TAME YOUR ASSETS

For many of us, working from home was a dream our employers just didn’t want to entertain. Due to the current circumstance, it has now become a necessity, at least temporarily. Digital asset management lends itself very well to telecommuting. Isn’t it time to ask your employer to make your role permanently remote?

For myself and a few other remote DAM pros I’ve spoken to, the journey to telework first began by working ‘on-location’ for companies without a work-from-home culture. That meant we needed to gain our employers’ trust before we could ask to telecommute. And guess what? You’ve already built up that trust by demonstrating how well you can manage digital assets from home.

As part of my request, I wrote up a proposal that included why I thought telecommuting would help my work, how it would benefit the company, what sorts of risks it would pose (and how to mitigate them), and the approach we’d take to ease into the change. I’ve taken portions of the proposal, edited them, and added them below.

In addition to using my proposal, I hope you’ll attend a panel discussion of remote digital asset management working leaders, including myself, who’ll describe and share how alternative physical locations have and continue to support our DAM success.

DAM Success: ‘Remote Working’ – Part 1
April 30th, 2020 – 12:00 – 1:00 pm EST
Registration required: https://bit.ly/2XqzJ37

Proposal to Work from Home

INTRODUCTION

Telecommuting for the past several months has enabled me to successfully upgrade the company’s digital asset management system, roll out an enterprise taxonomy, and completely revise our metadata model. In addition to accomplishing these projects, I have performed DAM system maintenance, addressed help desk tickets, conducted meetings, provided training, and attended daily stand-ups. Throughout this process I have checked in regularly with my supervisor, colleagues, stakeholders, and DAM system users – who have all been extremely satisfied with the work I have done from my home office.

DETAILS

I propose that I continue excelling as your full-time digital asset manager from home . While at home, I would be available over videoconference and mobile phone. New platform user training would be provided via live video meetings, pre­recorded webinars, and written guides. Project meetings, DAM key performance indicators (KPI) reports, and other presentations would be held over live video meetings. I would provide technical support through our help desk ticket system and screen-sharing. Asset cataloging, categorization, and distribution and system customization and maintenance would be done using the company’s virtual private network (VPN), remote desktop software, and a terminal program.

SCHEDULE

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PROBATION

A probation period will be in effect for three months. During this time my supervisor and I agree to exercise our “best efforts” to ensure the telecommuting proposal is successful. To meet this goal, both parties will communicate any concerns or issues to one another as they arise and make any necessary revisions to the proposal’s schedule, job description, or the list of required resources (listed below).

IMPACT

As previously stated, I have been telecommuting and so am already familiar with how to best maximize the value of my telework. While making the role permanent would necessitate some minor changes, the permanent change would be based on the same proven approach to my work.

BENEFITS

● Increased Productivity. The time that I would spend in transit is time that I would otherwise spend communicating online with the DAM stakeholders or working on other assignments. Working from home would allow me to be more flexible with my work schedule. Working from a quiet environment at home would be more conducive to focusing on important tasks.
● Operational budget savings. I would provide my own office space, snacks, and pay for my own utilities.
● Increased accountability. Written messages contributed by me as well as company staff members via cloud-based documents could be accessed in real time for future reference by the team. My manager would rely on objective observations of this written material to evaluate my contributions to business goals.

ASSUMPTIONS

The following is a list of resources that would be needed for this telecommuting plan.
● Laptop [company provides]
● Live video meeting access [company provides]
● Remote access to machine on company’s intranet: VPN, SSH access to a virtual or physical machine with gig-e connection to servers and high-speed connection to the Internet [company provides]
● Home office: desk, chair, light, high-speed internet access, phone access, electricity, air-conditioning, snacks [employee provides]

RISKS

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SUMMARY

I believe that telecommuting will allow me to excel at my job as the DAM Manager. Business critical projects such as the enterprise taxonomy, metadata model, and the system upgrade were successfully managed remotely. Similarly, business as usual tasks such as rights and permissions, cataloging, back-end development, and taxonomy maintenance were accomplished remotely. These tasks would have taken longer were I working in a noisy office or spending my time commuting to work. By agreeing to this proposal, the company would be investing in an a team player who has proven they can manage, repurpose, and increase the value of its digital content because they work from home.