Do you look for the label on the things you buy to see where they are made? Products made in China, Mexico, Canada, Taiwan, Malaysia, pretty much anywhere but in the US, is becoming not only typical, but expected.

Why is it important to support products that are made in the USA? Because it may mean your job someday; your family’s means of survival. If manufacturing a light bulb can be outsourced, so can your job. We’re finding that software-code is being outsourced to India and other countries (other than USA) more and more these days. Who is here in the US to support that software? Oh yea, just a toll free number that connects you to someone that is far outside of your time zone.

Customer support is a great example of outsourcing. We were on-site performing a job that included digital signage software that wasn’t created in the US, and there was a networking issue, (what else is new) so a call to customer support was needed. Who answered the support call? A tech support company hired from a foreign country, barely speaking English, reading questions off of an index card resulting in “we will call you back.” It has been months since that call and still nothing. Don’t worry, we figured out the problem ourselves.

The aged argument that gets really political, really fast, is, well you know the one, “our jobs are going outside the US” and it still holds true but isn’t the only thing wrong with outsourcing. We, the consumer, still need a certain level of customer service, don’t we? Customer service goes away as soon as products are outsourced. Yes, the company may be headquartered in the US but any support that requires discussion with the factory results in days, if not weeks of waiting and sometimes there is still no resolution to your problems, questions or suggestions.

Here at Noventri, we have been in this situation with vendors and have seen frustration in our customers who have come in from the cold customer support climate to a world where you can talk directly to the factory when you need help. It’s not uncommon to get a visit from us, the factory and have a voice that answers the phone, NOT an answering service.

When shopping for digital signage that’s made in USA, your job just got a great deal easier.

Here is an interesting experiment. Open Google and search for “digital signage made in usa.” Only one digital signage company shows up with an actual digital signage product that is “Made In USA”. Not enclosures, not US based companies, but a Digital Signage solution complete with hardware, software, support, and content with all products being designed, made, and services performed in the US. That company is Noventri. And the product is the Eco-Series, SF-100e digital signage player.

Manufacturing the SF-100e in the US is not easy, but it results in full control of our customer support model. Our Customer Service Staff are employees of Noventri. They are based at our Headquarters; the same location the product was designed. The Customer Support Team includes veterans from the US Marine Corp., Navy, Army and the US Air force.

Every aspect of the SF-100e was designed here in the US. We designed the circuit board, all low-level and high-level software code, promotional materials including web design, even the enclosure was designed right here at our offices in the Washington D.C. area.

Would you like to make a suggestion for a new version of Windows? Call Mr. Gates. I thought I had his number here somewhere…get my point? If you would like to see a new feature added to the Noventri Designer™, call me up. My cell phone number is 301-992-8976.

We went to great effort making sure that as much of the Eco-Series player was made in the USA as possible. If you look at our web site, in the Hardware section, (http://www.noventri.com/eco/digital-signage-player.php) at the bottom of the page, it says, “The Noventri SF-100e Player is designed and manufactured in the U.S. from U.S. and imported components.” What does this mean? We looked and looked for chip manufactures that make the silicon parts in the US and they just don’t exist. The best that we could do is to select USA based companies, especially companies that support green initiatives. While some chips on the circuit board are made overseas, we made sure that we chose American chip manufactures to drive the SF-100e player such as Texas Instruments, Altera, and National Semiconductor just to name a few. We also made certain that their products are sourced here in the US as well.

There are many aspects to just the circuit board itself. We covered one of them, the components. When looking for the material for the actual circuit board, we wanted to make sure that those materials had a domestic origin. Next the board needs to be assembled. This means the board house that assembles and solders the components on the board and tests it, is not just located in the US, but doesn’t subcontract the work oversees. The circuit board is assembled right here, just outside of Washington D.C. Since the board house is local to us, we can have a hands-on approach to quality control and have the maximum communication possible, resulting in a high quality product.

It is important to us that even the manufacturing of the metal enclosure is in the US. Even the aluminum for the case was mined and processed within the US borders. We even made sure that the famous “Eco-Series Green” paint was made in the US. It is obvious that we are proud of the Eco-Series product line and everyone that has used our Eco-Series solution has experienced the benefits.

Going Green in the US is something that should also be considered.

The global focus includes industries, corporations, and the private sectors to be green conscious when possible and there has been a lot of controversy about whether or not digital signage is “really” green!

If there were an option to go green with digital signage, would it not be prudent to follow that path?

The SF-100e is green in many ways. Not only does it have a fancy green paint job, it operates with much less power than conventional digital signage solutions that utilize a PC. The SF-100e uses less than 4 watts of electricity while a PC based alternative uses over 200 watts of electricity.

We want to do more when it comes to being green. The SF-100e is RoHS compliant. This means that we put pain-staking effort into making sure that there is no harmful materials contained inside the product, so in the future, if the unit gets thrown away, there will be minimal impact to the planet.

We even plant a tree in a US reserve with the Arbor Day Foundation for each player purchased. Doing this helps improve our nations environment and climate.

The benefits are refreshing, making the Eco-Series, SF-100e a unique and complete, made in the USA digital signage solution.