Article

The painful cost of the wrong digital signage fit (Commentary)

Should you hope your digital signage system will stretch to fit your needs?

May 3, 2012

By Frank Kenna III

President and CEO, The Marlin Company

"Don't worry, they'll stretch."

That's what the woman who waited on me at a shoe store recently said when the shoes I was trying on were too tight. When I pointed out that they were also a little too short, she repeated that they'd probably stretch. I thought, "I don't think so," and left the store. I also thought that a lot of people probably buy the line and buy the shoes, only to find them sitting in the closet unused six months later.

This experience reminded me of a lot of what's wrong with digital signage systems; that is, they don't fit the customer correctly. As our reps call on these companies, we find time and again that what they thought they'd be able to do, and what they were actually able to do, were two different things. It's a little like learning to play the piano (I speak from experience here). You see someone do it and download some greatpiano music and think, "I'd love to be able to do this ... I think I will." So you go out and buy a piano and a couple of instruction books. And six months later, there they sit, barely used. Why? It's not that the piano you bought or the instruction books were bad, you probably just didn't have the time to learn and practice. In the end, for most people, it's better to buy a nice sound system and enjoy downloaded music.

Buying a digital signage system is very similar. If you have lots of time and creativity, by all means go out and buy some displays and content creation/management software ... and realize it's just the beginning. You'll then have to learn how to use the software, make time to practice, then come up with the content ideas and produce them. Then repeat the process a couple of dozen times a month. Just like those new shoes mentioned above might stretch, so might your schedule.

Finding the right fit in a digital signage system

If you don't have the time for that, then you'll want to buy a system that's easy to learn, has some prepackaged content that matches your objectives, and has all the tools you'll need to upload and work with your local content such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, jpeg and pdf documents.

What happens if you go the former route? I so often see and hear about companies that have "blank screen syndrome," digital signage systems they bought that months later are turned off or playing old, recycled content. This usually happens because the company's needs were different from the purchased system's capabilities.

If you're looking to buy a digital signage system, it's vital to do a needs assessment of your objectives first, and then go out shopping. Who are your target employee audiences? Where are they located? What kinds of information do you need to communicate and how often? Who will be responsible for updating content on a regular basis?

It can be easy to be seduced by cool technology and flashy graphics, but if the product won't let you post the types of content that you need quickly and easily, you too will be facing blank screen syndrome in the near future.

If you're talking to a sales rep from a digital signage vendor who tells you that their product can "probably" do what you need, or will be able to some day, don't buy it. Just as small shoes usually won't stretch to fit, most digital signage systems won't either. Keep shopping until you find what you need.

And if you really do have all that time to spare, my suggestion is to buy a digital signage system that will save you even more time, and go out and buy a piano.

Frank Kenna III is CEO and President of The Marlin Company, which helps companies improve safety, employee morale, productivity and performance through its workplace digital signage products.

Read more about digital signage content management.