Tag Archives: Chrome for Work

Payment processing company Fifth Manhattan switches to secure, easy-to-use Chromebox desktops

Posted by Adam Garrett, President, Fifth Manhattan

Editor's note: Today we hear from, Adam Garrett, president of Dallas-based Fifth Manhattan. Learn how Fifth Manhattan switched to Chromeboxes for a simpler, more affordable desktop computer solution.

When I joined Fifth Manhattan as president in 2014, I wanted to expand our customer base. We provide credit card payment processing services for small to medium-sized businesses and help them cut costs, increase revenue and provide a higher level of customer service. Big nationwide retail chains have substantial marketing budgets, but your local Italian restaurant and auto body shop don’t. That’s where we come in.

One of my first orders of business was to upgrade our aging fleet of desktop computers. The team needed simple, easy to use computers with web access, so we decided to buy one Chromebox and try it out. We were astonished by how simple it was to set up and deploy. After the pilot, we bought Chromeboxes with Chrome device management licenses for each of our 30 employees. Since then, we’ve given a Chromebox to each new hire.

Because of Chrome, we no longer need a traditional IT help desk. Fifth Manhattan has six full-time IT staff members, but they focus on building and managing our internal CRM platform. Before Chrome, they spent hours every week troubleshooting computer crashes. Today, they spend less time managing Chrome and deploying new devices and more time on their core responsibilities. Since we switched to Chromeboxes, we’ve only had one issue with a device — and it was a hardware malfunction, no fault of Chrome.

As a payment processing company, we deal with highly sensitive data like bank account information and social security numbers, so security is critical. We’re required to maintain compliance with PCI regulations governing customer data. As part of this, we limit the number of employees who have access to sensitive internal data and monitor all usage carefully to avoid breaches. Chrome makes this easier to do. Administrators can set up different “organizations,” or teams so they can create customized settings for each team to limit which applications they can access. For example, our telesales team only need to use our web-based CRM tool, so we limit their usage to that, while account managers need access to their Chrome web browser and applications like Gmail and an e-signature solution. In addition, we can turn off incognito mode and disable saving to external flash drives. These settings help us control employee access so we can prevent data breaches and leaks.

Fifth Manhattan employees are now able to work remotely, thanks to Chromebooks and Google Apps. We have five extra managed Chromebooks for employees to use if they’re unable to come into the office because of travel, parental leave or bad weather. As president, I travel often for customer meetings. My Chromebook lasts for more than eight hours, which comes in handy during cross-country flights and long meetings. I can even access my desktop applications remotely from my Chromebook using Chrome remote desktop.

When I joined Fifth Manhattan, I wanted to grow our payment processing business into a thriving enterprise. Google Chrome has helped me scale the business from 35 employees to 100 in two years and makes it easier for everyone to focus on their work, not IT.

How BlackDog Advertising marries technology and design with Chrome

Posted by John W. Penney, Creative Director & CEO, BlackDog Advertising

Editor's note: Today we hear from John W. Penney, creative director and CEO of Miami-based BlackDog Advertising. Read how the company used Chrome devices to build engaging hotel kiosks for a major hotel chain.

I’d always wanted to start a business that used technology in creative ways — so I founded BlackDog Advertising in 1989. Since then, design has been at the center of our culture.
Members of the Blackdog Advertising team (from left to right): Jason Carbonell, interactive director, John Penney, founder and creative director and Humberto Abeja, art director
We sell to businesses that use technology to engage customers, so our solutions need to be eye-grabbing and intuitive, elegant and approachable. Devices like the Chromebit and Chromebox align perfectly with our design-first approach and provide both cost-effective and dynamic solutions to expensive static light boxes and point-of-sale ads.

Our team became well-acquainted with the efficiencies of Google productivity tools like Hangouts and Gmail when we switched to Google Apps for Work from Microsoft Office about five years ago. This led us to give Chrome for Work a try, and we saw even greater benefits for collaboration, ease of use and cost. That’s how we discovered that Chrome devices could work really well for our clients in the hotel and tourism industries.

