Asset Automation System

The goal of this project was to redesign and implement a centralized platform for digital asset management at Emirates. The platform was envisioned to overcome scattered workflows and inefficient access to resources, ensuring teams could collaborate more effectively.

• Efficient Asset Management: Create a system to organize, maintain, and access the vast library of digital assets seamlessly
• Streamlined Collaboration: Enable multiple teams to share and access assets effortlessly, reducing silos and duplicated efforts
• mproved Productivity: Provide quick and intuitive access to the right assets, helping teams work faster and more efficiently.
• Scalable Framework: Build a foundation that could grow with expanding asset libraries and evolving team requirements.

• Creative Team Collaboration: I worked alongside the creative team responsible for generating artwork for emirates.com. This gave me valuable insights into their day-to-day workflow and the variety of requests they handled. I also observed how they managed and shared the massive library of digital assets across multiple teams.
• Workflow Bottlenecks: The internal system developed by the creative team for editing artworks was time-consuming, particularly when handling multiple requests simultaneously. Each request often required further approvals, adding significant delays.
• Marketing Team Discussions: I conducted extensive discussions with the marketing team to understand their role in the process. These interactions helped me map how artwork requests were submitted, reviewed, and approved, as well as the key factors considered during decision-making.

Through the research, I was able to identify pain points across both creative and marketing teams, which provided a strong foundation for reimagining a more efficient and collaborative system.

• At Emirates, a vast number of digital assets were used for marketing and promotional materials. However, most of these assets were managed manually and stored offline, making them difficult to organize and maintain. This often led to duplication and inefficiencies in asset usage.
• Design teams frequently reused the same images or digital files to create artwork, but the lack of a centralized and transparent system caused consistency issues across campaigns.
• Given Emirates’ global presence, text-heavy artworks required collaboration from teams worldwide. Without an efficient system in place, this process was slow and time-consuming, especially for reviews and approvals.
• Additionally, much of the workflow relied on Excel sheets and other documents to track progress. This approach was neither intuitive nor user-friendly, further complicating asset management and collaboration.

Among the many available digital asset management applications, a few were shortlisted based on Emirates’ specific requirements. I reached out to the creators to request demos, conducted hands-on testing, and engaged in discussions with product representatives to better understand their features and specifications. While these applications offered extensive functionality, they ultimately failed to meet Emirates’ unique needs, reinforcing the necessity of designing a tailored solution.

• Centralized Digital Asset Library: All marketing and promotional assets were consolidated into a single platform, eliminating duplicates and making it easy to manage, search, and retrieve files.
• Seamless Collaboration Across Teams: The new system enabled real-time collaboration between global teams, reducing delays in feedback and approvals for text-heavy and multi-market artworks.
• Improved Workflow Transparency: The platform provided clear visibility into requests, asset usage, and approval stages, ensuring consistency and accountability across teams.
• Intuitive and User-Friendly Interface: A simplified UI replaced the reliance on Excel sheets and offline tools, making the system easier to learn, navigate, and adopt without a steep learning curve.
• Streamlined Artwork Approval Process: Built-in review and approval mechanisms significantly reduced turnaround time, allowing faster delivery of artwork requests.
• Enhanced Productivity and Efficiency: By automating manual processes and ensuring smooth access to assets, the platform saved time, minimized errors, and boosted overall productivity.