Archives des Hotel industry and convention centers - ITESMEDIA Dynamic Digital Signage

How can digital signage improve the customer experience in hotels?

When you are arriving at a hotel, looking for the front desk to check in is probably the first thing you do. Now that you have found it, you see a long lineup ahead, and have no way of knowing how long you are going to wait, whether you have time to go to the washroom or not, or even if you can leave your bags at the desk while you are waiting for your room to be ready. Every hotel is different, so you never know what to expect. Digital signage can make these situations easier by displaying content that helps you find your way, inform you and entertain you.

Making wayfinding easier

In a foreign country or a new city, the priority for travellers is finding various locations: where can they find their room, the pool, the fitness room, the spas, the conference rooms, the shops, etc. Through digital signage terminals or touchscreens equipped with a Wayfinding feature, visitors can easily find their way inside the hotel. You can know where to go with the help of a search field or a list of the hotel’s strategic locations: all it takes is a single click on the desired destination to display the way to reach it on a map.

On this touchscreen or interactive terminal, it is also possible to help visitors find nearby activities, restaurants, and shops. These locations are displayed as lists or as dots on a map, and people can discover the possibilities in the area. It is even possible to share public transit schedules around the hotel to help visitors reach these destinations. Whether you are inside or outside of the hotel, you’ll never be lost.

Inform visitors

When visitors arrive at the hotel lobby, they always have a lot of questions about the hotel and the surrounding area. Using digital displays would be a great way to share content that will answer their frequently asked questions such as the way to the washroom, information about leaving luggage while the room is being prepared, the entrance to the parking, etc. Provide information to your clients by showing pictures of the hotel restaurant and its menu, ads about nearby activities and hotel promotions. You can also display services, rates and information about various locations and services provided by the hotel such as the prices for massages or for using the spa, or opening hours of the pool or the gym.

Entertain visitors

The lobby usually offers an area with sofas so clients can chat or relax. These clients will look at digital displays for personalized entertainment. You could entertain them and stay up to date by sharing content such as YouTube or Vimeo videos about activities or tourist spots to visit in town, or even show reviews from travel blogs. You could also share news from important newspapers (such as The Gazette, for example). In other words, entertain your visitors with different kinds of content.

In conclusion, what we need to remember is that the clients need to find their way, and be informed and entertained. Digital signage equipped with the latest dynamic display software is therefore a critical asset for your hotel to help your customers and ensure their needs are met. Furthermore, another important element is the fact that an improved customer experience will make sure they will remember your hotel on their next visit.

How Industrielle Alliance improves the visitor experience

Project description

We rolled out an interactive signage solution in one of Montreal’s busiest office buildings, namely the Industrial Alliance tower in the heart of the downtown core. The sophisticated, intuitive interface enhances the overall user experience for both visitors and occupants. The screens provide access to an interactive tenant directory and wayfinding system. One of the features that set it apart is that it shows the location of nearby restaurants, hotels, taxi stands, Bixi bike-share stations and bicycle paths. Its particular value is rooted in the integration of the General Transit Feed Specification used by Google. This makes it possible to provide up-to-the-minute metro, train and bus schedules so commuters can instantly see the times of upcoming departures. Also displayed are real-time headlines powered by the La Presse news feed, a map of Montreal’s underground city, the current date and time, and local weather.

A Game Changer For Digital Signage

Digital signage solution ITESLIVE is a communication and marketing tool enabling you to broadcast multimedia content on any screen. It includes an online content management platform. Users centrally manage their content and distribute it over their network of screens. Historically, the challenge for some customers has been that most versions of digital signage software required expensive hardware or equipment. Such a media player behind each screen.

New ITESLIVE Web version

A key advantage of the new ITESLIVE web version is that it is a cross-platform and can be used on any device equipped with an HTML5 compatible browser (Google Chrome for example). Indeed, this web-based digital signage solution has no dependency on a specific operating system or equipment, which makes it an extremely flexible solution.In other words, this version works seamlessly on Windows, Tizen, WebOS and Chromium. ITESLIVE’s web version is a game changer for digital signage. You will have limitless use case possibilities.