We tested whether we could use a combination of devices and monitors to create compelling interactive signs and quickly realized that we could centrally manage a constant stream of images and video with the Chrome device management console, for pennies on the dollar. The decision to build personalized apps on the Chrome Web Store that could be instantly updated across all of our clients’ kiosks was a no-brainer.

Our client, a major hotel group, posed a challenge that pushed this line of thinking even further. They asked us to build something that would replace the three-ring binders their concierge professionals have used for decades to show hotel guests activities and restaurants they might enjoy. We knew the use of tablets, which they suggested, would be expensive to implement over the long run and instead urged them to explore Chrome devices and touchscreen monitors. The Chromebit and monitor together cost less than a single tablet, but offered the added features of easy content deployment and theft protection. Hotels may carry up to 20 pitch books on hand, costing about $75 each. Our Chromebit kiosks, which can each replace all of a hotel's pitch books, cost no more than $400 — a savings of over $1000 for some hotels.
Chromebit kiosk showcasing area events, activities and attractions for hotel guests
Blending vivid imagery, video and interactive features, Chrome kiosks provide a modern alternative to the three-ring binders concierge professionals used to use when showcasing area events, activities and attractions. And hotel guests can interact with the kiosks on their own to plan or add to their itineraries, even after normal work hours, when the concierge desk is closed.

We can use Chrome to design, test and introduce new solutions that our clients love. It’s reliability, ease of use and affordability make it an attractive option to replace all kinds of signage — not just concierge kiosks. Our clients have requested Chrome for other uses, such as ticket sale kiosks — all possibilities we’re eager to explore. Chrome’s marriage of approachable design and robust technology has created a new revenue stream for us, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to uncover where else Chrome will take us.

Empower your workforce with Android apps on Chrome devices

Posted by Rajen Sheth, Senior Director, Android and Chrome for Work Product Management

Chromebooks already offer businesses of all sizes a secure platform to get work done. Companies are choosing Chromebooks because they’re easy to maintain, can be centrally managed by IT and have multiple layers of security to protect sensitive data.

Today we’re announcing support for Android apps on Chromebooks — with little to no extra effort on the part of developers — making Chromebooks an even better choice for work.
That means your employees can have access to the broad ecosystem of Android apps in Google Play for Work on their Chromebooks, managed centrally with access controls. So in addition to the speed, simplicity and security of getting work done quickly in web apps, your workforce can run previously unavailable mobile apps on Chrome devices with complete file integration, notifications, offline support and touch input on supported hardware.

More productivity possibilities


Early first-runs with many Android workplace apps including Concur, TripIt and DocuSign, as well as many other productivity apps, look very encouraging. While the 2 million businesses already using Google Apps for Work can view and edit Microsoft Word documents, some may prefer to use Microsoft’s Office software. That’s possible on a Chromebook by installing the Android version of Microsoft Word, for example. And those who supplement Google Hangout meetings with Skype can do so on a Chromebook by using Skype for Android.

Also, this gives users full access to apps that were built for the mobile world. For example, while the web version of Slack already works in the Chrome browser, the Android version of Slack is designed from the ground up for mobile use with support for push notifications, do not disturb rules and quick switching between teams.

If your workforce prefers an Android app to the web version of that software or wants to use an app with offline support, they now have the choice on a Chromebook.

We’re encouraging Android developers of all kinds to see how the application experience adds value for Chromebook users and brings them new opportunities: Now building one app extends from Android phones and tablets up to Chromebooks.

You’re still in control


One of the key benefits of deploying Chrome devices in your workplace is that you can centrally manage them with ease through more than 200 administrative policies. Administrators can manage these Android apps now from that same Chrome admin console.

We’ve added new policies to allow or restrict Android application installations, and you can even allow particular Android apps for certain users and not others.

We’re making the feature available in early June on specific Chrome devices — the Asus Chromebook Flip, Acer Chromebook R11 and Chromebook Pixel (2015 edition) — for developers to try out. Later this year, we’ll add support for many more Chrome devices, detailed here. And if you’re developing in-house Android apps for your business, you can learn more about how to optimize your Android app for Chrome devices here.

