Challenges associates with digital signage in the workplace

This week I've been involved with change management consulting for a growing services group.

Their challenge, much like any organisation, is how do they make sure that they keep and nurture their staff so that the good ones can progress to be future leaders.

To me, this is a real business challenge. Often in organisations, business challenges are pushed aside when the solution is seen as a piece of technology.

In my industry the tools of choice are websites, portals and digital signage, but these will not solve the problems on their own.

A recent communication with Jacqueline Landers led me to think about how my customers use the tools to meet their business needs.

In the early days: lets go back 10 years
We used to turn up to organisations and the AV consultant would have just been and installed a plasma screen and PC. When the customer was asked what do we now do with it, the stock answer was "dunno, er, just show powerpoint on it"

This aproach really was a symptom of the distribution model for hardware. AV box shifters rarely understood business needs and just sold and installed.

Fast forward to the current day and business leaders wishing to communicate with staff and encourage leadership are told by IT, "dunno, er, just put a sharepoint in". Again this is because of the influence of the distributor (in this case Microsoft) who just want to shift box (albeit software). By shift box, here I mean sell multiple units.

How this relates to the current corporate digital signage market
There are a mix of options available to business leaders today.

Management / Content creation

1. Outsource and get an agency to manage an organisations digital signage.
2. Manage digital signage internally

Purchase

1. Buy the software and hardware
2. Rent or software as a service

Always we've been able to work with a customer in mixing in house content with externally sourced. For corporate digital signage, there has to be local control, but the business owner doesn't want to get technical, so a range of support services can be provided ot make it run smoothly.

From a purchase of equipment perspective we've seen a shift towards software as a service combined with lease purchase for hardware. In other words a simple monthly all in figure which is predictable and easy to swallow.

Understanding your customers perspective can really help make the difference between a dog of a project which no one wants to use against a smooth well oiled machine of a communications system.

To put it another way, communication is key in the early stage.

The number one question in digital signage at this time of year.

I get this question every year.

Can we show wimbledon?

Well here's a link which you can add to your mybusinesstv, Plasmanet, SignageStar or any web compatible digital signage system.

http://plasmanet.tv/plasmanet/ffdb1/ws/zoom.php?zoom=100&top=-232&left=-184&url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/8123696.stm&width=967&height=490

you can embed this in an iframe too.

You need a TV licence to show this content.

contact Mark Hopgood on +44 (0)1732 80 80 67 or email mark@hopgood.eu for more information.

Top 5 Suggestions when taking on a digital signage system - part1

If you need to implement a digital signage system for the workplace, then here's a list which may help you in deciding which to go for.

1. Make sure it works on your platform
For corporate digital signage to work, there have to be users (people) and players (hardware devices) who will use the system. There are support teams who will have to support the system.

Look at the common denominator in your corporate systems. What is your platform made up of ? Is it Windows XP, Linux, IIS

How to make sure a digital signage system will work for you
Here's a simple test link which will let you know if your platform is up to the job.

Try the following link
hopgood.eu test channel

If you see something like this

(live TV and news feed)

Then you're system is ready to create and view digital signage, with no further modifications. The sample provided is from a Software as a Service digital signage offering.

Software as a Service means that you don't have to set up servers or maintain the system, everything is done for you.


This is part 1 of a top 5 tips on using digital signage in the workplace by Mark Hopgood (c)2008 Mark Hopgood, all rights reserved. Please contact mark@hopgood.eu if you are interested in reproducing any of the content in this article or are interested in using Mark's services to create a digital signage solution.

Delivering bottom line benefits that appeal to the FD

When considering digital signage for the workspace, how can you convince the budget holder or decision maker that it is worth 'investing' in your solution?

With any new business solution an essential part of the roll out is training. Only by explaining and making sure everybody understands the value of the new system can you really say your new solution has been successfully adopted.

OK, so you could use digital signage to give users hints, tips and links. This would ensure that they see the links, but how do you measure and justify this from a business benefits position and make sure you know whether the team has acted on what they have seen..

At Plasmanet we're undertaking discovery programs with our customers. This gives us the opportunity to ...

