Sharpen Your Company’s Edge with Data-Driven Digital Signage

Every business is concerned with and talking about data. This fascination is due to the fact that it’s critically important to a company’s success. Gathering it, reviewing it, and understanding it help formulate ideas that can move business forward, increase growth, and expand opportunities.

Processing large amounts of data-driven information is challenging for numerous reasons, one of which is its sheer volume. Digital signage software can help you tame the big data beast and use it to your company’s advantage. Once you accomplish this, you can leverage it to make your company more proactive and competitive than it’s ever been.

If you’re thinking about investing in digital signage, here are 6 ways it will help you sharpen your company’s edge with your data-driven initiatives.

Businesses of all sizes and across all industries end up with buckets and buckets of data from many sources. The sheer amount of data can be overwhelming. This can make attempting to understand that data very difficult. It’s tempting to say, “I’m too busy to try to figure it out now, so I’ll shelve it for later”. Trying to ascertain behaviors and patterns from this information can be time-consuming, stressful and almost impossible. With digital signage, it’s easier to view similar information as manageable pieces that can be helpful to both leaders and employees.

Data comes from all types of information and a company needs to have a way to translate it into the message it’s trying to send. Only looking at data from a few sources and ignoring other ones is not going to give an accurate, clarifying picture of the decisions that need to be made to improve a company’s performance. Using all the available data to group the information into like-minded results benefits companies in three main ways. First, digital signage provides an easy way of sectioning off data that’s pointing to similar outcomes. Second, it organizes it intuitively, allowing a better understanding of the “story” the data is trying to tell. This part of the process is an integral component to using data to your advantage. Finally, it presents an opportunity to track multiple channels of data from the environment and add it to the mix measurably and methodically.

A third way digital signage can help your organization sharpen its edge with data is by….

The old adage “garbage in, garbage out” has never been more valid than it is when using data-driven information. On-the-money data sources are gold mines of priceless information. Shoddy sources can send you down the wrong path. Digital signage software can give you a heads-up about new and emerging trends that are happening, or set to happen, in the marketplace. Leadership can use the news about an upcoming event, roll out, or headline to their advantage. These can lead management to think: “This information is showing certain trends that we can use to plan our strategy”. By reacting quickly to hot news and trends, they can keep the company relevant and agile, and hopefully do it faster and more successfully than the competition.

We’ve talked about external data, but only building our information library from outside information is not the complete picture. The data that’s being produced internally is just as, or even more, valuable. Digital signage can be instrumental in collecting data from a plethora of internal sources. Online ordering processes, inventory levels, and shipments are all important components that should be included. The good news is that, with digital signage software in place, all this can be accurately tracked in real-time so company leaders can access it and use it to maximize efficiencies, correct weaknesses, make better plans, and reach more-informed decisions.

It’s a constant struggle to get metrics noticed and digested, and your company can suffer from it. Creating pleasing, easy to understand visuals from the data fights the feeling of “Ugh, I need to slog through mountains of reports to find and build the information I need to know”. With digital signage software, businesses are able to show charts, graphs, and other visually attractive vehicles for the data. The advantage of sharing and reviewing data this way is so more people will find it accessible, will completely absorb it, and will use it in planning initiatives that keep the company competitive and viable. In addition, digital signage that is placed strategically is in front of its target consistently. It’s not just a piece of paper that can get lost on their desk or an email languishing in their inbox.

When your organization has the power to streamline data, reporting processes, and communication channels quickly and accurately to work together, it’s more likely to result in more thoughtful responses and successful outcomes. Measuring important key performance indicators like productivity, cost-effectiveness, accuracy, responsiveness, and compliance helps you gain insight into where your initiatives fall as opposed to your goals. Using digital signage software to accomplish this can help you reap big rewards in analyzing the impact of your efforts. Examples of initiatives that can be fueled by this information are new product creations, expanded customer opportunities, facilities management improvement, increased employee engagement, and stronger customer experiences.

Gathering important data from internal and external sources by using digital signage software is a process that is critical. It helps you understand the data better, creates a more complete, real-time picture, and uncovers trends that your company can capitalize on. Investing in digital signage, if your company hasn’t already, is the first step toward readying your organization to use the data collected to its full advantage, and enjoying the resulting rewards like greater productivity, stronger sales, and long-range viability in your market.