Understanding User Roles in Collage

Overview

Leveraging different user roles in Collage allows you to control what each member can see and do in your Collage account. By assigning members to roles, you ensure that everyone from admins to external partners has the appropriate level of access – no more, no less. This not only enhances security and governance, but also promotes better collaboration by clearly defining member capabilities. In this article, we’ll cover the roles available, what each role can do, how to assign or change roles, and best-practice use cases for each.

Available User Roles in Collage

Collage offers four user roles, each with specific capabilities and intended use cases:

• Brand Portal User
  • External Viewer: This role has the most limited access. A Brand Portal User can only view and interact with assets via the Brand Portal (the external, shared portal) and cannot log into the main Collage workspace. They can consume finalized content that you’ve shared with them – for example, downloading images or videos from a portal – but they cannot upload, edit, or delete anything in your library.
  • Use Case: External stakeholders like distributors, franchise partners, or journalists who need access to approved assets. E.g., a retail distributor logs into your brand portal to download the latest product images for a catalog.
• Viewer
  • Internal Read-Only User: The Viewer role is for internal team members or collaborators who need to browse and retrieve assets within Collage but should not make any changes. Viewers can search, view, and download or share content that they have access to. However, they cannot upload new assets, edit metadata, move or organize files, or delete content. This role keeps your content safe from unintended changes while still enabling collaboration through sharing.
  • Use Case: Team members who require access to assets for reference or reuse, but aren’t responsible for managing the library. For instance, a sales representative can be a Viewer to pull approved images for a client presentation without the ability to remove assets or edit metadata.
• Manager
  • Content Manager/Contributor: Managers have a broader set of permissions to actively contribute to and organize the asset library, without having full administrative control. A Manager can upload files, create folders, add tags and custom fields (metadata), and curate content into brand portals. Managers can also move assets around and perform bulk actions to organize your DAM. However, Managers cannot manage member accounts or roles, nor can they adjust system-wide settings. In general, Managers cannot delete high-value assets or perform destructive actions reserved for Admins (ensuring critical content isn’t removed accidentally).
  • Use Case: This role is ideal for team members who actively manage content. For example, you might give your marketing coordinator or content librarian the Manager role so they can upload new product photos, tag them with metadata, and organize them into the appropriate folders/portals. Similarly, a designer on your team could be a Manager to add new creative assets and share them via Collage, without having the ability to permanently delete content or remove other members. (Think of the Manager role as a “Contributor” – empowering users to add and organize assets, but with safeguards so your brand assets remain safe.)
• Admin
  • Full Administrator: Admins have full control over the entire Collage workspace. This includes everything a Manager can do (upload, organize, edit content) plus administrative tasks like adding/removing users, assigning roles, deleting content, and changing account-wide settings and branding. Admin is the highest level of access and should be limited to trusted team leads or system administrators.
  • Use Case: The Admin role should be assigned to the owners or IT personnel responsible for managing your DAM at a high level. For instance, your head of marketing or DAM administrator will be an Admin – they can invite new users, assign the appropriate roles and permissions, configure brand portal settings, and ensure the system reflects your organization’s needs. They oversee the workspace to maintain security and compliance.

Summary of Capabilities by Role

Asset & Content Actions

*While managers can delete content, they cannot permanently delete assets by emptying the workspace trash.

Metadata, Organization & Search

*Limited to fields and metadata exposed via the Brand Portal configuration.

Sharing & Distribution

*Viewers can only see and edit share link settings for their own links.

Brand Portals

Users, Roles & Account Settings

? Note: Managers cannot permanently delete assets or manage members – this authority is reserved for Admins, ensuring critical assets aren’t removed by accident.

Assigning Roles to Users (How-To)

Setting a user’s role or changing it later is straightforward and handled in the Members tab of your Collage account settings:

1. Navigate to Account Settings: Log in to Collage. Click on the Profile / Settings icon in your left hand navigation, and choose Account Settings.
2. Open the Members Tab: In Account Settings, go to the Members section. Here you’ll see a list of all users in your Collage workspace and their current roles.
3. Assign or Change a Role:
   • For an existing user: Find the user in the list whose role you want to change. Hover on their row, click on the ellipses icon on the far right end of their row, and select Edit. Follow the prompts to select the new role you want to assign to that user (e.g. change a user from Viewer to Manager). The change will take effect immediately, updating their permissions accordingly.
   • For a new user: Click the Add New User button. In the invitation form, you’ll enter the person’s email and set their role from a dropdown before sending the invite. For external partners that should only have portal access, you can invite them directly to a Brand Portal by navigating to the Brand Portal Users section under Brand Portal Settings (they will be automatically given the Brand Portal User role). For internal team members, choose Viewer, Manager, or Admin based on their needs.
4. Confirm Changes: The user’s role label will update in the Members list. You can always revisit this tab to adjust roles as your team’s responsibilities change. (Remember: only Admins can assign or modify roles for others.)

Best Practices & Tips:

• Start with Least Privilege: When in doubt, assign a lower access level – you can always elevate a user’s role if they need more capabilities. For example, give a new team member Viewer access initially to familiarize them with Collage, and upgrade to Manager once they need to contribute content.
• Use Admin Roles Sparingly: Admins hold the “keys to the kingdom.” Limit the Admin role to those who truly require system-wide authority (typically 1-3 people). Too many Admins can lead to confusion or unintentional changes.
• Leverage Manager for Contributors: If you have marketing staff or designers who regularly upload and organize assets, the Manager role is ideal. It empowers those who should feel ownership of the content and are incentivized to properly manage and leverage the content library, while protecting the content from critical mistakes. This keeps your library safe while distributing the content workload.
• Viewer for Broad Access, Portal for Limited Access: For someone who needs access to a wide range of assets internally but only in a read-only capacity, Viewer is the way to go. However, if someone is external or should only see a very curated selection, make them a Brand Portal User instead of a full member. This way they only see what you share with them in the portal, keeping everything else private.
• Regularly Review Roles: As your team grows or projects change, periodically review who has which role. Ensure former employees are removed or downgraded, and adjust roles if someone’s job responsibilities shift. Collage makes it easy to update roles on the fly via the Members tab.
• Transparency with Your Team: Let your team know about these roles and what they mean. This transparency helps set expectations – for example, a Viewer knows they won’t be able to upload files, so they’ll route those requests to a Manager or Admin. It can also encourage team members to request a role change if their needs change, fostering an open dialogue about access.

Conclusion

Collage’s role-based capabilities and permissions are designed to grow with your organization, giving you fine-grained control over digital asset access and actions. By aligning with our brand pillars – keeping things simple (preset roles for common needs), being transparent about who can do what, and providing quality support (clear documentation and help when you need it) – this feature helps you protect your content while enabling collaboration.

We hope this guide helps you make the most of role-based permissions. With the right roles in place, your team can work confidently in Collage: admins can focus on oversight, managers can curate and organize content, viewers can find and use assets easily, and external partners can engage with your brand in a controlled way.

For further assistance or specific questions about roles, please contact our support team – we’re always here to help you succeed with Collage. Happy organizing!