Chromebase for meetings makes video-conferencing personal and simple

Posted by Vidya Nagarajan, Senior Product Manager, Chrome for Work

Since we introduced Chromebox for meetings just over two years ago, many of you have enjoyed how our devices make meetings simple and easy. Companies such as Flipkart, PwC, Pinterest and the State of Wyoming are spending less time setting up their conference calls and more time collaborating as groups across regions in rooms of all sizes with Chromebox for meetings.

Today we’re making this easy collaboration available in smaller spaces and also improving remote device management. Say hello to the Acer Chromebase for meetings, an all-in-one secure video-conferencing device optimized for use in small meeting areas with up to two people. It's a secure, self updating, easy to manage unit that builds on Chrome and WebRTC innovations for sharper video, audio and screen sharing. Guest account support makes it simple to join a meeting even without a Google account: Just click a meeting link invitation and you’re connected.

Meet from more places, with more particpants

So now, you can collaborate and meet over video from a dedicated device at home, your desk at work or a phone room. And since meeting in smaller spaces creates additional opportunity to work together across larger groups, we've also recently expanded the number of meeting participants to 25 people for Google Apps customers.

After testing Chromebase for meetings in its offices, SignalFx sees the benefits.
“Using Chromebase for meetings has been an amazing experience from the start! Right out of the box, it's easy to use and lets us collaborate quickly. The centralized management option allows for full control and oversight, and the price is amazing as well." — Heidi Olson, Executive Assistant / Office Manager, SignalFx
Chromebase for meetings gets technology out of the way; just plug it in, connect it to your network and you’re up and running securely.

Chromebase for meetings is ideally suited for capturing audio and video in personal and shared workspaces:
  • Large 24-inch adjustable touchscreen display
  • Integrated, adjustable HD camera
  • 4 microphones and 2 stereo speakers

Improved management tools for meeting devices


We're also happy to announce new features to our remote fleet management tools. Administrators can receive alert notifications and track health of their fleet of Chrome devices for meetings. They can remotely diagnose and troubleshoot audio, video quality and bandwidth problems. Administrators can also customize the interface using their own background images.

Chromebase for meetings availability


Chromebase for meetings is available at $799 from our partners in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia. The cost includes the first year’s management and support fees. We'll soon after expand availability to additional countries where Chromebox for meetings is available today.

You can learn more about Chromebase for meetings on our website.

Sign up here to try two Chromebase for meetings devices at no cost for 30 days and receive a special promotion pricing of $549 per device with first year’s management and support fee included.*

*Subject to approval and limited to the first 1,000 signups



Chromebase for meetings makes video-conferencing personal and simple

Posted by Vidya Nagarajan, Senior Product Manager, Chrome for Work

(Cross-posted on the Google for Work Blog.)

Since we introduced Chromebox for meetings just over two years ago, many of you have enjoyed how our devices make meetings simple and easy. Companies such as Flipkart, PwC, Pinterest and the State of Wyoming are spending less time setting up their conference calls and more time collaborating as groups across regions in rooms of all sizes with Chromebox for meetings.

Today we’re making this easy collaboration available in smaller spaces and also improving remote device management. Say hello to the Acer Chromebase for meetings, an all-in-one secure video-conferencing device optimized for use in small meeting areas with up to two people. It's a secure, self updating, easy to manage unit that builds on Chrome and WebRTC innovations for sharper video, audio and screen sharing. Guest account support makes it simple to join a meeting even without a Google account: Just click a meeting link invitation and you’re connected.

