Four Reasons you Need MDM for Digital Signage

Summary:

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TRANSCRIPT:

Alright, Travis. I'm gonna get it going. Okay?

Sounds good.

Excellent.

Well, thank you everyone for taking time out of your day to join us today. We're gonna be discussing the four reasons, you need MDM for digital signage. And joining me from the balmy south of Texas is, Travis Phillips. Travis is with, Moki, and he is an expert in all things device management. Moki, does an excellent job of helping customers manage their signage deployments worldwide.

And, yeah, thanks for being here today, Travis. We're gonna have some nice, coverage from you on the latter part of, today's webinar. I am Chris Brama. I'm with Carousel Digital Signage. We're a software company, and we focus on helping customers communicate to the folks in their organizations through visual communication on digital screens. So today, what you're gonna learn is we're gonna cover a little bit about what digital signage is.

We'll talk about, these four core categories of how MDM, can really help our customers with their signage deployments. And, please stay tuned to the end. We're gonna be raffling off some coffee, and that is going to be tied to anybody who requests either a demo with Carousel or Moki. We would like this to be as interactive as possible.

So as we're working through today's agenda, if you have a question, if something that we discuss, strikes a curiosity, feel free. If you're big and brave, you can throw a note in, or you can interrupt us. And, our panel here, Claire and Mitch from Carousel, will ask us to pause, and we'll address that question. It's options to you.

You can ask us as we're going through in the moment or at the end.

So that's, that's kind of the the setup and the orientation. And we covered this just, briefly, but yeah. So where where we're trying to add value, from this partnership is helping customers who have those mixed, environments, different operating systems running on different devices that are driving their digital signage, giving IT a single pane of glass to operate that entire system and drive, communications ultimately to the audiences in these environments.

Next slide, please.

Thank you. So as I mentioned, Carousel is just focused solely on making software, software that customers are logging into, publishing the content that they need displayed throughout their environment to engage their audiences throughout their facilities. That's what we focus on. We're gonna we're gonna kinda walk through a couple of examples here just to give everyone a couple of, visuals of what signage can can look like in your environments and kinda what it what it drives. So, if we could move on, please.

So when we think about digital signage, we see it everywhere, walking through hallways, walking through airports, in stores and entertainment facilities, indoor, outdoor.

We think about the type of signage that we're partnering with Mokeon empowering customers with. Think of it as, like, indoor, informational signage, and these are some examples of what that can look like in common areas. We have a couple of more examples after this that we're gonna we're gonna move to. So if we could keep keep moving through.

Thank you. So another key component to digital signage that you're gonna see throughout facilities is object like, objective based signage. So we're driving an outcome for our students, our staff, our employees, our customers, our visitors, our fans. As they're moving about our environments, we're helping them achieve an objective.

So while what we just saw previously was more informational based, this is very measurable.

And then this last example, you're going to see a lot of, use cases. If we can move to, the next slide, please. We're going to we're going to see a lot of examples, in environments where we're gonna need, that ability to get an emergency message up onto a screen, and it doesn't necessarily need to be an evacuation. It could be as simple as, hey.

We've got some weather happening here. I'm based in Minnesota, and the weather changes four times a day, sometimes five. So we need that flexibility, to get important messages out to the screens in our environment. These are ways that digital signage can help, overlay, on that capability.

So those are examples of signage. In this, this next slide, we're going to be showing a couple of pardon me. We're gonna we're gonna talk about some stats real quick before we get to a a quick example. So, yeah, we're I think we're all well aware of how much communication occurs to, the constituents in our environment, whoever that audience is, a student, a staff, an employee.

It takes a lot, several touches to get a message that we need our audiences to receive. We have to we have to have a a anywhere between seven, and twelve touch points is what we've been seeing on average is what it takes to actually get a message sent and then retained by the audiences that we're trying to communicate with. So this is just a stat that's just, really kinda reinforcing that this is something that organizations view as important, leveraging digital signage to augment that communication strategy, that an organization has for their audience. So thank you.

