STRATACACHE: A Trendsetter In The Digital Signage Industry
Growing technological advancements in display products, increasing adoption of digital signage across verticals, rising demand for 4K & 8K displays, and increasing infrastructural developments in emerging countries have fueled the digital signage market’s growth, which is expected to hit $29.6 billion in global revenue by 2024. With the aid of cutting-edge technology and innovation, it is one of the finest ways of connecting with customers and providing them an exquisite digital experience. STRATACACHE is a trailblazer in the digital signage industry in India, revolutionizing digital transformation and creating waves on the technological front.
STRATACACHE is a leading global solutions provider of intelligent digital signage, digital merchandising, mobile enablement and rich media customer engagement. Their solutions deliver consumer activation at the point-of-decision, generating new sales opportunities and enhanced retail profitability. With an enriching experience of more than 30 years, STRATACACHE provides powerful end-to-end digital media deployments for the largest global businesses and brands, particularly in the sectors of education, quick service restaurants, retail transformation and retail banking.
With its global headquarters in Dayton, Ohio, STRATACACHE has 28 offices across the globe. Its worldwide network of partners and developers spanning more than 100 countries drive over three million digital screens globally.
STRATACACHE made its foray into India in 2008 – a crucial move as a part of the global growth strategy to launch the brand in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and most promising new markets. Since then, through product innovation and rapid localization led by capable leadership, STRATACACHE has gained a strong foothold in India with phenomenal growth in sales, rapid expansion in office footprint and many successful business deals and partnerships.
STRATACACHE’s foray in APAC has expanded exponentially in recent times, under the strategic leadership of Manish Kumar, Managing Director and SVP-APAC. With over a decade of management experience under his belt and acute business acumen, Manish has been instrumental in successfully building and growing the STRATACACHE brand in APAC and extending its reach into key growth markets.
STRATACACHE serves a wide spectrum of clients in many industries, including Quick Service Restaurants, Retail, Consumer Package Goods, Retail Finance, Stadiums, Lottery, Gaming and Corporate Communications.
BOOSTING CUSTOMERS’ TRUST AND CONFIDENCE
Full-Service Concept Providers
At STRATACACHE, they create strategic partnerships to bring digital display, sensor, mobile and emerging technology to market, at scale. Through their discovery process, they work with clients to identify the ways they are looking to enhance the consumer experience. They then advise on the components and innovation that will bring their clients’ vision to the physical space – whether that’s their own technology found across the STRATACACHE family of marketing technology companies, or through the exploration of integrations and third-party platforms that will complement and optimize the experience for today’s better-informed consumers. Their in-house full solution offering includes: a flexible, intuitive platform for designing, managing and deploying digital content; a global professional services team with an extensive portfolio of skills; as well as a full range of Scala – and STRATACACHE – branded hardware, including media players, commercial-grade tablets, ruggedized outdoor displays, sensors and content acceleration devices.
Superior hardware capabilities and advanced technologies
One of the keys to a successful digital technology network is having the latest hardware to fully support the success of the project. STRATACACHE’s full solution offering includes a wide array of hardware, including media players, displays, outdoor digital displays and tablets, ensuring full flexibility and expertise for bespoke solutions for a digital project of any size, scope or complexity.
Combining industry knowledge with decades of experience and best practices, STRATACACHE’s media players, tablets and display solutions are engineered with performance, stability and capability in mind to suit every project need. STRATACACHE’s interactive experiences increase audience and shopper engagement in physical spaces with wide-ranging advanced technologies including large-scale and large-format digital signage, augmented and virtual reality, mobile sensors, artificial intelligence and computer vision technology.
Providing excellent customer/ after-sales service
STRATACACHE’s team of pre-sales and technical specialists communicate effectively with customers to understand their needs/pain points and propose ideal solutions to solve their challenges. A detailed project timeline is drawn up and regular customer meetings are scheduled to ensure that project milestones are met. Even after the deployment is completed, STRATACACHE’s certified service teams provide round-the-clock support for their customers, to ensure that the products are in optimal working condition with minimal downtime. The dedication of the service team increases the customers’ confidence in STRATACACHE.
