Internal Communications Basics for Business Success

For any business, sharing information with customers and other stakeholders is as important as the product or service it sells. For years, business communications prioritized external stakeholders, like prospects and customers, but an increasing number of companies are focusing their efforts on a long-ignored internal stakeholder: their employees.

Internal communications is an essential business function whose purpose is to make sure that all parties within an organization can send and receive information timely and effectively. Internal communications is the grease in the business machine, ensuring that all of the parts run as smoothly as possible. For decades, internal communications was often an HR responsibility. Today, departments that were once dedicated solely to external communications and customer marketing are evolving to add internal communications to the mix.

Figuring out how to strengthen your company’s internal communications function can be daunting. Here are the three foundational steps to add internal communications to your business.

Draft an Internal Communications Plan

A goal is just a dream until you write it down. Then it becomes a plan. To create an internal communications plan, ask yourself the following questions: what core messages do you need to communicate? How often should they be communicated? And how should employees receive that information? The answers will help you determine where your communications team should focus its efforts and how it will measure its success. Strategizing the best way to communicate within your organization is essential to find what will work best in your particular situation.

Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a “nervous system”, to coordinate its actions.
Bill Gates

Determine the Best Internal Communications Tools for You

There is a vast and growing range of internal communications tools out there. The best tools for your company will depend on a multitude of factors, including size (e.g. number of employees, number of sites, etc.), type of company (e.g. manufacturing versus traditional corporate environment), and the types of core messages you need to send. ITESMEDIA recently conducted a survey of Canadian communications professionals who shared the six tools they use the most to communicate effectively within their organizations:

 

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Email

Email is the gold standard of internal communications today. Senders can target their messages to certain recipients and receive written feedback relatively quickly. However, not all employees have regular access to email, and massive email volumes risk turning messages into white noise, allowing important information to be easily overlooked.

Telephone

Telephone calls provide instantaneous transmission of information and near-instant receipt of feedback. However, both parties must have access to a phone, and unless another tool is involved, there is no record of the conversation or exchange.

Face-to-face

Face-to-face communication minimizes misunderstandings and is the most effective in terms of accurately transmitting a message and receiving feedback. However, it is the most time-consuming method, and it can be difficult to get all of the necessary parties in front of each other.

Chat programs

Chatting is ideally suited to office contexts. It provides a written record of all communications and is useful for fast exchanges and answering urgent questions. However, like email, employees without device access, such as factory floor workers, are unable to utilize this tool effectively.

Traditional signage

Signage is a great tool for providing information that doesn’t change often, like safety information. Updating it can be challenging and costly, and depending on the location or medium used, the intended audience might not even see it.

Digital signage

Dynamic digital signage is the most recent addition to the internal communications toolbox. Digital signage is easy to update and automate, can provide information in real time, and catches viewers’ attention. It may represent an upfront investment, and like traditional signage, it can be difficult to know whether the target audience has seen or understood the message. However feedback from users of digital signage software and displays report seeing an increase in employee engagement, awareness and discussion around topics shared via digital screens. Overall, it helps everyone everywhere be in the know.

Do your employees spend a lot of time at their desks? Do they all go to the same location to clock in? Do they log into an intranet or portal every day to access their work? Your choice of tools should be based how your organization operates to help your employees work better.

Put the Plan Into Action

You’ve drafted your plan and found the best tools for the job. Now, put them to use! Track your messaging and your employees’ responses. Have a feedback mechanism in place to make sure your plan is working, and if it isn’t, don’t be afraid to change tacks.

Reap the Benefits of Effective Internal Communications

A successfully implemented internal communications plan can have a massively positive effect on your organization. Many business experts believe that one of the biggest competitive advantages companies can gain (that is both sustainable and difficult to replicate) is a happy and empowered workforce. Internal communications has been proven to increase employee engagement and improve motivation, two major factors of employee satisfaction. Employees who know what is going on throughout the organization can also collaborate better, and according to Frost & Sullivan, increased collaboration boosts profitability, customer satisfaction, productivity, and overall organizational performance (cited in an internal communications report by Melcrum Inc.).

ITESMEDIA is at the forefront of innovative internal communications solutions. To learn more about the services we offer, visit our website.

Five Types of Messages You Can Broadcast to Improve Internal Communications

Are you satisfied with your company’s internal communications? What measures have you taken to make them better? Few companies have bragging rights when it comes to internal communications, which can be a real challenge and keep your business from running smoothly.