It is also a very inexpensive solution because it does not necessarily require the use of an external drive. The software runs on both an on-screen player and an external player. The solution does not require specific configurations which in the past could generate additional costs.

With the web version, the content is displayed continuously (streaming). This may have an impact on user bandwidth. To help users manage their bandwidth, ITESLIVE is equipped with a bandwidth monitoring tool.

Windows vs Web version

The main difference between a Windows vs. web version is offline operation. With the web version, if the network connection is cut, the display stops. With Windows, if the network connection is interrupted, the display continues as is (without content updates). Aside from that, the web version will have some limitations in terms of possible remote monitoring of the equipment, due to the varied functionalities of different browsers.

30-day free trial

We offer a 30-day free trial to make it easier for companies to communicate with their employees, partners and customers. This includes viewing new safety measures and hygiene reminders. For this purpose, we include free images on the precautionary measures to be taken due to COVID-19.

Are you ready for deconfinement?

The new health rules imposed will bring a lot of changes upon returning to work. Among all the challenges and preparation that progressive deconfinement brings, content creation is sometimes the last item on the list. That’s why, we’ve created images illustrating health precautions we should take to protect ourselves and others. You can download them for free and distribute them on your digital signage networks or other media that you use to communicate with your customers, staff, and partners.

Where should you post these images?

We suggest you distribute them to strategic places in your business, whether it is at the main entrance, in the cafeteria, or in the break room. In short, wherever employees, customers, and visitors have a few seconds to look on your screens or your bulletin board.

Is PowerPoint the most cost-effective and efficient tool for sharing information throughout your company?

Marketing and communication managers see dynamic signage from both a professional and a personal point of view; they are constantly searching for new ways to display information and always on the lookout for the latest technological trends. People in charge of sharing information in a company all have the same objective: communicate messages and make them seen, read and heard.

For all company types, screens have proven their effectiveness as a mean of communication. If you are using this channel of communication, which tool is the best way to organize and display information to your audience? Do you prefer PowerPoint, or are you using professional software? Both options are just as useful: their choice depends on your needs and your goals.

At ITESMEDIA, every new client relationship begins with identifying their communications needs. We then offer professional counselling on signage, content and automation solutions available to them. Here are some points to consider when building your communication plan.

Which display type describes your situation?

Single

You have a single screen
The display is readily accessible
Your screen’s USB key is safe
The displayed content does not change over time

PowerPoint is what you need!

Multiple

You have more than one screen
You would like to control the displayed information remotely
Your audience appreciates real-time information (e. g. time, weather, newsfeeds)
The displayed content needs to be refreshed constantly
The dynamic display must comply with the company’s graphic standards

The ITESLIVE dynamic digital signage software is your best option!

“Our company’s head office is quite large: the office spaces are adjacent to a small manufacturing plant. There are two cafeterias, locker rooms, rest areas, three coffee areas, plus the conference rooms and cloakrooms. Our communications must be effective both as messages and as a management method; it is essential that the signage can be controlled remotely. In an environment where content needs to be perpetually refreshed, customized templates help us save time significantly. Considering the amount of content we need to send, we cannot imagine going without software that can automate virtually everything for us!”

Is saving time an issue?

Companies need to ensure they are getting the most value from their assets. It’s a simple equation: time=money! To identify if you could save precious hours every month (or, in some cases, every week and even every day!) by using professional software instead of PowerPoint, we invite you to consider the time required to manage digital signage, writing and page layout of your messages. Answer the following questions to guide you in this process:

Did you ever have to open your computer late in the evening, or had to connect in a hurry to post last-minute information?
Is updating your PowerPoint slides (unfortunately) at the bottom of your list of priorities?
Have you ever considered creating a new Communications position in your company to manage your dynamic signage?

