With the ongoing evolution of the digital signage market, Castit is thrilled to announce a complete revamp of our CMS. In this blog, we will provide an insider’s look and discuss the main business factors, strategic choices, and creative goals that have influenced the evolution of this upgraded platform. Through comprehensive market analysis and an emphasis on customer-focused enhancements, you'll learn how we are improving Castit to accommodate the changing demands of digital signage users.

 

* Castit Digital Signage Software with the slogan 

 

Introduction

At GuideLites, we're excited to announce the upcoming release of our redesigned and enhanced Castit digital signage software. As the expert digital marketing manager working for the company, I'm thrilled to share the business perspective behind this major update.

For more than 20 years (yeah, you read that right), Castit has been fulfilling the digital signage requirements of companies in the Benelux, Balkan, and Western European areas. During this time, we have continuously paid attention to our customers, observed industry trends, and explored ways to stay ahead of the competition. Our digital signage system has become a dependable tool and SaaS solution, helping organizations improve brand visibility, increase customer engagement, and communicate messages more effectively via compelling visual displays.

Nonetheless, as the market progressed and our clients' expectations increased, we identified the necessity for a thorough CMS (Content Management System) revamp to more effectively meet their changing demands and the expanding digital signage sector. This update marks an important achievement for our company, as we work to reinforce Castit's status as the respected digital signage option in our target markets.

 

Market Analysis & Competition Study

To ensure our CMS becomes a market leader, we conducted a thorough analysis of the competition. We thoroughly analyzed leading competitors such as Yodeck, ScreenCloud, Optisigns, and GoBright, carefully testing and assessing their platform features. This thorough exploration of the competitive environment was enlightening, uncovering both advantages and shortcomings in our current product.

Our SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) assessment revealed that although Castit's fundamental abilities were noteworthy - including its powerful content management tools and efficient content scheduling and publishing options - the user experience and general usability were limitations for us. Customers found it difficult to handle the intricacies of managing channels, playlists, and content in our CMS, so we recognized the need to streamline the interface and restructure the essential modules for a more user-friendly experience.

Moreover, our examination of the competition revealed promising chances for us to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace. We pinpointed aspects where our competitors were lacking, like restricted integration features and an absence of multi-language support, and we chose to fill these gaps in our forthcoming redesign.

 

* Europe Digital Signage market trends (photo by Grand View Research website)

Internal Analytics & User Behavior

Alongside our market research, we utilized our internal analytics tools to monitor and examine the activities of our Castit users closely. Through analyzing the data, we successfully identified the pain points and frustrations faced by our customers, enabling us to focus on the areas requiring the greatest attention in our forthcoming redesign.

For example, we observed that numerous clients struggled to navigate the different areas of the CMS, frequently feeling inundated by the multitude of choices and configurations. This realization directly guided our choice to simplify the user interface and restructure essential modules like Screens, Playlists, Dashboard, Library, Slide Creator, and Settings, aiming for a more intuitive and user-friendly experience.

Our analysis also uncovered chances to improve the CMS's functionality, depending on how our clients were using the platform. This data-focused strategy enabled us to pinpoint improvement areas that would most significantly enhance the user experience and, in turn, foster greater adoption and loyalty within our clientele.

 

Business Rationale for Redesign

The choice to proceed with this significant CMS overhaul was influenced by various critical elements. Primarily, our comprehensive market study indicated the considerable growth opportunity within the digital signage sector in Europe, anticipating a CAGR of 7.1% from 2024 through 2030. This offered an exhilarating chance for us to enhance our status as a market leader and take advantage of the growing demand for our solutions.

Additionally, we acknowledged the shortcomings of our current sales procedure, necessitating customers to reach out via our website and navigate a labor-intensive, slow offer generation method. To enhance our customer service and facilitate quicker, more effective onboarding, we realized that we had to adopt a more automated, intuitive solution that conformed to the most recent SaaS industry standards.

Moreover, we recognized that to expand our product and preserve our competitive advantage, it was essential to invest in a high-quality, attractive, and user-focused CMS that complied with the latest UX/UI guidelines. This understanding motivated our choice to embark on this extensive redesign, as we aimed to future-proof our service and establish Castit as the leading digital signage solution in our intended markets.

 

* Reasons why Castit stands out from competitors
 

Key Redesign Objectives

With a clear understanding of the market landscape and our customer's needs, we set out to redefine the Castit CMS experience. Our primary objectives for the redesign included:

1. Streamlining the user interface by removing the Channel section and redesigning core modules such as Screens, Playlists, Dashboard, Library, Slide Creator, and Settings. This simplification would make it easier for our users to navigate the CMS and manage their digital signage content more efficiently

2. Implementing multi-language support, with the initial rollout offering both English and Dutch versions of the CMS. This move was driven by our desire to better serve our customers across the Benelux and Balkan regions, where language preferences vary

3. Broadening integration features to encompass widely used tools such as PowerBI, LinkedIn, Outlook Calendar, WindowSight, and Weather Forecast. Through the provision of a broader range of integrations, we strive to deliver our clients a genuinely seamless digital signage solution tailored to their varied business requirements

These main goals emerged from a comprehensive analysis of the market, our competitors, and the changing demands of our clientele. We were committed to developing a CMS that not only solved the issues faced by our current users but also established Castit as the premier digital signage platform for businesses in search of a top-tier, easy-to-use, and future-ready solution.

 

* Old look of Castit CMS Apps section

 

Development Process & Timeline

The Castit CMS redesign has been a strategic priority for our team at GuideLites, and it has been a journey several months in the making. Our internal strategic conversations encompassed numerous hours of contemplation, during which we thoroughly examined the market trends, the changing needs of our customers, and the technological innovations influencing the digital signage sector.

Utilizing the knowledge we acquired by participating in industry events such as ISE 2023 and ISE 2024, we successfully aligned our redesign initiatives with the most recent best practices and developing trends. These events offered us a deeper insight into the changing digital signage environment and enabled us to establish new reseller partnerships that will be crucial for promoting the use of our improved CMS solution.

Furthermore, we opted to align the redesign of the Castit CMS with the forthcoming enhancement of our Digital Reception: Visitor Management System. By synchronizing these two product developments, we can provide our clients with a genuinely cohesive and streamlined digital signage and visitor management experience, further enhancing our status as a complete solution provider.

 

* Sneak a peak to the new look of the Apps section of the Castit CMS

 

Conclusion

The future launch of the revamped Castit CMS marks an important achievement for our organization. Through careful market analysis, examination of our competitors, and a thorough understanding of our customer’s requirements, we are creating a solution that we are confident will establish Castit as the most trusted digital signage CMS in the market.

This extensive overhaul is merely the initial move in our ongoing dedication to delivering our clients the finest digital signage experience. In the upcoming months, we will provide technical and design-centric insights on the Castit CMS update, exploring the advanced features, app integrations, and improvements that will enable our clients to enhance their digital signage approaches and stimulate business expansion.

With improved content creation and scheduling tools, along with robust analytics and reporting features, the new Castit CMS is set to transform how our clients tackle their digital signage projects. We believe that our redesign initiatives will enhance the user experience, while also creating new possibilities for our clients to connect with their audiences, increase brand visibility, and ultimately achieve quantifiable business outcomes.

Stay connected for more thrilling announcements from the Castit team as we aim to excel in our target markets and eventually get our presence on the international scene. The future of digital signage has arrived, and we are excited to be leading this change.