Finding Your Files for Upload to Image Relay

A major part of getting your Image Relay library up and running is uploading your assets, but first, you will need to locate and review what you already have. If you are moving from another DAM system to Image Relay, they may already be in one place, but many new Image Relay clients have assets all over the place! They could be on: 

• Individual hard drives

• Network drives

• Phones

• CDs or Thumb Drives

• Google Drive or Box

• Old legacy systems

In order to locate all of your organization's files, start by thinking about who the content creators are. They might be designers, photographers, or folks in the marketing or creative departments. They could be the creators of guidelines or technical documents. They may work in-house, or they might work for an agency you have contracted with, and don’t forget about your freelancers! No matter who or where they are, if they have made assets, they probably hold many of them as well. 

Surveying Users 

You may want to send out a survey to either the whole organization or key stakeholders to explore who has what assets and where they hold them. You can set up a simple survey for free using a program like SurveyMonkey or Google Survey. This will allow you to question a large group of people at once. You will want to preface the survey with a paragraph explaining your project and goal, and also explain that this will make peoples' lives easier. You will want to ask the following questions: 

• Name

• What is your role at the organization? 

• Do you create content such as branding, photography, videos, PPTs, guidelines? If yes, please give examples. 

• What kinds of files do you typically create? Examples: PDFs, PowerPoints, Word Documents, Adobe files, CAD files, MP3 files. 

• Where do you typically store content? You can set up a multiple choice option here. 

• How much content do you think you have in each of the storage locations you listed? If you’re not sure, just take a guess in the number of files or size of files. 

• If they have selected a shareable source such as cloud storage, ask if they can share a link to their folder and files with you. 

It’s also a good idea to reach out to people in real life. A quick phone call or personal email to key stakeholders can do wonders in getting your colleagues on board to help you find the files. 

Reviewing Assets 

Once you have gathered your assets, you will want to review them before uploading them to Image Relay.  Some things to look out for include: 

• Old or outdated assets

• Duplicates

• Assets with incorrect branding

• Images you no longer have the rights to use 

Sorting through your assets at this point will make the uploading process more streamlined, and help guarantee that you have high quality content in your library. 

Making Decisions

Once you have a good idea of what you have, you'll need to think about what you want to keep and upload. Occasionally, organizations will upload everything, but for most people, it's best to start off with a library of approved, up-to-date and relevant assets. 

Some people only put assets created in the last year into the library. For others, it's only new work that gets put in the DAM. You will also want to decide if you want drafts in the system, or final files only. Most of our users use the system for final files. 

These decisions will create parameters about what to put in your library. Share them widely with colleagues as you start your upload process. 

Next Step: Uploading Your Files to Image Relay