You can save time and optimize the performance of your resources through a single service: ITESLIVE provides you with benefits PowerPoint can barely compare to.

With our turnkey services, you can:

Leverage a vast choice of display templates aligned with your branding
Captivate your audience by providing updated content every day
Control your displays remotely and ensure signage network security
Optimize your other communication channels through automation
Use digital signage to display emergency messages
Customize information between different display zones

Growing needs

Working with our clients has shown us that technology, as well as communications within a company, evolves over time. Some of our customers shared that they started with a television showing about twenty slides, which they found effective. Then, they added another display and added about a dozen slides to the presentation. Eventually, their needs reached a point where the person in charge had to spend a considerable amount of time to manage everything.

In these cases, replacing PowerPoint and using professional software to automate, program and reuse content has proven to save a considerable amount of time for the manager, helped increase efficiency, and provided improved information to the target audience. Win-win. It’s what ITESMEDIA strives for.

Which solution is the best for you?

Assess your situation with Raphaël. Give him a call at 514-642-3790 or send him an email if you want to learn more about ITESLIVE or if you wish to explore your digital signage options.

When information spreads faster than a virus

The Coronavirus world health crisis is taking the communications sector by storm, both in the media and in every aspect of our lives. Every company has unique messages to share, whether for increased hygiene measures or specific guidelines depending on the job type, and must deal with information that changes constantly.

This is a situation where digital signage can be the best way to communicate information within your company. Digital signage is much easier to understand than reading captions on a television screen on mute and can rapidly update information shared on many different screens (in less than two minutes). Information can be edited remotely through the software hosted in the cloud, and automation gives the opportunity to share news and stay up-to-date with the latest events in real time.

Consider the amount of e-mails you would have to send to constantly keep people informed about the latest recommendations from the World Health Organization. In this barrage of information, would paper notices on bulletin boards still be up to date? What if digital signage was THE right solution to reach the largest possible audience while ensuring that the information is reliable? Do you need advice? Call this number: 514-642-3790.

Plan the content of your digital displays to ensure successful communications

Have you ever seen an ad that stayed with you for a long time? Did you ever wonder how a simple slogan can have such a deep impact? Ads that seem to owe their success to a stroke of luck are, in general, very well planned from the moment they are created until they are released and are rarely the work of a single person. The same goes for internal communications. The outcome seen by your audience is the result of many steps leading towards the winning combination that allow you to communicate the right message at the right time and to the right people, all the while using the right tone and the style of your brand – and nothing less.

This is about content strategies. At ITESMEDIA, we call this process the “Communication success strategy”. Digital signage software is the heart of ITESMEDIA, and content strategy is its brain.

Which matters most – content or container?

It’s the same as asking “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?” – one cannot go without the other. If you are a manager, you’re probably looking for an effective, easy-to-use tool with a programming function to facilitate information distribution for your internal marketing campaigns. However, for people viewing a screen, software performance is not an incentive to read the content. As such, the communications manager’s requirements are not the same as the target audience’s needs. In this context, the content is at least as important as the container, and perhaps even more.

Who’s talking? Who’s listening?

Which information needs to be communicated? When? Which images should be used? How much information can fit on a slide? When you need to create a communication campaign with content adapted to your company’s environment, you will need to answer a lot of questions to properly target the message and the recipients.

Below are the steps we follow with our clients during a content strategy process. These can be done alone or with colleagues.

1. Define the objectives

What is your intent? Do you wish to inform, convince, entertain your public, or increase employee retention? Whether the message is intended for internal communications or for large-scale retail distribution, achieving your goals means communicating regularly with your audience. It is therefore critical to start your content strategy by identifying your communication campaign’s objectives and, preferably, making sure they are aligned with the company’s mission.

