EnQii ranked Number One due to its ‘Great Software Offering’

On Friday 21st December we posted our list of Top 10 Digital Signage Vendors…

In that first post we detailed the (obvious) folks who never made our ‘cut’. Now it’s time to look in a bit more detail at those in the top 10 and more importantly why they are there.

Read at : Digital Out of Home

=1 Cisco
=1 EnQii
3. Broadsign
4. C-nario
5. YCD
6. ScreenRed
7. Scala
8. Remotemedia
9. TELentice
10.Stratacache

First of all, let’s look briefly at our joint number 1’s; Cisco and EnQii.

Cisco is well known of course as the worldwide leader in networking technology but just over a year ago they purchased a 10 man digital signage software outfit called Tivella and so entered the already crowded digital signage market.

EnQii/Digital View Media (as they still prefer to be called at the moment) emerged from a number of acquisitions and is probably much, much more of a fully integrated solutions provider than a pure play software vendor but the ‘Digital View Media’ part of the organisation if you like has a great software offering.

We ranked both of these organisations as equal number 1 due to a number of different reasons. In no particular order, both are global operations. Cisco is so obviously global, with operations in almost every country you care to think of. EnQii, unlike many other solution providers are also incredibly global for such a young company with offices in London, New York, Toronto, Hong Kong, Dubai and Melbourne.

They also both offer a device / appliance rather than a PC based solution. Whilst not the be all and end all of reasons (we do have several PC based signage solutions in our top 10) we do think that devices / appliances are a much better way forward for delivering signage solutions. We predict more and more of the larger installations in 2008 will be device based - there is also a growing trend, especially amongst retailers, to choose device based solutions (ease of management, small footprint, ‘greener’, etc.). We were going to say ‘cheaper’ but think that it is a fallacy that devices are necessarily cheaper to deploy (NOT manage - they are definitely cheaper to manage) than PCs. The Cisco DMS solution for example is not exactly cheap.

Another trend that we like is the Software as a Service (SaaS) ASP model much trumpeted by Broadsign (and others of course) who came in third in our top 10.

We feel that Broadsign are let down by their PC only strategy at present (we hope that will change) but that minus is somewhat mitigated by the fact that they do support both Windows and Linux. We do stress here that “Linux on a PC does not an appliance make” but it is certainly better than Windoze.

Broadsign are also let down by the number of folks they have covering Europe - a let down in fact that we can rail against for almost all the non-European vendors in the top 10 apart from the top 2 (and perhaps to some extent Scala).

Broadsign has a lot of pluses though - it has a great, modern software offering and whilst not completely in the Web 2.0 model, its focus on offering it purely via SaaS / ASP has won it some big screen networks. Interestingly the big networks it has won are the folks, especially in Europe, that we most admire too - that’s because they are networks like POSTV and Neo Advertising (now one and the same of course since the acquisition of the former by the latter) that are focused and driven - they know what their business is, where their revenues come from and what they need to concentrate on - and in nearly all but the most exceptional cases no real benefit can be gained by running your own network infrastructure and writing your own software.

Both of those networks independently chose Broadsign, and let Broadsign concentrate on what they were good at doing so they in turn could focus on what they were good at doing.

To improve, Broadsign need to think more about devices than PCs - we would like to see a product roadmap from them for the next few years, adopt more of a Web 2.0 approach to components and most importantly, come to Europe with offices and staff not just a couple of salesmen dotted around Vienna and Majorca!

There are a couple of Israeli manufacturers in our top 10 - highlighting what we have often said in presentations and research reports during 2007 that Israel and the Far East will increasingly be a source of digital signage solutions.

The first of these is C-nario. We said in our first post that most of the software we have seen in the digital signage market is pretty much the same - there is of course good and bad software but most of it does the same job in pretty much the same way. C-nario is the only company that has anything unique - the ability in real time to handle geometric and colour correction (handles curved surface projection via software on tiled and multi-walled screens etc.)

