Steve,
There are literally hundreds of Digital Asset Management systems out there as numerous vendors from a wide range of backgrounds (software vendors, printers, design agencies, video producers etc) all think they have some insight that makes them uniquely qualified for this field. This makes it a bit tricky to recommend a specific option as a lot depends on what kind of asset you're needing to manage. You need to do an assessment of:
- What kinds of assets you're most interested in
- How many there are (i.e. the scale of the library)
- Is it single or multi-users, do you have external suppliers who may need access
- If you have IT skills in-house to install and maintain the system
- If so, what technologies you prefer, if not to what extent you are comfortable with external hosting and someone else holding the assets
- What you want to do with the assets: download, manipulate, integrate etc.
- Who will catalogue the assets and what kind of tagging/metadata etc. you want to apply
- How the assets will get on/off the system and who decides whether they should or should not
With that information, it's easier to narrow down the list of potential candidates, but you will still have quite a few other decisions to make to isolate the right product for your needs.
If you're interested in information about Digital Asset Management, check our our site: http://www.daydream.co.uk for some reports and articles that are relatively spin-free (disclaimer: we're consultants so we can't claim total impartiality). We're also the original developers of an open source .NET based DAM: FocusOPEN Digital Asset Manager. If .NET doesn't appeal then http://www.opensourcedigitalassetmanagement.org seems to have a good run down of the major options that don't cost anything to get going.
Good luck
Ralph Windsor
