It seems like yesterday we were sitting in the Sales Graphics conference room, looking at the coming soon page for TabTimes. We were excited for a source that would ignite conversation around the adoption of tablets in the enterprise, but had no idea TabTimes would capture so much attention so quickly.
In just a few short months the site has become a de facto source on everything at the intersection of tablets and the enterprise, and today thought leaders in the industry gather for the first-ever TabTimes conference.
Whether you’re joining us in New York City or listening in on the conversation online, please enjoy the live conference-related Twitter stream embedded below:
As the enterprise rushes to integrate the iPad into their business processes, trends like BYOD (bring your own device) may have changed the enterprise technology game forever. As we wrote a few weeks ago, user is king in the new business technology landscape, but with decision-making authority comes the hefty weight of responsibility.
So how does someone outside the IT department know when they’ve found the right iPad app for enterprise-wide deployment? At Sales Graphics we live by these six rules of iPad app development and we believe they can help every company choose an app that’s right for them.
1. The app should be easy to use. Long gone are the days of convoluted screens and impossible key commands. The iPad delivers a whole new realm of usability perks, so if your team can’t pick it up and start putting a business app to use immediately, the app isn’t worth picking up at all.
2.The right app is exciting. One of the greatest secrets in sales is also true in enterprise apps. Show someone something awe inspiring and they are much more likely to take action. It’s as simple as that, and in the world of presentations we believe awe inspiring looks like this.
3. Content means everything. Some apps will fool consumers into thinking that they’re useful, but sometimes bells and whistles don’t equate to productivity or added value. That’s why we survey our customers on usability to make sure we’re building an app that not only makes their jobs easier, but shows off the elements that make their business great.
4. Don’t compromise on security. In most companies, the IT department still has the final say on which apps get deployed and which get dropped. One of the hottest conversations in the enterprise adoption of iPads right now is security, so make sure your app of choice is as safe as possible. We achieve this for our presentation clients with encoded URLs and additional privacy settings that keep your presentations in the inner circle of your intended audience.
5. The app should have some kind of central control. Employees may bring their own devices to work, but businesses still need coherence across the enterprise. This is true from a technical perspective, as well as when it comes to messaging. Sales Graphics CustomShow embraces this with a central slide library. The library acts like a command center for clients so they can update presentation materials, provide slide templates, and maintain consistency of brand while giving employees freedom where they need it.
6. Reliability can make all the difference. When push comes to shove, an app is only as good as its reliability. You and your team have to know that no matter where you are, your app will deliver exactly as intended. That’s why we give marketing and sales teams the option to call up their slide deck anytime, both on and offline.
What has been your experience with iPad apps in the enterprise? Are there any secrets we missed? Let us know in the comments.
Sales Graphics announces the second generation of their CustomShow(TM) iPad app. Built specifically for business, this is the first presentation app to feature hyperlinks from within slide decks, which is a popular feature in the desktop versions of PowerPoint and Keynote. The app ties into the CustomShow platform which includes a slide library, analytics, and portability between PCs, Macs, iPads, and the Web.
Existing customers include Western Union, NBC Universal, HBO, DIRECTV, and Genworth Financial.
The second generation CustomShow app helps sales teams deliver corporate presentations with mobility and ease of mind. When users open the presentation app they are directed to a central library of the organization’s slides. This library is automatically updated, ensuring consistency across the company. Each deck is available to download with a single tap, giving sales teams confidence that they will be able to present with or without a network connection.
The app automatically handles video conversion to play smooth, high-quality content on the iPad seamlessly. The new hyperlink feature allows users to tailor business presentations to their audience and jump instantly from one slide to another.
Finally, sales teams can email presentations for direct browser viewing. Security features include email authentication and an analytics dashboard that allows organizations to track exactly how much time users spend with each slide.
CustomShow gives marketing teams real-time control over presentation content across the organization. The software is also a win for sales reps who save time with features that allow them to create professional-looking presentations on the fly.
You may have seen Syfy’s Igniter campaign plastered across billboards or shared across the web, but before the purple and white 3D letters started conveying the television network’s ability to reach influential early adopters to consumers, Syfy took the show to corporate decision makers.