Meet from more places, with more particpants

So now, you can collaborate and meet over video from a dedicated device at home, your desk at work or a phone room. And since meeting in smaller spaces creates additional opportunity to work together across larger groups, we've also recently expanded the number of meeting participants to 25 people for Google Apps customers. After testing Chromebase for meetings in its offices, SignalFx sees the benefits.
“Using Chromebase for meetings has been an amazing experience from the start! Right out of the box, it's easy to use and lets us collaborate quickly. The centralized management option allows for full control and oversight, and the price is amazing as well." — Heidi Olson, Executive Assistant / Office Manager, SignalFx
Chromebase for meetings gets technology out of the way; just plug it in, connect it to your network and you’re up and running securely.
Chromebase for meetings is ideally suited for capturing audio and video in personal and shared workspaces:
  • Large 24-inch adjustable touchscreen display
  • Integrated, adjustable HD camera
  • 4 microphones and 2 stereo speakers

Improved management tools for meeting devices

We're also happy to announce new features to our remote fleet management tools. Administrators can receive alert notifications and track health of their fleet of Chrome devices for meetings. They can remotely diagnose and troubleshoot audio, video quality and bandwidth problems. Administrators can also customize the interface using their own background images.

Chromebase for meetings availability

Chromebase for meetings is available at $799 from our partners in the US, Canada, UK, Ireland and Australia. The cost includes the first year’s management and support fees. We'll soon after expand availability to additional countries where Chromebox for meetings is available today. You can learn more about Chromebase for meetings on our website. Sign up here to try two Chromebase for meetings devices at no cost for 30 days and receive a special promotion pricing of $549 per device with first year’s management and support fee included.*

 *Subject to approval and limited to the first 1,000 signups

Famous Fish by Steve Costi provides a first-ever digital experience for diners

Posted by Jon Sully, Director, Famous Fish

Editor's note: Today we hear from Jon Sully, Director of Famous Fish by Steve Costi, founded by one of Australia’s most renowned seafood families and the first business in the world to adopt end-to-end Google Commercial Chrome technology. Learn how the digital technologies helped boost brand awareness and transaction values by nearly 29% while blending seamlessly with a historic seaside aesthetic.

The Costi family joined the seafood business in 1958, and since then has built a strong reputation for offering up the highest quality seafood. One of the reasons for the family’s continued success has been a focus on innovating and responding to what customers really want. With our latest venture, Famous Fish, we aimed to balance our legacy of seafood expertise with a modern, customer-friendly environment. So we decided to cast our net into the digital world and transform our stores with interactive menu boards and express ordering technologies, a decision that has boosted transaction values by nearly 29%.



Our Famous Fish shops are high-traffic environments, so we needed technology that was robust, responsive and durable, as well as user-friendly. We turned to Nuon, a strategic partner of digital signage leader AOPEN. Nuon recommended Google Commercial Chrome due to its reliability and security. 

 The Google Commercial Chrome Technology hardware and software platform, developed by both Google and AOPEN, had recently been released. It’s designed for high performance and manageability as well as high-use and quick service retail and restaurant environments like ours. And Nuon believed the solution could be deployed rapidly and cost effectively. It was exactly the solution we were looking for.


Combining self-service touch screens with dynamic menu boards, the Commercial Chrome technology is already providing a huge return on investment. We’re seeing a noticeable increase in brand awareness and a large boost in customer spend.

At our newly opened Fountain Gate franchise, our average transaction value is 28.7% higher when customers have the autonomy and time to consider their purchase, ordering on their own in-store kiosk using the express ordering option. We’re confident that as customers become even more familiar with the self-ordering technology, the response will be even greater.
And the benefits of this new solution go beyond awareness and sales. Since we’re expanding rapidly, being able to centrally manage the Commercial Chrome Devices is key to our growth. Google’s Chrome Device Management has made central management easy and effective.

We also love that Google/AOPEN Commercial Chromebase products blend in a stylish and attractive way with our seaside design aesthetic. We wouldn’t have bet before actually seeing it that this digital technology would sit so comfortably alongside our weathered white timber panelling, beach murals and miscellaneous fishing paraphernalia. The digital technologies that have modernized our restaurant leave the personality and history of our brand completely in tact.

Famous Fish, Fountain Gate, in Melbourne is the first store to use the Google/AOPEN Commercial Chrome platform. Since that deployment has been such a success, we’ll deploy the technology in other stores very soon following the Fountain Gate blueprint.

