Alexander (and others),
How your DAMS and your CMS "talk" to one another depends on what systems you're using as well as what level of integration between the two systems you're hoping to achieve. A fairly "tight" integration would generally mean that there is two-way communication between the two systems: your DAMS stores all the images of your collection and updates them automatically in the CMS, and updates made to the metadata in an object record in the CMS are automatically reflected in the DAMS.
This kind of integration is usually facilitated via application programming interfaces (APIs) that are built into both the DAMS and the CMS. These interfaces allow for the programmatic exchange of data between the systems in a structured way. This is where it gets a little complicated, because while most DAM systems have fairly robust APIs built in, many collections management systems either have no API at all, or don't have one that is robust enough to facilitate this kind of data exchange. If this is the case (as it often is) the integration will often have to be achieved via some custom integration code that is either built by the DAM vendor, the CMS vendor, or the museum itself.
I often find for this reason that it's useful, when talking to DAMS vendors, to ask if they've done previous integrations with your
specific CMS. Many DAMS vendors will assume that the CMS in the equation will have a nice API and will promise that they can easily integrate with it. The marketing person will first usually tell you that they can integrate with any remote data source, but blanch when you ask about integrating with your 20-year-old version of embARK or whatever it is.
If you don't yet have a CMS, or are contemplating replacing the one you have, you should push the CMS vendors you're talking to for information about their API so you will have a better sense of how easy/difficult an integration with a DAMS may be further down the road.
Hope this helps, but I'm happy to talk further if you have more questions on this!
Koven
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Koven Smith
Non-Profit Digital Strategy
Austin, TX
https://kovenjsmith.com------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: 08-27-2019 12:34 PM
From: Alexander Buono
Subject: Collections Management System integration Enterprise DAM systems
Greetings all,
I'm currently tasked for my institution (The Ringling) to conduct exploratory research in TMS or a similar Collections Management system's integration into enterprise DAM systems. I've been able to conduct direct outreach to museums of similar size, budget, collections, etc., but hoping that posting here can cast a wider net.
In essence, we want to know how institution's Collection Management systems "talk" to the DAM, and what the overall workflow looks like between the two systems.
This may be a query more for offline discussions, but any guidance would be appreciated as I'm sure many endeavored on this path or are actively doing so as well!
Best,
Alex
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Alexander Buono
Archival Fellow
John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art
Sarasota FL
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