Companies are heavily investing in visual display technology and for this reason, Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are faced with a major challenge after finding that several digital solutions are in place for just one organization!
In the digital world, managers are aiming to replace traditional paper notices, static posters and so on with indoor digital displays. Every department within the company – marketing, finance, human resource and others are interested in using different display applications for their department. These departments work independently in trying to purchase systems that are effective but at a lower cost. Eventually, the company has to end up paying for all these solutions.
Governance nightmare
For CIOs, this is a governance nightmare. What happens ultimately is that there is a collection of incompatible hardware and software components that become a headache for the IT department (particularly when something stops working).
This issue is also a growing problem in the digital world because there is a rapid increase in the number of displays being connected to the internet and to corporate networks. According to forecasts, by 2020, there will be 20.4 billion connected things in use globally.
To avoid this unnecessary expense, hassle and to ensure optimum outcome, there should be a corporate-wide decision on which digital system should be implemented, after much consultation with the IT department.
By centrally managing visual display technology across all departments within an organization, the use of such technology becomes much more effective and also saves massive expenses on software, equipment, licenses and labor.
Procedure
The first step to this procedure is for CIOs to gather managers of key departments in the company that may play a role in the management of the digital signage network and to bring about some processes and procedures for operating the digital display technology.
Next, come up with a Reference Architecture to plan out how the devices will be managed and decide what hardware, software and operating system will be the best for these devices. In addition to that, network management software and decisions regarding who is responsible for the maintenance of the digital system is also important. This way, the IT department will have less vendors to interact with if things go wrong.
Choosing a manufacturer for your digital signage solution requires consultation from key IT staff and other industry recommendations. LED Craft Inc provides premier LED products to suit all your digital needs. As CIOs find a way to work through this process, they must create a vision for digital signage and this must include assessment of future needs so that any solution in the future can be scalable to the existing one. The vision should also include a content strategy along with recommendations for the scale of an initial investment and enduring expenses. There should be a mention about the placement of signs, inventory of assets to be managed and identification of who will be responsible for content management.
If this process is clearly defined, it will be much easier to add new hardware and software licenses and sustain this. CIOs can now centrally manage a scalable solution for digital signage while also allowing department heads to control their respective LED displays as they feel appropriate.
Prioritizing
Once these procedures are complete, CIOs must decide what needs to be displayed – could have, must have, should have and won’t have. Examples of must haves are emergency weather and security announcements while examples of won’t haves are chalk boards. The best way a firm can decide what should and could be displayed is by conducting a comprehensive survey with the staff.
Just like every department head has to come up with strategies on management procedures, CIOs also must come up with detailed strategies for using digital display technology and this should encompass maintenance details, capital budgets, technical details and integration of the system with other software.
Managing these things wisely will result in a successful digital signage campaign that takes into consideration the requirements of multiple departments within the company in a cost effective way – thereby causing lesser trouble for the IT department.
