Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
Two things seem to be winning signagelive business at the moment. one is their early on integration with Key Systems (Primsesight are one beneficiary of this though we hear that there are other OOH folks ‘in the works’) and the second is their commercial model which we keep hearing is inning them massive opportunities – bottom line you only pay per player per month if the player has connected to signagelive in the previous calendar month.
That’s especially good for signagelive as they win or take business from those software vendors (Scala for example) that have regularly sold into the traditional OOH folks doing digital billboards and the such like BUT we don’t quite get this current love-in for Key Systems – to us it’s heritage code – mind you they claim that their latest digital module is all .net (see comment below) and they have one big customer – Clear Channel in the US that we think keeps them afloat.
However, we do hear that Amscreen have chosen Key Systems for their back end systems. We think that is a really weird choice for Amscreen when you think that there are a number of newer smarter kids on the block in this space. For example:-
- Ayuda Media Systems is a well funded business put together by super smart ex-Microsoft people and their solutions use the very latest .net Technology. They have several experienced feet on the ground in Europe and if rumours are to be believed are global as far a field as Australasia now (with people recently employed)
- VUKUNET has the power and leverage of NEC behind it and is increasingly we believe, being led globally by DOOH veteran Dirk Huelsermann (who seems to have quickly put them back on the right track). VUKUNET seemed to be the only DOOH talking point at #ISE2012 recently – they had so much press coverage that we felt we couldn’t do the topic any more justice by covering it at the time
If it was our choice we’d be much happier doing business with Ayuda Media Systems and the dozens of super smart people that they employ or with VUKUNET and get the might of what NEC can bring to the table.
Mind you, whether or not you agree with us that Amscreen’s decision was a weird one think again as news reached us also that Ocean Outdoor figured that they could easily write their own backend system (yeah right!).
The mantra “why build when you can buy, why buy when you can rent” was totally ignored when the very clever VC owners of Ocean Outdoor realised that they had a software development company in their portfolio. Obviously the light bulb went on over their collective heads when they thought “I know we can do it quicker, faster, better, cheaper ourselves” – just where industry veteran Tom Goddard, Ocean Outdoor Chairman was when this conversation was being had is anyone’s guess?
Oh wait, Tom was probably at an Amscreen board meeting advising the Sugar’s to use Key Systems!
February 22nd, 2012 at 11:37 @525
Thank you for your reference re Key Systems winning more business. Our digital module was released in 2011 and was written from the ground up in the latest Microsoft .net technologies.
The simple fact is Key supplies leading edge software that really works. No apologies for being successful globally for over 20 years either. If anybody wants fact based information on our products and services to help make an educated appraisal please feel free to email me or visit our website http://www.KeySystems.co.uk (contact details on there also). A truly global D/OOH solution provider – with plenty of heritage!