2. Identify and understand your audience

Who are you talking to? Employees, clients, the general public, or even friends?
Where will your audience be physically when you communicate with them through dynamic displays? In a corridor, a cafeteria, a waiting room, or outside?
Are the people you will be talking to ready to listen to you? Your public’s mental availability could change depending on the position of the signage (for instance, a screen next to a coffee machine will not have the same effect as one inside a conference room).
Which formula would work best for your audience? Reading, looking, listening, guessing? There are so many different ways to communicate!

To target your audience, no matter how large, a great exercise is to think about someone you know and whose profile matches the criteria of your intended audience. You will then have a precise example in mind while creating your message, which will help increase its retention rate.

3. Identify equipment and communication channels

Are the employees allowed to access their mobile at work? Can they go on social media sites during work hours? Are they using a computer all day long or do they operate machinery?

Being aware of the many (or the few) information sources witch employees can access will help evaluate the number of messages to publish.

4. Determine the types of content

What are your audience’s preferences? Do they prefer specific graphics and images, or a vocabulary in particular? Would they appreciate light content, or something more serious?

What emotion does the content generate? Can it make your employees smile or think, or call them to action? Think about the content you see on your social media. Diversity is the key to attract your public and, more importantly, to keep its attention.

5. Prioritize the information

Did you ever find yourself taking part in a lively discussion and trying to follow more than one conversation at a time? If yes, you have noticed the best way to listen to a conversation and to participate is to choose only one.

The same applies for the digital display communication channel: the most important message goes first.

6.Maximize sources that can automate the content

Using external sources to create content can be a winning move for everyone. For instance, news on your intranet can automatically appear on your screens. Reusing content can help you save time, and people can see it at more than one place (or not, depending on their preference).

Automated content can also be directly linked to your company’s activities and can display information in real time, such as production data, facilities’ status (e. g. active, out of order, undergoing repairs), and even emergency messages when an alarm is triggered.

Are the news or the weather important for your public? Attention-grabbing information? If the answer is yes, these automated programming options are easy to integrate within your communication plan.

7. Create and include visuals

Digital signage can also be used to promote your company’s brand in every message. Strong visuals are always eye-catching, but harmonized typography, colors, image types (pictures, icons, characters, etc.) will create reading habits and help the reader recognize key messages.

Digital signage is a part of our lives

It’s everywhere. People are used to see it, and more and more read it. In a restaurant, customers will read the menu because they don’t have a choice. In a waiting room, people read to pass the time. In a corporate environment, they read to satisfy their curiosity. In any event, the content must be engaging and informative, and should support the company’s goals.

Successful content needs to be good and look good – and to achieve it, it takes a strategy!

Do you want to drive your communications by following a communication campaign that is aligned with your objectives? ITESMEDIA offers a content strategy service to help its clients optimize their communications on their dynamic displays. We are here to help you, contact us – 514-642-3790 ext.1 , sales@itesmedia.tv.

How-to Communicate Messages Better

Communication tip to improve company culture

Are you ready to communicate your message?

So, you have a great message to share and you think you are ready to launch it into your marketplace. But step back for one minute and think…have you effectively cascaded that announcement about a company acquisition, new partnership deal signed, or killer marketing campaign for a new product launch to your own company’s staff?

Staff are interacting with customers and upholding your brand values everyday – even the ones that are not in sales.

Just because you say you want to communicate something doesn’t mean you’re ready to communicate it. The same goes for someone telling you to communicate on their behalf. You need to ensure that you have all the information required to cascade to stakeholders, all the answers to the questions that will come up and all the appropriate parties involved to ensure successful execution. When you achieve this, your message will be mission accomplished: heard, seen, meaningful and effectively resonate in the tone and manner you intended.

Internal First Checklist for Better Company Culture

Why:

An ‘internal first’ policy means employees will be well informed of all company initiatives prior to public launch. Internal first keeps all “in the know” at all times and should be mandated by all departments. Doing so significantly improves employee happiness. Nothing worse than learning about an initiative your company had after the fact, or from someone outside your organization. Employees who are informed are engaged.