Next slide. So this is just to try to make it a little more visual. When we say the word digital signage, what we have been discussing is that communication and the the end state. But these are the components that are typically found in a digital signage system.

So we're talking about hardware. We mean the displays, the media players that sit behind those displays, connect to the Internet and allow CMS companies like Carousel to put content on those screens. And then, of course, there's the hardware, the cabling, the mounting, the installation, and then lastly, the actual data sources, the content that we are going to get onto those displays. And that could be content that you're already creating, and tools that your organization is using today, or it could be using a CMS tool to create net new content that you're gonna engage your audience with.

So next slide, please. We, we're frequently asked, you know, how, how can we figure out if digital signage is going to help us in that motion of seven to twelve touches to ensure that our communication strategy is as effective as it possibly can be based on our audience? So a few things to consider is, you know, just first and foremost, what is what is our communication strategy in our organization today? Are there any gaps, and are those gaps gaps that we could, potentially augment using digital signage as an overlay to really reinforce that and shore it up.

From there, if the answer is yes, we've identified a couple of gaps. Once we know what those are, then we would have to ask ourselves, who who is the actual audience that's going to see the content we're gonna have, published on our screens throughout our facilities? Where are those screens? Those are important questions.

They matter. And then lastly, what is that content that we're going to need to get onto the screen? Knowing knowing those answers really helps us understand, are we deploying into an Android centric environment, Windows centric environment, Linux centric environment, and that really will help you kind of build out your scope and, and be as effective as you possibly can with your signage deployment. And then lastly, who is going to manage that?

And when we say who is going to manage a digital signage system, we're usually talking about two distinct audiences, IT.

And IT is going to wanna make sure that the hardware, the software, everything is secure, can run on the network, is gonna fit into their tech stack. And then on the content side of things, that's our marketing teams, our content creation teams, communications teams, making sure that they're comfortable with that, with that software that you're choosing to use to create and publish content. So that is is as far as I'm going to go. I'm gonna hand this over to, to Travis to talk a little bit about Moki, and where MDM can fit, into that communication strategy with digital signage.

Appreciate it. Thanks, Chris. Yeah. So when we're looking at, obviously, managing, you know, large numbers of devices for these digital signage deployments, you might be, you know, managing hundreds, thousands of screens.

It can feel a bit daunting, especially if these screens are deployed across, you know, multiple different locations, cities, states, even different countries, and being able to kinda manage and monitor those on a large scale, you know, really needs to be able to be done remotely. And that's where an MDM like Moki comes in. So, I mean, every, you know, endpoint that you have out there is another one that needs to be configured and updated and secured and monitored and managed. But it doesn't have to be complicated.

That's where Moki kinda strives to make it as simple as possible. You can manage every screen in one spot, you know, enforcing policies, pushing updates, keeping everything secure, without having to go out and touch the screens manually, basically doing it all from from behind your desk.

And when you pair an MDM with Carousel for your content and then on your digital signage, you know, it gets even more impressive and even easier to manage. Carousel can power the communication across an entire campus, corporate network, even citywide deployments all managed seamlessly through an MDM like Moki. So what might seem like chaos, you know, quickly kinda becomes simple, centralized, and easily under control.

Organizations often rely on a wide mix of devices for digital signage. Right? You might have iPads, for example, in a classroom. You might have Apple TVs in a lobby. You might have Android players in an office or BrightSign, players, across different facilities. And managing at scale with all these different, device types, different operating systems can become, or can become complex and but and make it feel like IT teams have to have multiple different systems to manage that.

But it can become easy with with Moki and Carousel to kinda manage those all behind that single pane of glass.

So we'd like to look at is kind of four ways MDM helps you manage multiple devices. We'll kinda go through those on our next slides.

So MDM provides a centralized control for configuring security devices. We've talked about while car sorry. While Carousel ensures, that they consistently deliver engaging up to date signage. So making sure that what's showing on the screen is what you want, and then the devices are also controlled and secured and make sure they're not getting into what they shouldn't be.

