Signs of the Times

Prepping the market

As is typical of emerging technologies making their way into the channel, distributors and vendors play an important role in prepping solution providers for the new products. Distributors such as D&H and Ingram Micro have teamed with their vendor partners to provide pre- and post-sales support, both in selling and in technology.

In August and September, for example, D&H is implementing a digital signage initiative featuring product spotlights designed to help D&H partners better understand and, therefore, better market digital signage, said Schwab.

The initiative will include print, e-mail and Web communications and advertising about digital signage products such as wired and wireless networking components and upgrades; supporting the hardware and software vital to these solutions; managing content; mounts; and high-definition cabling, he added.

Ingram Micro has identified digital signage as an emerging market full of opportunity for the channel, said Kevin Prewett, vice president of vendor management at the distributor.

About two years ago, for example, Ingram Micro opened its East Coast Solution Center in Buffalo, N.Y., and added a digital home showroom and a display of digital signage solutions at its West Coast Solution Center in Santa Ana, Calif.

Ingram Micro partners can review solutions or technology proofs of concept; participate in live, hands-on demonstrations of solutions and individual products; view remote-access demonstrations; participate in one-on-one technical briefings and training; and attend Webcast training and video demonstrations. The center also offers training to solution partners.

"Each solution has a minimum of five different vendors," Prewett said. "For each of those products, you can get them from multiple vendors. [Partners] have the ability to bring the full solution together."

A la carte

Retailers, the early adopters of digital signage, realized their return on investment through increased sales of items advertised throughout their stores. Convenience stores, for example, use digital signage to upsell, said Webpavement's Unold. Eye-catching advertisements playing near an item have been proved to encourage shoppers to try out that new item or pick a competitor's product, he said.

But when it comes to the corporate world, enterprises are looking for a less tangible ROI: employee mind share. "People get so many e-mail messages a day," said Ingram Micro's Prewett. "Everybody heads down to the cafeteria to get something to drink. If [displays are] placed strategically, you get your message across."

Another goal can be to display data in a timely, familiar environment, said Unold. While Webpavement leaves advertisements and other content creation to a client's agency or in-house group, the solution provider has many clients that request RSS feeds incorporated into their digital signage solutions, he noted. "Anything that needs to be said can be said," Unold explained.

It makes sense that advertisers and ad agencies use some of their funds to pay for a spot, for example, on Wal-Mart TV, a network with content created by the giant retailer that plays nonstop at stores. But enterprises also may be able to reap a financial reward, albeit far in the future, suggested Terence Kollman, president and CEO of Charter Digital Media, a sales representative company based in New York that has plasma screens in major U.S. cities and in transportation hubs such as commuter train stations.

Charter Digital Media brings together developers of digital-signage networks—such as solution providers and integrators—with content-creation companies, such as ad agencies and production studios, for media that appears on large-screen displays in key markets, including Manhattan's Times Square, Kollman said.

"Digital signage networks come to us to work with the advertising agencies directly to convince them to place ads," Kollman said. "People hire Charter Digital because of our resources and our Rolodexes."

And these people include solution providers and their customers who, while savvy about the IT or vertical-market benefits, are not proficient in the art of selling advertising space. Often, bringing in Charter Digital Media early in the process can encourage an integrator's customer to think bigger or spend larger since it opens the client's eyes to a potential revenue stream or, worst case, a cost defrayer, said Kollman. However, it can take time to see that ROI, he cautioned.

"A lot of people say, 'I wish we'd spoken to you before we did this rollout,'" said Kollman, noting that displays can improve the customer environment, promote brand awareness and, ideally, create a sales lift that results in dollars, not only good feelings. "Everywhere you go in the next three years you'll see screens."

Although Island Systems & Design prides itself on its technical know-how, the solution provider generally recommends that customers seek professional assistance when it comes to content development, said Gonzalez. While some pundits predicted the rise of free network implementations paid for through advertising, this has not happened during Gonzalez's nine years in the digital signage space, he said.

"The problem is—and this was years ago—everybody was going to put the system in place for free," said Gonzalez. "The problem was big advertisers want quite a few systems up in place before they make that kind of investment. But some people did pull it off."

Slow going

Having determined the main it ingredients, a digital signage solution's success depends heavily on the customer's needs, whether it is determinable ROI, improved communications or market perception.

Part art, but primarily science, a digital signage solution can depend a lot on melding the right relationships with traditional solution provider partners such as distributors and vendors, as well as stirring enough content-creation and ad-sales experts into the mix.

Though adoption has been gradual, solution providers and industry experts say the technology is picking up momentum. And this could mean that in a handful of years, it will be hard to go anyplace that doesn't have a display.

Alison Diana is a freelance writer and editor who has reported on the IT industry and the indirect channel for almost 18 years. She lives in Merritt Island, Fla., and can be reached at alisondiana@hotmail.com.