When a leader of any industry is looking to delve into digital signage as a means of advertisement, information display, and promotion it is always a bit nerve racking when you do not quite know what part of the chain you fit into. If you plan on purchasing your units from a VAR or another type of distributor, then you certainly know the product you are getting has been marked up several times. In addition, when your project is specific to yours or your client’s needs, it may be difficult to get exactly the digital signage hardware solution you are looking for. Not getting your drinking water directly from the source often can mean it is diluted and filthy. The same is true for getting your hardware from resellers of resellers–in many cases you’ll never know. The information below discusses how potential digital signage users can benefit from custom original equipment manufacturing, both at home and abroad.

OEM’s Take Advantage of Scale

When your order is 500 to 10,000, you’re going to get price breaks. It’s a simple numbers game. This is how it works in any industry–even in retail for regular consumers. I had a high school psychology professor who was a self-proclaimed genius. At the time he taught, he was in his 60′s, essentially retired from business, but had come back to teach high school because he wanted to “give back.” He was a good man. I can specifically remember when he told us of the time he purchased his lifetime supply of aluminum foil. He said he got each box for like 9.5 cents. I remember him saying, “if you get it that cheap the only struggle should be, ‘do I have a place to store all this stuff.’” He literally had a crate of foil in his attic.

Taking advantage of scale is a huge benefit. Not only are you able to receive the best pricing, but generally the manufacturer is much more accustomed to massive purchases than to purchases of insignificant size.

Manufacturers Work Like Burger King

While I haven’t been to Burger King in years, their slogan is very fitting for the custom manufacturer:

Have it your way, have it your way! Have it your way at Burger King! Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce; special orders don’t upset us. All we ask is that you let us serve it your way…We can serve your grilled beef Whopper; fresh with everything on topper. Anyway you think is proper have it your way… Have it your way, have it your way! At Burger King, eat at Burger King!

The jingle for a manufacturer could include something about chipsets or processors, instead of pickles and lettuce, but you get the idea. When you order it custom, you are able to receive custom prototypes and work with the manufacturer to get precisely the unit you want. Custom display sizes and shapes are no problem when ordered from an OEM. You can specify the encasing you with to implement and the digital signage media player which might be housed inside the unit.

It’s All Industrial

There are oftentimes struggles between choosing whether to purchase consumer grade or commercial grade display. When cost in not an issue, choosing the industrial or commercial model is obviously always the best answer. Custom manufacturing all of your units means everything from the motherboard the screen itself is built for a 24x7x365 deployment. In general, industry-standard manufacturers for industrial PC, computer, and digital signage parts means you also receive longer warranties. What’s not to like? You can have your cake and eat it to: hardware meant to least and hardware guaranteed to last by the manufacturer.

Working Prototypes and Quick Delivery

The manufacturer can get a working prototypes within 45 days of a customer-specific order–meaning you can see, taste, and touch the units you wish to rollout. The turn-around time is much more rapid than you think. The facilities we personally use manufacture 50,000 units monthly. When you want to pull the trigger, the gun fires–no waiting for a slow deployment. Having a quick lead time is almost always a concern for many vendors. And since custom OEM generally takes a bit longer, it is certainly good to know the product can be delivered on-time.

What About the Smaller Guys?

What if I am a smaller network or network operator that would want to purchase an industrial all-in-one display with a three year warranty and all the whistles and bells installed? Well, those who wish can certainly sign up to be notified when a large shipment is being ordered. Piggy-backing on the large purchase of another company means smaller-entities can benefit from the scale without having the scale. Of course, there are many instances where this will not work due to patents that may be filed in the creation of certain pieces of hardware. However, in instances where patent licensing would not be infringed, reproducing 50 or 300 units from a 2,500 unit order can be not only be performed easily, it would most certainly be encouraged.

Conclusion

With our office in Shenzhen, China we can fulfill any custom all-in-one order on the market. This could include large format touch screen displays, all in one digital signage displays/media players, aisle displays for retail and POP, and kiosk manufacturing. Get a working prototype in 45 days or less, test it out and then prepare yourself for a massive worldwide deployment of digital displays. If you’re going to go mass, do it right.