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Beyond PowerPoint: Why Your Digital Signage Needs a Specialized CMS

Take your presentations and important announcements to the next level with digital signage and a top-notch CMS program!

A man talking to others

By Theresa Bontempo

PowerPoint has been a popular go-to to display presentations for kids in school, college students, and even the professional world. It has been an effective way to give presentations that includes information, graphs, charts, and even fun animations to keep viewers engaged, but it is now becoming old technology.

Many businesses are looking for new ways to display and give presentations to their staff for new hire training, announcements, or upcoming business projects. As a substitute, digital signage is becoming increasingly popular to have in and around the office, in meeting rooms, and it’s perfect to implement in any kind of business setting–even for deskless positions.

Digital signage needs a reliable and specialized content management system (CMS) to fully work the way that it should, but why is this? Let’s learn more about what CMS is, digital signage, and how the two work together!

Digital Signage and Content Management Systems: How They Efficiently Work Together

Digital signage and CMS can work together to give incredible presentations, announcements around the office, and more!

Digital signage can enhance businesses in multiple ways, including for staff and for a better customer experience. Image courtesy of Rise Vision.

Many employers and managers are looking for more efficient ways to give presentations, or keep staff engaged during training. Digital signage provides an entirely new and immersive experience for staff that is guaranteed to keep them engaged, along with the help of a specialized CMS.

What is Digital Signage?

First and foremost, it’s important to identify what digital signage is since many companies are just now switching to it. Using LED/LCD screens, LED billboards, monitors, or even tablets, digital signage can be displayed to show everything from menus, advertisements, pictures, videos, and even announcements in both private and public settings.

Many retail businesses use them to display special deals that they have over the week, restaurants and coffee shops usethem to show their menu and prices, or even hospitals can have them to help navigate through the different departments to help guide you to where you need to be. Digital signage is often used in office settings to help improve internal communication with staff and is a more efficient way to post announcements, emergency alerts, and other crucial information that email can’t get across.

What is a Specialized Content Management System?

Digital signage displays the content that you want whenever you want, but what systems can you use to help present it on the screen? Content management systems, or CMS for short, are software applications that give users the ability to create, edit, manage, and publish digital content that they want to have displayed on digital signage. 

CMS applications can do a number of different things, such as create and edit content, organize it all, allow staff to help with the workflow and collaborate, and help with the consistency of the design and uploads onto digital signage. Users are also able to go in and modify content in real-time anywhere, on any device, and at any time for the most up-to-date information to be displayed.

Anything can be added and uploaded through CMS before being displayed on a digital signage monitor. Pictures, videos, charts, graphs, emergency alerts, announcements, and even documents can be displayed to help create dynamic content that can help to boost sales, customer satisfaction, or even help engage and find efficient ways to keep your employees up-to-date with policy changes. 

Learning More About Digital Asset 

What Makes Digital Signage a Better Option?

With a specialized CMS and bright, colorful displays, digital signage can increase sales and engage staff more than traditional signs!

Digital Signage can have a number of benefits on businesses to influence customers to buy more or to engage with staff better. Image courtesy of Shift

Understanding both digital signage and CMS can be a lot at first, but in time you’ll be able to see how they effectively help your business. It’s important to note some of the benefits that digital signage has to help boost internal communications and even for in the retail, food, or healthcare industries to help boost sales and for navigation purposes. 

Eye-Catching Presentations and Signs

Right off the bat, digital signage is considered a better option because of how eye-catching it is. Moving visuals, pictures, and videos are more noticeable than a simple billboard, sign, or a printout on a bulletin board, which makes it more effective in grabbing the attention of both customers and staff.

Reduces Labor and Costs

Digital signage can also be a more efficient way for businesses to save money since everything is done with a couple taps on your cell phone, tablet, or computer. It can help to reduce costs and labor from seeking out printing companies to print and update traditional posters and signs too.

Flexible Option 

It is also a dynamic and flexible option as  content can be updated or edited instantly to be presented to customers or internal staff. The best part is that if you catch a mistake on what is being presented, you can even easily go in and fix it before anyone even notices!