According to the State of the Sector 2018 report, an employee engagement and internal communications survey conducted annually by Gatehouse, face-to-face communications are the most effective way to communicate within an organization. Digital channels, such as digital signage and email, follow close behind in effectiveness, but are often easier and cheaper to use.

Dynamic digital signage is gradually proving its worth to companies and is being used more and more to broadcast messages. According to the same Gatehouse survey, 64% of companies in the North America now use digital displays to conduct internal communications.

60% of internal communications are conducted using digital signage

Email and other digital channels such as an intranet and instant messaging are very popular methods for companies to share information. However, since many employees, especially in a factory or warehouse setting, do not have regular access to a computer, these digital channels can be rendered next to useless. Digital signage, on the other hand, can reach employees no matter where they are working and have a significant impact. Read on to learn more about five types of messages you can broadcast on digital displays to improve your internal communications.

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1. Share Performance Indicators

Most businesses have databases that provide numerous real-time performance indicators. Sharing these kinds of data can be an effective way to increase employee engagement and motivation. A digital display network can be used to automatically broadcast these indicators company-wide. For example, manufacturing companies can share production goals and real-time production numbers with workers on the factory floor, while a real estate brokerage can display how many closings their agents have made.

4 KPIs your Employees Need to Know

In the example below, the chart data in the main zone and the number of days without accidents in the secondary zone are updated automatically by interfacing with the customer’s databases. In addition, events, such as upcoming trainings, can be broadcast automatically by integrating a calendar.

graphic corpo

2. Highlight Employee Achievements

We know the value of positive reinforcement, but until now, we’ve lacked an appropriate means to display employee news and achievements in a way that has a positive effect on the entire organization. Digital signage is the perfect medium for showcasing employee successes. Has an employee recently pushed her limits during a sporting event? Has another exceeded all expectations on a special project? Has a colleague set himself apart by receiving a special certification? These are just a few examples of special accomplishments that deserve to be displayed on your screen network. Motivating employees by highlighting their achievements will have a significant positive impact on productivity, performance, and retention.

Congraduations

3. Play Educational Content

An interesting benefit of installing digital displays is the ability to add educational and prevention content into the display lineup. It’s an easy way to share how a new machine works, introduce new safety procedures, broadcast EHS reminders, and conduct dynamic training using a medium that can be viewed at any time of day. Using digital displays increases the chances that all your employees will see the information needed to keep operations running smoothly. Since the screens catch viewers’ attention and the content is played on a loop throughout the day, you maximize the likelihood that the information will be transmitted.

5 Ways to Improve OHS with Digital Signage

4. Broadcast Administrative and HR Messages

Instead of sharing administrative information by sending a mass email, why not display it on a screen? Screens can be used to notify employees about upcoming meetings, holidays, or policy changes. Management can also use them to wish employees a happy birthday or invite them to a social event.

Monthly meeting

5. Instill Company Culture

Publishing messages about the company’s values and mission can help improve the atmosphere in the workplace and ensure that employees are all on the same page. It can also instill customer confidence and loyalty in a company or organization.

Dynamic digital signage can be used in a variety of ways to improve your company’s internal communications. Use digital displays to:

  • Broadcast customized messages to a specific place and audience,
  • Provide employees with educational and training materials,
  • Recognize the accomplishments of engaged employees, and
  • Promote the company’s important values.

Are your current internal communications methods up to snuff? In the new era of smartphones, tablets, and smart watches, companies that avoid going digital will be left in the dust. How does your company effectively use internal communications tools? We want to know! If you would like to learn more about how ITESMEDIA can help you implement a digital signage solution, please get in touch.

4 KPIs your Employees Need to Know

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are essential metrics companies use to measure how they’re doing. KPIs help decision makers ensure their choices are informed. Most companies have invested in complex and extremely costly databases with KPI dashboards to keep tabs on their performance. These KPIs are frequently only available to decision makers and the management team. Couldn’t sharing them with employees and customers also be beneficial? Read on to learn about which types of KPIs are best shared for maximum benefit.

5 types of messages you should communicate now to improve your internal communications

4 KPIs your Employees Need to Know

Indicator #1: Production Indicators

production

KPIs are often used to monitor production and can be useful for motivating employees. These KPIs include quantity produced, reject ratio, production targets, and downtime, among others.