STAYING AHEAD OF THE COMPETITION
Digital signage, flexible and secure at scale
STRATACACHE’s marketing technology stack, including its proven digital signage software platform, allows retailers, employers and marketers to tailor their digital signage communications for a specific audience, location and time. A centrally managed and locally updatable content management system allows for message refinement that creates a unique, personal way of communicating to audiences, including customers, employees, visitors, and students. The STRATACACHE platform is flexible and scalable, allowing the customization of every aspect of the digital experience. STRATACACHE delivers a complete user-friendly experience with an intuitive platform that allows users to design, manage and deliver content to multiple media players and displays at scale. A wide range of hardware and display options allows their clients to scale any project with full confidence, knowing they will be able to deliver the desired customer experience aligned with their goals.
Synchronizing with the market trends
The Business Intelligence team at STRATACACHE constantly analyses market and industry trends, as well as business and economic cycles, to help the management chart their business strategies across APAC.
As digital signage continually becomes more responsive and dynamic, STRATACACHE constantly innovates, adopts the latest technology and introduces new products to keep abreast of changing trends and consumer preferences.
Several new technologies that STRATACACHE has utilized in its solution offerings include Artificial Intelligence, augmented reality, interactive media, omnichannel and content personalization.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – AI will make an appropriate decision whether a particular content should be displayed to a particular customer based on the analysis of numerous indicators and databases. The AI will analyze the goals of the person in front of the screen in order to define what kind of advertising is better to be displayed at this particular moment.
Omnichannel – Digital transformation allows seamless integration of content across all digital mediums to optimize the customer experience.
Personalization – Solutions that connect with customers and create a positive emotional reaction, solutions that surprise and create joy can really grab someone’s attention and retain it. Content personalization ultimately leads to better brand recall and higher sales.
INVESTING IN RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT (R&D)
In 2018, STRATACACHE acquired an all-in-one intelligent tablet and computing device manufacturing company based in Ningbo, China. As part of the acquisition, new infrastructure includes an expansive 250,000 square foot manufacturing facility and more than 125 new employees, including world-class research and development, scaled production and manufacturing lines, and experienced design & software engineers. This enables STRATACACHE to fully control the manufacturing and production process to ensure the quality of all products.
MAINTAINING A STIMULATING AND CONDUCIVE WORK ENVIRONMENT
Manish Kumar says, “It is absolutely necessary to ensure that all my employees are content and happy with their jobs so that they will continue to be motivated and enjoy coming to work every day.”
With the opening of several new offices in India, China, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore in the past few months, there has been a massive increase in staff growth in APAC. Currently, there are over 350 staff members across APAC. As the employees come from different backgrounds, cultures, and all walks of life, there is a challenge to ensure that all the employees are united, communicate effectively, work well as a team and are aligned with processes and team goals.
The above challenges inspire the management to have in place a very capable human resource team led by Ayesha Kumar – Senior Adviser, People, Performance & Culture (APAC). The team is responsible for talent acquisition and management across APAC and drives employee engagement and satisfaction by promoting vibrant company culture, encouraging open communication, recognizing employees’ efforts and offering rewards to those who perform well on the job.
An effective human resource team and supportive people-centric management helps to create a positive workplace culture that improves teamwork, raises morale, increases productivity and efficiency, and enhances retention of the workforce. Job satisfaction, collaboration, and work performance would all be enhanced.
HOW STRATACACHE KEEPS EMPLOYEES MOTIVATED:
1 LEADERSHIP SUPPORT
Strong leadership serves as one of the cornerstones of innovation, positive change, and advancement. Employee motivation is largely dependent on leadership support. STRATACACHE leaders are supportive, nurturing and ensure that they work closely with their employees and collaborate with them on projects rather than simply supervise.
