During our five years in operation, we’ve seen other digital signage companies come and go, and we’ve had the opportunity to compare Enplug versus competitors in the industry.
When we talk to our users at global companies like Oracle, Google, HP, Marriott, and WeWork about why they chose Enplug, we hear a few recurring themes. This article will explore Enplug’s four core product values of simplicity, reliability, growth, and transparency. Each of these features drives performance improvements and enables cost savings for our customers.
Enplug Versus Competitors: Simplicity
Simplicity is complex. Building simple products that also accomplish our users’ goals requires deep thought. The results are worth it: great products from Apple to In-N-Out to Google embrace simplicity.
Simplicity in Setup
When customers receive Enplug Devices, everything they need to get started (except the TV) is included in the box. We also send a Quick-Start Guide that we test on new employees and family members to ensure anyone can follow its instructions.
Other digital signage solutions are complex to set up, requiring an IT team to deploy servers and configure media players. Many competitors have mandatory new user training sessions that take hours. With Enplug, all you need is a WiFi or Ethernet connection and five minutes to start managing your Enplug Devices.
According to Philipp Semenenko, who runs IT systems at SurveyMonkey,
“From an IT standpoint, [Enplug] was a really easy install. Another provider has required us to open up ports on the firewall to make their solution work. After finding out that Enplug syncs without network modifications, that was the huge win from IT.”
Simplicity in Use
Ease of use is the biggest factor that sets Enplug apart. Unlike most solutions on the market, Enplug does not require users to build manual playlists for content. Instead, users can turn on applications, determine how long each app should be on the screen, and Enplug builds a playlist in real-time. Any time users add more content or play real-time content (like social media posts), Enplug’s software automatically and seamlessly updates the content rotation. This dynamic system makes it simple to keep the screen content interesting and engaging for viewers – as opposed to a simple playlist, which quickly gets repetitive.
Enplug is simple enough that most users don’t require any training at all. Our clients often add dozens or hundreds of users to manage their Enplug displays, so this simplicity has real value.
As an IT Manager, I’d have to say you know you’ve got a winner when you’ve got your IT department, Marketing, and Retail all in love with [Enplug] and no fight over trying to get user adoption in the organization. – Scott Shepherd, Alaskan Brewing
Simplicity in Content
Simplicity can’t come at the expense of functionality. It’s simple to show an image slideshow using a flash drive, but it’s not engaging enough to be valuable.
Enplug has invested years into building an App Market with automated content for digital signage. Just like a smartphone, users can enable a different app for each type of content they want to display. Each Enplug display can rotate between many different apps.
On the Enplug platform, everything happens in real time without any disruption to the displays. If a user updates or adds new content, it’s instantly shown on the screens. If there’s a security update or a new feature, it’s automatically applied across the network with no interruption of service.
Luke Thomas, Senior Technology Strategist at HP, shares his feedback:
Using Enplug has been a fantastic experience right from the customer service to the signage output. Love the layout and transitions, and how people actually stand by to view the TV content.
This design makes it simple to manage the content that is playing on each display. Using a slider, customers can choose how often each app should play. Users can click each app’s icon to customize its appearance and access more advanced scheduling features. Our system lets users have full control over their content while making it foolproof so that there is always something on the screen.
Enplug Versus Competitors: Reliability
We place a strong value on Enplug’s reliability. If our system doesn’t work reliably, nothing else matters. Our clients trust us to keep their screens running around the world 24/7.
We’ve tested hundreds of media players to find the most reliable option, and it’s an ongoing process. We want to provide the most reliable media player on the market, but we also want it to be affordable. We don’t build a profit margin into our devices so that our customers can get the best media player possible for the money. Every Enplug Device is tested in-house before it’s sent to a client and comes with a one-year warranty.
Reliability: Data
In early 2016, we moved our data server hosting to Amazon’s award-winning AWS platform. AWS is the gold standard for cloud hosting because of its reliability, security, and scalability. Using Amazon also means that we can bring on very large customers without causing any disruption for our other users.
We also replicate our data across several different locations, and we back up all customer data every day – so no matter what happens, your data is safe with us.
Enplug Versus Competitors: Growth
Growth in Features: Enplug App Market
One of the most exciting aspects of working at Enplug is how quickly our product has grown. A few years ago, Enplug offered two apps: Social media and graphics. Today, we have 24 apps on the Enplug platform. Some apps offer a specific type of content, while others are multipurpose apps.
Limitless Expansion: The Enplug SDK
We’re able to offer custom solutions for clients through our Webpage App. Virtually anything that can be shown as a webpage can be shown on Enplug. Examples include live metrics dashboards, custom directories and zoned content, and even interactive polling or gaming.
Our growth plans don’t stop with the Webpage App. We’re also building the premier Open SDK for developers. This Open SDK benefits everyone. Today, any third-party developer can create apps on the Enplug App Market and make them available to our users. Customers with more custom needs can also build private apps on Enplug, unlocking more complex digital signage functionality while enjoying the benefits of our platform.
Enplug Versus Competitors: Transparency
Transparency in Product
Enplug displays help our clients run their businesses with more transparency.
Businesses using Enplug for marketing can show their customers’ live social media posts, along with their Yelp or TripAdvisor reviews. This transparency builds customers’ trust in a brand. They can also communicate using digital menus, directories, and announcements.
Businesses using Enplug for employee communications can build transparency by showing live metrics and performance dashboards team-wide with tools like Geckoboard. They can show which meetings are happening in conference rooms with the Google Calendar App. Finally, offices can keep their employees updated on customer sentiment by showing social media posts around a product.
Andrew Barrett-Weiss, Director of Workplace Experience at Edmunds.com, says,
“Displaying calendars for each meeting room helps to promote transparency in the organization because the whole team can see what’s going on at a glance. It also helps to reduce double-booking and scheduling conflicts in our conference rooms.”
Transparency in Feedback
We’re proud of our product. At the same time, we know there are things we can improve. Whenever customers share critical feedback, we share it with the entire team. We also ask for reviews on public sites such as Capterra.
Look at our competitors’ websites, and you’ll notice something striking: very few of them publicly list their pricing. Why would they hide this crucial information?
We believe in transparency, so we list all of our pricing on our website. We want our users to know that there are no hidden surprises with Enplug.
Conclusion
Enplug is focused on delivering simplicity, reliability, growth, and transparency to our users. We hope you’ll join the Enplug family! Learn more with a free demo.