How to create the best workplace digital signage [+VIDEO]
Have a digital signage network ready to roll out in your workplace? Then, all you need now is the inside scoop on how to deliver the best possible results! Global real estate group, Lendlease, offers the perfect case study and guide to effective digital communications. Find out how the company was able to digitally transform its workplace locations, using a cloud-based digital signage solution.
Real-time content automation
Equipping the Lendlease Paddington hub, and other locations with digital signage screens was just the first step in the office’s transformation. As this interview shows, to create a digital signage system that can deliver a quick return on investment, you need to think about software solutions. You can only make the most of your digital signage, if you have a way to fill your screens, round the clock, with timely and relevant content, and this will likely require some form of automation. Digital signage solutions, like Signagelive Web Triggers can help, enabling you to share real-time communications at the touch of a button. Web Triggers are a great way of interrupting the regular content lineup with a real-time message that’s been pre-prepared and which can then be broadcast at exactly the right moment for maximum impact. It saves content managers from having to stop what they’re doing and continually create timely updates on the fly. Lendlease has used the feature to great effect, triggering pre-prepared welcome messages for office visitors. With Web Triggers, the company has also been able to pre-prepare a bank of alerts, ready to be triggered on-screen in the event of an emergency.
Time and energy-saving solution
With this kind of Web Trigger solution, as Lendlease I.T Digital Workplace Manager for Europe, Andrew Crickett, points out, you can maximise cost efficiency and, help boost your company’s “green credentials”. No additional peripheral devices are required, nor does the solution need any additional resource for programming. The front end of this cloud-based solution was engineered by the Lendlease team and was up-and-running within just two days. Moreover, as the Triggers are activated from an iPad, it’s a solution that has been easy enough for all the Lendlease content management team to use.
However, this isn’t the only way to help automate content delivery. The data integration apps offered by content management systems (CMS) like Signagelive can help to draw content from multiple sources, and present and deliver it on your screens. The Signagelive app for Microsoft Power BI is a case in point, giving you access to all the functionality of this business intelligence tool. While Power BI can create reports with data that’s pulled from multiple different sources, including Microsoft products and compatible third-party platforms, the Signagelive app makes it quick, easy and safe to retrieve these reports and dashboards, and securely display them on-screen.
Streamlined technology
More generally, as a cloud-based CMS, Signagelive is scalable, which means that if you want to expand your network, you only need additional licences and screens to do so. You won’t need any further equipment, software, or extra bandwidth. This helps keep investment and on-going maintenance costs to a minimum. Additional cloud-based CMS features, like an automatic on/off switch for screens optimises this efficiency, enabling businesses to cut down energy consumption by allowing screens to be turned on and off at pre-selected times.
Instant, relevant updates
With a cloud-based CMS that offers advanced functionality, it is quick and easy to deliver messaging and campaigns on one, some or all the screens in a network and from absolutely anywhere. Updates can be made instantaneously, and even edited, after they have gone live. It is this immediacy, which, according to Andrew, has driven the success of Lendlease’s employee recognition scheme, enabling the company to celebrate staff successes, as they happen and while they’re still relevant. If, as he says, “Someone’s been given an award, it’s there. It’s out. It’s visual around the whole campus.”
Extended and inclusive reach
The benefit of an easily scalable digital signage system is that it can be extended beyond the office space to reach people anywhere. It is, as Andrew highlights, an inclusive medium, and enables initiatives like employee recognition to be broadcast across all worker locations, including construction sites.
It’s not just about having the right solutions in place though. You also need to follow a few simple steps to truly make the most of your digital signage. Here are our top three tips on how to do so.
Top three tips
1. Start with a proof of concept
Don’t be afraid to experiment and try new features. As Andrew highlights, content management systems like Signagelive come with a whole host of apps and capabilities, already “built into the platform”, so it would be a waste not to leverage them. This doesn’t have to entail any risk. Key to Lendlease’s success has been the way in which it has first tested new features before adopting them across the entire network. This involves:
- Creating and carrying out a proof of concept
- Conducting a small release
- Making the functionality available across the entire network, when you’re satisfied everything works as expected
2. Show and tell
Implementing successful workplace digital signage takes people skills! Most of the battle is just persuading content managers to give digital signage a chance. Take it from Andrew, who has had first-hand experience on the subject. Despite the success of the Lendlease network, he concedes that “It’s not always been easy getting people to adopt the digital agenda”. According to Andrew, to ensure your digital signage project takes off, “You need to show the benefits of what it can do.” Employees and especially those tasked with updating your signage need to understand the cost-savings for the business, the advantages of displaying real-time information and just how quickly content can be updated, as and when required.
3. Be inclusive
Don’t try to do everything yourself. The more people you involve, the richer the content experience you’ll be able to deliver. “Different people”, “different ideas” and “graduates coming” into the company can, according to Andrew, help sell the digital agenda, and strengthen your digital signage output. Put simply, creating great digital signage is, Andrew, says, “down to listening to what people want.”
For more top tips on how to make the most of your workplace digital signage, tune into Digital Signage Explored with special guest, Andrew Crickett from Lendlease.
