Are you suffering regret over your digital signage solution?
Digital signage is ultimately about content, messaging and communication, but many organisations that invest in digital signage networks are disappointed because of low-quality hardware, outages, a difficult to use content management system or support that’s poor, expensive, or both.
I like to draw an analogy with car ownership. The end goal is to move yourself, your family or friends, from A to B, but this becomes more difficult with a poorly maintained engine or the wrong fuel. You can’t see it from the outside, but what’s under the bonnet and in the tank is important.
Digital signage solutions are actually quite complex, they bring together hardware – screens and media players – connectivity, content creation and content management. Nirvana is finding a provider who can bring all these elements together and provide a single point of contact – and more importantly, a single point of accountability. You want a provider that offers 24/7 support, SLA’s, proactive monitoring and an organisation that is committed for the long term.
Consider your CMS – content management system. Is it easy to use and intuitive? Is it secure? (We’ve seen some horror stories) Does it allow for a large number of content contributors and does it include approval workflows? The CMS is the engine driving your messaging and content and is core to your Digital Signage effectiveness.
If you frequently have a black screen, this is a red flag. If your Digital Signage network is important for your business, you need 24/7 support, with SLA’s, plus proactive monitoring to stop problems before they happen. I often hear organisations complaining about the cost of their support and how slow the service is.
If you’re not getting the performance or service you’re looking for, you can consider migrating to a new provider – a provider that offers an end to end solution and accepts full responsibility for uptime of the screens and CMS.
Migrating a Digital Signage network to a new provider sounds daunting, but it doesn’t need to be, nor do you need to do everything at once. Some customers start by keeping their screens/hardware and CMS in place and switching the support and management to a new provider. Other customers keep their screens and switch out the media player or CMS, or both.
Having had the privilege of helping large organisations like Telstra, Suncorp, ANZ and Australia Post migrate from legacy systems and underperforming vendors, to modern Digital Signage networks, I know that huge benefits can be realised in terms of reduced Total Cost of Ownership and increased effectiveness. But like when you want to change banks, it can seem like a daunting process, so makes sure your new provider is able to give you what you want, and they have a proven process to get you there.
