Banks Must Overcome Bandwidth Challenges to Deliver Frequently Updated Digital Signage Content to the Branch


MINNEAPOLIS, MN--(Marketwired - Oct 9, 2013) - A new industry brief reveals that banks are encountering significant challenges in using their Local Area Network (LAN) to distribute content from a central content management system (CMS) to the branch. The challenges originate from the strict bandwidth and security constraints that uniquely typify bank networks.

The brief, available at www.JohnRyan.com, draws on a recent survey conducted by retail-marketing agency JohnRyan, in which nearly a third of banks attempting to deploy digital signage reported facing challenges around bandwidth availability and other related IT concerns.

JohnRyan advocates that banks can overcome these hurdles with the right tools and techniques. Most of JohnRyan's clients choose to use LAN for reasons of cost and unsurpassed levels of service availability.

"Banks are often surprised to learn that their existing LAN can be used for content delivery," explains Tom Pritzker, EVP Client Relationship Management at JohnRyan. "There are numerous mechanisms available for distribution of content to branch but the LAN is by far the most affordable and reliable. The key to harnessing the benefits of the LAN is to select a digital signage system that incorporates multiple bandwidth conserving features."

The brief explains that such features include the ability for the CMS to log sent content to avoid resending when reused in a playlist; bandwidth throttling controls which manage the sending of content by time of day or content type; and content pre-planning, in which heavier file types are sent less frequently and then superimposed with easy-to-distribute file types that can be sent more often.

By incorporating the recommended techniques banks have successfully overcome bandwidth and security limitations allowing them to deliver content by LAN to branch in sufficient volume to keep messaging freshly updated and locally relevant. Indeed, the brief outlines that digital signage leaders are managing up to 500,000 weekly content updates with bandwidth as low as 28.8K.

JohnRyan is an award-winning, global retail-marketing agency specializing in total store messaging systems for retail banks. The company won Gold and Silver at the 2013 POPAI Awards in the "Innovation" and "New Media" categories for outstanding work in digital signage. With print, digital and integrated programs deployed in more than 50,000 branches worldwide, JohnRyan is the global leader in point-of-sale marketing services for the financial services sector. JohnRyan's Messaging Manager is the most widely installed digital signage platform in U.S., European and U.K. retail banks, supporting networks from 150 to 3,000 branches with a wide range of one-way and interactive retail communications programs. JohnRyan was formed in 1980 and currently has strategic office locations in Minneapolis, London and Madrid. For more information please visit www.JohnRyan.com.