For a long time, a solid CMS solution was considered a competitive offer to successfully win digital signage customers. But end customers are increasingly looking for platforms with a wide range of solutions. The development of a digital signage tech stack like that of the US provider Spectrio is exemplary.
Between the years it is usually very quiet in the invidis newsroom. The year is basically over and the ISE wave doesn’t start until the beginning of January. The invidis editorial team is on a well-deserved vacation and the (consulting) boss is personally taking over the news reporting. Time to publish some news beyond the big headlines. (DooH: Too bright on the side of the road, rustic outside – immersive inside)
This morning I stumbled across an interesting annual review from Spectrio ends in the newsroom that is worth a brief analysis. The digital software provider is hardly known in Europe, except for regular news of new takeovers. Even though Spectrio has visibly reduced its M&A activities in 2023, there are many interesting developments.
2023 Year of consolidation
The past year was a year of consolidation for Spectrio – the many new subsidiaries of recent years were organizationally and technically consolidated, a new headquarters was moved into, while the entire company was able to significantly increase sales. Spectrio does not communicate in more detail – financial investors typically want to know everything about the market and competitors, but are reluctant to share their own key figures.
From the perspective of the digital signage technology services provider from Tampa / Florida, 2023 was a very successful year. The portfolio was expanded to include content production, the strategic entry into AI (acquisition of InReality) and the opening of a customer design and demonstration center at the headquarters.
From CMS to platform
From Spectrio’s perspective, the strategic acquisition of InReality complements its own digital signage technology stack, which now includes a modern CMS solution, analytics, content production, in-store music, telephone queue messaging, scent marketing and Wi-Fi marketing . Spectrio now offers many customer communication solutions from a single source and is therefore more broadly positioned than many competing classic digital signage CMS providers.
Many of the new 2023 platform features are primarily designed for long-tail business (direct business) and, unsurprisingly, for North American customers. The workflows of Spectrio solutions were adapted to customer needs (and not the other way around), a content library was built and a kind of internal content agency was set up, HDMI passthrough now enables live TV to be looped through and Spectrio customers can use IPTV live stream . Of course, a Power BI integration should not be missing – which securely and automatically pulls and displays data and reports from backend systems.
Big changes in the software market
Spectrio is just one of many professionally managed digital signage platform providers that have great financial power to consolidate the market and develop a modern tech stack that is more than just a digital signage CMS. We also see similar consolidation and professionalization on the integration side. Competition is becoming tougher for smaller providers because large customers are looking for large providers.