CeBIT 2008: NCR and Cisco Will Work Together to Implement Digital Media Solutions for Retailers

Retailers can boost promotions and employee communications in stores through digital signage and desktop video solutions

AUGSBURG/HANOVER, Germany – NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is bringing Cisco’s Digital Media System to retailers and quick service restaurants throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). NCR will be delivering consultancy, integration, deployment and ongoing services support for Cisco’s digital signage and desktop video solutions, which help deliver greater management control at a lower cost of operation than traditional products.

Research by Retail Systems Researchshows that the use of digital signage screens for in-store advertising can increase revenues by 2.3 percent and profits by over 10 percent, boosting sales of impulse categories, encouraging brand switching and promoting new or seasonal products and price reduction events.

Retailers can also use Cisco’s Digital Media System to provide employees with training and corporate updates before or after business hours.  This provides an ideal opportunity to reinforce selling messages and can lead to increased employee productivity, higher job satisfaction levels and a more cohesive corporate culture.  NCR is currently implementing the Digital Media System in Europe with a global leader in quick service restaurants.

Thomas Wyatt, general manager of the Digital Media Systems Business Unit at Cisco, comments, “NCR’s in-depth industry expertise will help retailers through the complete digital media deployment process.  Specifically for digital signage, NCR can support retailers in

measuring the business benefits, deciding on the optimal placement of the signs, integrating them with store networks and helping to ensure that the screens are always on with no downtime.”

Using the Digital Media Manager, retailers can manage content from a variety of sources including their own marketing communications departments and third party advertisers.  This can include live and on-demand video, flash animations, text tickers and web content.  It is possible to schedule instant and future content playback, or to create content play lists directed at groups of displays in different parts of the store featuring product promotions relevant to audiences shopping at breakfast, lunchtime or after work.  NCR will provide a content creation service as part of its services offer for the solution.

Content can be pushed to store servers overnight when bandwidth isn’t constrained, ensuring the performance of core business systems is not impaired.  It is then retrieved by the Digital Media Players attached to each screen.  Featuring two gigabytes of memory for local playback of high-definition and standard-definition format content, the Digital Media Players help optimize the network and provide additional resilience.

It is also possible for individual stores to access the Digital Media Manager software over the web, providing them with the autonomy to adapt playlists to suit local trading environments.  For example, umbrellas could be promoted when it’s raining or alerts sent out about special offers on the fresh fish and deli counters to reduce overstocks.

Cisco’s Digital Media System is a significant advancement on competing “point” solutions which require a PC to host the playlist for each group of screens.  As the Digital Media Player is a solid state device, the risk of mechanical failure is greatly reduced, increasing mean time between failures.  They are designed to outlast many generations of displays, unlike those that are PC-based.  Moreover, the Digital Media Players consume just 5 watts of power – around 1/40th the level of a PC-based player.

Frost & Sullivan predicts that by 2011, 90 percent of retailers will have in-store digital screens.  Enzo Tumminaro, Retail Service sales director for NCR’s Global Network Services in EMEA, comments, “The plummeting prices of LCD and plasma displays, coupled with the proliferation of broadband connectivity, have ushered in the era of digital merchandising in retail.  NCR has both the store operations and technology expertise to enable retailers to make the most of this Digital Media System, which delivers many significant advantages over competing solutions.”

About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a global technology company leading how the world connects, interacts and transacts with business.  NCR’s assisted- and self-service solutions and comprehensive support services address the needs of retail, financial, travel, healthcare, hospitality, gaming and public sector organizations in more than 100 countries.  NCR (www.ncr.com) is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio.

NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.