"Complexity often also entails higher costs"

MK What are the main factors your industry is currently struggling with? Can you describe them in a few words?

TIM DEUTSCHMANN On the one hand with the increasing complexity, then budget issues and the decision-making period. And finally, consolidation.

MK So the daily challenges have clearly become greater?

DEUTSCHMANN Absolutely yes. Customers' expectations of the range of services offered by digital signage solutions have changed significantly over the past 24 months. However, customers' wishes often clash with existing budgets, as more "performance" or complexity often results in higher costs. At the same time, new systems in the various ecosystems - SOC, Google Chrome, Android and Windows - are constantly coming onto the market, which creates a certain amount of uncertainty among customers and intensifies the need for advice.

MK So such new, innovative solutions must be explained to customers in detail?

DEUTSCHMANN In our experience, there is currently an increasing demand for unusual and innovative concepts. Unfortunately, however, these are often not implemented in the planned form and to the planned extent because there is a certain amount of uncertainty about the effective added value and ultimately the ROI for the customer is not clearly recognizable.the trends are clearly moving towards LED walls and multiscreen installations in a wide variety of formats, which are coordinated with each other and are increasingly becoming part of omni-channel strategies.

MK Digitality in all areas ...

DEUTSCHMANN Digitalization affects practically all areas of economic, social, working and private life. As "recipients" in this networked world, people are addressed accordingly via a variety of information channels, whereby the individual areas can often no longer be explicitly separated in everyday life. As part of marketing and brand awareness strategies, digital signage in its various forms is being used more and more frequently, whether as an information and communication medium or as a direct sales tool, the challenge being to reduce the increasing anonymity caused by increasing digitalization by addressing people individually or interactively.

MK Looking ahead to the second half of the year, what are the biggest tasks ahead?

DEUTSCHMANN We have confirmed some interesting and larger projects in the retail and transportation sectors, which we are looking forward to implementing in collaboration with our channel partners in the second half of the year, as well as the intensive expansion and further development of our expertise and continuous training of the team, which is an important topic for me in order to stay actively on the ball with the new technologies and platforms launched by manufacturers.