Workflow within a digital asset management system can make interaction with the system and its collaborators significantly more comfortable and effective. Here's a couple scenarios to demonstrate what I mean.
Simple Scenario
The first is a simple scenario. A company digital asset management policy states that all images must have metadata. The ensures they're easy to find and also has the required information about the image once it is found. Here images first uploaded are set with a New workflow status. That status changes to Partial and Data Complete along the way.
Then when the original uploader or another team member edits the metadata, they set its workflow status to Partial Data or Data Complete. The simple but useful aspect of this workflow is that images can be added and nobody needs to be pecking around for images that don't have data entered.
Workflow in 3 Stages:
Stage 1: All newly added images automatically have the New workflow status applied.
Image Workflow Status: New.
Stage 2: Enter data and mark it as either Partial Data or Data Complete.
Image Workflow Status: Partial Data.
Stage 3: Once all data for an image is entered, it moves to Data Complete. In some scenarios these images would then be moved to some type of published folder.
Image Workflow Status: Data Complete.
Strictly speaking, DAM systems don't necessarily have to have data keyed. It can come from a number of sources, such as AI object recognition, it's folder name, it's collection name, address info auto populated based on GPS stamps, etc., all which DBGallery supports. But even then, the New images should be set as Data Complete once they're moved to the appropriate folder or collection, indicating they are ready for the general use within the system.
This example is very typically of individuals and small teams, but can be a part of a larger teams add-tag-ready means of ensuring images are tagged with data. And of course a properly tagged collection is worth 10 times one that isn't.
Complex Scenario
A fuller, more complex scenario would look something like the following. Your team creates a complex piece of work, such as a multi-layered vector graphic that needs to be approved by a client. For that, a workflow system must support the following workflow states over time. It utilizes four other aspects of an advanced digital asset management system: Event Notifications, Annotations, Version Control, and Workflows. DBGallery supports all of these, of course, and the scenario below was taken directly from one its customer's workflow scenarios.
Stage 0: The client uploads a new requirements document. The creative team receives an email notification, reviews the requirements, and gets their team to work.
As a side note, within DBGallery the creative team and the client subscribe to specific notifications with DBGallery. In this case, they subscribe to new files being added and workflow status changes. The subscription means that each time one of those events occur and emails is sent to the subscriber.
Stage 1: Someone on the create team uploads their new image file.
Image Workflow Status: New.
Stage 2: The client automatically receives a notification that a new file was added to their project folder. This notification was setup by the customer having subscribed to new files added to that folder.
Image Workflow Status: New.
Stage 3: The client reviews the file and scribbles a few annotations across the image indicating what needs to be adjusted. These are supplemented with text comments associated with the image on the same page the annotations are made. They set the workflow status to Requires Adjustment. This annotated image is saved as a new version of the original image.
Image Workflow Status: Requires Adjustment.
Stage 4: The creative team receives a notification that a file's workflow status has now changed to Requires Adjustment. They receive this message due to subscribing to workflow status changes in their client's project folder. They make adjustments after reviewing the annotations and comments. They upload a new version of the file, setting the workflow to Client Review Requested.
Image Workflow Status: Client Review Requested.
Stage 5: The client receives another automatic notification when the workflow status has changed. They click on a link in the notification email to open the image. They open the versions sidebar, choose their annotated version, and do side-by-side comparison of their annotated request against the newest image. This time they're totally in love with the team's impressive work! The client sets the workflow status to Approved.
Image Workflow Status: Approved.
Stage 6: The creative team gets notified of this status change and sets the final workflow status to Complete. In this case, approved alone isn't quite enough to consider it finalized because the team has post-approval steps to carry out once approved by clients, hence the need for this final workflow status.
Image Workflow Status: Complete.
Summary
Real life scenarios can vary from both of these. At times a larger number of groups may be collaboring, requiring different steps. Anything but simple scenarios would often utilize all the above advanced digital asset management capabilities: a defined workflow, annnotations, automatted status change notifications, and versioning as files change. DBGallery fits beautiful into any of these scenarios, allowing you to define the workflow that fits your situation. It is flexible enough to adjust as a team requires.