DAM vs OneDrive: Which is Better and Why?

A cloud storage service such as OneDrive has changed how we store, share, and collaborate online. But as technology evolves, that’s not enough anymore. When it comes to content for creative firms and marketing departments, just being able to store files for later access is insufficient. Businesses now have more assets and are generating content faster, necessitating a more effective solution. The importance of workflow and collaboration requirements, version management, and minimizing the time necessary to generate and edit information cannot be overstated. Therefore, ioMoVo digital asset management software offers a comprehensive option for people who want more capabilities in managing content than cloud storage currently offers. ioMoVo is a cloud-based digital asset management solution (DAM) that makes organizing digital assets for your company much easier. So, let’s understand all the differences between OneDrive and DAM solutions to make things easier for you.

1. What is Digital Asset Management?
2. Benefits of DAM Solutions
3. What is OneDrive?
4. Benefits of OneDrive
5. What’s the Difference Between DAM and OneDrive?
6. DAM vs OneDrive: Feature Comparison
7. Which One to Choose: DAM vs. OneDrive?
8. Conclusion

What is Digital Asset Management? 

As a core component of the media content development process, digital asset management (DAM) systems help teams organize, collaborate, and distribute their digital assets from one central location. Providing a single source of truth for all important content within an organization, DAMs reduce internal bottlenecks and improve brand consistency. A DAM also gives users the ability to manage any sort of digital material (videos, 3D files, papers, etc.) inside the system and carry out a number of useful tasks. These features include media resizing and formatting, activity tracking, metadata management, auto-tagging, file conversions, caption burning, and much more.

Benefits of DAM Solutions

1. Easy Access to Digital Assets

Finding, accessing, retrieving, and using all digital assets with ease from a single point of entry is the main advantage of DAM. A DAM makes sure that all files are properly indexed, and metadata is structured so that they may be later found and retrieved quickly. Even if you are unable to recall a specific file's name, you may still do a search using several criteria, including tags, descriptions, categories, content in the indexed documents, and more.

2. Use Your Assets Everywhere

You can link and integrate with nearly any other tool, including Microsoft 365 (OneDrive and SharePoint), using plugins and an open API! You may use ioMoVo right out of the box to add graphics or photos to a PowerPoint presentation and feel secure knowing that these files are valid for usage. You can also access and modify a file from Box, Google Drive, Amazon’s AWS, and others inside of ioMoVo.

3. Share and Collaborate on Assets

Share assets with coworkers or outside parties. Decide the level of permission these guests should have, such as if they should be allowed to download or only see the content. Share assets with your collaborator and allow them to annotate (add comments) to the asset. For instance, you might need input on a graphic file including a logo or social media graphics if you're working on a creative project where the visual component is crucial.

4. Boost Efficiency With Automated Tasks and Processes

Your creativity can have a much greater impact and efficiency if you have a DAM system. You can quickly identify assets in ioMoVo and download them in the size and file format you want thanks to tools like crop and download. Even faster access to the assets you need is made possible by the ability to build presets.

Want to explore more about digital asset management?

Read: Digital Asset Management for Everyone 

What is OneDrive?

Microsoft OneDrive is a popular cloud-based file storage and sync service that allows users to securely store and retrieve valuable data. It is often used for sharing Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and so on, and is popular among Office 365 subscribers owing to the seamless experience it provides.

Benefits of OneDrive

1. Access All of Your Files Within Your Productivity Cloud

OneDrive integrates with all of the business and personal apps on the Microsoft 365 platform, ensuring quick access regardless of location or device.

2. Work on Files Simultaneously

Collaboration is essential in both business and life, and Microsoft 365 and OneDrive let you collaborate on files like Word documents or PowerPoint presentations with a large group of people at once. This promotes efficiency and gives you quick access to the most recent version of a file in a project you're working on.

3. Keep Control Over Access Rights

You can readily see which files have been shared with you and which files you have shared with others in OneDrive, making it simple to distinguish between what is private and what is not. You may configure access privileges to let others examine or modify files, set expiration dates, and even password-protect documents that you want to keep secret from others or just from yourself.

What's the Difference Between DAM and OneDrive?

File Status

OneDrive is ideal for personal projects. As long as you log in with your credentials, you may easily access the files and continue working from another device.

A DAM system is ideal for assets that are finalized and need to be accessible to the whole business, certain departments, or outside parties. For example, marketing campaign materials, company-wide presentations, brand materials such as logos and other visuals, press photos, and much more.

Storing Files

OneDrive makes it simple to store files. You receive a specific amount of storage as part of your subscription, depending on your plan. The assets are organized into folder structures based on file names, upload/modification dates, who edited the files, and file sizes.

Uploading files to a DAM is just as simple. Auto-tag them using AI with the appropriate metadata, such as what the asset includes, whose campaign or department it belongs to, and so on. To make it even simpler for employees to discover assets, the majority of businesses settle on a standard procedure for adding metadata to each item. To ensure that all assets are added successfully, the uploader may be adjusted to each organization's requirements.

