Boston Consulting Group

The Client

Boston Consulting Group is a global management consulting firm helping businesses, governments, and organizations solve their most challenging problems. With offices worldwide and thousands of consultants, BCG produces and utilizes many digital assets for client presentations, marketing materials, and internal communications. Before this project, BCG struggled with disorganized asset storage and inefficient workflows that hindered productivity and brand consistency.

The Situation

Boston Consulting Group (BCG) faced challenges in managing its digital assets, with teams using multiple systems for storage and sharing. This fragmented approach created numerous inefficiencies, including difficulty locating assets, duplicated purchases, compliance risks, and inconsistent branding across materials. Launched in 2019, the SOURCE project aimed to establish a centralized platform for storing, accessing, and sharing digital assets across the organization, improving workflows while ensuring brand consistency and compliance.

The Challenge

BCG encountered several hurdles when transforming its digital asset management:

• Lack of a centralized repository, with teams managing assets across multiple systems
• Adoption barriers and change management challenges when transitioning from legacy systems
• Inconsistent metadata and taxonomy hindering asset searchability and discoverability
• Integration requirements with legacy systems and downstream tools
• Scalability needs to accommodate growing numbers of assets and users across multiple business units

The Solution

Acquia DAM provided the foundation for BCG's comprehensive digital asset management overhaul:

Project planning: The team conducted stakeholder interviews with business teams to identify pain points and define clear objectives for efficiency gains, governance, and scalability, establishing a phased implementation approach to ensure seamless adoption.

Project planning: The team conducted stakeholder interviews with business teams to identify pain points and define clear objectives for efficiency gains, governance, and scalability, establishing a phased implementation approach to ensure seamless adoption.

Centralized repository: BCG leveraged Acquia DAM to build a globally accessible platform for storing, managing, and distributing digital assets, defining a robust taxonomy and metadata structure to improve searchability and governance.

Process redefinition: The team streamlined workflows for asset upload, tagging, and sharing while automating repetitive processes and enabling seamless collaboration between teams.

Training and change management: BCG conducted comprehensive training programs for end users, focusing on new workflows and the benefits of the centralized DAM, rolling out the platform in phases, starting with two business functions and gradually expanding to 12 units by 2025.

Advanced integrations: The solution integrated Acquia DAM with internal tools and downstream applications, including Brightcove, Tableau, PowerPoint, and stock libraries like Shutterstock and Adobe Premium.

AI-driven enhancements: BCG introduced automated metadata tagging through Azure Open AI and Clarifai to improve asset discoverability and reduce manual tagging efforts.

The implementation followed a phased approach, starting with focused business functions and expanding across the organization. BCG established a distributed support model by training librarians and admins within each business unit, empowering end users to be more self-sufficient and have designated contact points within their respective teams.

The Results

The SOURCE project delivered:

Enhanced asset discoverability: The centralized repository now houses 270,000+ digital assets, serving as the single source of truth for creative teams globally, with improved search functionality leading to 18,000 monthly searches and reduced time spent locating assets.

Widespread adoption: The user base grew from 500 users in 2021 to over 22,000 active users by 2025 across 12 business units, with an average of 15,000 monthly logins demonstrating strong engagement.

Impressive engagement metrics: The platform records 54,000 visits per month and 56,000 monthly downloads, supporting widespread asset distribution and reuse.

Brand consistency: BCG enhanced brand consistency by centralizing approved assets and enforcing governance for branding guidelines through 400+ brand portals.

Significant milestone: The platform achieved over 1 million downloads by 2023, marking a major milestone in adoption and usage.

SOURCE now serves as BCG's central platform for digital asset management, improving efficiency, reducing costs associated with redundant asset purchases, and ensuring brand consistency across global teams. The project demonstrates how a well-executed DAM implementation can optimize workflows and deliver measurable business value.