Enhances Customer and Staff Engagement

Another reason why digital signage is a great option to implement in any type of business is that it can help enhance both customer and staff engagement. This is simply done through their eye-catching presentations, bright and bold colors, and dynamic content that can easily pop out and influence an increase in sales, or even engage staff to sign up for different events, training, and other career opportunities. 

Why Digital Signage Needs a Specialized CMS Application–And How it’s Better Than PowerPoint

Technology continues to advance—including presentations and making announcements internally—and digital signage is the way to do it!

Digital signage has a ton of benefits that PowerPoint doesn’t offer to up the game on any business presentation or announcement. Image courtesy of Shift

Digital signage is the new PowerPoint—and that’s a fact! There are many ways that digital signage can improve all aspects of any industry, and it’s even a better communication tool than email. CMS and digital signage go hand-in-hand together and there are many vast improvements to using the two compared to PowerPoint alone.

Why CMS and Digital Signage go Hand-in-Hand

First thing’s first, and that is understanding why CMS and digital signage go together cohesively. The answer is simple—they can update, change, add, edit, or create content remotely that can then be transferred and displayed through digital signage. 

Digital signage acts as just what it is—the screen for display—and the CMS works as the brains behind the content that works to create and upload it for a whole new sign display.

Without a CMS software application to use alongside digital signage, the content you create would need to be created on another application, uploaded to a USB drive, and then plugged in to the screen or monitor to be displayed. Having a CMS application makes creating, uploading, and even editing your content easier with its remote capabilities.

It’s also important to think of a CMS software application as the centralized hub for creating content for displaying on digital signage. No matter how many digital signage screens you have around your business, you can control what is displayed on all of them with just a couple clicks, or you can have them on a rotation of displaying different announcements and other crucial company information. 

CMS also allows workplaces to decide which team members can create, edit, modify, and display content and even give them specific roles and permissions too. Typically, companies create a dedicated content team to help create what goes on the digital signage, but this can also be passed down to other roles, such as the marketing team, the HR department, and sometimes IT. These teams can work together to keep adding new content, or updating it on a regular basis so it can continue to help build engagement either with staff or customers. 

Ways Digital Signage is Better Than PowerPoint

Have you ever wondered just how much better digital signage can be for your business compared to a PowerPoint? No matter if it’s for company announcements, new hire training, or a plethora of important information that can be displayed in a slideshow, many prefer what CMS software applications offer compared to PowerPoint.

  1. More Freedom in Creating Content

One of the biggest reasons why many people are switching over to digital signage over PowerPoint is simply because of the freedom to create the content you want. With PowerPoint, it can feel restricting to only be stuck to what fonts, designs, and layouts that they can offer, and CMS applications vary and can provide something that is unique to every business. 

  1. Remote Management

Another reason why many people love digital signage over PowerPoint is being able to create, edit, and modify content remotely. With PowerPoint, you have to use a computer or projector screen to display a presentation that is all hooked up together, but with digital signage, it can be updated right from your cell phone, tablet, laptop, or even your computer at home.

  1. More Engaging For Staff and Customers

The best part about digital signage is how vibrant and eye-catching the screens are with the content that you create and they can beat out both traditional signs and posters and even PowerPoint. They can catch the attention of staff and even customers more easily to help improve internal communication among teams in a multitude of different industries, appreciate and recognize employees, boost sales by displaying promotions and sale items, and even be used as navigation to guide people coming in and out of the hospital to departments they need.

Shift: The Best CMS Software Application For Your Business

Finding the best CMS application for digital signage can be tough, but Shift can help boost sales and engagement!

Shift can help to make internal communications and engagement easier through eye-catching digital signage. Image courtesy of Shift.

The next most important step is finding a CMS software application that has everything that you’re looking for. Shift is among one of the best, and its main goal is to ensure that you’re building deeper relationships with staff and recognizing them for all of their hard work–which in turn helps to boost employee engagement and much more.

What is Shift?

