We value long-term relationships with our customers and we want you to be up-and-running with Dash as soon as possible. That's why we don't charge extra for help with data migration and onboarding 😄
Once you sign up for Dash, either from within your free trial or by signing a proposal document (available on request), we can start the onboarding process.
Data migration
Preparing your data
Most of our customers come to us with their files stored all over the place - that's why they need Dash! When it comes to deciding how to import them into Dash, there are two common approaches:
Copy everything "as is" into Dash and then organise it once it's there.
Organise everything locally, for example into a "For Dash" folder, and then import that folder into Dash once it's ready.
In general, we recommend the first approach, as Dash makes it quick and easy for you to move folders around and bulk update assets. However, if you have a large volume of files and only intend to store a subset in Dash, you might want to consider the second approach as it would save on upload time.
Copying files from your existing cloud storage
You don't need to download anything locally from cloud storage as we can copy folders (and their contents) from all popular cloud storage providers straight into Dash, including: Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, Google Photos.
For more details, see How to import assets from existing cloud storage
Copying files from your network drive
We will create a private Amazon S3 bucket for you to upload all the folders and files into.
To do the upload, we recommend your IT team runs a command line program as described in this document: How to copy files from a local server into an S3 bucket
We are happy to help with this - just put us in touch with your IT team.
Another option is to use a drag-and-drop tool like Cyberduck or WinSCP, but we recommend you only do this if the computer you are using has a high upload speed (bandwidth) - don't do it from home via a VPN as it will be very slow. More about this option: How to access an S3 bucket from a Mac or Windows
Migrating from a legacy DAM solution
We have experience migrating data from many DAM solutions.
The first step is to obtain your data from your legacy solution, which usually consists of exporting the files and metadata (as a CSV file).
We will then process this data for you so it's in the right format to import into Dash.
Deduplication
Once all your files have been migrated into Dash, we can run a deduplication process, to remove duplicates while maintaining the folders each file was in (a single asset can be in multiple folders at once in Dash, without duplication).
Onboarding
As soon as you sign up you can book one or more sessions with our onboarding team. During these calls one of our consultants will discuss how you can get the most from Dash, including:
Looking at your data and advising on your taxonomy (which fields to create, how to structure your folders, etc). See: A simple guide to building your taxonomy in Dash
Planning your upload workflows, and which groups and permissions you need to support them. For example, your processes for content creators adding new assets, upload approvals, tagging, etc.
Configuring options for finding and deploying assets, for example the search filters, preset download sizes and integrations with the tools your team uses.
We don't provide a service for actually tagging assets (although Dash does provide auto-tagging), however we can suggest partners who do if you need help with this.
Training
Our e-learning course, the Dash Academy, is available for any user of Dash. It is mainly aimed at admins users as we find that most general users don't need training - as Dash is so intuitive and easy-to-use!
Ongoing Support
Onboarding is just the start! Our Customer Success team is here to help any of your users at any point if they need help or have any questions while using Dash.