Scala has announced its launch in India with the signing of a joint venture with its long time certified partner, Digifour Technologies.
Scala has a majority stake in the new venture. The new entity, Scala-Digifour, will have a sales and development office in Bengaluru. The presence of Scala-Digifour in the Indian digital signage market will support and address the market demands of the industry.
The Indian digital signage industry, ‘guesstimated’ to be worth Rs 50-150 crore, consists of players such as OOH Media, DSN, LiveMedia, Tag Media Network, Future TV, Laqshya Digital and Vu Technologies. The industry now has a new entrant in Scala, a leading global provider of end to end solutions for the signage market.
Gerard Bucas, chief executive officer, Scala, says, “India is an emerging marketplace for digital signage and Scala wants to maintain a leadership position in delivering digital signage solutions to the Indian market. Digifour has been one of our priority partners and has been successful in establishing a strong footprint in India. This joint venture helps Scala to extend its reach into the market from day one.”
Digifour works with clients across verticals including banking, airports, retail, education, information technology and hospitality. Mohamed Rafeeq, director, strategic planning, Digifour Technologies, says, “The joint venture with Scala will strengthen this even further and help Scala-Digifour leverage the global expertise of Scala combined with our local know how. I believe this is bound to add value to the industry at large.”
The joint venture was announced by Oscar Elizaga, vice-president, operations, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Scala; Jeff Porter, executive vice-president, experts group, Scala; and Mohamed Rafeeq, director, strategic planning, Digifour Technologies at a press conference at the Digital Signage Asia 2008 in Mumbai.
Discussing the digital signage market in India and comparing it to the international market, Elizaga tells afaqs!, “The digital signage market in India has grown very rapidly but very haphazardly.”
The new company will offer a complete end to end digital signage solution to clients including software, hardware, connectivity, content management, integration and media management.
Scala will enhance its software development resources by integrating a team of highly qualified software engineers with its development teams in the United States, Canada and Norway. The new development centre in India will augment Scala’s engineering teams and contribute to current and future connected signage solutions from Scala.
Scala today drives more than 2,00,000 screens worldwide. The company’s digital signage customers include IKEA, Burger King, T-Mobile, McDonalds, Warner Brothers and Shell. Scala is headquartered near Philadelphia, USA, and has subsidiaries in Canada, Netherlands, France, Norway and Japan. It also has more than 450 partners in about 60 countries.
Digifour Technologies is an Indian IT development and consultancy company offering expertise in four business verticals — digital dynamic signage, web application development, animation and digital multimedia and business process outsourcing. The company also has offices in the UAE, the UK and the USA.