Mergers and acquisitions of smaller DAM firms by enterprise-level corporations resulted in a shift in focus for many former SMB (small to medium-size businesses) targeted companies. “Various midsize companies were swallowed up by large players who focused on the enterprise market,” says Kas Thomas, CMS Watch analyst and co-author of the report “The Digital & Media Asset Management Report 2009”.

The study found small team/workgroup-style DAM tools can be purchased for $2,000-$5,000, while the enterprise-class DAM & MAM tools are rarely purchasable for less than $150,000-$200,000. Thomas says that for the midmarket business owner looking to grow, many DAM solutions don’t have the scalability SMB owners need. “Small to midsize businesses are often growing, from ‘S’ to ‘M’, and when you do that, you gain headcount, you gain hierarchy, you gain process,” he says. “All of these things involve difficult problems that are just harder for smaller DAM firms to address.”

Scalability in DAM and MAM should be a critical issue for small business owners, Thomas says. The claims midmarket-targeted vendors make, along with the enterprise-level vendors who claim they offer a scaled down solution, complicates the process of deciding on a vendor. “All the smaller vendors are going to say they scale, or just plain tell you they’ve got APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) you need that aren’t already in the box,” Thomas says. “But the larger players have a story, too; ‘We’ll sell you a scaled down version’—but that translates into is a huge cost. Once you get into it and find out your integration pricing, or if you end up buying modules, pretty soon your $30,000 solution is up to $150,000.”

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