Sharing the quantity produced in the above example with the product 2 team may motivate them to continue their good work. Highlighting good performance is obviously important. Plus, sharing this information might also motivate the product 4 team to work harder to achieve better results or determine what occurred in January to cause a slump in production.

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Indicator #2: Quality Control Indicators

error by week

Quality control indicators are also information that is worth displaying and communicating to a company’s various departments. These metrics are very diverse and range from cost of quality to percentage of compliant products and number of defects.

Displaying this data promotes transparency between management and employees. Providing easy access to information often has a beneficial effect on employees. To perform at a high level, workers needs to feel like they are part of the team. Displaying data that was formerly reserved for managers is an effective way to promote engagement and better performance.

Indicator #3: Project Progress Indicators

project process

All departments in a company can benefit from knowing the progress of ongoing projects. This allows all employees, whether on the production floor or in the offices, to have a common vision of the work done. This overview is motivating since it reflects globally the situation according to the tasks performed by the different departments.

Indicator #4: Shipment Indicators

shipping

A diverse array of companies deal with shipping. Many employees would likely be interested in knowing how many products have shipped, the number of on-time and complete shipments, etc. during a given month compared to previous months and during the same month the previous year. The ultimate goal of displaying these KPIs is to show employees how their work translates into measurable results.

Production, quality control, project progress, and shipments are four KPI categories all of your employees should know. Want to go a step further? Keep reading to learn about a few bonus points you can think about!

Keep Your Customers Informed

Why not share some of your best data with your customers, too? Your customers would probably be interested in hearing that your shipments increased over the past few months, indicating that your business is doing well, or that you have a particularly low defect rate. You can share this information with customers and suppliers in your waiting or conference rooms.

Dynamic Digital Signage for Communicating KPIs

Email is the most commonly used method for communicating with employees and is increasingly common for communicating with customers.

That said, some employees do not have regular access to email throughout the work day, particularly in fields like manufacturing where most workers are on the floor and not looking at email. Thankfully, there is a cutting-edge solution to help communicate KPIs to all of your employees: dynamic digital signage.

For manufacturing companies, dynamic digital signage is an interesting solution for communicating effectively with employees on the floor. A screen placed in a strategic location, for example, can be used to broadcast KPIs that are specific to a department or task.

In addition to KPIs, dynamic digital displays can be used to show several other types of messages. Want to learn more? Check out our article on 5 types of messages you need to share with your employees.

To find out even more, check out 5 good reasons why you should use digital signage in a factory.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Digital Signage but Didn’t Think to Ask

Keeping up to date with the newest marketing tech can be a struggle for any business owner. The space changes so quickly, so how can you know if the latest cutting-edge solution is right for you? Dynamic digital signage is one such solution. Understanding the ins and outs will help you make the most informed decision about whether it’s a product that works for your business. Below, we address some of the general aspects of dynamic digital signage to help point you in the right direction.

What is a digital signage content strategy and why make one?

What Can Dynamic Digital Signage Be Used For?

Digital signage has a variety of uses that can be broken down into three main categories:

Communicating with Employees

“Since we’ve started using digital signage, we no longer hear our employees say, ‘I didn’t know.'”

Workplace communication can be tough. To help facilitate communication, companies can use digital displays and screensavers to broadcast important information to their employees, such as company messages, performance indicators, safety reminders, and more. These messages can serve a variety of purposes: they can be informative, educational, motivational, or simply entertaining. Some companies even broadcast information to help prevent workplace accidents. Louis-Philippe Péloquin, Director of Communications at ArcelorMittal, said that since installing digital signage, they “no longer hear [their] employees say, ‘I didn’t know.'” Improved communications can lead to increased motivation, higher productivity, and improved safety.

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internal communication digital signage

Communicating with Customers

“McDonald’s restaurants now display their menus digitally, but they still sell the same Big Mac.”

