Streamlining Digital Asset Management with a Centralised DAM System

Although Forterra’s success was welcomed, as their product offerings expanded and the scale of their operations grew, so did the complexity of managing their vast collection of digital assets. This included marketing materials, technical documents, product imagery, and videos, all of which needed to be easily accessible and efficiently distributed across various teams and stakeholders. As a result, the challenge of organising and managing these assets became increasingly difficult, and the need for a more streamlined solution became evident.

The company’s internal teams struggled to maintain consistency and ensure that the right materials were used across different departments and projects, especially when considering the front-end interface was not optimised for ease of use.

There was no unified visual structure, so users struggled to understand where things were or how to interact with them. Furthermore, the risk of outdated or incorrect information being shared across teams heightened, affecting productivity and decisionmaking. Teams internally also noticed collaboration was a struggle as there was no on-brand experience, so the current solution felt disconnected from other digital tools.

Departments required access to shared assets with proper permission controls to prevent unauthorised changes or misuse. All these challenges were contributing to an overall feeling that the business’ growth and scalability was being stunted due to the lack of a flexible solution which was capable of integrating with existing and future platforms.

To overcome the challenges of managing a growing collection of digital assets, Forterra partnered with PDS to develop a custom-built Digital Asset Management (DAM) system tailored to their specific needs.

The primary goal was to create a solution that would streamline the storage, organisation and distribution of Forterra’s vast library of digital content, ensuring easy access and improving overall efficiency across their teams. Before the DAM could be developed, the PDS design team had to structure how the solution would work.

The team began by designing the full front-end experience, including the dashboard, filters, asset views, and detail pages, creating a visually consistent, user-friendly interface. This was followed by structured page layouts so that filters, actions, and content were easy to locate, interact with and branded to feel like a natural part of the Forterra digital ecosystem.

The team designed filtering, sorting, and metadata panels to work visually and contextually with the back-end development’s tagging and categorisation feature; and lastly, simplified multi-select and batch actions to support the needs of high-volume users like marketing and admin teams.

• Centralised Asset Storage – The DAM system provides Forterra with a single, organised repository for all digital files, including images, PDFs, videos, documents, and technical content. This centralisation eliminates the problem of scattered and fragmented storage systems, enabling all teams to access assets from one unified platform. This reduces the time spent searching through disparate storage locations and ensures that assets are consistently organised and easy to find.
  
  
• Seamless Website Integration – One of the standout features of the system is its ability to integrate seamlessly with Forterra’s website. This allows Forterra to automatically sync updated digital assets with their public-facing site, ensuring that all online content remains accurate and up to date. With this integration, the company can quickly push new product imagery, technical documents, or videos to their website without the need for manual uploads, improving workflow efficiency and reducing the risk of outdated content.

• Intelligent Search & Tagging – Advanced metadata tagging and search functionality were key components of the DAM system. The system automatically tags each asset with relevant metadata, enabling users to quickly locate specific images, documents, or videos based on keywords, categories, or other criteria.
  
  
• Scalability & Flexibility – Designed with future growth in mind, the DAM system is scalable and flexible. It allows for easy expansion as Forterra’s digital asset library grows, while also offering the ability to integrate with additional platforms and systems as needed.
  
  By adopting the custom DAM system, Forterra has effectively streamlined its digital asset management processes, resulting in improved efficiency, better collaboration, and more seamless access to critical resources across teams.

Since implementing the custom-built Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, Forterra has experienced significant improvements in operational efficiency and overall business performance. These results include:

• Increased Productivity – One of the most notable results is the increase in productivity across the organisation. The intuitive design from the outset lets the user quickly locate and distribute assets. Employees no longer waste time searching through disorganised file systems. The intelligent search and tagging functionality have significantly reduced the time spent on finding the right assets, enabling teams to focus on other activities.
  

• Stronger Brand Consistency – The DAM system has also helped Forterra maintain stronger brand consistency. With a centralised repository, all digital assets are stored in one place, ensuring that marketing, sales, and customer facing teams are always working with the most recent and approved materials.

• Seamless Cross-Team Collaboration – The DAM system enables departments to easily access and share assets with controlled permissions. The useability improvements have empowered wider adoption across the organisation which has eliminated issues of duplication, inconsistent versions, and outdated files, allowing teams to work more efficiently and collaboratively across functions.
  

• Future-Ready Infrastructure – The system’s scalable design has positioned Forterra for continued success in the future. As the company grows, the DAM system can easily accommodate new platforms and digital workflows, ensuring the infrastructure remains adaptable to the evolving needs of the business.