Switching Image Banks: Migrate to Beeldbank.nl

Moving to Beeldbank.nl brings your image library to a platform built for Dutch communication teams. The platform handles the technical side with bulk upload, automatic thumbnail generation, format conversion and metadata extraction. The six-step checklist below guides you through the larger work: deciding what to take along, checking permissions and consent, designing the new structure, and managing the cut-over. Beeldbank.nl says that after approval your Beeldbank is operational within 48 hours.

Step 1: Export your assets and confirm what is yours

Every migration starts with an export, and the export has a deadline that is easy to miss. Beeldbank.nl's terms state that after termination the customer is responsible for exporting its customer data in time, and that Beeldbank may delete the data subject to legal retention and its backup policy. Check your current provider's terms for the same export responsibility. Find out when your contract ends, how long you can still get at your files afterwards and who in your organisation is allowed to request the export.

Confirm at the same time what belongs to whom. Beeldbank.nl's terms state that customer data rights remain with the customer and that Beeldbank only obtains the rights needed to host, secure, maintain and support the service. Ask your current vendor for the same statement in writing, so that you know your rights to the photos and their descriptions are unaffected by the switch.

Export the original files first and keep that copy untouched. Format conversion is offered on upload, but a conversion is something you want to run on a copy, not on the only version you have. Ask your current vendor whether descriptions, tags and consent records can be exported together with the files, and in what form.

Step 2: Audit metadata and consent before uploading

A migration is a good moment to look at the quality of what you have. Pick a sample of photos from different periods and check whether each has a usable description, the names of people and places where relevant, and a clear indication of who owns the rights. Older material often has the thinnest information, so make sure the sample includes it. Use the result to estimate how much clean-up the whole collection needs.

Metadata extraction on upload means that information already stored in your files can be read by the system. That helps only where the information exists. Beeldbank.nl's metadata extraction reads information already stored in your files. Plan in advance which gaps you will fix before the upload and which ones you will accept.

Consent deserves its own check. If your photos show people, find out where the proof of permission is kept today: in the image bank, in a separate folder or in someone's mailbox. Then decide how that proof will travel with the photos. Consent management tools let you link consent forms to people, but whether your existing forms can be linked in bulk is something to plan before the upload. Involve your privacy or legal contact before any file moves.

Step 3: Design the new structure from your colleagues' questions

A migration forces a choice: copy the old folder structure, or redesign it. Copying is quick but carries over every habit of the old system. Redesigning takes more thought but lets you fix the things that never worked. Whichever you choose, base it on how people actually search.

Starting with the five to eight questions colleagues ask most often is the best foundation, turning each into a field or filter. Do this with a handful of colleagues from different roles, and compare the list with how the old structure is organised. Where a question has no matching field or filter, you have found a gap to close. The optional Kickstart training is a live session of about 3 hours where the team brainstorms the most logical structure, decides which fields and filters are needed and explores all possibilities. If you decide to set things up without the training, you can work through the setup on your own. Setting Up a Beeldbank in a Week gives a day-by-day structure for this work.

Appoint one person in your organisation as project lead for this step. Translating the logic of the old system into the new one is work that only someone from your side can do, because only your side knows why things were organised the way they were.

Step 4: Test bulk upload on a small batch first

Before the whole collection moves, upload a small batch that reflects its variety. Check how thumbnails are generated, whether file types are converted as you expected, and whether extracted information appears where it should. Then search for the batch with the filters of the new structure. If a photo cannot be found, you have learned something cheap.

Run this test in the demo environment with your own photos. A pilot gives you evidence before you commit to the full move. How to Run a Beeldbank Pilot walks through a two-week evaluation plan with your own photos.

The table below separates the work that lies with you from the points on which you should ask vendors for a written answer. It is a checklist to fill in, not a statement about what any system does.

Step 5: Plan permissions and approval rules as questions to settle

If your old image bank had rules about who could see or change what, write them down before the move. People tend to remember rules only when they break, and a migration is exactly when they break. List the groups of users, what each group needs to do and which folders or collections they should see. Include outsiders such as agencies and freelancers.

Then take that list to your new vendor and ask how each rule would be set up in the new system, and test it during the small-batch upload. If you have several branches or departments, do the same check per branch. A rule that cannot be reproduced is better discovered during the test than after the cut-over.

Also decide who may approve new uploads in the first weeks after the move. A flood of files from many hands at the same time is the easiest way to lose the structure you just designed.

Step 6: Plan the cut-over and tell colleagues

After approval, the Beeldbank is operational within 48 hours. That describes the platform being ready, and it is only part of your cut-over. You still have to decide when the old system closes for new uploads, when colleagues start using the new platform, and whom they contact when something does not work.

Write a short message for colleagues that says what changes, from which date, where to find photos and who can help. Send it before the change and again on the day. Keep the old system available read-only for as long as your contract allows, so that a photo that did not make it across can still be found.

What the platform provides for the move

Beeldbank.nl offers bulk upload, automatic thumbnail generation, format conversion, metadata extraction and an optional Kickstart training of about 3 hours, with a 48-hour go-live after approval. For guidance on migration and choosing options, Which DAM Software Should You Choose in 2026 provides a framework for decision-making. For help with choosing a platform that suits your onboarding and support needs, see From Shared Drive to Beeldbank.

The broader decision-making framework is covered in How to Choose DAM Software in the Netherlands, where you can compare Beeldbank.nl against other options on seven criteria. Questions to Ask About Dutch Support and Personal Onboarding explains what to ask any vendor and what Beeldbank.nl provides as standard: real people, office hours, same-day responses and optional personal training. If your team has limited IT support, Choosing a DAM with Limited IT Involvement describes a faster onboarding path.