Ecosystem? In this example, the analogy fits perfectly: two or more organisms (in this case, companies) working together for the mutual benefit of one another and their environment. As an example of such an ecosystem, consider the collaboration between Gruskin Group, a 50-person architecture and retail design firm based in Springfield, NJ and Custom Video Displays (CVD) a Santa Ana, California, manufacturer of custom CRT and LCD touch screen products. When the two firms formed an alliance to offer clients a fully integrated option for sourcing elegant, brand-sensitive interactive kiosk displays, an ecosystem was born.

Successful supply-chain ecosystems share best practices and dedicated kiosk design, engineering, manufacturing, integration, installation and maintenance. Key benefits are:

• Creating a detailed project plan and identifying suitable software: Kiosk software and rich media solutions usually need to run 24/7/365 and need dedicated power and embedded operating systems to mitigate even total loss of power and a corrupt system—which increases maintenance costs.
• Prototyping and trials to validate, hardware, software and fixtures are integrated successfully to achieve project goals and objectives.
• Closing the feedback loop with near real-time reporting on key performance metrics identifying return-on-investment (ROI);
• Content management synchronizes local hard drive data and reporting between the kiosks, fixtures and the clients brand assets.
• Reducing the hidden cost of providing field service to the location of the problem: Provided a process for clients to report problems while having an execution plan for maintenance repair and life expectancy of the fixture and hardware.

All parties working together in an alliance agree that there are numerous advantages, not the least of which is real savings in time and money. By having experts as part of your team experts early on, design and branding specialists can get a better sense of what is possible and what is not possible, and incorporate those considerations into the concept. An ongoing process of integration of hardware and IT experts means having easy access to answers, thereby eliminating what could potentially have been hours of costly research fees. Companies whose specialties are video hardware manufacturing, procurement, and support benefit from ties to an organization with design, architecture, and branding expertise as well – it helps them understand the environment in which their product must function.

It’s evident that technological advances can empower the retail industry to build stronger, more personalized relationships with their customers. Equally as important, technology gave retailers the ability to extend their brand experience through rich media and interactive solutions. Highly-customized interactive kiosks could close the ‘feedback loop.’ Closing the feedback loop allows the client to monitor how their customers are receiving their products and services. The bottom line is that you want the ability to collect real-time data that empowers the client to make strategic decisions which not only impact their overall brand perception, but are targeted to better engage customers at a specific location and specific fixture. “Giving these measures by time-of-day and day-of-week have become crucial indicators of how well our clients are meeting their promise to their customers. It’s an important strategic weapon in their arsenal,” states Herve Heriveaux, of Gruskin Group.

For the client working with various design firms and hardware technology companies to create a successful kiosk or fixture, the process can be a balancing act. The objective of any kiosk solution is to attract customers and convey a defined message. The integrated technology required to implement the solution should not overshadow the message itself. Clients working with firms that have formed these alliances ensure hardware is considered early on in the design process, providing clients with an A, B, and C list of options. Clients benefit from having the confidence that the solutions being presented are not only “doable,” but can be implemented within the project’s time frame and budget. For instance, Option A might be an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution; Option B could be a little more creative; and Option C is often the ‘Did you ever think of this?’ idea. By doing this, kiosk/fixture clients can achieve the solution that is most effective for their marketing, budget and timeframe objectives, while being fully executable by all suppliers in the ecosystem.

Using this strategy, Gruskin Group has provided its clients the option of using one integrated firm to deliver a cost effective, consistent identity that extends their total brand strategy. This can be best summed up by one of our clients who exclaimed upon a project’s completion, “This was so easy, I didn’t have to spend my time managing my vendors; I was able to focus on managing my business instead.” Although this approach has been very successful, we still recognized the need for better field service execution and support.

For Gruskin Group, this translated to an alliance with CVD. Their partnership is essential because it extends the design team’s depth through similar value- added services and creates a kiosk supply-chain ecosystem - an interdependent team that could enable excellence at every stage of kiosk development, from pre-design all the way through installation and back-end service. This alliance allows a hardware technology company to play a role early on in the design process, which is extremely beneficial to the client.

When designing and implementing a Southern California prototype store for a Fortune 50 telecommunications client, it was critical to define the problem, then not be afraid to innovate to solve it. Hardware, software and industrial design were combined in unique ways to determine the best ways to deliver the brand experience, while addressing the challenges at hand. For this store, our charge was to find a way to empower customers in queue to be free to roam the store and explore products and services, while waiting to be helped by the next available customer service rep – all without feeling they would loose their place in line. Since no off the shelf solution existed that would meet the client’s experiential objectives, our approach began collaboratively thinking big and digging deep in the initial phase of the project to build a strong foundation from which a solution could grow. It is always a concern that not doing this up front will cost the project on the back end with redesigns affecting budgets and timeframes. To achieve this, we created a linked network of interactive touch screens and display fixtures that supported the retailer’s products and services being sold in the store; Once a sales, customer services or technical support rep was ready to assist them, a notification would appear on all the displays throughout the store, including a telecommunications customer educational theater, directing the customer to the appropriate location for assistance.

As technology continues to evolve, the range of options available to retailers to create a compelling kiosk experience continues to expand. Larger clients with a national presence can require hundreds or even thousands of fixtures, each of which may require multiple hardware and software components. This creates a need for scalable cost-effective sourcing solutions. It’s not enough to have the LCD/Plasma show up on time for installation; Its got to work, be cost effective to operate and maintain throughout the lifecycle of the kiosk. And when it goes down, a process needs to be in place to report, manage and facilitate diagnostics and repair it, be it remotely or on-site – fast.

As Peter O’Brien, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at CVD explains, the decision to form an alliance with a design firm with complementary skills is required due to a simple reality: kiosks and other fixtures involving technology have grown increasingly complex. “Integrated displays, in-store self-service solutions—they’re very complicated, with multiple components, and a different set of specialists involved in design, content creation, operation and service. Today, no one company can adequately address all of these components.

In our alliance with Gruskin Group, their strengths lie in designing displays that work in the context of the client’s strategic brand, since they have an intimate understanding of the client based on the detailed research on a client’s customer profiles. CVD brings a different set of strengths to the process. We provide them with the underlying architecture and technological know-how to make it all work; this occurs early in the process where scope and direction can easily change, rather than at the later stages where changes in hardware or fixture designs can cause missed deadlines and costly over-runs. The prototyping experience we have together expedites the “go-to-market”—whether the final product is relatively simple, or highly customized and interactive.”

In the end, all of these factors combined result in a more effective and efficient design process, the ability to get the finished product to market faster, and the confidence that the kiosk will be done right the first time around, giving your company a competitive advantage. In today’s evolving retail market, smart companies can afford nothing else.