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.