Corporate Office Digital Signage: Smart Displays for Better Workplace Communication

Gone are the days when modern corporate offices would evolve around a single reception desk with a few printed notices plastered on the wall. Over the course of the day, employees roam between meeting rooms, departments and shuffled through training areas, cafeterias and shared spaces. Visitors may require to discover a conference room, locate a department or understand where an event is occurring.

Digital Signage in the workplace is more than plugging screens around an office building. Appropriate information at the right plate: it is a successful system where updating, managing and distribution of all that information becomes very easy.

The real question — for companies anticipating a new office display project — is not how many screens to buy. That is how every display will uphold how employees and visitors really work with the office.

One of the biggest pitfalls in corporate Digital Signage projects is seeing all screens as equal.

The same hardware could be used for a reception display, for a meeting room screen, hallway display and employee communication screen but their jobs are entirely different.

A reception display can be used to introduce the company, welcome guests, play corporate videos, highlight key products or offer visitor information.

The function of a meeting room display is much more obvious. It might display room availability, meeting schedules, reservation status or departmental information.

A hallway display may feature internal announcements, corporate news, safety and employee events or corporate-wide campaigns.

Training rooms should have information related to presentations, schedules or announcements for specific courses.

Besides, you can also use the Employee lounges and cafeterias for internal communications, event reminders, menus & company activities.

Showrooms are another important application. In a corporate showroom, it can be to introduce products to display the technologies or solutions or present cases of customer applications.

Also, the hardware does not have to be different in each place. It is mainly choose a suitable screen size, brightness, way of installation and software functions for every environment.

Reception area is often the first touchpoint where visitors meet a company.

While a static sign can give basic information, the digital display enables the company to vary its message in line with time, event or visitor.

A corporate lobby display could, for example, welcome you with a message in the morning, display branding during business hours and announce a customer event or conference at the required time.

It can also introduce companies, products, corporate honour and promo videos.

Digital displays also offer another way to provide professional communications without needing additional employees for companies that service foreign customers, distributors or business partners.

Place the display in an area where visitors can see it without obstructing the reception workflow. In significant workplaces, either a second monitor or intelligent kiosk can address route and lower the amount of typical questions posed to gathering staff.

As office buildings grow in size, the need for wayfinding only increases.

If someone arrives at a small office, they might only have to walk literally a few meters in order to find the meeting room they need. With a huge headquarters though, you may have to locate a department, floor, building or conference space.

There are many potential functions that an interactive wayfinding kiosk can provide:

• Department locations
• Floor maps
• Meeting room information
• Visitor guidance
• Conference locations
• Event information
• Building navigation

Visitors can directly search for a meeting room or department on the screen instead of relying on reception staff for directions time and again.

This does not substitute human interaction. All it does is transfer basic information into a self-service channel, so reception teams can better assist those who need human interaction.

Especially for companies that run multi-building campuses, digital wayfinding can also deliver access to information about buildings and facilities from a single interface.

One such corporate Digital Signage application with outstanding usage is meeting room displays because the information displayed is highly specific.

Meeting room availability, booking or occupancy can be shown on a screen outside a meeting room. It also shows the live meeting in addition to upcoming appointments and other contextual information.

It helps employees take instant decisions without going to another system.

But the screen needs to function as an indivisible information framework

A showing that says a room is booked or unbooked while the screen reflects that it i also available soon makes employees lose faith in such a system.

Because of this, software integration should be thought about from the start of the project.

Companies also need to look if their Digital Signage platform supports integration with an already in-play room booking, visitor management or workplace management systems.

We will show that display hardware is the least important element of the solution. Also, it is crucial to enable reliable communication between the content management platform and the source of information as well.

Corporate office are typically tasked with many audiences, yet each will require a different information.

Visitors may need:

• Welcome messages
• Company introductions
• Meeting room directions
• Event information
• Brand presentations
• Product information

Employees may need:

• Internal announcements
• Training schedules
• Company events
• HR information
• Safety notices
• Employee activities

Customers in a showroom might require:

• Product demonstrations
• Technical information
• Application cases
• Product comparisons
• Solution presentations

There is not really much point in publishing every message to all screens.

So an HR announcement meant for employees shouldn't be displayed on the reception screen. A customer-focused product pitch can be more suitable for a showroom than an employee cafeteria.

Digital Signage is a well-structured system for administrating displays to be categorized and designated on the basis of their location.

This is especially crucial when a company has multiple offices orr branches.

With a grown network, centralized content management becomes requisite.

You can also manage three screens through manual mode.

Then, managing thirty or fifty screens is an entirely different kettle of fish.

This is why corporate Digital Signage needs to be built upon a centralized content management system.

An administrators centralized platform would allow you to:

• Update content remotely
• Schedule announcements
• Group displays by location
• Publish company-wide messages
• Distribute separate content based on departments
• Control playback schedules
• Monitor connected displays

This can ease up significantly the burden on IT, marketing and administration teams.