In three weeks Syfy showcased their network’s powerful demographic at CES in Last Vegas, as well as in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit. Their data-driven presentation showed that the network reaches an influential demographic, but more than that, the experience felt cinematic. The message they delivered is as follows:
Syfy sparks the imagination, inspiring curiosity and creativity among an influential audience who believes the world is full of possibility. By opening doors to new ideas, and opening eyes to thrilling new perspectives, we make the unbelievable…believable.
Since PowerPoint doesn’t deliver a thrill that matches the sentiment of opening doors and new perspectives, Syfy stood onstage with CustomShow, the most cutting edge technology in the presentation industry.
CustomShow didn’t just give presenters remote access to support teams in San Francisco and New York, it also guaranteed smooth video, powerful animations, and ultimately, a dazzling experience that matches the ethos of the Igniter campaign from start to finish.
Want more information about how Sales Graphics and CustomShow can take your business presentations to the next level? Check out the features of our presentation software.
For years enterprise technology could get away with speaking in ram and gigs, but the days of clunky user experience are finally coming to an end. Why? Because users are now calling the shots.
The Old Enterprise Software Club
When IT departments dictated how businesses would use technology, end users had no say in anything that can be connected to an electrical outlet. Chris Dixon recaps this phenomenon:
The ‘user’ isn’t the same person as the ‘buyer’… In enterprise software the user is generally a non-IT person but the buyer is usually, at least in part, the IT department.
This discrepancy created reckless, almost unusable software and a wall of struggle. Today we’re at the precipice of a shift, and the fact that more people in your office have an Apple device than an “enterprise-friendly” Blackberry shows usability means more now than ever.
A New Reality for Enterprise Software
As new and emerging technologies tighten their grip on consumer attention, CIO’s are finding they aren’t the only ones in the game anymore. Companies like Google and Apple are telling consumers they can do their jobs differently, and employees are listening. As CIO puts it:
Seventy-five percent of managers of all ages admit to using an open-source tool or spreadsheet—or simply refusing to use the system—if the interface is hard to use.
This flips the old enterprise technology equation on its head, and suddenly CIO’s are listening to business users. This is precisely how we’ve sold our enterprise presentation software, CustomShow. We work with IT departments regularly, but recognize most of our sales start when our iPad presentations catch the eye of someone in sales or marketing.
In the final installment of CustomShow support tips, we bring you a general rundown of the editing features available in the Sales Graphics presentation software. If there’s something you can’t find in this guide you can always contact us via our support page. Without further ado, here are a few tips to designed to offer users a lay of the land in CustomShow’s presentation editing.
Edit Page
When editing a page in CustomShow, selecting the “Edit” menu item will display a list of attributes and modifications users can apply to objects on a page. Two of these items in particular can be very useful for most users: Advance Page When Done, and Loop QuickTime. “Advance Page When Done” can be used to automatically go to the next page after a movie finishes playing, while “Loop QuickTime” will continuously loop a QuickTime movie until the user navigates forward or backwards in a presentation.
Change Thumbnail
To make changes to a thumbnail for a Movie Slide, enter Page Edit Mode for the desired slide. Then advance to Select View >> QuickTime Controller and move the slider to the frame of the movie that you wish to display as a Thumbnail in Overview Mode. After you’ve selected the frame, navigate back to Overview Mode to view your changes.
Format Styles
Format >> Apply Current Style… offers options to apply a specified style set to a page or an entire presentation.
Edit Slide Backgrounds
Adding unique backgrounds to slides in CustomShow is simple. Just click on the “Background” drop-down menu in Page Edit mode, and then selecting the last option on the list: Import New… This will display dialog for the user to select any appropriate image file (which will be stretched if it is not large enough to fit the slide).
Edit Double-click Action
Right clicking on a slide in Overview Mode will display a context menu for the user. The last option in this list, “Double-click Action” determines how CustomShow will respond to the user double-clicking on any slide in CustomShow. This option can be modified at any time, allowing quick access to Page Edit or Show Mode.
Now we’ll deliver a few additional tips that explain presentation notes, slide favorites, and more. Let’s jump right to it.
Favorite Slides or Presentations
It’s fairly common for sales team members to have a few favorite go-to slides or presentations. Users can add these favorites to the library with two clicks.