There is an art to communicating to all employees. Not everyone one needs the same level of detail. And certainly, not everyone will, or even has access to, read an email announcement. But that limitation should not hold you back. A few well-articulated bullet points or a nice visual (think like an advertisement, but to your staff) is all you need.

Examples what you should communicate internally first are a new strategic partnership in your market or a new marketing campaign. Each are aligned to the values and goals of your brand. So, your staff should be aware first! The key is cascading key communications to all staff in more than one method like email. And making it visual for staff to quickly be informed and comprehend. A little info can go a long way if executed properly. The checklist in this post will help!

Using digital signage, you can send such awareness messages to staff fast, easily and in a visual design that helps them get the high points. Some screens can show a brief FYI – others can offer more info in rotation. Essentially your overall message is consistent. The exact the delivery is tailored to the audience that the digital screen services.

How to:

Initiatives to support Internal First (requirements and considerations):

Have you included all affected departments/employees in your information gathering process?
Have you asked all the required questions? If you aren’t sure, don’t wait to be told. Ask the question!
Be sure to include those who you think can improve the outcome of your project plan.

Challenge yourself to think outside the box. Who else could provide new considerations that you haven’t thought of yet?

Timeline

What else is being communicated to your target audience at that time?

Is your communication urgent and/or mandatory?
Does it align with other messaging?
Can it be combined with an existing message?
Does your project plan ensure that the message will be communicated at the best time, in the most effective way?

What communication channels will be used to communicate your message? For example:

Digital Signage software
Company intranet
IT email
Support email
Marketing email
Platform pop-up (within product/technology)

Internal Awareness Alert

The goal is to communicate internally a minimum of 48 hours prior to the external release of information.
Internal Awareness Alerts are intended to announce any external, client-facing communications or initiatives (marketing collateral, client communications, marketing campaigns, etc.).
Internal awareness of the project initiatives is the responsibility of the project owner.
Posting such an alert via digital signage software is optimal here. It is fast, in real time and can be shared to one, some or all screens and devices you need. Each screen can be set to share the appropriate level of detail base on how the screen is used or where the screen is located.

Should you get feedback from stakeholders during your internal first communication window that requires you to adjust your communication, no worries. Digital signage software enables you to make changes and update existing communications in minutes. Always have the best and most current information in the eyes of your staff.

Wayfinding Digital Signage for Better Customer Experiences: Where, Why, How and Who

We’ve all walked into a big building, stopped a few feet in, and quietly thought, “OK, where am I and where do I need to be?”

Finding our way around big places like office towers, office campuses, university campuses, medical complexes, airports, rail stations, central business districts, congress centres and shopping malls can all be daunting. There are rarely enough signs to point the way, and those signs may not have much in the way of answers beyond. They may provide location, but no context or help in getting to a target location, like a specific room or shop.

The answer is wayfinding, and ideally, digitally driven wayfinding. Printed maps and directories are only as good as the last time they were updated, and usually relay the absolute basics. Digital signage, done right, is current, interactive and deep in detail.

With a digital wayfinding application, otherwise lost and perplexed visitors to a venue can easily find out:

Where they are, with You Are Here! flashing on an interactive map
Where they need to be, like a store, clinic or lecture room, with directions and walking time estimates
Locations for things like food services, a bank machine or washrooms, based on keyword and category searches done right at the screen.

Thoughtfully positioned around buildings and large multi-building venues, digital wayfinding stations reduce frustrations for visitors and ease the burden on facility operators to stay on top of what can be a moving target.

Consider what happens in places like shopping centers and airport concourses, where tenants and services are regularly switching out or relocating. With a print directory and maybe an associated map, just one tenant moving out or relocating, or a new one coming in, means re-designing and updating the printed directory and map, sending it off to the printers, and then taking the time to get around to all the directory stations to put the new version in place.

Then a week later, something else changes, and the increasingly costly, time-consuming process needs to be repeated.

