On his blog, Dominic Grzbielok (of Munich-based startup TargetVideo) tells the story of his search for a DAM system:

VerDAMmt schwer, die Suche nach einem Digital Asset Management-System

(The blog post is in German – the title translates to “It’s DAMned hard to search for a Digital Asset Management system”.)

He explains why it indeed is “terrible to shop for a DAM system”, as I had guessed in DAM, a market with no reviews or critics:

Requirements are complex, there’s tons of systems (he looked at 80 DAM products), the market is intransparent (reviews and public criticism are rare, apart from Ralph Windsor’s DAM News), analyst reports are expensive and it’s unclear whether you can trust them, and DAM consulting isn’t cheap either.

An excellent article and a rare insight into the DAM buying process from the customer’s point of view – don’t miss it if you can read German, or deal with the horrors of Google Translate.

Disclosure: Our company’s DAM system was one of the 80 products on Dominic’s list. In the end, they chose Cantemo Portal.