Open any presentation in the Library and right-click on the slide you want to favorite.
Choose “Add to Favorites” to add the selected content to the “My Favorites” in the Library drop-down menu.
Presentation Updates
While most organizations struggle with presentation versioning, CustomShow keeps everything straight with up to the minute updates. Notifications make users aware of new versions of presentations, but the presentation never updates without approval.
To remove updates from the Updates window, click on the Trash Can icon next to any of the specified updates. To avoid mistakes, CustomShow confirms the desired action.
Notes
Users can add Notes to any slide in CustomShow. To add Notes to a presentation:
Select the slide where notes will be added and click on the “Notes” icon in the Main Menu.
Go to View >> Notes. These Notes can be used in printed and PDF versions of all CustomShow presentations.
Edit Preferences
CustomShow offers a number of options to stylize and create sets of Font Families, Bullet Types, Backgrounds, and Header Fonts. To modify, create or delete Preferences:
Go to Edit >> Preferences and select the style options you wish to save.
Click the + Symbol next to the “Current Style” and give the style a name to save preferences.
The Help Button
Still looking for something? The CustomShow “Help” button is an excellent resource for more information. In the help menu you can access the following:
A ReadMe file for the CustomShow presentation software.
CustomShow Help details.
Usage information for the CustomShow iPad Application.
Tips for utilizing CustomShow Meetings.
Users with access to Administration Modes can also find information on how additional Admin functions work.
At Sales Graphics we specialize in the business of improving presentation delivery and ROI for the enterprise. When presenters switch from PowerPoint to our CustomShow platform they report saving an average of 30 minutes per presentation. According to the VP of Marketing-Media at Johnson Publishing Company, using CustomShow translates to “more presentations and more effective sales calls.”
Clients report very little learning curve when it comes to our software, but every technology requires a bit of “how to” so we present you with a series of posts called CustomShow Usability Tips. Developed with inspiration from our very own Chris Brodeck from Quality Assurance & Technical Support at Sales Graphics, these tips help sales and marketing teams navigate CustomShow’s easy-to-use software.
In our first few installations of CustomShow Usability Tips we will provide helpful hints for navigating the Home / Overview Screen. Then stay tuned, as we reveal pointers on the Page >> Edit interface for CustomShow.
Presentation Management
Menus in CustomShow are designed to make organizing presentations easy. With File >> Manage Presentations users can:
Organize presentations in a file structure that makes sense. It’s also possible to use this feature to create new folders and sub-folders.
Rename presentations.
Modify presentations on a local machine (works on both Macs and PCs).
Create Presentation PDF
While PC Users do not have native PDF Printing abilities, most Windows installations have Adobe’s PDF Conversion firmware available. To create a PDF version of a CustomShow presentation on a PC:
Go to File >> Print >> Page Setup and click on the “Printer” button.
A window will pop up with a list of available printers. Select the “Adobe PDF” option.
Follow the prompts to print as you normally would to turn your presentation slides into a PDF file.
Save As Archive
File >> Save As Archive packs entire presentations into large, robust files that can be viewed in other installations of CustomShow even if the slide library differs from the original. This is powerful in situations where clients wish to view or share presentations with other publications.
Specify Presentation Save Location
CustomShow presentations are saved by default into (…/My Documents/CustomShow/), but users can always modify where presentations are saved. To do this:
Go to Edit >> Preferences and select the “Pathnames” tab.
Use the second “Browse” button visible in this window to find and select the desired file path where the presentation will be stored.
When EBONY was born in the 1950s women were romping around in poodle skirts, but today heritage only gets a media brand so far. That’s why new management introduced a revolutionary set of tools to position the JPC brand (EBONY & JET) with the likes of Hearst, Condé Nast, and other major players on the media stage.
Rather than rely on old presentation tools with steep learning curves, EBONY & JET called on our design team to breathe new energy and life into the brand. Then they took the visual refresh a step further and moved the sales team over to our presentation software, CustomShow.
The new design and presentation tools were a perfect match for the brand’s fresh energy, evolving image and new leadership. Video and animations brought EBONY & JET’s allure to life while the presentation tool ramped up productivity and gave the sales team control over the brand’s new and evolving message.