Chrome, the browser for business, gains improved security and support

Posted by Saswat Panigrahi, Product Manager, Chrome for Work

These days, the browser has become the go-to application in business. It enables employees to use a wide array of productivity, collaboration and business workflow applications. Chances are today, the browser is among the most critical applications users start up with their morning coffee.


Chrome has become one of the most-used business browsers; research firm Gartner expects Chrome’s enterprise usage to surge from 43% to 65% share in 2016. Customers have switched to Chrome because of its speed, simplicity and security. IT admins have become big champions of Chrome because our browser automatically updates and delivers enterprise applications seamlessly and consistently across all operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux — and of course Chrome OS). This means cost and time savings as IT can manage one secure endpoint to deliver all their users’ apps.


Today, we’re announcing new investments for Chrome, specifically for businesses: security enhancements for Windows 10, improvements to the Chrome update system for enterprises and a new 24x7 support offering for all customers, including those who aren’t using Google Apps but are running Chrome as their primary browser.

Security - Security is one of the founding principles of Chrome. Now, we’ve made the sandbox more secure by incorporating the broadest set of available protections. We’ve also introduced a new Security Panel in DevTools to make it easier for developers to troubleshoot issues with certificates and mixed content — meaning pages rendered with both HTTPS and HTTP elements — making it easier to develop and deploy secure Web applications. Finally, we've also made great progress in the fight against unwanted software, for instance, by warning users of a site’s potential risks.

Caching - Companies rely on our automatic updates every six weeks to make the Chrome browser safer and faster over time. But for an organization with thousands of users and devices, trying to pull the latest Chrome update can strain the organization’s infrastructure. The new DownloadPreference lets proxies already used by businesses cache updates automatically,  so virtually all downloads come from the company proxy and not the Internet, saving time and bandwidth.

24x7 Support - We recognize that for businesses that run on Chrome, it’s important to have the peace of mind that comes with 24x7 support from Google. We’ve been providing this for Google Apps customers, and today we’re expanding this to all customers — even those who aren’t using Google Apps. This new offering is called Chrome for Work Assist, and includes 24x7 phone and email support, with deployment assistance from Google. Chrome for Work Assist is now available in the US and Canada, with more regions launching soon. Contact us to learn more or get started.

Sports Authority handles 2,000 transactions per second with Google Cloud Platform

Posted by Jon Byrum, Product Marketing Manager, Google Cloud Platform

(Cross-posted on the Google Cloud Platform Blog.)

Athletic gear, much like all apparel categories, is quickly shifting to an online sales business. Sports Authority, seeing the benefits that cloud could offer around agility and speed, turned to Google Cloud Platform to help it respond to its customers faster.

In 2014, Sports Authority’s technical team was asked to build a solution that would expose all in-store product inventory to its ecommerce site, sportsauthority.com, allowing customers to see local store availability of products as they were shopping online. That’s nearly half a million products to choose from in over 460 stores across the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

This use case posed a major challenge for the company. Its in-store inventory data was “locked” deep inside a mainframe. Exposing millions of products to thousands of customers, 24 hours a day, seven days a week would not be possible using this system.

The requirements for a new solution included finding the customer’s location, searching the 90 million record inventory system and returning product availability in just the handful of stores nearest in location to that particular customer. On top of that, the API would need to serve at least 50 customers per second, while returning results in less than 200 milliseconds.

Choosing the right cloud provider

At the time this project began, Sports Authority had already been a Google Apps for Work (Gmail, Google Sites, Docs) customer since 2011. However, it had never built any custom applications on Google Cloud Platform.

After a period of due diligence checking out competing cloud provider options, Sports Authority decided that Google App Engine and Google Cloud Datastore had the right combination of attributes — elastic scaling, resiliency and simplicity of deployment — to support this new solution.

