Pricing, Paying for Digital Signage Service
Digital signage isn’t free, of course. Beyond the initial purchase and installation of displays, there are ongoing costs to create and manage content, and the administration support for content and displays. Some of the effort comes from Orme-Doutre’s group or elsewhere within Microsoft and other aspects are handled by third-party vendors.
Orme-Doutre’s group is managing digital signage content and support as a service to many sites and groups within Microsoft. “For this initiative to work, we needed to do make it a service, and do cost recovery,” says Orme-Doutre. “We have a pricing matrix, based on industry standards plus our own cost tracking.”
If a group simply wants corporate content, says Orme-Doutre, “There’s no monthly fee for us to provide that,” says Orme-Doutre.
“On the other hand, if a group also wants their own content included, like ‘Finish your training by tomorrow,’ ‘Party this Friday afternoon!’ or ‘Here’s a look at what we’re working on,’ there will be a fee,” states Orme-Doutre. “Depending on what we will be doing for a group — how many displays and player PCs they’ll have, and how much we expect to be doing in terms of their content — we are typically charging a product group between $250 to $1,000 per month,” says Orme-Doutre. “And if the screen breaks or there’s some other hardware issue, we’ll work with Facilities to make sure it gets handled, but any costs for our and Facilities’ time isn’t covered by that monthly fee.”
The displays used for digital signage at Microsoft currently range from 42 inches to 60 inches. In addition to purchasing displays, a group will have to purchase players (or pay Orme-Doutre’s group to repurpose an existing machine as a player). Additionally, unless the player is hung behind the display, the group may need Facilities to bring audio/video and data to the display (typically using CAT5 UTP or
extended HDMI).
“Beyond the purchase price, it typically costs about $500 to $1,500 to a display to be mounted, hung and powered,” says Orme-Doutre. “These hard costs are passed through. We often work with their budget to find the best way to fit these costs in.”
Reporting on Usage and Benefits
“Our value is around product advocacy, getting the brand and product up on the screens,” says Orme-Doutre. “The screen is always on and playing content. We run these screens 24 hours a day, including weekends, and we are told that when the screen goes dark. People notice and complain.”
But, says Orme-Doutre, “We recognize that the presidents and vice presidents of the groups were serving want to know why this money is being spent, and Finance wants to know ‘what are we getting for these dollars?’”
So, says Orme-Doutre, “Twice a year we send out a metrics report, showing information like the frequency and number of campaigns posted, the number of employees listed, with a bullet-point list of numbers of what the group got in return for their money. And we will do campaigns that are unique to our signage, as opposed to also being on a poster or a SharePoint site. And most of our signage pieces have a ‘call to action,’ like a URL or a Microsoft Tag barcode, to help us know whether people are watching.”
With the basic digital signage network in place, Orme-Doutre’s group is, of course, looking at how to improve and extend its abilities. “We may schedule displays to turn off at times, to reduce the power consumption. We are working with groups who have large new lobbies and want video walls. We are working with them to help them create the right content for them. We are looking at adding interactivity, like by using Microsoft’s Kinect and touch with Windows 8. We’re looking at wayfinding. And we’re looking at using digital signage to replace our corkboard bulletin boards and poster printing. We have only 30 displays so far and Microsoft has over 400 locations.”
In addition, says Orme-Doutre, “We’re also demonstrating the value of digital signage for security alerts, especially when we can localize content for building-specific concerns. And of course we’re looking at being able to migrate some of the content to a Windows 8 phone app.”
Overall, “Our value is connecting our campuses together, highlighting not just individual team and group efforts but also promoting our brand, showing off what our products can do and what they have done,” says Orme-Doutre. “We’re helping build excitement, and letting Microsoft employees and partners see the information as they walk by or are standing around.”