C-nario have had a lot of success with JC Decaux in the US and Clear Channel (especially with those awful Magink screens) and only narrowly missed out to TELentice on the CBS Outdoor London Underground project and also tout the O2 arena as a design win. Their biggest issue we feel is common amongst the Israeli vendors - the lack of feet on the ground in Europe and the tendency for their sales guy (yes usually only one) to fly in, meet in London, travel to Paris, visit Amsterdam and then fly out again (sometimes with the CTO).

If C-nario are serious about being a big player then they need to establish a good sized, permanent presence in Europe - probably Paris or London if they are equally serious about the (lucrative) Outdoor Media Owner’s market.

YCD are at number 5 in our list simply down to the fact that they have a fabulous music offering. Our research and presentations has highlighted the importance of being able to offer music to screen networks and it’s not simply the ability to play out a string of MP3 files!!! YCD’s music offering is we believe, the best on the market. Where YCD is let down, is again, in not having a strong employee presence in Europe and a reliance on Israel as a market for reference customers. Whilst YCD have Imagesound as a customer, they only have about 10% of their installed base using their system. YCD need a couple of bigger network partners in Europe - not simply the signing up AV installation partners. YCD are ambitious and aggressive with big plans and are very worthwhile keeping an eye on.

Screenred is the software offering, announced at ScreenExpo 2006, by John Ryan International. Previously only used by John Ryan (themselves) and only then it seems for retail banking, the launch of Screenred was their attempt to give their software (deservedly) a wider appeal.

Screenred was one of the first web only interface CMS offerings and is still probably one of the best out there but unfortunately the players run on Windows based PCs (which you know we don’t like). Screenred has failed though in its attempts to win any big business in its first year of operation. Their business development strategy has been flawed - especially in its attempts to get the right sort of channel partners on board. Their first year of operation if you like, could have been so much better. It’s a shame because even with Windows as a platform Screenred is one of the easiest to use and best performing signage solutions out there.

It may look like we are beating up on Scala at the moment, what with our criticism of the recent Frost & Sullivan report on their market share, and having them here in a lowly 7th place but far from it. If you are doing an RFP or a tender the first company you would put on your list to contact would be Scala AND rightly so!!

Scala are the old boys of the digital signage world and have an installed base and heritage second to none. We rank them lowly here for a couple of reasons; first they are adept at always appearing bigger than they are. Whilst they claim a huge European presence and we admit that they are larger than all but the top 2 in our list with staff, we reckon they probably only have a dozen folks at the most covering a huge region.

Scala often shout about their 20 years in the business. With that fact though, they should be at least 10 years ahead of everyone else so it is a shame, having already done one migration from Commodore Amiga to PC that they are still only run on a Windows PC platform today.

One thing to say about all the software that runs on Windows is any vendor’s claim (Scala included) that says their signage solution is 24 /7, robust, resilient etc etc. IT ISN’T, not in a million is it not!!!

If the signage solution runs on Windows then you are relying on Windows and the PC underneath it to be 24 /7, robust, resilient etc etc. BSOD says differently!

Lastly, we have never been happy that when they claim a win (usually with a fantastic press release to go with it) if you look a bit deeper all is not what it seems. One example in 2007 was BanestoTV - sounds fantastic doesn’t it? Yep, that’s right - the large Spanish Banesto bank with its very own branch based screen network. It’s only when we look in more detail that we can find only one branch in Madrid with screens and when asking around other suppliers we are told it is a local install and not a national roll out at all.

Remotemedia, the only English company in the list, in at number 8. These guys are small, but are honest about it and are really, really punching above their weight. With a particular focus on retail and a SaaS / ASP and Windows CE based offering they are doing deals in the US and looking at franchising elsewhere. They have won numerous awards (not we feel for their best work either) and can lay claim to some incredibly prestigious networks.

We have a sneaky feeling that their Windows CE based devices are actually of Far Eastern manufacturer and simply re-badged but their SignageLive offering as they call it has a great web site, has great reviews and fits the Web 2.0 and component model we like so much perfectly.