Digital sign in screens are often public facing, you know, in public spaces where people can easily get to them and touch them, and it can make them targets for people tampering or trying to get access to them when they shouldn't be, trying to get them possibly to show things that they shouldn't be. Right? MDM helps secure and lock down the devices and make sure that they're only ever showing the content and displaying what you want to be showed on the screens at all times.

So you can kinda say goodbye to, you know, the need for manual updates, on-site troubleshooting. Mdm lets you roll out the, software improvements, patches, firmware updates, app installs, app updates, to every dice every device at once at a large scale done remotely without having to need to have someone go out and physically touch each device.

If you can go to the next slide.

Perfect. In the dynamic digital landscape, you know, flexibility is paramount. And Carousel has developed an innovative approach to mobile device management integrations with companies like Moki tailored to meet the diverse needs of organizations, ensuring the management remains streamlined and efficient regardless of the devices you use. So whether you've got BrightSign, Android, or you're using Apple devices, right, that's gonna be a streamlined process across all of them.

So Moki is obviously, we talked about it. It mobile device management. You know, we support Android devices, BrightSign devices, Apple, including tvOS, iOS, iPadOS.

And this all can be managed in one single location, making it much easier as you're kinda controlling all these devices, different types of devices, different operating systems across a large scale and across different locations. When it comes to being able to troubleshoot, you know, you can remotely troubleshoot and manage the devices. You can remotely make sure that they're displaying as you want to and lock them down. And then even, remote control into the devices if you need to make any adjustments or changes that would need to be done physically inside the device, where you can kinda get that access remotely as well. But together, Moki and Carousel make it simple to manage devices and deliver impactful content. And with that, I'll pass back over to Chris, to share how Carousel helps organizations communicate smarter.

Thanks, Travis. So I, before I get into this, I just really appreciate, the walk through of how, MDM can really, help, prevent what a lot of us have to endure, when it comes to signage, which is a lot of on-site hours, setting things up, configuring things, troubleshooting. All of that can happen over the air remotely, with an MDM like Moki. That was great. Thank you, Travis.

The yeah. So just closing out just Carousel again where we fit. We've been around for, pushing, pushing on thirty, seems like twenty five plus years, three decades, in digital signage before it was even called digital signage.

Our aim, our goal is to help, our end customers, really understand where signage can fit into their communication strategy, and help you communicate with your audiences effectively. So what, what you can expect, from Carousel from start to finish of as we begin that journey in exploring, how signage can be be an unlock for your environment. We've got a presales team that has somewhere between thirty thirty ten to thirty years of sale selling experience, across each one of those, regional sales managers that we have on staff. Our post sale team has been helping thousands of customers with their digital signage deployments. They're all very well versed in MDM, and we are really thrilled to be able to work with Moki and and customers that are using Moki's MDM to deploy Carousel into their environments and and manage, manage those, going forward. So, thank you.

Next slide, please.

So, yeah, this is this is a good a good place for us to I I think, wrap. So what we what we talked about today is, combining MDM with a digital signage CMS, and what that can do, for an environment, from a digital signage standpoint, give IT that single pane of glass to manage their entire entire digital signage footprint of devices, through a scalable CMS, the like Carousel that's gonna make it really easy for you to achieve your communication goals.

Next slide.

Chris, anything else before we dive into q and a?

I think that's it. Thank you. Alright.

So thanks everyone for joining. Just want a reminder of our giveaway. So schedule and attend a demo afterwards, and we'll send you a bag of our Carousel coffee, which Chris mentioned at the beginning. So in the chat, I'll put the link to schedule that that demo if you are interested. Otherwise, I'll launch a poll to let us know how we can follow-up with everyone.

And so feel free to fill out that poll, and then I'll turn it over to q and a. So feel free to come off mute or feel free to put your questions in the chat, and we will, stay on for a few more minutes.

Just one question that we can start off with that might be helpful is, like, is there a certain number of screens where using an MDM becomes more practical or cost effective?

Yeah. For sure. I can definitely answer that.

I mean, it definitely number of screens matters for sure, but almost but all almost also, what matters just as much is, like, how the screens are deployed. So for example, if you have, you know, maybe ten screens, inside a single building, you know, maybe you can manage those. It's still gonna take you more time, but you might be able to manage those kinda more manually. But if your screens are deployed across, you know, different buildings, different cities, you know, that's really where having an MDM is gonna make a big difference.