• Identify the communications challenges
• Measure KPIs against these challenges
• Run a communications campaign
• Measure the difference
• Demonstrate the saving / benefit

Which might mean (in real world practicality) for a particular company

• we know that a lot of our support and training is associated with getting to grips with company wiki
• we identify how many calls and emails we get asking for support. We know the percentage of adoption of wiki.
• we run a campaign, communicating the importance, guidelines and links to wiki (using screens, text, email, blackberry etc.)
• we measure the number of calls / emails to support and the number of unique users of wiki
• we show how successful the campaign was and how adoption has changed and what mediums were most successful in attracting new users and how the profile of support calls changed

Using a tool such as plasmanet V8 you get to display the message, send it and measure the team's response. This allows you to measure how many of the team and who acted upon the message. By taking this approach you can match up who needs training, who has had training and how many support calls are taken and what level of training course is being demanded.

With a reduction of training and support costs, you have your bottom line benefit. By utilising plasmanet, AV, digital signage or any communication system can now be justified in bottom line benefits that should appeal to the FD and the business.

But, what about home workers - do they get the message.

Well, no! They could do though. In my next blog I'll talk about the home worker environment, and then the opportunities that an office based business can benefit from home worker infrastructure.

connecting onelan to call switches, live data and beyond

Plasmanet call switch and live data connectors for onelan
I'm pleased to announce a set of connectors which work in close collaboration with Onelan and their net top box. The connectors cover a wide range of call switches (the popular ones and some not so popular). In addition, the data connectors give you live access to popular databases and most systems that don't support any connectivity.

Who's using
The connectors are in use by companies such as JD WIlliams, Chelsea Building Society, bp, edf trading, coca-cola enterprises and more. You can be assured that these are robust and have been in place since 2001.

Getting started
If you are interested in discussing how you, your team or company could benefit from the plasmanet connectors for onelan net top box, please contact me, mark hopgood (mark.hopgood at plasmanet-uk.com) and my experienced team will be able to advise you on the best course of action.

History
When, David from Onelan first talked to me about producing his net top box in 2001, I was interested because my signage system, plasmanet, had been a software only solution. It had to be - PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the company I was consulting with, needed a solution that would work with existing hardware.

Over the years, David's model has changed. After a few years, he realised that it was too costly to produce your own hardware and today his linux based box uses mini itx components.

Convergence
I continued to pursue the software route and as a result our specialism has developed into real time data connection to databases and call switches and of course web 2.0.

Avaya - the case for home workers

Avaya (1) have published a white paper discussing the reasons for having home workers.

As the MD of Plasmanet and owner of Hopgood Consulting, I'm happy to employ people offsite to assist with the expansion and growth of my businesses.

The 2 main questions for me are,

1. how do i measure performance

2. as a positive leader, I want to include my team - how can I do that if my team is offsite?

Well the answer to number 1 is clear. The performance of my call center team is recorded using the call switch I have deployed, be it Avaya, Nortel, whatever.

The main challenge is in letting the team know constantly what is needed of them and how they are doing.

The ERIC report (2) about goal setting research, concluded that

a. Feedback increased productivity substantially
b. Goal setting increased productivity further
c. Incentives did not add anything in productivity when combined with the above 2

Well how best to get this information to them?

In the workplace, corporate digital signage systems such as SignageStar and Plasmanet can show data on screens, but installing dedicated plasma screens in the home may not be considered cost effective.

A cost effective and appropriate alternative is to have a desktop channel. A view of a corporate digital signage channel, showing Incentive, Feedback and Team Goals and info would be possible, filtering data for the individual and team.

Corporate Digital signage systems which show exactly the same content on a web browser as on screens, would need minimal reconfiguration of content for application for home workers.

Plasmanet and SignageStar from Hopgood Consulting Ltd offers this functionality.

References:
(1) Avaya - home worker paper
Contact Center Costs: The Case for Telecommuting Agents
http://www.avaya.com/master-usa/en-us/resource/assets/whitepapers/gcc3211.pdf

(2) ERIC - Feedback, Goal Setting, and Incentives Effects on Organizational Productivity.
http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED283963&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=ED283963

Hopgood Consulting Celebrates its 14th year

Hopgood Consulting Ltd (HCL), the company behind business digital signage software, Plasmanet is celebrating its 14th Year.

Incorporated in 1994, HCL has enjoyed success with the following companies in consulting with and implementing applications that help teams to communicate and share information:

Allied Domecq / Baskin Robbins
European Space Agency
IBM
Lotus
BP
Chevron Texaco
Chelsea Building Society
Kuwait Chamber of commerce
EHN Sport
Oracle
Computer Associates
JP Morgan
European Project Consultants
Enron
London Metal Exchange
Unilever
Price Waterhouse Coopers

If you would like to benefit from the services offered, please contact me, Mark Hopgood (mark dot hopgood at plasmanet-uk.com)