STRATACACHE leaders display exemplary conduct and set high standards of accountability for themselves. They lead by example in order to influence staff in a positive manner. Furthermore, they have a clear vision for the future of their business and they share this vision with their staff, and encourage them to strive to achieve corporate goals.
2 TRAINING & FEEDBACK
At STRATACACHE, relevant training modules and webinars are provided to staff to expand and develop their industry knowledge and skills. This allows them to perform better and ultimately increases job satisfaction. Staff are encouraged to share their technical expertise with other colleagues.
Regular review sessions are in place for team leaders to provide feedback to their team members, as well as for team members to give updates on their projects/pipeline. Feedback from employees are taken seriously and will be escalated to management for further review if needed.
3 EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Since its inception, STRATACACHE has built a growth culture and an environment that feels safe, with a focus on continuous learning and open feedback. They encourage a very lean company structure and a flat hierarchy, thus promoting open and direct communication between the management and staff. Staff are always encouraged to interact with and share information/expertise with other team members in the region. Teamwork is encouraged and the achievement of team goals is celebrated. With rapid corporate growth, all staff need to adapt to changes quickly and be nimble to assist in different capacities whenever the need arises.
4 REWARDS & RECOGNITION
Recognizing the efforts of the employees and letting them know that their contributions are being appreciated, is essential. STRATACACHE periodically gives certificates to recognize employees’ efforts and dedication. The certificate serves as a simple motivation for employees to continue to work hard and perform better. In addition, team meals during festive occasions also act as a form of appreciation of employees’ contributions throughout the year.
5 SETTING ATTAINABLE GOALS SMART
goal-setting is a great strategy to ensure that all employees are on the same page, regarding what needs to be done and what contributions they need to make in order to attain goals. At STRATACACHE, all employees are given specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based goals after team/individual discussions and consultations. This sets the right expectation of what needs to be accomplished every year. Employees who meet their targets/goals are rewarded accordingly.
With this paramount motivation, the company has done remarkable work in its field, and has achieved outstanding results.
THE MAJOR CORPORATE ACHIEVEMENTS/ DEVELOPMENTS ARE:
- June 2018: Debut of new retail technology concepts at Retail Asia Expo
- June 2018: Expansion of India and Asia-Pacific operations
- July 2018: Opening of new Delhi office and expansion of R&D center in India
- December 2018: Acquisition of Chinese embedded computing and commercial tablet manufacturing company, rebranded Scala China
- February 2019: Centralized Asia-Pacific operations in new Singapore headquarters
- March 2019: Opening of new Shanghai-basedcustomer center
- May 2019: Opening of new Japan CBD office
- July 2019: Opening of new Singapore warehouse and logistics center
- August 2019: Opening of a new Hong Kong office
- October 2019: Opening of Experience Centre at APAC HQ
- December 2019: Opening of a new office in New Delhi
2020 GROWTH PLAN AND PIPELINE
STRATACACHE has had an amazing 2019 with phenomenal growth in revenue this year. In 2020, they will continue to revolutionize digital transformation and drive growth by enhancing their solution offering, strengthening their brand presence, increasing sales and expanding strategic partnerships. They will also be targeting key verticals such as: retail, QSRs, financial institutions, casinos and education institutions, focusing on key growth markets like India and China, and setting up more offices in major cities.
The company will continue to drive brand awareness, increase engagement and extend brand presence throughout APAC by active participation in regional trade shows, increased advertising and public relations.
“ This is an exciting time of immense growth for the company and we look forward to supporting high-rate growth clients in the expansive APAC region, through our customized turnkey solutions. With increasing brand awareness and the successful establishment of supporting infrastructure and resources in key markets, STRATACACHE is now well poised to further drive the growth of the brand and the region’s digital signage and marketing technology adoption “ says Manish
