From Chaos to Clarity: A DAM Overhaul

How Quantious helped a global creative agency slash digital asset archival time from 4 weeks to 48 hours by transforming fractured workflows into a cohesive, compliant system.

At Quantious, we thrive on turning complexity into clarity, and that’s exactly what we did for one global creative agency client. Spanning over 11 independently operating teams, each with its own processes, preferred tools, and external partners, alignment was nearly impossible.

But by project wrap, what began as general support for Digital Asset Management (DAM) became a full-scale operational transformation. Quantious standardized workflows, aligned metadata and naming conventions, and unified siloed processes, bringing clarity and cohesion to an otherwise fragmented system.

The result? A repeatable, scalable, 48-hour archival process that once took up to four weeks.

The Challenge

With no consistent approach to asset management across teams, the client lost time, visibility, and sanity. Each team had its way of working, and the DAM system, while technically capable, wasn’t being used to its full potential. The client initially believed they needed a whole new DAM system. But as we dug in, it became clear: the problem wasn’t the platform; it was how it was being managed. The real fix wasn’t replacement, but revitalization.

Quantious wasn’t brought in to start from scratch; we were brought in to improve everything.

Instead of forcing new tools or ripping out what was already in place, we developed a strategy that fit and flexed within the client’s existing systems. Our goal was to design a scalable order that, within the real-world constraints of a live environment, respected how people already worked while also creating alignment and clarity across the board.

Specifically, we were brought in to:

• Manage all DAM intake across departments

• Gather, manage, and upload final assets with complete metadata

• Build and maintain job archives post-project

• Modify DAM functionality and metadata structures to reflect both system and team needs

• Ensure accuracy and consistency across all metadata fields

• Create and manage custom portals for global distribution, both internally and externally

• Manage permissions and access for both internal stakeholders and external collaborators

The goal wasn’t just order, it was empowerment.

Our Approach

27 portals. 23 asset groups. Over 125,000 assets. 

All managed by Quantious.

We didn’t impose a rigid system. We designed flexible standards.

Quantious created a modular, team-aware file naming convention that respected how each department worked while enabling cross-functional integration. We developed custom portals for each team and individual collections of each project to reduce confusion and increase searchability.

To ensure deep adoption, we went beyond setup: we supported change.

This wasn’t just a system rollout, it was a full change management effort. We guided behavior shifts and provided the clarity and support needed to adopt the new way of working. We led:

• Weekly office hours to support team questions and troubleshoot live

• 1:1 sessions with each team to understand their workflows and make sure our solution worked for their unique needs

• A multi-team roadshow to educate, align, and energize around the new DAM process

• Internal documentation to track everything we managed, all 27 portals, 23 asset groups, 125,000+ assets, access codes, and more.

• Educational resources to reinforce new standards and ensure team alignment, including a file naming convention guide and master asset spreadsheet template with detailed instructions.

Behind the scenes, we completely restructured the metadata framework, redefining field names, dropdown options, and logic to reflect the way each team works. We conducted a full asset audit, identifying missing or inconsistent metadata and closing the gaps to ensure every asset was properly tagged, searchable, and compliant.

Everything was built with scalability in mind. If the client ever changed DAM platforms, they’d be able to transition seamlessly to a new platform.

The Impact

It wasn’t always smooth, but the outcome was seamless, scalable, and built to last.

What once took 4 weeks now takes as little as 24 hours, depending on asset and data readiness and team coordination.

Even better, the system was designed and documented with future-proofing in mind, ensuring smooth transitions between tools, vendors, and platforms. Backed by strategy and built on trust, our approach helped every team do more without adding complexity or overhead.

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