Businesses large and small are communicating with their customers in new ways. Many companies are seeking solutions to reach their customers differently. Digital displays paired with dynamic content management software are an innovative way to increase awareness about a product or service and can be updated in real time. Digital signage is also four times as likely to attract a customer’s attention than a traditional display. For example, large multinationals like McDonald’s use digital signage to display and update their menus. Some RE/MAX, Coldwell Banker, and Century 21 real estate brokerages, on the other hand, use it to promote the properties they have for sale, both in displays outside their offices and within their offices themselves. Digital displays are sleek and tech forward, and brokerages can use them to elevate the perception of their brand among both customers and employees by sharing office data: sales figures, active listings, properties in escrow, testimonials, and more. Learn more about how one real estate agency owner, Claude Allard, radically changed his business with digital signage solutions in our full case study.

real estate digital signage

Communicating with Users

These days, engagement is the buzzword on every marketer’s lips. Users expect to be engaged, whether they are waiting for the bus, navigating an unfamiliar city, or visiting the doctor. Digital signage is a means for connecting and engaging with users in a meaningful way. For example, the City of Montréal makes driving easier by using digital signage to let drivers know about road work and available parking spaces throughout the city. McGill University Health Centre uses digital screens and terminals to help visitors find their way around the hospital. And several municipalities use digital signage to inform public transportation users about delays, schedule or route changes, and general information like the weather and news.

dynamic parking guidance

The Most Popular Industries Using Digital Signage

The Digital Signage Ecosystem

digital signage ecosystem

While relatively simple, dynamic digital signage requires specific hardware and software components to work properly. The diagram above shows how all these components communicate with each other. Let’s take a closer look at the basic digital signage components.

Software is the heart of the digital signage ecosystem. You might not be able to touch it, but it’s what controls and sends content where you want, when you want it.

Digital Signage Software

In the digital signage ecosystem, software is the core. It may be intangible, but it’s what controls and sends content to the desired screens according to a predetermined schedule. For the past several years, this software has often been Cloud-based and accessible from any internet-connected platform. It has undeniable advantages, but when it comes to the important elements of reliability and security, some software comes up short. Buyers should make sure that their providers use a solid and secure infrastructure, such as Microsoft Azure. If you’re unsure of how to choose the best software for you, check out our article about buying the right software.

At ITESMEDIA, we’ve developed our own proprietary digital signage software called ITESLIVE. It allows for automated communications management and even allows you to connect directly to your own databases to update information like KPIs or projections seamlessly and dynamically. Allow us to convince you: schedule a free online demo today.

Digital Displays: Not Your Ordinary TV

Displays are where your content is dynamically shown. Displays look like televisions but have features that make them suitable for commercial use, such as extended service lives, waterproofing, and increased brightness. Digital displays can be used on their own or can be put together to create video walls of any size. The screensaver of a computer can also be used to display content. Finally, digital LED panels, like those that show the number of available parking spaces in a given location, are yet another example of a type of digital display.

Équipements d'affichage numérique

Interactive Displays

Interactive displays take it up a notch: like digital displays, they are screens that display content but also integrate an advanced tactile interface to provide users with a dynamic, interactive experience. They can be used anywhere, from shopping centers to help visitors locate a particular store, to real estate offices to show potential buyers the features of various properties. Even tablets, which have become increasingly popular in the past few years, can use used to deliver and display interactive digital content.

Media Player

The media player is the link between the digital signage software and your screens. It is what allows you to display the content created in your content manager on your entire network of screens. It’s generally quite small and has the same basic functionality as a computer. It can connect to the internet via an Ethernet cable, Wi-Fi, or even a cellular LTE network and plugs into your screens using an HDMI cable.

Another alternative technology that has been developed recently and that is being used more frequently is called SoC, which stands for system on chip. This system is less expensive than an external media player but doesn’t always offer the right level of performance. It can also be more expensive to perform maintenance on the signage if there’s an issue. We can help you determine whether a media player or SoC technology is right for you.

How Patrick Morin improved communication with his employees

Project description

The renovation center Patrick Morin, which currently has a network of 21 branches throughout Quebec, was having difficulty communicating with its many employees. According to the company’s human resources manager, Jean-Philippe Lavoie, it is quite the challenge to communicate effectively with 21 branches. Following several discussions and a research period, the communications team of Groupe Patrick Morin decided to implement a digital signage network in the rest areas dedicated to employees in order to share and display various messages.

Project objectives

  • To communicate clearly and effectively important messages in a standardized way;
  • To display prevention reminders on occupational safety and health;
  • To customize messages for each branch.

Sujet: Jean-François Lavoie, Human ressources director and Marie-Ève Rousseau, Health, safety and human ressources advisor at Patrick Morin

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Video transcription

[Patrick Morin] counts 21 branches throughout Québec. You can easily imagine the communication challenge we face.

