Tuesday, February 21, 2006

“Digital Signage - A Dynamic Strategy for credit unions and community banks”

A suggested reading for marketing executives or CEO’s of community financial institutions is the BAI’s whitepaper - Competition, Innovation, and Strategy in the Financial Services Industry. As a digital signage provider reading the article I felt incumbent to post the article along with commentary to demonstrate how digital signage applies. In my experience, when a financial institution chooses digital signage as a marketing strategy, speed to market is consistently one of the top reasons.

The whitepaper delivers a clear message that today’s financial institution must develop strategies that allow for rapid changes in the environment. A distinct line was drawn between traditional strategies and suggested dynamic strategies.

Digital signage gives the financial institution the ability to instantly run a promotion on a product or service. As banks continue to function in a hyper competitive marketplace, (especially in a small community environment) the ability to introduce new niche products or services is critical. The article underscores the ongoing 20 year product innovation boom and indicates that a bank should always assume there will be new niche products popping up. The key is to acquire resources that can deploy those initiatives before the competition. Digital Signage positions a bank to do just that in a quick and affordable way.

Traditional banking strategies present special challenges in terms of personnel and culture as well. Financial institutions do not attract innovative individuals seeking change. Couple this fact with the heavy training burden and a dynamic strategy begins to become an impossible directive.

Front line employees are expected to handle transactions accurately, prevent fraud and comply with a large number of regulations. In addition, Financial Institutions ask them to consistently learn new products and seek a larger share of wallet which becomes a daunting task. The BAI whitepaper Front-line Challenges indicates that the top 3 challenges are sales skills, sales training and activity tracking. Other challenges include balancing sales, service and transaction duties.

Digital signage becomes an incredible assistant to the front line employee by prompting customers to ask questions about products making the cross sell exponentially easier and less time consuming. In fact, the Strategy Institute indicates that digital signage receives 10 times the eye contact of static signage and boosts sales of profiled products by 30%!

Now consider the ability to leverage the digital signage system into an employee facing training display. If there is a new regulation, process or product offering that requires training it is now possible to instantly distribute that information companywide. This ability paves the way for a quicker deployment which translates to a competitive advantage with a clear ROI calculation.

The ability of financial institutions to quickly distribute a new product or service to market and train front line employees can be facilitated by the right digital signage partner. Captive Indoor Media creates custom content and supplies its customers with a web based scheduling tool that allows for instant updates. Banks have the flexibility to schedule media long in advance or update their displays instantly and remotely at no cost.

If employing a dynamic strategy is important in today’s financial services industry, digital signage has to be a tool used in the equation.

Author: Greg Barrett - Director of Business Development - Captive Indoor Media
502-896-0947 or greg@captiveindoormedia.com

Monday, February 20, 2006

A suggested reading for CEO's and Marketing Executives

"Competition, Innovation, and Strategy
in the Financial Services Industry"

www.bai.org/competition

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Should your bank employ Digital Signage in the Drive-thru?

In today’s fast paced business environment, financial institutions are finding that many of their banking centers service a growing number of their customers in the drive-thru lane. In fact, a July 2005 article in the ABA Marketing Journal states that over 40% of customer branch visits now take place in the drive thru.

Consider the following:

· On average, the transaction time of a drive thru visit is 2-4 minutes.
· Drive-thru traffic is at it’s highest during lunch hours and shortly before closing when teller availability is often thinnest.
· Drive-thru customers are typically short on time and at a distance from the teller.
· Tellers often manage multiple transactions simultaneously.

All of these attributes contribute to a less effective teller/customer transaction and therefore diminished opportunity for the teller to address the cross sell. With this in mind, we have found great success when our customers integrate our digital signage system in the drive-thru. As with many digital signage products in the marketplace, Codigo can be easily plugged directly into most any drive thru system without great expense. As a company we have the most experience with Diebold but these systems can typically accommodate another composite connection without much trouble.

