Toyota Europe has rolled out a showroom system in 3,000 locations so far, based on a hardware architecture of Asus Chromeboxes connected to 42″ displays with central control from Toyota’s headquarters, using a Google Cloud partner, Fourcast. These are being used by 100,000 customers per month, and Toyota plans to grow the network to between 7,000 and 10,000 displays in 3,600 retailers.
Experiments started in 2014, with a decision to use Chrome in 2015.
“We first experimented with digital signage in our showrooms in 2014 to display information about our cars in ways that reflected what customers saw online,” said Steven Simons, IT Manager for Customer Retail and Product Systems. “However, the system we were using was expensive, unstable and difficult to maintain and manage.”
“So, we turned to Chrome in late 2015 and replaced our existing digital signage with Asus Chromeboxes connected to 42-inch flatscreen TVs. We manage and program all of the devices centrally from Toyota headquarters. Retailers just install the Chromeboxes and TVs, and they’re up and running. That way, retailers can focus on their customers rather than on technology.
The Chrome-based digital signage is more reliable and easier to deploy than the previous solution, reducing time spent on maintenance, management and troubleshooting. It also saves us on hardware and deployment costs”.