TELentice lost its only European sales guy to Broadsign a month or so ago but they did win the CBS Outdoor London Underground business against incredibly stiff opposition. These guys need a European presence and some serious marketing but you cannot doubt the efficiency of CBS Outdoor (and Arqiva the deployment partners in the project) with their own technical due diligence. The TELentice solution is definitely worth looking at.

Lastly, just making it into the top 10 is Stratacache. Stratacache also recently lost their own Brussels based European salesman and with it a couple of potential big deals in the emerging markets otherwise they might have been higher up the least. These guys with their huge but hidden installed base in the bowels of corporate IT organisations everywhere should be giving Cisco a run for their money (their offering is very similar to the Arrowpoint technology - the company that Cisco acquired a while back, which became the basis of Cisco’s Content Distribution strategy - a forerunner and now an integral part of their overall WAN based DMS strategy).

Stratacache need to recruit heavily in Europe and start leveraging their corporate IT contacts worldwide.

EnQii joint number 1 solutions provider with Cisco

For the past 3 months we have been looking in some detail at the various Digital Signage vendors - the folks doing the hardware, software and content management systems in the digital out of home space and we have put together our top 10, as below, based on various criteria detailed later in this post…

Read at Digital Out of Home

=1 Cisco
=1 EnQii
3. Broadsign
4. C-nario
5. YCD
6. ScreenRed
7. Scala
8. Remotemedia
9. TELentice
10.Stratacache

To be fair we have concentrated on Europe, Middle East and Africa and so those vendors that are predominantly US focused may not have fared so well. For example, Wirespring although we have recently engaged with them and have had recent sight of some of their installations in Europe, are not in our top 10 at this moment though of course they have big installations elsewhere in the world. Novra also falls foul of this (sort-of) with just one big installation in Europe courtesy of Avanti Screenmedia. Stratacache may also have been higher if they had kept their European Sales guy and not lost a couple of big contracts in Istanbul as a result also.

Over the course of the coming week we will be expanding on the post itself and will be giving some more detail on those that made the top 10 and our reasons why they did.

What we would say, which none of the vendors is really going to like is that most of the good products are actually all the same or at least very similar.

With the exception of C-nario we do not see anything unique from any vendor in the top 10 (or out of it for that matter). All the products do the same job in pretty much the same way (despite what the sales guys may say).

So, what we are looking for in vendors may NOT be what others are looking for but we feel that the following are some of the most important points when choosing a vendor and their product: -

• worldwide coverage - employees, offices, support
• a TOTAL SOLUTION not just a piece of hardware or software
• big internal development teams
• devices not PCs
• (If PC) Linux not Windows
• ASP / SaaS offering
• Solid Product Roadmap going forward (innovation)
• Financial Stability
• Proven Track Record - minimum of several 1,000+ site deployments

As you read through the Top 10 you will see quite clearly that there are a lot of established names that have not made our list. Let’s briefly look at these: -

3M

Everyone knows 3M as an incredibly innovative company but they don’t seem to have got their act together on digital signage at all. Their rear projection system gets lots of good press but their software is pretty much unheard of. This is a company that with its contacts, its current customer base and its reputation should be everywhere and doing so much better. The fact that it isn’t on our radar screen anywhere (except for one nice deal with Telstra in Australia) should give hope to the ‘little guys’ everywhere that just cos’ a large corporate enters the market doesn’t necessarily mean they are going to ‘eat your lunch’. These guys really should be doing so much better and out of all the corporate offerings they are really the most disappointing.