So, I mean, typically, we kinda say, oh, you know, once you get over about ten ten screens is usually pretty good spot to start start wanting to do something with MDM, but could be a smaller deployment if, if those are kinda more spread out and harder to get to as well.

Typically, Travis just shared, what we see on the CMS side of things is as the complexity increases in an environment. So if we're we're talking about a single building with a handful of screens, that's a less complicated deployment. As we talk about multiple floors perhaps in the same building with multiple departments, the complexity is increasing. If we talk about many locations across a state, potentially a region or globally, it is almost impossible to manage something at that scale without a world class MDM.

So, yeah, anything that's two floors or more, two buildings or more, you're gonna find the value of MDM to, to be very, very effective in those environments that are larger. So multisite, multilocation. That's what we that's what we typically see.

Great.

Just another question.

Like, where do you begin with digital signage and MDM? Like, if someone's first starting out exploring their options, what are things for them to think about, and where do they begin?

High level.

I can go first, Travis, and then you can jump in.

What what's interesting about digital signage is it's usually something that is inherited, by IT. So there are a a number of rogue devices that get deployed throughout an environment in meeting rooms and common areas, And then, eventually, someone asks IT to basically standardize, go find a standardization that we can run our entire visual communication platform on. And that's where a CMS like Carousel will get brought in, as well as an MDM, because in order to, effectively manage a deployment that you inherit, it's going to be complex, and it's not gonna be the same operating system. It won't be the same device type.

So m MDM, like Moki is really, really valuable in that scenario because, it isn't just gonna be Apple devices. It isn't just gonna be Android. It's not just gonna be BrightSign. It could be a mix of both, or all three.

So it's it's really nice to have that option in that single pane of glass for IT, when they get the inherited digital signage project.

If they are actually RFP ing and they're it's they're looking at a net new deployment, what what we typically what what you're typically typically gonna see there is there already is some sort of a standard across the organization, and that could be with the peripheral devices that employees have. So maybe they all operate with Macs and iPads, or they all operate on Android devices.

The the the great thing is is that, whatever that standardization is in an organization, Moki is able to manage, those devices on those operating systems. And that's usually a nice segue, because there's some comfort and familiarity with those ecosystems, for a customer to move into digital signage. So when we think of, like, Apple devices, if you're using Mac Minis or Apple TVs, it's pretty easy to segue into that if your customer is already used to using iPhones, iPads, and and Macs. And same for Android. And and I think that, you know, matching what you're familiar with from an operating standpoint, a management standpoint, and moving, into that for your digital signage, initiative is is what we are typically seeing. So, Travis, pass it over to you.

Yeah. I mean, I I think the the only thing, really, I'll add to that is, you know, obviously, the sooner you could start deploying, CMS, and MDM into your deployment, the better.

You know, Chris mentioned a lot of times it gets inherited, and there's kind of maybe some pieces and parts there already. But, you know, the the larger the the the device deployment gets, the more that you have deployed out different locations.

You know, it's just gonna be more work to get them all, you know, in up, you know, up set up with the CMS, with the MDM if you've already got things out there. So the sooner, the better is always, you know, is always the better bet when when you're kinda either setting up or, new or kind of going in and and inheriting an existing one. It'll make things much easier as you kinda move forward.

Is is anybody that's on the call today, you know, the lucky drawer of the ShortStick and inherited a digital signage system that you didn't deploy, or is anybody actually trying to deploy a system?

No one wants to admit that they inherited one. Alright.

Well, we're here we're here either way.

If there's no other questions, we will be sending out a recording of today's webinar. And as always, feel free to reach out to, Moki or Carousel if you have specific questions. We're here to help.

And, otherwise, enjoy the rest of the day, and we will, follow-up with you via recording shortly.

Thank you very much for joining. Thank you, Travis.

Appreciate it. Yes.

Thanks, Travis.

Thanks, everyone.

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