In this day and age, you'd be surprised how many companies still have little or no control over the stock images used by their various employees, failing to coordinate purchasing and consolidate their assets. Others are sceptical about the need to pay for images in the first place. "Easy for companies with big budgets," you say?

Well, firstly, it doesn't need to be expensive. But there are other reasons to try a new way of sourcing images beyond saving money. We'll be discussing a few of them here and highlighting some of the things we believe are wrong with how some stock image providers–and purchasers–are doing things.

3 issues with the way many companies manage images 

1. Employees purchasing images often leads to unnecessary spending, or worse still...a lawsuit

If you've even been involved in any marketing projects, chances are you've used stock images at some point. But have you ever taken the time to read the fine print to see if there are any rules or limitations on how you can use the images? Unfortunately, licensing and copyright infringement are common challenges for anyone in the design world, and beyond.

Did you know that up to 85% of images downloaded from the internet are either unlicensed or used illegally? You may still think, 'So what? It's not like the police are going to come knocking on my door.' That may be true, but for any reputable organization, posting copyright-infringing content can lead to expensive, time-consuming and reputation-damaging lawsuits.

That's why it's important to be fully aware of where your service provider or employees are getting their resources from. Due diligence and awareness of common licensing restrictions can go a long way in protecting your company from fines and legal blunders down the line.

Quite frankly, allowing employees in your organization to access and use images found on the internet–instead of coordinating the sourcing and management of stock images– is an accident waiting to happen. So, even though it may be stating the obvious, it's crucial to make sure your business is using 100% legal and compliant images, always.

Enough of the legal aspect. Equally as important is the cost. Take a second and think about the following:

• Have you ever purchased a single-use image?
• How often has your company ended up paying twice for using the same image?
• How many times have colleagues from different departments in the same company paid separately for similar (or even the same) content?

2. Keeping track of multiple subscriptions and logins to different providers 

A major cause of complexity and inefficiency for many companies is staff from different departments using different platforms to perform their tasks. In some cases, this may all be fine and well until they end up leaving the company or going away on leave. The functioning of your organization can't depend on everyone doing their own thing, or on one or two 'lone rangers' monopolizing everything. 

Having a single port of call to access all your digital assets will obviously simplify the workflow in your organization, avoiding situations such as the ones described above, while providing you with the peace of mind that all your resources are managed in an efficient and standardized way.

3. The pay-per-photo model is expensive and outdated

Besides the hidden inefficiencies and costs that we have detailed, let's face it: the pay-per-photo model is old-fashioned and unnecessarily expensive. 

Do you still pay to download your favorite song? Neither do I. We either stream for free and suffer then ads, or happily pay a small premium for a Spotify or Apple Music subscription. My guess is you don't still subscribe to a cable TV network for $90.00/month and rent pay-per-view movies either, right? Chances are, you switched to HBO, Hulu, Netflix (of all three) for $10-15 instead. 

The same goes for software, from Adobe Creative Cloud to Microsoft 365. Subscriptions are the way of the world in 2020. So, why would we settle for some old school setup when it comes to such a vital service as sourcing images and managing digital assets? Last time I checked, single-use stock photos could cost anywhere from $10 to $1000!

What you need to keep in mind is you're paying for a number of benefits besides the quality of the photo and the flexibility of the license. With an on-demand image pack you can:

• Control exactly how and when to spend money
• Avoid long-term payment commitments
• Decide when to use your downloads – which is very useful if you're not sure when you'll need images

So, what's the solution?

A subscription service provides more visibility and fewer surprises

As I've already mentioned, people all over are taking advantage of the benefits of the modern subscription model, where with a single monthly payment, you gain access to a service that is tailored to your company's needs.

At Pickit, we give you the peace of mind of providing you with an image service that is always 100% legally compliant with a comprehensive screening process that's simpler and safer than anything else out there. It combines the best in human curation and AI to ensure all images uploaded to Pickit have been professionally screened and approved. And the Legally Cleared™ model means you never need to worry about all that boring legal stuff like copyright, landmark protection, model releases, and attribution. But more importantly, we give you full control and an overview of what services are accessed and used by your team in an effective and cost-friendly package.

Quite simply, Pickit is the world's simplest digital asset management system. Built for the modern workplace, it's the easiest way to organize, optimize, and share your company images, documents, templates, and brand assets in Microsoft 365 and on the web.

Interested in seeing how Pickit could work for your company, click the button to schedule a quick demo call and we'll be happy to answer any questions or get you set up with a free trial.