I Want People 2 Fall in Love w/ What’s Possible @RMGNetworks’ @Garry_McGuire
Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Garry McGuire, now ex-CEO of RMG Networks, had a pretty good idea of what he wanted in terms of an Executive Briefing Centre from the time he signed a lease in mid-summer, 2013, making the new RMG offices in Dallas, Texas (see below), the company’s headquarters.
Working for previous employers in the Silicon Valley, he had already designed two briefing centres, so the idea wasn’t foreign to him. However, with the combined move of staff from RMG ‘s previous headquarters in San Francisco and the staff from the recently-purchased Symon from Plano, Texas, arranging both the EBC on the ground floor and the staff offices on the fifth floor was a major task – especially since he also spent a lot of time traveling to New York, London and beyond.
“We knew when we bought Symon that we would have to reeducate staff and show customers what a broader portfolio of digital signage solutions could do for them,” said McGuire.
“The EBC is to help customers to see what’s possible through visualization technologies and advanced digital signage. Our idea, following the acquisition of Symon, was to expand Symon’s leading call centre visualization solution, combine it with RMG’s technology portfolio, connect it all with content and show our complete offerings in the EBC as Visualization Solutions – or, as we often call it, Intelligent Visual Communications.
“Everything is oriented to empower employees to help customers see what is possible and to make the right decisions for improving return on investment in their business. The EBC is strictly dealing with Enterprise business applications and it does not represent our advertising and media offerings”
Further, the ability to see into the EBC by pedestrians working in and/or visiting businesses in the three connected office towers where RMG is located helps recruit talent. The huge double-sided screen (shown above) is purposely hung to be viewed from the towers’ 200,000 sq. ft. atrium.
With EBC in operation, with its attached contact centre, clients now have to only call one person to handle any and all services.
“This allows us to bring together software, hardware, business applications and services,” said McGuire. “We even offer a warranty on the hardware.”
RMG works with 80% of the financial institutions in the U.S. and 100% of the world’s major telecommunications companies. Its focus with the EBC is to gain and/or increase business from the hospitality, high educations, retail and gaming sectors as well as the financial and telecom clients.
“We have 5,000 former Symon clients and we’ve not only kept them all but in the past nine months (to May 31/14), 15% have added services of one type or another with us,” said McGuire.
In many other companies’ sales pitches, there might be a Power Point presentation and an hour discussion BUT the aim is for the EBC to have visitors from companies twice a day where they spend half-a-day, meet high level RMG executives, get a product roadmap, have a completely immersive experience and be introduced to RMG’s Visualization Solutions. They can watch the call centre in operation (see above), look at different kinds of screens, study various offerings such as interactivity, content feeds, ways to engage employees, ways that their employees can add personal news, or that company news can be displayed and disseminated, mobile integration with tablets and smartphones, and much, much more – all in a bright white and glass setting with splashes of bright colours, the most modern equipment, and dramatic digital displays of various sizes and styles.
“We are currently focusing on three solutions where we lead the industry: the contact centre, supply chain and employees communications,” said McGuire. “Over time, we will roll out more solutions.”
RMG has expanded the functionality of the Symon Entreprise Server and can extract data from it, which can help RMG’s sales force to customize offerings according to client needs that address knowledge workers and business intelligence applications. RMG professionals will show various applications to help companies work better through digital signage.
“Everything that you can see about your business in real time will improve your businesses overall,” said McGuire. “We have one client that had a 1% increase in productivity for their supply chain, which we didn’t think was all that significant until we were told that it meant a savings for the company of $55 million annually.”
The L-shaped EBC is almost exactly as McGuire first envisioned it. Working with Dallas architecture and interior design firm Staffelbach, McGuire says that that firm truly understood how RMG wanted to use the space including its integration with digital signage technology.
“My personal goal was to help customers understand the depth and breadth of what RMG could offer and to help our sales people and reseller partners convert more deals in their pipeline,” he said.
Only two weeks after opening, the EBC had millions of dollars in pipeline opportunities and McGuire forecast that after six months in operation, the company will be able to track USD 10 million in sales from customers who have come to the EBC.
“We had about 20 groups come visit in the first two weeks from the top Fortune 500 companies,” he said. “Six companies immediately pointed to the double-sided suspended video wall and said ‘I want that.’ Not one of them asked what it cost. I believe at least three of them will order it.
“I want people to fall in love with what’s possible. That’s what the EBC is all about”.
McGuire said that the best thing about the EBC is the collaboration opportunities it offers for clients, partners, and application providers.
“RMG has incredibly talented engineers all around the world. With their expertise, they can collaborate to bring together whatever the customer wants. The white glass main boardroom table is equipped for computer access, video conferencing, (and mini-microphones which pop up at the touch of a button) at each seat. A video camera can bring in, for example, an engineer from Dubai or Beijing to discuss and collaborate for the custom needs of each client. This helps us to put large deals in place in a way much larger companies can appreciate.”
RMG executives have publicly stated that the investments in sales and marketing since going public have topped USD 16M. The EBC is part of this investment in growing the company, and McGuire expected that costs will be recouped quickly.
“We’re surprised at how fast customers have taken to the idea and booked meetings,” he said. “Between 40 and 50 booked over the first two weeks.”
While there are only a few applications showing in the EBC as it opens, McGuire wanted to show some 10 to 15 ways that RMG’s technology can be used to immerse visitors even deeper into the possibilities.
“Our idea is that you’ll see different uses every six months, although, of course, the content that is up now is in constant change. The EBC is a great closing tool for our sales people and the more we sell, our stock will grow, too.”
The EBC has a staff of eight plus two in Europe constantly working on applications, creative and custom advanced applications. They include engineers, designers, and on people on the hospitality side.
The EBC was originally slated to open at the end of 2013, but there were unexpected delays including waiting for engineering permits, the building of some structural supports, late arrival of some imported material, mismatched tiles to be replaced, and changes in the heating and air conditioning units. As well, the fifth floor corporate offices had to be finished first so as to incorporate the staff moving from Symon’s Plano location.
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