Digital is a much more nimble, efficient way to deliver on those basics, but that’s really just the opening argument for going digital with wayfinding.

Consider these advantages of Wayfinding via Digital Signage Terminals and Displays

Interactive

Digital natives – the huge population wave of adolescents and young adults who grew up not knowing anything but a world of smartphones, tablets and touch screens – walk up to things like concourse and entryway directories expecting and assuming they’re just big versions of their phones. You can see the confusion as they tap and try to pinch, zoom and swipe glass poster cases that have nothing but printed material and backlights inside. Interactive digital is expected.

Clever

Basic printed maps and directories can list what’s there and point out location. Digital wayfinding terminals (stations) can help people find what they need, without knowing specific names, and in context to where they are. Finding a place for quick bite at an airport works a lot better if you can use a touchscreen that locates where you are in a terminal and locates nearby restaurants. There’s no value in knowing what eateries are in another terminal. Even better, many wayfinding systems will show the walking route, and estimate the time needed to get there. In some cases, those directions can be pushed to the user’s smartphone.

Flexible

Printed material can do whatever it was designed to do, and that’s it. With digital signage, a wayfinding station can serve many purposes – running multiple functions or changing either on demand or through scheduling. For example, a railway hub can use wayfinding stations to direct people to tracks and to services in the terminal, but also provide touch-driven options for getting train status, schedules or interactive route-finders that help people sort out how they can get from there to another there. When they’re not busy, they can be used to support marketing for retail tenants and services, public safety alerts or third-party advertising that can offset or recover the capital and operating costs of the digital stations.

Fast or Instant

Doing things with print or other means can take hours, days or weeks to fully turn around. With digital, changes can be made quickly or even automatically. For example, suppose circumstances at a convention center require a meeting or event to be re-located to a different room or hall. If the facility’s management office uses a room booking system, or even just a shared spreadsheet on a network directory, when room assignments are changed in the management software, they can instantly change on the wayfinding/directory system. Notifications for things like public safety and weather warnings can also, easily, be automated and triggered to appear on screens.

How to make your Wayfinding project better? Work with a modern signage software company.

ITESMEDIA has a long, deep background working with large organizations and data – both real-time and archived, and has worked with a wide range of organizations on everything from searchable directories and wayfinding applications. For example, the Saint-Hyacinthe Technopole near Montreal engaged ITESMEDIA to develop a solution involving interactive kiosks and screens that promote attractions, hotels, restaurants, shops and other businesses near the innovation and meetings facility.

Guest experience is now recognized as a key to business success – with visitors having the sort of easy, helpful and positive experience that makes them want to return. That starts from the moment people arrive, and in a big footprint facility, stopping confusion and frustration before it develops – with a great wayfinding and directory application – is a smart technology decision.

How to Present Workplace Dynamic Data

Business communicators who want to drive meaningful and timely messaging on their workplace digital signage networks should get to know and embrace a nerdy little acronym – API.

That’s short for Application Programming Interface. While that will look both intimidating and boring to people charged with workplace communications, having access to APIs is a big deal for running a digital signage network that is always current, always relevant. and best of all, highly automated. For busy HR pros, it can be a lifesaver, because of the way data can work with software tools to steadily feed the content beast.

Imagine keeping staffers in office areas and out in the warehouse and production areas steadily informed on what’s going on, what they need to do, and how things are going, without allocating full-time resources to pull material together and get it all out to screens. Imagine all the complexity gone from tasks like accurate messaging based on things like location, time and operating conditions.

With APIs, that’s all not only possible, but relatively easy with the right software solution and technology partnership. In layman’s terms, APIs make it possible to securely access real-time data from business systems and cloud-based software platforms. An API presents that data in a reliably structured format, that can then be ingested by a content management system and used to present steadily updated, dynamic content on screens.