Harris InfoCaster

Harris InfoCaster must attend every show there is (we have seen them in Athens, Singapore, Birmingham, Istanbul, Mumbai etc etc) and have a huge (almost hidden) installed customer base with the IT guys in many large corporates but we still haven’t seen them in any retail or advertising networks anywhere in EMEA. Their product is similar to that of Stratacache and Cisco’s CDN offering and is well thought of by IT network folks. For these guys to get traction in (true) Digital Signage they need to up their game and start talking to the right people (fortunately / unfortunately the IT folks are NOT making the purchasing decisions with Digital Signage at the moment)

Coolsign

Purchased first by Clarity and then Clarity was subsequently purchased by Planar - “Coolsign” is we feel a typical software offering from a screen manufacturer – it feels like you ought to have a software offering in your portfolio so you do, but you are then not too sure what to do with it. In 2007 they lost their European Sales guy who has still not been replaced. A common problem with a lot of the US vendors is that they have very few people on the ground in Europe and very often do not even have a physical office. Whilst Coolsign can claim the very impressive Jyske Bank installation in Denmark (it apears that Coolsign was itself chosen by IBM, the bank’s incumbent IT provider) and a couple of nice Pixel Inspirations’ installs in the UK we feel that they will struggle to win any more big business in Europe unless they beef up their presence – staff, offices, support etc.

Sony

Surely should be in the top 10? Welll what do we put in the top 10 - their Professional Business Division? Their Screen Business or some other? If you only knew which person to speak to in order to buy something from Sony they would rank so much higher up the list. There are far too many business units - often competing for the same business and it can be and is confusing. Like with Planar, software from screen manufacturers vary rarely takes centre stage. The Sony product line is adequate and no more. We think it is unlikely that the likes of Sony will innovate quickly in the digital signage software world.

Dynamax

Despite all their protestations these guys are still a small UK company with only a few developers (we believe a CTO + 1 contractor but they won’t confirm or deny that). They have managed a few times to punch above their weight – helped undoubtedly by the fact that the UK SubpostmasterTV / Community Channel is such a large installed base for them. Significant sized network deployments since that very early (in our nascent industry at least) install have not happened. Whilst they shout loudly and claim a number of prestigious brands as customers we do not think that their software solution is particularly engaging or unique enough (it runs on a Windows PC like many other systems) to pick up much new business going forward.

Ones to Watch

One thing to say about the Digital Signage market place is that there definitely isn’t a lack of choice - if anything there is far too much choice. There are an awful lot of average products competing for your attention.

Out of the 100’s of other products there are a couple that we think you ought to watch and again, whilst we list them here now, we will be covering them in a little bit more detail during the next week or so.

In alphabetical order: -

• 121View
• MediaTile
• MultiQ
• Ryarc Media Systems
• Wirespring

See part 2 of this post

James Abdool, EnQii’s new EMEA President

Digital Out of Home

The difference between good companies and great companies is very often their people. If Microsoft and Google for example, see a great interview candidate or know of an exceptional talent that comes on the market they grab them with both hands - even sometimes if they don’t know what role (yet) that person will play for them in the organisation.

The key is to grab and retain the best people possible (sometimes also not to let good people go to your competition of course) and so it is with EnQii’s appointment of a new EMEA President.

A few weeks ago we were the first to announce that James Abdool was to join EnQii - we now have the official press release as below…

EnQii strengthens senior team with appointment of new EMEA President

EnQii, the leading provider of digital out-of-home solutions has announced that James Abdool will be joining the company as President EMEA. James joins EnQii after completing the sale of digital out-of-home audio business TSC Music Systems.

This new appointment follows the recent launch of EnQii’s complete digital-out-of-home offering. Backed by $10 million equity funding, EnQii offers clients a full range of services from strategic development, technology design and deployment, content creation and delivery, together with ongoing performance measurement and reporting.

As President EMEA, James will be responsible for the company’s continued growth and expansion, working with EnQii’s EMEA client base on digital marketing strategies, and leading sales and marketing activity.

At TSC Music Systems, James worked with clients in the retail, leisure and hospitality markets to extend their in-store marketing solutions and drive sales through added-value models. He also managed the company’s global expansion, achieving rollouts in 17 countries within 2 years. As well as driving sales and marketing activity, James was involved in software development, licensing arrangements and most recently he managed the company sale process to an industry Plc.