So for example: company-wide safety messages can be coordinated in all employee communication screens at the same time. Local events can appear only on screens in the corresponding office or department.

Scheduling content also helps in diminishing old updates.

A physical piece of paper can sit on a wall for weeks after an event has ended. After all, digital content allows us to schedule when it appears, and when it disappears.

That difference, however subtle, can lead to a significant change in the veracity of information.

Just because it says “indoor” doesn't mean each office will have the same display requirements.

An outdoor screen next to large glass windows may be illuminated much more than a display in an enclosed meeting room.

Lobby displays require more impact as people are looking at them from further away A meeting room display can be seen much closer.

Project teams should consider before equipment selection:

• Viewing distance
• Ambient lighting
• Screen size
• Installation position
• Available space
• Operating hours
• Content type
• User interaction requirements

The point is not to buy the most expensive one.

A really bright screen in a dark meeting room may be an uncomfortable experience whereas selecting an underpowered screen in a bright reception area could render it unreadable.

The right display spec always depends on the real environment

Every day, some corporate facilities get asked the same questions over and over again.

Many of these questions can be answered through a digital wayfinding kiosk, removing the need for employees and visitors to hunt down another human being.

Interactive screens are especially brilliant for massive headquarters, technology parks, corporate campuses and multi-building environments.

The app allows users to search for a department, choose a meeting room or even take of one of its virtual maps.

This makes it a more self guided trip for visitors. It speeds up navigation for employees.

It is important for you to design the interface. It is helpful if the system is simple enough that a person who visits it for the first time can figure out how it works, without being trained.

Corporate Digital Signage also serves an important function when it comes to communicating with employees.

Several companies have email and an internal collaboration platform and/or portal. Digital Signage need not be an antithesis to those systems.

Instead, it can become a very public-facing communication layer.

If you think about displays placed in the employee area, they can be focused on;

• Company announcements
• Safety information
• Training sessions
• Employee events
• Corporate campaigns
• Important reminders
• Recognition programs

The advantage is visibility.

An email can be easily skipped by an employee or the internal portal forgotten. Having strategically placed a screen in a cafeteria or common area can put information before employees multiple times without them needing to hunt for it.

Content can also be scheduled according to the working day

An employee event reminder can be announced in the morning when a corporate campaign shows up later that same day with a different message.

But if one of those displays fail, it can be a pain in the neck.

A network of dead monitors is an operational issue.

Corporate clients typically want their Digital Signage to be running reliably during office hours, especially in reception areas, meeting spaces and key communication areas.

Buyers need to do more than evaluate image quality when looking at equipment.

Important factors include:

• Stable daily operation
• Maintenance accessibility
• Component availability
• Installation structure
• Remote management
• Software support
• Long-term technical assistance

Installation should also keep maintenance in mind.

When a display is built into a wall or architectural feature, technicians need practical access to the equipment for servicing.

This is particularly relevant for those companies planning large deployments. A simple but pervasive maintenance issue becomes costly and lengthy when it manifests across potentially dozens of screens.

Select the operating system for your real application, rather than the one that is easiest to use.

A simple corporate information screen might not have much of a need for play back at all.

A wayfinding Kiosk may need touch interaction, advanced computing and integrated with other apps.

For example a meeting room display may need to connect with booking software.

Centralized remote management may be necessary for a multi-site deployment.

Terms before purchase: project teams should ask:

• What should do each display
• Who will manage the content?
• How frequently will information change?
• How many displays could be added at a later time?
• How the system will integrate with room booking or visitor management systems?
• What is the handling of software updates?
• What about when a display dies?

They're better questions than choosing hardware solely on screen size or screen resolution.

When designing a corporate digital signage project, it should not be just built on the requirements of the moment.

For example, a company might purchase five displays and then add twenty more in a different office or following the expansion of its headquarters.

This necessitates that the content management system and also the network architecture and equipment platform leaves space for development.

Standardisation of equipment where possible often reduces spares, maintenance and training.

Standardization also ought not to mean that every location should use the same exact display.

Some environments might need different screen sizes, a method of installation or interactivity.

What we're aiming for here is a uniform system, not necessarily the same hardware everywhere.

Digital signage in corporate offices is most effective when each and every display has a specific purpose.

Reception screens helps to enhance the visitor experience and showcasing your brand.

Meeting room displays support day-to-day workspace administration.

Large buildings are easier to navigate with wayfinding kiosks.

Employee-area displays strengthen internal communication.

Showroom displays assist firms in demonstrating the products and technologies.

Centralized content enables consistent information across locations.

The ideal path for businesses launching a new deployment is to begin with the communication needs of each area and then choose the proper display technology.

The definition of a successful office digital signage project is not based on the mere number of installed screens. It is defined by whether those screens enable the information to be more findable, easily managed and useful for the people in your building