Still a little nerdy, we know, but here’s how that looks in a workplace:

Those time consuming and boring Spreadsheets and PowerPoint slides that a manager or assistant creates manually, and then prints and posts in break rooms or work team meeting areas, can instead be live content on one or several screens. In a manufacturing environment, that screen might be showing live charts that reflect production numbers against target, inventory levels, or shipping volumes reported by product, production line or whatever variable that’s required.

When a sensor connected to production equipment detects a spill, it can automatically trigger a warning notice to screens in that immediate area, with specific instructions for workers. Around the rest of the plant, the notification message might be different, or there may be no need for any messaging about the incident. Contrast that with older systems that might trigger a general alarm that a whole facility will hear and react to, causing downtime.

In a sales office, a screen or screens automate the key performance indicators – like sales pipelines and sales performance against targets – on real-time dashboard screens, instead of being printed out for discussion and review at a weekly sales team meeting.

At a logistics facility, cameras and sensors pick up and report when a truck enters the yard, and then logs on screens when it arrives at a bay, when it loads or unloads, and when it exits the facility. Compare that with a job that’s otherwise left to paper sheets and clipboards only a handful of people ever see.

At facility exit areas, automated content can let workers know about traffic problems or transport delays and disruptions, before they leave the premises and end up in a traffic jam they wished they’d known about.

Working with data for your communications can be easy

While all this likely sounds quite technical, and over the head of many human resources people who don’t think they missed their calling in IT, working with data is increasingly easy.

That big hurdle – getting at real-time data – is now easy for many to most businesses, particularly those running on contemporary, cloud-based systems. APIs for these types of systems are common, and usually essential now for doing business.

Smart digital signage and interactive solutions companies have developed tools – like data connectors and dynamic content templates – to make it easy. While every business out there is a little bit different, communication needs don’t vary as much. Most companies have KPIs they’d like to show on screens. Most companies want to celebrate success and acknowledge team milestones. Most companies want a means to reinforce safety, and a way to report how things are going.

Using something called HTML5 and Java scripting – don’t worry, you don’t need to learn them either – a content template can be updated instantaneously, and things like charts and graphics re-drawn and images switched, with no intervention from a creative person (or anyone else). Magic!

The right messaging can help boost performance. When a work team is behind on a task, real-time data can show where they’re at and encourage speeding up or re-allocating resources. Some companies have taken a cue from online game platforms to “gamify” work tasks – pitting teams across a plant, or multiple plants, to boost productivity with fun visuals and incentives.

The right digital signage solutions providers will have the tools and knowledge to work with customers and come up, usually quickly, with content automation templates. Often, busy IT staffers within an organization need to have little or no involvement when the systems that have the desired information are equipped with APIs.

NO APIs? Message automation is still possible, just ask.

When there are no APIs, that doesn’t mean partial or full automation is not possible. First, a solutions provider can work with the technology provider that has the platform and data, to develop custom access. Often, all that’s needed is some means to push data to a shared directory that is secure for the tech col, and accessible by an outside system.

It’s also possible to strip down and simplify automated messaging. Something as simple and ubiquitous as Google Sheets spreadsheets can be used. For example, if a company wants to post production target numbers at the start, middle and end of each shift, someone just needs to key those in to the right cells on the shared spreadsheet, and the CMS platform will “see” the changes and speedily, if not instantly, change that on screens, in numbers and charts that can grow, shrink and change color based on the design and pre-set parameters.

How to get started with automating workplace messaging

So how does an organization start optimizing and automating critical workplace messaging?

Three key steps:

Establish what messages are needed, where they need to be, and how often they change;
Determine where the information is generated and resides, and whether it is accessible (i.e. has an API);
Find a solutions provider that understands how to work with real-time data and has a track record of doing so for organizations.

The most successful workplace digital signage projects are those that are steadily fresh, timely, relevant and visually interesting. Done manually, it would be a lot of work. But with the right toolsets and tech partners, it should be a breeze. And much-loved around the organization.