The development of the project was quite simple; you don’t need an IT or communication training.

It was clear and concise.

ITESMEDIA was more than a simple supplier in this project.

They were like partners and supported us from the beginning of the project and still today.

I first met Richard Fortin; he explained to me how the platform works.

Then, Richard sent me a platform to work on my content strategy.

The platform was very detailed: what content to use, how to display it on the screen, who should be the person in charge and how frequently we should update the content.

After entering the data on the platform, everything started working very fast and we didn’t have to manage anything.

There are 3 advantages to digital signage.

The first is uniformity. We are able to standardize our messages for all 21 branches.

The second advantage is customization. We need to be able to send customized message to each branch.

All branches will not necessarily receive the same messages.

The last one is spontaneity.

We need to be able to send messages very quickly according to our needs or the urgency of the situation.

ITESLIVE is so easy to work with.

First, we create mailing lists and with these, I create all the messages I need.

It’s easy to create and we can quickly visualize our display.

When satisfied with the result, just click on “save” and it goes live.

The response from the management and colleagues was excellent.

They noticed that we were going to have a much more effective communication with our stores.

Writing a long release can take over 30 minutes, not counting getting it approved.

With the platform, we only need to write a few lines and display it in an attractive way.

Now, a 30-minute task can be done in just 5 minutes.

We have to adapt to the various and more modern ways to communicate with our in-store customers.

Digital signage is a pretty nice tool. We knew we had to explore that avenue.

I do not hesitate to recommend ITESMEDIA for all your digital communications solutions.

All You Need to Know About Content Strategy

Most digital signage providers will tell you that developing content strategy is an essential step in a successful digital signage project. They are right! However, the content strategy is often misunderstood by customers, but also, by suppliers.

Let us set the record straight and share with you the important elements of content strategy to consider when planning your digital signage project.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Digital Signage but Didn’t Think to Ask

What is Content Strategy?

First, it’s important to understand the role of content strategy in digital signage: it’s the result of the analysis of your company’s communication goals. The content strategy is developed to effectively meet the diverse needs of a company. Concretely, the process involves determining how the content will be displayed on the screens; what kind of content will be displayed in the different parts of the screen depending on the location of the screen, the target audience and the time of day.

Moreover, it is at this stage of your digital signage project that you will decide on the ideal location to install your screens. Remember that the installation of screens outside the establishment serves a completely different purpose than the installation of screens inside.

How does outdoor digital signage survive Québec’s winter ?

Developing a content strategy is a crucial step in planning a digital signage project. The strategy will provide a guideline to your messages: what to publish, to whom, when, where to install the monitors, etc. The strategy will also allow you to determine the font size of the text. Make sure the messages you broadcast are easily readable from where the screens are installed.

If you want to set up your digital signage project without a content strategy, you will not be as successful as you expect. Think about it, how do you capture attention and engage a target audience if the messages you broadcast are inappropriate, inadapted, or worse, uninteresting? Depending on the industry and the sociodemographic profile of the employees, their interest varies greatly. You will lose time and resources in communicating messages that are not personalized and do not have a target audience.

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A good content strategy will allow you to establish the specific content you want to broadcast on a particular screen in order to trigger a change in behaviour in a particular group of employees.

This is why this step requires a great deal of thinking. It is best to write the messages first, and post the content later. Knowing the target audience of each screen installed in different locations of the company will allow you to broadcast the right messages to those concerned.

How to Develop a Content Strategy?

Developing a content strategy, as mentioned previously, requires a great deal of thinking. The majority of our customers do not know where to start or which direction to take to begin with their project. That’s why we suggest you get help from content strategy experts to support you. They will help you analyze the communication needs of your company.

That being said, you can already begin the reflection process on your own before getting help from an expert. Here are some questions you can ask yourself to help guide your thinking process:

  • What are the important messages you would like to communicate?
  • What kind of information would capture the attention of my target audience?
  • Where would be the best location to install screens based on the movements of the target audience?
  • How much time is needed to understand the content?
  • What performance indicators could be used to motivate the target audience?

What Content is Interesting to Broadcast?

