Is PowerPoint a competitor?

[Doug Franklin]

A question I have is relating to a Powerpoint presentation. Is that sort of a competition for your system? It seems lie you could do a lot of what you offer with a Powerpoint simply in auto format and changing slides at some rate? I'm not criticizing, just thinking through the possible objections to sale and trying to differentiate. I like the fact that it is internet based so you can change content from anywhere.

[mjstrand]

As for powerpoint, yes, right now, our system is a glorified powerpoint, but way easier to install, and it can be changed instantly from a remote location. With powerpoint, changes need to be made by somebody needs to be on-site to shut down powerpoint, copy the new file and restart powerpoint. It cannot be done remotely at all.

A couple other differences right now are that there is current weather and stock quotes which of course cannot be changed in powerpoint without a lot of work (and a restart). Scrolling text can also be a challenge with powerpoint, as is the newsfeed across the bottom. Setting up this type of automatic content is simple with this system. There also is a lot more security where some content (information) can be changed by select people in select locations, and other content can not. The overall layout is also secure and configurable from anywhere.

In the future, we are planning on adding playback tracking so that customers can get reports of how many times each individual kiosk page was played per hour of each day. This will allow them to bill other people (their suppliers in most cases) for advertising that they are putting on their kiosk. We are also looking at doing conditional slides which will automaticlaly enable and disable specific slides at certain days or hours. This would allow for pages saying "we are about to close" to happen at 4:45 to 5:00 pm each weekday for example. This also would tie into advertising where the day after thanksgiving between 10:00 and noon would cost the supplier 10 times what it would cost them at midnight. We are also looking at other types of automatic information (like the weather) such as local news, national news, random quotes, random jokes, financial advice, random customer quotes, and who knows what else (I'd be interested in your thoughts). There will be more and more content that is automatically delivered because this is an Internet product. Best of all, most of the enhancements are included in the subscription price. Some content will be an additional charge (those that cost us a lot to provide), but most will be included.

[Amy-StrandVision]

It's also worth noting that when PowerPoint is used for a digital signage display with intensive graphics, it may freeze or lock up. See

http://www.strandvision.com/?hope_gospe ... _awareness

for more information on one our customers who recently converted from PowerPoint.