“This is significant time for the digital out-of-home media industry, and EnQii’s complete offering stands out in a fast-growing and crowded market” commented James Abdool. “I’m delighted to be joining a company with market-leading credentials, and look forward to working with the teams across EMEA to drive future growth and development.”

The press release doesn’t really tell the whole story though (how could it?) - James built up a very successful retail music business and sold it to Imagesound for cash.

The success of TSC Music Systems was very much down to James - whilst Imagesound bought the company for its monthly music revenues and its customer base it was foolish to let such good management talent that came with the acquisition go to waste.

Bottom line; Imagesound’s loss is EnQii’s gain.

EnQii have been recruiting heavily these past few months and a lot of talent is moving into their organisation (Brian Boakes, previously at BT Broadcast Services and now Head of Strategy at EnQii is one of these folks but he would be too modest to say so AND there are a couple of other prominent recruits that I will be reporting on in the New Year).

Revolutionary Signage - EULOGY Magazine

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Minicom Interview with Ajay Chowdhury

Minicom Link

This week we speak to Ajay Chowdhury, CEO of EnQii Holdings. EnQii Holdings has been making a splash since it joined the digital signage landscape in March of this year. It has made an impact in the last nine months and big things are expected of it in 2008. Headquartered in London, it has other offices in New York, Toronto, Dubai, Hong Kong and Melbourne.

Ajay’s resume is too long and glittering to get into detail. It’s clear that EnQii has been injected with the passion and enthusiasm that Ajay brings with him wherever he goes.

Minicom Blog: Hi Ajay, thanks for joining us.
Ajay Chowdhury: My pleasure.

MB: Could you please tell us a bit about EnQii holdings.
AC: We had a look at the digital signage market and could see it was moving along nicely. One thing it didn’t have though was a global market leader. We wanted to create that global leader. Those familiar with Geoffrey Moore’s Crossing the Chasm will be familiar with the way technology is adopted. We viewed digital signage as being in the stage somewhere between the early adopters and the growing mainstream. Most technologies don’t succeed because the mainstream fail to pick it up but we digital signage was being in the process of crossing the Chasm. It is going mainstream as technology costs come down and big brands treat it more and more seriously.

MB: What about the name Enqii? Where did that come from? And how exactly do you say it?
AC: It is pronounced En-Key. When we were looking for a name we had to find something which would work for a global company around the world and from a pragmatic point of view, we also needed something where the urls would be available. The name works on a number of levels as Enki was an ancient god of creativity and Qi is an Asian life force.

MB: How did you go about becoming a global leader?
AC: We purchased three companies. Digital View Media, Redeemit and Screen Edge. Digital View is a provider of services to the global screen media and captive audience networks industry. Redeemit is a marketing agency that uses mobile phones and SMS to connect to consumers which will be invaluable as digital signage becomes more and more interactive. Screen Edge is company which provides quality content. Digital Signage needs specialist content and this is what Screen Edge does. All in all, we are committed to developing the digital signage industry and providing effective low cost solutions to our clients.

MB: How have you found things have progressed since March?
AC: We have expanded quite quickly. We already have over 100 clients. The market is growing really fast. We are doing well in the USA, Asian revenues are exploding and we are now establishing ourselves in the Middle East. Our development team is based in Toronto while our three profit centers are in New York, London and Hong Kong.

MB: How do you manage your time given you have offices all over the world?
AC: I do spend a lot of time in and out of aeroplanes but Asia is taking up a lot of my time now, in particular, China.

MB: What do you see in the future for digital signage?
AC: That it will take off. Agencies are now starting to take it more seriously. The brands are doing so as well. Software will have more functionality while the content will be stronger as it becomes more and more interactive. Additionally, it will be more targeted towards the audience it is aimed at. The industry will consolidate you can already see the start of it.

MB: Nice speaking with you Ajay.
AC: Likewise.