Own or Subscribe? Which Software Model is Best for Digital Signage Networks?

February 8th, 2008 Nurlan Urazbaev

Digital signage network operators that depend on ad revenue are leaning towards becoming media companies, rather than being technology providers. Today’s battle for a piece of the advertising pie forces networks to allocate much more effort to finding a viable business model, building their ad space, training an ad sales force and breaking into advertisers’ media plans. Therefore, having to deal at the same time with in-house software or issues related to running an ‘on-premise’ software application is becoming too much of a burden.

In this respect the maturing digital signage industry is following the path of traditional broadcasting, where most of the technical and IT responsibilities are outsourced, leaving networks ‘leaner and meaner’ in their competition for ratings and ad revenue.

Software as a Service (SaaS) model that has become popular lately in industries like accounting, CRM and sales performance management, is appealing to many operators of ad revenue-driven networks, especially in retail as it can satisfy their demans for rich functionality without being cost-prohibitive.

I spoke to many networks who came to our booth at the Screen Expo Europe 2008 in London, and a vast majority of ad revenue-based companies appears to be looking for an outsourced, hosted solution. At the same time, there is a large number of closed networks (such as those in banks or corporate environment), for whom an ‘on-premise’ solution is a better choice.

BroadSign has published a white paper on the subject: ”Grow Your Digital Signage Business, Not Overhead: How a SaaS Solution Can Help. You can download it here.

Entry Filed under: Digital Signage Evolution, How to: Digital Signage Tips, The Big Picture, Uncategorized