Through the combined efforts of a dedicated project team, business partners and three or four talented developers, it was able to build a comprehensive solution on Cloud Platform in about five months. It consisted of multiple modules: 1) batch processes, using Informatica to push millions of product changes from its IBM mainframe to Google Cloud Storage each night, 2) load processes — python code running on App Engine, which spawn task queue jobs to load Cloud Datastore, and 3) a series of SOAP and REST APIs to expose the search functionality to its ecommerce website.

Sports Authority used tools including SOAPUI and LOADUI to simulate thousands of virtual users to measure the scalability of SOAP and REST APIs. It found that as the number of transactions grew past 2,000 per second, App Engine and Cloud Datastore continued to scale seamlessly, easily meeting its target response times.

The company implemented the inventory locator solution just in time for the 2014 holiday season. It performed admirably during that peak selling period and continues to do so today.
This screenshot shows what customers see when they shop for products on the website — a list of local stores, showing the availability of any given product in each store



When a customer finds a product she's interested in buying, the website requests inventory availability from Sports Authority’s cloud API, which provides a list of stores and product availability to the customer, as exhibited in the running shoe example above.

In-store kiosk

As Sports Authority became comfortable building solutions on Cloud Platform, it opened its eyes to other possibilities for creating new solutions to better serve its customers.

For example, it recently developed an in-store kiosk, which allows customers to search for products that may not be available in that particular store. It also lets them enroll in the loyalty program and purchase gift cards. This kiosk is implemented on a Google Chromebox, connected to a web application running on App Engine.
This image shows the in-store kiosk that customers use to locate products available in other stores. 




Internal store portal

Additionally, it built a store portal and task management system, which facilitates communication between the corporate office and its stores. This helps the store team members plan and execute their work more efficiently, allowing them to serve customers better when needs arise. This solution utilizes App Engine, Cloud Datastore and Google Custom Search, and was built with the help of a local Google partner, Tempus Nova.
This screenshot shows the internal store portal that employees use to monitor daily tasks.




Learning how to build software in any new environment such as Cloud Platform takes time, dedication and a willingness to learn. Once up to speed, the productivity and power of Google Cloud Platform allowed the Sports Authority team to work like a software company and build quickly while wielding great power.

Google Apps for Work helps deliver projected savings of £500,000 for The Cordant Group

Posted by Craig Bell, IT Service Delivery Director at The Cordant Group

Editor's note: Today we hear from Craig Bell, IT Service Delivery Director at The Cordant Group, a specialist recruitment and integrated services company employing up to 50,000 staff during peak times, and turning over £750 million a year. Here, Craig tells us how Google Apps for Work has not only helped them work smarter and more flexibly thanks to a business-wide rollout, but has also helped deliver a projected savings of £500,000 to the company’s bottom line in just a year.

It may have grown since it was founded in 1957, but ours is still a family business, and one that values the input of every individual, whether they’re one of our 2,500 permanent employees, or one of our tens of thousands of seasonal workers. But with so many staff, we realised we needed an IT solution that would answer the needs of each person, rather than asking each of them to answer to our inflexible IT system. Our solution is Google Apps for Work, which has transformed the way we operate our business at every level.

With 200 locations nationwide, as well as offices in Germany and Australia, we launched our rollout of Google Apps for Work so our staff can work as a team, wherever they are. Gmail gives access to our accounts whether in the office, at home or on the road — and the fact that it’s multi-device compatible means no more lugging laptops around just to check our inboxes. The flexibility and immediacy it provides ensures that important messages don’t fall through the cracks, and now we’re so speedy and effective with email communications that we send and receive up to 16 million emails each month.

Hangouts also allows us to communicate (face-to-face in this case) at any time, no matter where any of us are based. With over a thousand Hangouts happening across the Group every month, Hangouts have become so crucial to the way we run our business and communicate with each other that we now often use it to conduct interviews for IT recruits. It’s a great way to asses how intuitively candidates use technology tools, in particular Google Apps. Using Hangouts for interviews also benefits our bottom line: we now spend an average of 25% less time on interviews for IT team members, simply because we don’t have to spend time on things like collecting interviewees from reception and making them cups of tea.