Depending on the location of the screen and the target audience, it is possible to broadcast several types of content. Here are some examples of interesting content according to the location:

At reception areas or in waiting rooms, you can capture the attention of clients with the following content:

  • Capsules “Did you know …”?
  • Real-time statistics on health and safety at work
  • A corporate video
  • A calendar of upcoming public events
  • Current projects and mandates
  • News and weather forecasts

In office spaces, a cafeteria or an employee lounge, you can motivate employees with the following content:

  • Educational videos to perfect knowledge
  • Real-time statistics on health and safety at work
  • Key performance indicators
  • Birthdays of employees
  • Ongoing projects
  • Special Mentions
  • Upcoming social events

5 types of messages you should communicate now to improve your internal communications

5 Ways to Improve OHS with Digital Signage

4 KPIs your Employees Need to Know

In conclusion, it is essential to develop a content strategy before diving head first in a digital signage project. You can determine the strategy yourself, but make sure you still get the advice of an expert in order to achieve the best results.

With a good content strategy, your digital signage project will be successful!

How EBI has improved internal communications

Project Description

The waste management and recycling company EBI has decided to implement a digital signage network in order to improve its internal communications. As Caroline Ouellet, the company’s occupational health and safety manager, said: “It was very difficult to reach employees,” She also says that employees are often outdoors and spend very little time in the company’s offices. Management needed a dynamic way to communicate with them.

The objectives of the project

  • Efficiently communicate important messages from different departments of the company;
  • Share prevention messages on occupational health and safety;
  • Communicate performance indicators in real time.

Sujet: Caroline Ouellet, Responsable santé et sécurité au travail, EBI

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Video Transcription

At EBI, we have been thinking about this project for 2 years.

When I arrived at the health and safety department, I discussed with the director of operations and we immediately established that it was very difficult to communicate with employees.

We put a digital screen at the entrance of the cafeteria, next to the punch machine.

This way, employees notice the screen when they come in to work.

At EBI, we decided to automate certain sections of our digital display like employees’ birthdays.

We also automated complaints from customers, as well as our health and security projects.

We can see the evolution of our health and security projects in the form of a graph.

Job offers are also displayed automatically on the screens. Several components are automated.

Statistics on injuries, first aid and car accidents are presented graphically.

Actually, we haven’t finished compiling all the data in order to analyze the profitability of the project.

However, I know that I can now communicate 50 times more prevention messages on health and safety than before.

So, if we manage to prevent one accident, we will have make this project profitable.

At first, I decided to manage the whole project. Now, the human resources department is also involved in the broadcast of messages. They have access to the ITESLIVE software.

The ITESLIVE software is very easy to use. I just log in the to interface and choose which screen I want to modify.

Then, I just add new content. I only need fifteen minutes a week to prepare and post my messages.

At the beginning of the project, we decided to meet with several digital signage suppliers.

We finally selected ITESMEDIA because they offered the possibility to automate messages. We were really interested in how fast it was to modify content and in the flexibility of the software.

Cost wise, we didn’t have to pay for each template. Rather, they offered a global package that included content strategy and great technical support.

For all these reasons, we chose ITESMEDIA.

Why ArcelorMittal uses dynamic digital signage?

Digital signage is increasingly used to contribute to the internal communication process in manufacturing companies. It is a fast and flexible communication tool because the content of the screens is easily modifiable. It is possible to easily adapt the messages according to the time of day, the shift or the location of the screen.

How does dynamic digital signage help ArcelorMittal?

The goal at ArcelorMittal was to improve their internal communication process to reduce workplace accidents and increase employee engagement. The company uses dynamic digital signage for:

  • Do prevention in occupational health and safety
  • Communicate performance indicators in real time
  • Communicating important messages

The video here below shows ArcelorMittal’s digital signage project:

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How does outdoor digital signage survive Québec’s winter ?

Outdoor digital signage is a very effective way to reach a broad audience. During summer, things are simple because of the mild weather conditions which help the screens and the installations function properly. However, several factors can affect your installations during the winter season. For this reason, we decided to write an article to help you understand how outdoor digital signage holds up during the winter season.

