SUMMARY

Starbucks Coffee Nordic has selected Desquare to provide a digital signage solution for its cafe menu boards in the Nordic region, pioneering Starbucks's digital menu board experience across 20 locations and 120 endpoints in Norway and Sweden. Part of the significance of this project is that it marks the emergence of the digital signage revolution for Starbucks Nordic. The Starbucks Nordic network currently consists of Samsung QM43R-A system-on-chip displays.

For the past three years, signageOS has provided the extensive digital signage infrastructure and technological expertise that enabled Desquare to build its own CMS platform, Designage. The uniformity and hardware agnosticism that Desquare was looking to achieve with its CMS would not be possible without signageOS's software and unified API. Along with its infrastructure, signageOS provided its advanced device management toolset and 24/7 support, future-proofing the network for scalability and flexibility. Due to the effectiveness and simplicity of Designage's hardware-agnostic content management, monitoring, and publishing, Starbucks has ensured a fast and faultless network deployment with unlimited room for growth.

CHALLENGES

The initial challenge of this rollout was building the digital content for the menu boards, as it was the first of its kind within the Starbucks Nordic ecosystem. However, thanks to Designage's flexibility, no alterations to the CMS were needed to accommodate the new Starbucks menu.

Once the content was produced, the remaining challenges were minimal, with the biggest ones coming from hardware logistics (purchase, delivery, and setup). The grandest of these hardware challenges arose in the installation company's unexpectedly steep expense quotes for the installation of the displays. This potential cost was so high that it would've capsized the project had there not been an alternative solution.

At this time, the project is in its pilot phase, taking place in 2 locations across 12 endpoints, with the next step being to expand into the rest of Norway and Sweden. Due to the system's future-proofing and scalability, no additional major challenges are to be expected.

SOLUTION

Desquare provided Starbucks Coffee Nordic with an elegant digital signage solution. It was looking for a modern and intuitive cloud-based platform where the customer could focus on content rather than technical challenges related to hardware and IT. The signageOS infrastructure provides an end-to-end solution, including its advanced device management toolset, hardware agnosticism, and future-proofing through guaranteed accommodation for scale. The continued cooperation of the two companies allowed for the building of a platform that can provide elegant digital solutions for any situation.

The nearly insurmountable challenge of the high installation quotes was solved due to the streamlined device onboarding process and provisioning guide brought by signageOS. The guide was made so easy to follow, that Starbucks personnel were able to provision and publish their content to the respective screens entirely on their own. This allowed Starbucks Nordic to avoid the installation company altogether, saving a significant financial investment on hardware installation and software onboarding.

In the future, Starbucks Nordic and Desquare intend to expand their network's capabilities to include video wall synchronization. While Desquare currently uses its applets to power the devices, it will soon be transitioning to utilize the signageOS SMIL player to ensure quality content playback while also providing scheduling zones, day-parting, triggers, and synchronization.

RESULTS

As a result of partnering with signageOS since the early formation of its CMS, Desquare was able to create a CMS platform that embodies uniformity and hardware agnosticism. This capability turned what could have been a long and arduous digital signage rollout into a smooth and easy process. Desquare saved a significant financial investment on onboarding and installation while ensuring that Starbucks Nordic received the highest quality network available.

signageOS' contribution gave Desquare the freedom to concentrate on building the best user experience possible, without having to worry about any hardware constraints. Their cooperation also future-proofed the network, allowing it to easily accommodate any scaling required in the future. This includes the transition to the signageOS SMIL player for guaranteed consistency and quality in content playback. Its advanced device management toolset provides Desquare with easy-to-monitor hardware and the proven effectiveness of the signageOS infrastructure and 24/7 support ensure a network with 99.99% uptime. Starbucks Coffee in the Nordic region now has a digital signage solution that is versatile, reliable, and built for growth.

ABOUT DESQUARE

Based in Norrköping with a customer base across the Nordic region, Desquare has over 15 years of experience in the creation of software that makes digital signage accessible and easy to use without sacrificing flexibility and functionality. We have built Designage, a content management system that uses a cloud-based service, allowing for direct use with any manufacturer's display devices. Designage grants our customers the ability to understand and use our solutions regardless of their needs.

“signageOS has made it possible to realize our goal to create the most versatile, cloud-based, and hardware-agnostic service for digital information distribution on the market. Not needing to worry about low-level development for every device, we instead can concentrate on innovating and building the best platform possible for content management and monitoring, of which Designage is the result. We're happy to keep evolving Designage alongside signageOS and we see a great future made possible due to the efforts that signageOS is putting into their software." Peter Brauner, CEO of Desquare.

ABOUT SIGNAGEOS

signageOS, the world's first unification platform for digital signage, enables companies to integrate, deploy, and manage scalable networks of any digital signage hardware. signageOS utilizes modern technologies to provide unified and standardized APIs for highly efficient digital signage development. signageOS's single codebase approach and knowledge base derived from years of development with digital signage hardware and platforms ensure a future-proof digital signage framework.

"We are thrilled to work together with the Desquare team on this project and provide them with the capability to leverage Samsung SoC displays, which are just perfect for the menu board experience. We have worked on several QSR projects, but I'm especially excited about this pilot, as it unfolds what digital signage can do for such a brand as Starbucks." Stan Richter, CEO of signageOS.