As a recruitment company, we have a frequent turnover of staff. Having forward-looking and familiar tools helps us appeal to the very best new recruits. Web-based mail, instant messaging and online communities like Google+, are cloud-based tools that younger generations have grown up with — and are now ready to work with. This familiarity allows new starters to work efficiently from the moment they log on and saves us time and money on training. Plus Google Apps tools are also incredibly easy to scale up or down.

Knowledge is also easy for us to scale now. We share documents hosted on Google Drive almost half a million times every month and add 125,000 new files each month. And everything we do is reusable rather than disposable. Our own internal teams can manage and roll out successful solutions to every one of our 200 locations without needing armies of external IT service providers to support us, a change that along with keeping specialist knowledge in-house and doing things more efficiently has played a significant part in reducing our operational expenditure by hundreds of thousands of pounds each year.

With the virtual nature of Google for Work products, we can also keep costs and downtime at a minimum when relocating to new offices as we grow. Google’s ability to integrate data and systems to the cloud so seamlessly means shifting office spaces and acquiring new companies is now more economically viable. When considering the total cost of acquisition for a subsidiary business, we look at how easily a business can be “Googlised.” Using Chrome OS allows us to almost instantly integrate existing businesses with often outdated legacy apps into our Group. This has opened up a host of opportunities that we otherwise would not have taken because of prohibitive IT costs.

In just one year, Google Apps for Work has completely changed the way we operate, which says a lot coming from a large and established business. As part of our company-wide “New World” IT rollout, we estimate that the new tools will enable us to save about £500,000, thanks to a combination of lower licensing costs, reducing capital expenditure by purchasing 2,000 compatible devices at more than half the previous cost of replacement, minimising use of external suppliers and relying more heavily on in-house skills and efficiencies. And there’s no doubt that we’ve also saved and earned a whole lot more thanks to working smarter with IT-led solutions.

Reaching customers with kiosks and digital signage just got simpler

Posted by Vidya Nagarajan, Senior Product Manager, Chrome & Android, Google for Work & Education 

Editor's note: To learn more about managing intelligent Chrome devices, join our Chrome product team for a Hangout on Air on Thursday, November 19th at 10AM PST.

More and more businesses across the globe are using DIY-service models and integrated mobile, digital signage and kiosk technology to personalize their customer experience.

While the customer experience is enhanced, the administration experience needs to stay simple. That’s why we developed the web-based Chrome Device Management Console, which allows business owners to remotely manage their fleet of devices across all their storefronts. "We tried many different solutions, using Google for signage was the easiest to push, control and manage throughout the enterprise,” said Alan Mariotti, Vice President of Technology and Security at Chico’s. In fact, IDC found that Chrome customers they spoke to averaged a three-year ROI of 319% for Chrome devices when used in kiosk mode, with an investment break-even time of approximately 4.8 months.

Today we’re introducing a more streamlined console just for digital signs and kiosks called Single App Chrome Device Management (Single App CDM), priced at $24 per device per year. Single App CDM offers ongoing reporting that monitors the health of your kiosks and signage at all times. You’ll get alerts if a device goes down and can remotely reboot the device without dispatching a technician. You can also get live updates about system usage and capture screen grabs to see exactly what viewers see.

Single App CDM can be used with a variety of Chrome devices – like the ASUS Chromebit, which is available for purchase today – to share relevant content quickly and simply, with the flexibility and security to seamlessly integrate into a broad spectrum of signage configurations. For example, the menu boards at a coffee shop or cafe could be powered by Chrome devices like the Chromebox, Chromebase and Chromebit, running a Chrome Kiosk app that displays relevant, dynamic content. Combined with our rich partner ecosystem of Chrome Kiosk apps from StratosMedia, Telemetry, Arreya, SignageLive, Wondersign, Nutrislice, Chrome Sign builder and many others, we have a solution to support any scenario.

To learn more about how other organizations are using Chrome OS to deliver signage, check out this new IDC white paper.