How digital signage networks can be scaled for best results

Introduction

By investing some time and operational skills, organizations can expand initially in terms of more employees, and then establish more offices, facilities and geographical reach. When organizations expand, there is an increased need to engage and communicate with employees and keep them informed, regardless of which branch they are working at.

Digitized organizations today rely on digital signage to carry out effective employee communication, especially to workers who are not in a PC and desk type position. With more and more offices in different geographical areas, expansion of digital signage can also be a burden in terms of management of the screens. The original digital signage solution managed by a centrally-located team may not scale easily into different locations. This will result in extra work for the IT department, operations and communications team, which will lead to employee communication occurring in a patchwork approach.

Instead, it would be better to start off with a digital signage solution that can be scaled up regardless of what direction the business expansion goes towards.

Invest in a scalable solution from the beginning

Expanding your digital signage network to a large scale one can pose to be highly challenging if the initial solution is not scalable.

In 2022, a huge challenge for companies is to communicate with remote and deskless workers. When companies expand to multiple locations across the world, this challenge is magnified when they try to lead communications from just a few of those locations. With effective use of LED signage solutions, this obstacle can be overcome.

Content Management Systems (CMS) are available for digital signage networks to conveniently manage content across locations, cater to different audiences, maintain a number of screens, and so on. Every screen can be updated from a single location in just a few clicks. You can cater to localized content for each LED display, real-time data and metrics, emergency alerts and more.

Without this kind of a scalable solution, communication and IT teams have to work manually and will probably not be aware if a digital screen is showing the right content at the right time. Therefore, when determining your digital signage needs, always consider:

• how your content will be deployed
• how the devices will be managed
• what infrastructure will be needed for your network
• who will need access to manage and operate the solution?

Challenges faced in scaling up digital signage networks

• Content management from one location for a geographically wide network.
• Facilitating different content on each screen based on language, time zones, target market.
• Integrating a variety of hardware models into the network.
• Adding attractive content such as videos, social media streams, newsfeeds and so on.
• Remotely controlling each LED screen.
• Troubleshooting when issues arise.

As your digital signage network expands, you will want to consider delegating the task of content management for the electronic signage. Different team members must be assigned particular roles which will define what devices they have access to. This facility allows empowering employees while also maintaining security of what is published on a company’s indoor LED displays.

Possible Solutions

When networks are smaller, certain aspects such as installation, infrastructure, and proofreading content can be managed in-house. When your team has lesser control over these elements though, a challenge is poised. Also, when a third-party vendor manages the installation and service of the hardware infrastructure, the hosting firm loses control.

It is important to come up with solutions that help device management, monitoring, and methods to categorize hardware into tenants as the network grows. This will provide the organization with flexibility to state which user has access to which devices, who is allowed to manage and distribute content, and who can run reports on certain devices.

1. Mobile Device Management (MDM)

Organizations can also deploy a Mobile Device Management (MDM) tool for digital signage, which will help IT teams to monitor how functional each device is through real-time updates for software and firmware, and can also adjust the configurations remotely, issue commands such as restart, reset, switch off and on, etc. The MDM tool ensures your digital signage network remains healthy, experiences less downtime, and is able to run proof-of-play reports.

2. Simplify content sharing

• Create fresh content regularly to engage employees
• Provide updates regarding your business
• Share critical information

Even with digital signage, there are multiple ways in which this content can be delivered.

• CMS solutions are one solution where communicators can publish content to any number of screens, where ever they are located regardless of their geographical boundaries.
• Industry experts recommend making sure that labels and tags can be applied on content, playlists and devices with the CMS you are using.
• There should also be the feature of grouping with different LED screens so as to arrange batch publishing. For example, all the LED displays in one city can have the same content scheduling while digital displays in other cities may have different content.
• The ability to filter content and devices will allow users to update screens faster, which will reduce the time spent in managing the digital signage network.
• Integration with cloud solutions is also essential in driving efficiencies for organizations because seamless updating can be done. Users can also integrate newsfeeds from other platforms and use such pre-designed content to keep fresh content rolling on their digital screens without having to create so much new content in-house.

3. Maximizing ROI

Digital signage networks are the best and most effective way to drive employee engagement amongst deskless and hybrid employees. However, careful consideration has to be taken when deciding to implement a network. For best results, heavy investment in good quality hardware, software and content has to be made. In order to get the most out of this investment, it is very important for companies to begin with a solution that can be scaled while the organization grows. Don’t miss out on consulting with reputed digital signage providers such as LED Craft Inc to get advice on how to create a scalable digital signage network for your organization.