The Problem
Computers store files in folders. Just like any file system, the fewer the files and folders the easier files are to file and retrieve. Files and folders work great when users understand the organizational approach but when files are used by many users, the traditional approach breaks down.

Solutions
Confronted with the ever increasing needs of users to be able to access, retrieve. and protect files software developers have developed software that extends the basic functions provided by computer operating systems.

Document Management
Contrary to what you might think, software developers first tried to address the file management needs of business users. Business users typically work with documents - Word files, spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations - mostly documents containing textual and numeric format information. Document management typically refers to the management of these kinds of documents. Once 'nice thing' about working with textual information is that you can enable users to search all of the text of the file, the same way a search engine searches the textual information of web pages. Full text search can be very helpful but deliver too many 'false positives'.

Digital Asset Management
Digital asset management typically refers to the management of creative files such as pictures, advertisements, audio files (for example, radio spots), video files (for example, flash animations, tv commercials), brochures, flyers, signs, etc. Often these files are in special formats that do not contain machine readable textual information such as an online banner advertisement. To enable users to catalog digital assets, systems provide 'profiles' or 'meta data' - information about the files that can be searched and retrieved.

Document Management Versus Digital Asset Management - 'Visualizing' the difference
The simplest way to show the difference between digital asset management and document management is to compare what you see as a user. Document management users typically see files displayed with their file name, author and type whereas digital asset management users see graphical thumbnails of the files. For this reason document management systems typically make poor digital asset management systems, and vice versa.

Marketing Asset Management
The term marketing asset management is a rather specialized term that you will probably only encounter during a 'deep dive' into document and digital asset management technologies. Where document management systems are optimized around business documents, digital asset management systems are designed around creative assets. Marketers have to manage both documents and digital assets. Marketing asset management software therefore includes many of the features of both types of systems. For example, a marketing asset management software can see both graphical thumbnails of files as well as file names, author, etc.

Marketing asset management takes digital asset management beyond cataloging and retrieval MarketingPilot, for example, adds a number of marketing-centric features:

• Routing and approval
• Mark up
• Workflow
• Transformations