Once installed, the financial institution can now start to communicate effectively with their customer base about products and services which otherwise would not be presented. If done well, digital signage can drive customers into the branch where more profitable core product purchasing decisions are made. It is therefore critical that financial institutions address the drive thru marketing opportunity. Those which choose not to will surely lose business to more savvy competitors.

If you would like to learn more about how to implement a digital signage solution in the drive-thru, please contact us directly at sales@captiveindoormedia.com or by phone at 1-502-896-0947 to set up a no obligation consultation.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Digital Signage as a Service. What works best for your company?

Today when most people think of buying software, they visualize a product delivered on a CD-ROM in a colorful yet oversized box. Along with the box comes the confusion of installing software to a desk top themselves and the realization that what they are buying will be outdated in 2 years. It is an accepted fact of using software, no matter how inconvenient it might be for the consumer.

Application Service Providers or ASP’s as they are commonly known in the software world, are pushing rapidly towards changing this mentality. These providers use the internet to deliver their software as a service to their customers. By utilizing this approach, these providers can offer customers their product without the expense or complication of traditional software applications. No longer is it necessary to purchase an application outright.

To the unsophisticated user, the ASP model may seem complex and strange but the reality is people have been using forms of the ASP for centuries. A Utility is a classic example of an Internet ASP. In this instance, it would be possible for individuals to produce power but the high cost of doing so makes doing so a poor option. And, even if a business or individual did choose to produce power, they certainly could not do it for 15 cents per kilowatt-hour. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to purchase power from the regional utility which can spread the high capital cost of the power plant across all of its customers. By doing this, the customer gets a high quality product at a reasonable cost and with the comfort that all future improvements will be passed on to them as part of their monthly fee.

The same basic structure applies to the software ASP. Customers can hold down their costs by utilizing the intellectual power and expertise of a software company without tying themselves down to an inflexible contract. In addition to this simple truth, there are several other advantages to an ASP product. Although this article is not suited for an in-depth overview of all of the benefits of an ASP application, below are some many agree are the most far reaching.

1- Pay as you go. The majority of Application Service Providers charge for their service on a monthly basis rather than incorporating a high upfront fee. This low cost of entry is a huge benefit to small business. It can often mean the difference between affording a necessary application or falling behind a competitor.
2- No ownership. The ASP owns and operates the software and essentially “leases” it to customers. This is fundamental difference between the ASP model and traditional software. Through this approach, the customer need not be concerned with future upgrades and the equipment costs associated with them. There is no expensive server equipment for customers to purchase so most ASP vendors can upgrade their product without customers knowing until they log in for their next use.
3- More Features Faster and Cleaner- Because ASP vendors control both the application and the equipment the application rides on, they can do updates to their application much quicker. This means more product upgrades over the course of the contract as well as cleaner software delivery. In other words, the code behind the application has fewer bugs because work is released in smaller chunks. And, when bugs are identified, they can be fixed quickly because the developers know which smaller projects the problems are related to. This negates the necessity of sifting through huge libraries of code as is customary with the larger releases associated with traditional software products.
4- Quick Implementation- The majority of ASP providers only need an internet browser to function. Because of this, implementation of software often involves no more than a client machine and some manipulation of internet configuration settings. In addition, the upkeep of the system is usually managed by the software vendor. This frees up internal customer resources to do tasks more focused on their core business objectives.
5- Try before you Buy- ASP Customers can often install a trial copy of a software product easily and without any upfront cost associated. This gives customers a confidence otherwise not available with purchasing traditional software. Not only can the end user become comfortable with the program, but company management can get a true feel for what the application will do for their company without the expense of a full installation.

The future of the ASP model is bright and continues to grow among companies both large and small. The benefits cover important issues each business should consider as they embark on a software purchase which will affect their company procedures. By doing so, the ASP model may be the solution you are seeking. With its low cost of entry, ease of management and unrivaled quality improvements, the ASP is certain to be around for many years to come.

About the Author: Brian Nutt has 15 years of experience in technology and entrepreneurship. He the Founder and President of Captive Indoor Media, and the architect of Codigo, their proprietary Digital Signage Software application.
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