formats and sizes were optimized for direct use in the design software.
Enhanced Design Efficiency and Productivity:
As a result of this strategic integration, the design team experienced a substantial reduction in the effort and time required for managing digital assets. The direct access to assets within their primary creative tool significantly reduced the steps involved in asset management, allowing designers to focus more on the creative aspects of their work. The efficiency gained from this integration led to an improvement in both the quality and speed of design outputs. By streamlining the asset management component of design work, the solution directly contributed to an increase in design capacity, enabling the team to better support the expanding scope of business initiatives.
Results
Increased Workload Managed Efficiently: Despite a modest increase of 6% in workforce size, the design team faced a substantial workload increase of 59%, primarily due to the launch of new product initiatives and the expansion of the North American market. This situation set a challenging capacity target of 54% for the team.
Notable Enhancements in Key Performance Indicators (KPIs):
- Capacity Boost: The team's capacity increased by 60%, a remarkable achievement given the static turnover rates. Approximately half of this improvement can be directly attributed to the operational changes made, particularly the DAM and creative tools integration.
- Efficiency Gains: The integration resulted in each hour of project work being 33% more efficient compared to the previous year. The active design time required per project was notably reduced from 6.51 hours to 4.35 hours. Similarly, the time spent on finalizing designs saw a decrease from 42 minutes per asset to 28 minutes per asset.
- Productivity Surge: The efficiency gains, both direct and indirect, led to a significant increase in productivity. In the following year, the design team managed to produce approximately 85,076 design files, representing a 50% increase in output per designer compared to the previous year.
Strategic Impact on the Business: The operational improvements played a pivotal role in positioning the client to successfully navigate challenging macroeconomic conditions. Despite a general downturn in the market, characterized by a 25% decrease in Year-over-Year (YoY) revenue growth rates and a 5% drop in revenue efficiency (ARPC), the business recorded a YoY revenue increase of 1%. This performance was commendable, especially against the backdrop of a declining marketplace. Notably, active customer numbers rose by 5%. The business's strategic focus on product innovation paid dividends, retaining and attracting more engaged customers who spent significantly above the 7-year average. Additionally, the investment in reducing production costs is expected to yield substantial benefits in more favorable economic times.