1 – Product quality

Quality is the most important factor to take into consideration when buying your screens and installations. Knowing that you will install them in a location where weather conditions are changing and can sometimes be hostile (cold, humidity, extreme heat, etc.), it is important to invest in a good product that can withstand such changes in temperature. We suggest that you seek advice from an expert in the industry who will fully understand your needs and present you with quality products that can withstand the four seasons.

affichage numérique extérieur

A high quality display has a built-in ventilation system to prevent moisture damage. Outdoor screens installed in Las Vegas (extreme heat conditions, prolonged exposure to the sun) and outdoor screens installed in Québec may seem similar at first sight, but the one located in Québec will have to withstand the harshness of winter and must therefore be heated and better ventilated . A screen designed to operate in extreme conditions will be waterproof and insulated to prevent damages from water, cold, sun exposure, extreme heat and other natural phenomena.

affichage numérique pompe à essence

Also, it is important to buy a screen with strong luminance (brightness) so that people looking at its content are able to see what is being broadcast even when the monitor is directly facing powerful sunlight. If your screen is not suitable for the outdoor (but is a quality product), you won’t be able to see the content displayed on the monitor. You can test it with your smartphone or your laptop; you can barely see the content. Note that the minimum recommended brightness for an outdoor screen is 2500 NITS.

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2 – Remotely control your screens

Get an operating system that will allow you to control your screens from your computer. This way, you will be able to know immediately when a problem comes up. Most of the time, you can fix a problem directly from your computer. It’s important to know at all times what is happening on your screens and to keep control of it.  In addition, you can change the content of your screens from your computer. For example, if your screens are located in a ski resort, you can inform the skiers of the next weather alert.

3 – The installation of a protective housing

affichage numérique extérieur

To ensure that your screens are well protected outside, you must have a heated and ventilated protective box covering each screen. The protective housing has to be transparent and very rigid as it must  resist heat, frost, snow, rain, wind. etc. It will act as a shield for the screen which we want to protect as much possible.  Moreover, with such protection, your eoutdoor digital displays are less likely to be vandalized or stolen. It is better that the protective housing  be damaged rather than your screens.

To sum up, if  you decide to invest in outdoor digital signage, make sure to do your research beforehand. It is important to take into consideration the orientation of your screen, the level of brightness, the vibrations in the ground, the weather conditions and the risks of vandalism. Also, a very crucial yet often forgotten detail: make sure to have access to electricity and the Internet!

If you have any questions about outdoor digital signage, do not hesitate to contact an expert!

Contact us:

By phone (toll free): 1 866 553-5462 ext: 251

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Why did we migrate to Microsoft Azure?

ITESMEDIA has decided to go ahead and migrate its servers to the Microsoft Azure CLOUD. Every year, we strive to provide a high quality service to our customers so they can get the most benefits out of it. As a customer of ITESMEDIA, you have a guaranteed access to the latest updates of the applications you use.

“A significant part of our income is invested in the improvement of our software suite,” says Richard Fortin, CEO at ITESMEDIA. “Migrating our servers to Microsoft Azure is a part of our strategic plan to strengthen our leadership position in digital signage over the country.”

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Here are 4 reasons why we are making this technological investment:

1- Protecting our customers’ data

Over the past 18 months, ITESMEDIA has redoubled its efforts to improve the protection of its customers’ data.

First, we set up a strengthened encryption methodology. Then, we decided to move our servers to Microsoft Azure. We made this decision because Microsoft is the first CLOUD supplier to adopt the new international standard ISO 27018 regarding privacy in the CLOUD.

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2- Trusting an approved CLOUD service

The Azure solution has been designed to handle all workloads. More than 66% of Fortune 500 companies rely on Azure, which offers SLA contracts as well as technical support and an analysis of how services run continuously.

3- Business continuity

Microsoft Azure offers a plan for its users to access their applications and data at any time. If you are out of office without access to your computer, you can still recover your data because it safely lives on the CLOUD. This is business continuity and it’s the reason why ITESMEDIA stores the data of its customers on Azure.

4- The evolution of servers according to the growth of the company

By using Microsoft Azure, ITESMEDIA ensures that its servers are always able to meet the highest demand for its web applications at any time. In other words, we migrated to Azure to offer a robust and flexible infrastructure that will be available at all times.

Because Azure is simple and safe, ITESMEDIA moved its servers to this CLOUD. Our company wanted our data as well as our customer’s data to be safe (in terms of backup and confidentiality). While other CLOUDS are more at risk with regards to data piracy, Azure is the only one to have adopted the new ISO 27018 international standard.

If you have to deal with a digital display situation during a trip or if your computers and monitors are broken, you can always find your data. We wanted to provide our customers an easy way to work from anywhere at any time. In this way, Azure is useful if your business runs in different countries or cities.

We are here to help! Rest assured that we are always there to answer your questions about this change.

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