August 9, 2011 by Steve Acquista — Director of Digital Signage, Black Box
We all know digital signage can take on different forms and target a wide array of audiences. But most information about digital signage that we hear and see these days is related to public messaging.
Whether it's for retail advertising, hospitality, restaurant menu boards, transportation or college campuses, digital signage is a great medium for disseminating and managing content to the public. In fact, a small cottage industry has developed to establish pilot metrics, justify the ROI based on ad revenue models, as well as figure out who's viewing your signage and for how long.
But there is another segment of digital signage, or what I like to call "Inward Facing Signage." This form of signage is specifically geared toward employees and doesn't usually require the passage of a bill through Congress to justify to the client.
Its primary purpose is to effectively and efficiently disseminate content to employees, thereby supplementing — or replacing entirely — the traditional bulletin boards you see in most workplaces. Whether it's for posting company sales figures, mission statements, production statuses, safety and compliance notifications, or educating and alerting employees, Inward Facing Signage is growing at a fast pace.
Since this type of signage is not dependent on ad revenue or outside investment considerations to deploy, it's a good straightforward market to focus on for regional integrators who are looking to get into digital signage. These types of projects usually start out small, first by replacing a few bulletin boards throughout a facility, but can quickly grow as other areas come on-line, such as break rooms, sales floors, warehouses and production areas.
An ideal signage solution for Inward Facing Signage is one that is intuitive and easy to use, accessible to all potential content contributors and easily scalable as the system's requirements grow.