Content management systems are a great addition to any business of any size and industry to use for staff and internal communications or even for customers. Shift is a type of CMS application that can help with internal communications, productivity, boost sales, and even recognize employees for all of the hard work they do on a daily basis.

Shift aims to make their mission clear–which is to help develop deeper connections with members through recognition and appreciation where digital signage can help. By doing simple things such as highlighting staff achievements and work anniversaries, along with displaying reminders for team meetings and staff evaluations, it can help to boost productivity and reduce high employee turnover rates. 

Features Shift Offers

Shift has a ton of unique features that can help to make the digital signage experience even better for businesses and their staff. Some of the best features that Shift offers includes:

  • Boost employee engagement through recognition and appreciation
  • Celebrate staff birthdays, work anniversaries, and other achievements
  • Show training videos
  • Employee spotlights
  • Interactive polls for staff to anonymously complete
  • Expands internal communications 
  • Allows staff to retrain and re-skill in key trainings
  • Helps leaders learn more about staff
  • Encourages employees to do work harder
  • Increases productivity 

Boost Engagement with Digital Signage, Going Above and Beyond What PowerPoint Can Do

While PowerPoint has been around since the 1980s and has successfully been a top choice when displaying presentations and other important workplace news, it simply doesn’t have the technological advancements that digital signage and a CMS together can provide for a business. 

Consider signing up for Shift, a successful CMS software application, and pair it with digital signage today!

Trusted by industry-leading enterprises
An Invaluable Tool
"At Wingstop, we're always looking for innovative ways to meet our Team Members where they are. The integration between Schoox and Shift has truly elevated how we engage our restaurant teams. By embedding our Flavor Lab LMS into the Shift platform, we've made it easier than ever to spotlight training completions, share key updates, and celebrate performance—right in the flow of their day. Training is now more visible, more accessible, and even a bit competitive—and that's exactly the kind of energy that drives results at Wingstop."
Izzy Martinez

Manager, Operations Integration
Wingstop Corporate

Easy to use!
“We have been using QR campaigns to gether submissions from employees... so we can showcase what's going on at each facility. This has dramatically increased our company-wide culture & communication. The platform is easy to use with branded templates that allow quick announcements. We're really happy with [Shift] - nothing but positive feedback from facilities too!"
Spencer Trefzger

Director of Marketing Avamere Living

Foster a friendly, competitive environment
“The affordability of [Shift] is incredible, and the sky is the limit for the effect it’s having on our culture... I feel really confident our work environment improves for our team members when they feel as though they’re being highlighted and appreciated. You can hear it as you walk through one of our stores. There’s somebody being wished a ‘Happy Birthday,’ or somebody saying, ‘I didn’t know that about you.’”
Jason Zieman

Owner/Operator

An Invaluable Tool
“Since we began using the Shift platform, we’ve seen a significant boost in team engagement across all our locations. The ability to connect with our teams through contests, goal-setting, and localized opportunities has been truly impactful. What stands out even more are the personal engagement features—like shoutouts and the ever-popular pet photo posts—which have created a fun, inclusive environment that keeps our team coming back to the platform. These features have helped build a strong sense of community and excitement around our internal communications. Shift has become an invaluable tool for enhancing our team culture, and we’re thrilled with the positive response from our staff. It’s more than just a platform—it’s become a part of our daily routine.’”
Sara Kokx

Senior Manager of Training and Development, Patton Wings, Buffalo Wild Wings

More effective suggestive sellers
"[Shift] enables our cashiers to be more effective ‘suggestive sellers,’ with sales leaderboards on our back-of-house TVs. Our cashiers naturally want to be at the top of the leaderboard to be recognized and rewarded, which results in them selling more than they typically would.”
Russ Lo Bello, COO

Burger King Franchisee, COO Phoenix Organization

It's a very powerful tool
"It's a very powerful tool. It can work either for a single restaurant owner or for a multi-unit owner and also for a restaurant group... I see it as a more modern, contemporary tool to communicate with your employees. Our Gen Z and Millenial employees especially love to interact with our [Shift platform]."
Jose Vazquez Barquet, VP

Subway

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