kiosk software
How the convergence of digital signage and
kiosk software delivers interactivity
and increased engagement
By Martin Kurze, Business Development Manager, Provisio – www.provisio.de
Some years ago digital signage and kiosk
software would’ve been completely
different applications with different
scopes. Back then it was all quite easy,
the world of slideshows and that of
user applications were well defined
and existed side by side nearly without
overlap. This is quite interesting as a
lot of features and conditions for the
operation of both types of software
running the hardware are similar. The
reason for the two individual types is
simply historical.
These days, digital signage software
and Kiosk applications are more or less
two sides of the same coin. And a new
type of software has now conquered
the market: interactive digital signage,
which merges features of both classic
digital signage software and Kiosk
systems. This allows a very flexible
usage of one piece of software under
different circumstances – you don’t have
to use more than one product to cover
the whole spectrum of applications for
customer or employee information and
interactive communication.
Large retailers have recently started
to implement new types of Kiosk systems
in their stores to support omnichannel
marketing. Kiosks like this need the full
range of information and interactive
functionality. They do not only extend
the offline stores to the online store,
they give additional information to locally
offered goods at the same time. So what
are the most important features of the
software that will support this type of
omnichannel usage?
Security
Old school digital signage software
didn’t need to take care of security on
their player hardware. Without any kind
of interaction, and no chance of physical
access this point was out of scope. It
was the domain of Kiosk software to do
the lockdown of terminals and take care
of limiting access to predefined software
and web resources. Interactive digital
signage, of course, needs these kinds of
security features to allow secure access
to online shops and databases.
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Mixed content management
As a result of this convergence,
a new kind of content management
system is needed to combine
information and interactive software
within one user interface for terminal
users. It’s not only a question of
timetables to schedule digital signage
content anymore, you have to take care
of different kinds of navigation and
time-dependent display conditions. In
addition to this, integrated browser
controls open up a flexible way to
access content from web sources as
part of the displayed content. Allowing
interaction between browser content
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and traditional digital signage content
is one of the main goals of interactive
digital signage.
Local Trigger
Touch interaction or other human
interface devices are common local
triggers to navigate digital signage
content. And additional triggers
are becoming commonplace: face
recognition, weather condition, NFC or
QR code readers, proximity sensors –
can all be used to initiate navigation on
interactive digital signage systems. With
this you can extend the usage of digital
signage to a completely new range of
use cases.
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Remote Management
Systems like this are usually
spread all over the country without local
IT specialists to maintain and monitor
them. So, to provide a positive user
experience it’s necessary to ensure
high availability and quick support in
the case of errors. A powerful remote
monitoring and administration system
is needed to allow this at an affordable
price, and if a solution like this is part of
the interactive solution, there’s no gap
between monitoring hardware, software
and content for the highest benefit.
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A new approach
As we see kiosk and digital signage
software converging into a new class of
software the sum of all these features,
in a single software suite, offers the best
tools to start new interactive projects to
engage with staff and customers. If you
plan employee self-service terminals,
customer information screens,
multimedia education systems or
whatever it might be, it’s worth having a
look at this new kind of software first. n
KIOSK solutions 39