Search & Find Files

You may discover and recover files on OneDrive by searching for file names, browsing a folder structure, or looking for the author or person who shared the asset with you. A person's private OneDrive often makes it simple to keep track of everything because you control the file and folder organization. Since you just have the file names or the name of the person who shared the file with you to go on, it might be more challenging to locate and retrieve files that others have shared with you.

Searching for and locating assets in a DAM is much simpler. For any assets, you may search for the many tags the asset relates to, such as time and date, the author of the asset, the department to which it belongs, campaign ID, employee ID, GDPR consent status, and anything else. Additionally, every text document is indexed as soon as it is uploaded, making it simple to search for and retrieve a certain word from a presentation or text document if you can just recall its name.

File Access

In OneDrive, you may choose whether the item you've stored should only be accessible to you or another person. You can share your asset with a different coworker, several individuals, a certain group, and more. You may password-protect documents, set expiration dates, and revoke access at any time.

In a DAM, the idea is that once an asset is uploaded, it becomes a shared asset. However, you may still choose, for instance, whether the entire company, various areas of the organization, or simply admins should have access. You may choose whether those who see items shared inside and externally should also be allowed to download them. You may also give assets expiration dates and stop sharing at any time.

File Formats

OneDrive allows you to preview practically any file type without having to download any specialized software and save any file type for up to 100GB. To enable file formats to be previewed, there are some limitations on file size.

In a DAM, and specifically in ioMoVo, you may preview any file type without the need for additional applications, and there are no limitations with file size. 

Collaboration

OneDrive ensures maximum productivity, such as working both on a manuscript or presentation concurrently, for instance. It is simple to see where and what other people have added while you are working on a document or presentation with others. In one step, you may update the document and add comments.

DAMs are designed to make teamwork between individuals simple. It allows collaboration on assets by using annotations. You can add comments in the field of documents or any other type of asset you have. For example, if you’re working on a graphic design for an upcoming campaign, you can comment on things like if you want objects to move a little to the right or left, change color, etc.

Plugins and Integrations 

Since OneDrive is a component of Microsoft 365's productivity cloud, all programs on this platform operate in unison. It's simple to add a Word document to Teams or open it from OneDrive.

In a DAM, plugins and integrations are crucial. ioMoVo offers out-of-the-box plugins to Microsoft 365 making it easy to search, find, and insert the assets, such as images, you need in a working document or presentation. For the more creative types, ioMoVo offers out-of-the-box plugins for Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, Amazon AWS, Sharepoint, FTP, and many more. Furthermore, ioMoVo offers BYOT (Bring your own technology) and BYOS (Bring your own storage) that enable you to create various connections with all of your cloud storage accounts and even your own indexing technology.

DAM vs OneDrive: Feature Comparison

While OneDrive does offer some basic DAM features, its primary purpose is as a cloud storage solution rather than as a DAM. See what DAM has to offer.

Features  ioMoVo DAM  OneDrive  Organize documents and folders   ✔  ✔   Back up and sync files   ✔   ✔   Collaborate with guests   ✔   Limited Capabilities Camera2Cloud  ✔   ✔ Share and publish   ✔   ✔   Mobility  ✔   ✔   Integration with apps  ✔   Limited Capabilities AI Search  ✔   ✔   Cloud storage  ✔   ✔   Meta Tags and Descriptions  ✔ ✔ AI Extract – Product Categorization, and Tags  ✔   ✘  Convert File Formats  ✔    ✘    AI Recognition – Facial, Emotion, Content, Speech  ✔    ✘    Automated Transcription  ✔    ✘    Auto Captioning and Subtitles  ✔    ✘  API Support  ✔    ✘    Natural Language Processor   ✔    ✘    Built-in meta editor  ✔    ✘  Built-in captioning editor  ✔    ✘    Built-in transcription editor  ✔  ✘  Video/Audio Indexing  ✔  ✘  

So Which Should You Choose: DAM vs. OneDrive?

Why not both? Even if you already have OneDrive, a DAM is still necessary. But that doesn't mean you have to pick one. A DAM supplements OneDrive by providing a considerably broader range of capabilities and features. Since they provide specialties in several fields, many firms will likely have both. With ioMoVo, integrating with any cloud storage or platform only takes a few clicks, and you can benefit from both. Convenient, right? Well, that’s what we do – make your life easier!

Also Read: Digital Asset Management vs. Dropbox: Which is Best for You? 

Conclusion

A DAM solution won't replace OneDrive in Microsoft 365. The two software can work together in harmony allowing you to leverage the strengths of each. When you use Microsoft 365, save and share your files on OneDrive, while collaborating and creating documents like Word or PowerPoint is a snap. On the other hand, ioMoVo helps you manage your assets even if you already use Microsoft 365. We ensure that incorporating ioMoVo into your workflow will increase your productivity and ultimately add value. ioMoVo, a digital asset management system, is used by large enterprises all over the world to help them make the most of their incredibly valuable digital assets.ioMoVo is a pioneer in cloud-based digital asset management, and helps companies manage, organize, and share their digital assets to increase productivity and return on investment. So, wait no more and start your free 30-day ioMoVo trial right here.