Ooh-tv met with Tamir Ginat, the new CEO of C-nario, and Saadia Essoudry, C-nario’s EMEA Sales Director. They tell us more about the company’s new strategy.

Tamir, you have just joined C-nario. Could you tell us more about your background?

I come from Nice Systems, one of the biggest software companies in Israel, where I was EMEA President, running a region of 300 people and generating between a quarter and a third of the company revenues (Ed.: which totaled $695M in 2010).

In the beginning, Nice Systems’ mission was to turn traditional recording into a digital system. When I joined the company, 15 years ago, the market was very fragmented with hundred of players. Today, the market is dominated by three or four companies. So the Digital Signage market looks to me like déjà vu. I have a good idea of where the market is going and how to develop the best strategy for C-nario.

At what pace do you expect the Digital Signage market to consolidate?

I think leaders will emerge very soon. In the next couple of years we will witness a lot of mergers and companies disappearing. The big companies entering the market – HP, Cisco, Intel, Microsoft – are looking for some cooperation of any kind, and mergers. I have no doubt that, this year, we will see some significant M&A operations happening.

What will C-nario’s position be – consolidator or consolidatee?

I don’t think you can plan on being acquired. But we need to be on the front seat, to lead the initiative and not follow our competitors’ moves.

First on our agenda is to focus on our company and change its direction.

What will this direction be?

We will position the company to cooperate with those big companies that are entering the market. And I’m not just talking about the big guys I mentioned earlier, but also the big names on the client side – HSBC, Citibank, Best Buy, The Gap – global companies that are looking for a global partner to work with and implement digital signage strategy on a worldwide level.

Also, most of the business we are doing – as an industry – is a result of the ‘Wow!’ factor, because our clients want to impress their visitors or simply because a company doesn’t want to be left behind a competitor. I believe that we are going to see a change in 2011/2012. Our customers will now buy our solutions only if we demonstrate a direct value gain to their business.

Our work at C-nario will therefore focus on bringing more intelligence to our systems, by linking them directly with mobile devices and the Internet, and all kinds of sensors (motion, etc.) to create a hyper-relevant experience for end-users.

Let’s talk about geographical considerations. On what countries will you focus?

Let me first tell you that, globally, 2010 was a great year for C-nario – and, from what I’ve heard, for the industry as a whole. We saw a great recovery. Q4 of 2010 was C-nario’s best quarter and we think it is an indication for what is about to come: a terrific 2011.

We will carry on supporting all of our partners and channels. We are not going to ignore any country. However, we will invest our resources giving priority to the US market and some specific European countries, such as France, the UK, Benelux, Germany, Italy, and the Iberian Peninsula.

Saadia, can you be specific about C-nario’s performance in Europe?

In all the countries Tamir mentioned, C-nario has successful deployments with excellent partners. We are therefore in good position to focus on big clients wins, with potential global roll-outs.

We recently signed two large contracts with bus operators, which will lead to the installation of several thousand screens. We also won great contracts with luxury retail brands, which will lead to deployments worldwide.

If I had to single out certain markets, I would say that Spain, despite the crisis, and France are among the most active countries in Europe. In the UK, 2010 was a tough year but we experienced a rapid turnaround. Our first quarter in 2011, in Europe, will be very strong.