EBONY & JET’s crisp new design and bleeding-edge corporate presentation tools are now the engine for a newly defined, progressive media company. The company’s new presentations didn’t just increase performance and productivity, it started a movement and propelled the media conglomerate into a new generation.
As the VP of Marketing-Media at JPC says:
“When it came time to refresh our brand and reintroduce ourselves to the ad world, we turned to the responsive team at Sales Graphics. They make it easy for us to succeed by helping us appear cutting-edge and vibrant. Our sales team is excited about the new slides, and that has already started to translate into more presentations and more effective sales calls.”
Almost every company can celebrate an instance of innovation, but when it comes down to it few businesses sit at the bleeding edge of their industry for decades at a time. Sales Graphics has pushed to be one of those few.
Fifty years ago we brought Mad Men to the top of their game with fuse-lit pyrotechnic bar charts so big they required their own carrying case. This was the front lines of innovation at the time, but as a family-owned business that expects to live on for generations, the world didn’t stop at fireworks.
We were one of the first presentation agencies to blaze trails on laptops and today we’re an industry leader of iPad presentations. As new technologies emerge we’ll be at the front-lines there as well, insofar as these technologies make sense for the businesses that use them.
So what kind of technologies could affect the future of presentations? Here are five innovations that could change the future of our industry:
Microsoft aims to bring motion gestures into every aspect of our lives, but in a world so motivated by tactile feedback, it’s hard to envision that we’ll see Kinect-type technology replacing much of what we do. There are some industries that could see dramatic change with motion gestures and presentations is one of them. Goodbye dead batteries and half-functioning clickers. Hello switching slides with the swipe of your hand.
Presentation Technology #2: The Anywhere (and Anything) Screen – Microsoft LightSpace Technology
We don’t mean to give Microsoft preferential treatment on this list, but it doesn’t take long to see the power of the technologies demonstrated in the Microsoft LightSpace demo above. This R & D project aims to bring the kind of multi-touch interactions we’re used to experiencing with LCD devices onto every surface. Need to present but don’t have a screen? Use the table, hand someone a video. Anything’s possible here.
Presentation Technology #3: New Concepts of Presentation Management
Marketers in the industry would have us believe that the future of presentation management lives in the cloud, but until the Internet is ubiquitous and fail-proof, this browser-based presentation approach is far from perfect. Expect to lose those long cable transfers and super-sized emails, but don’t rest in the cloud because the real future is much more versatile than that.
Presentation Technology #4: Li-Fi and Other Forms of Data Transfer & Interaction
Researchers have been increasingly keen on a new form of data transfer called Li-fi. Li-fi uses a flickering light to transfer bits of data with a few attractive benefits. Harald Haas from the University of Edinburgh, UK says of the technology:
“There are around 14 billion light bulbs worldwide, they just need to be replaced with LED ones that transmit data. We reckon VLC is a factor of ten cheaper than Wi-Fi.” Because it uses light rather than radio-frequency signals, VLC could be used safely in aircraft, integrated into medical devices and hospitals where Wi-Fi is banned, or even underwater, where Wi-Fi doesn’t work at all.
Perhaps this is the answer to our cloud-based presentation problem, but this kind of ubiquitous data transfer technology coupled with the mobile explosion could also give rise to more than a few forms of interaction. Live-polling, more engagement and audience feedback. This could give rise to an entirely new dimension in the world of presentations.
Presentation Technology #5: Feedback and Metrics
As more of what we do becomes wired to data streams, presenters will have access to unimaginable sets of data. Our clients who use CustomShow can already see data points like how long recipients are spending with each slide, but this is just the beginning. As presentation-related data becomes ubiquitous, the ones who can make meaning of it will change the industry.
Conclusion
Back in the days of pyrotechnic bar charts none of this was possible, but as cars learn to drive themselves the industry is fast-evolving. Here at Sales Graphics technology may be our platform, but stories and design are our language. That, we’re sure, will always be the same.
At Sales Graphics we specialize in the business of improving presentation delivery and ROI for the enterprise. When presenters switch from PowerPoint to our CustomShow platform they report saving an average of 
