To the loyal shareholders and stakeholders of iSIGN Media Solutions Inc. (iSIGN).
As of June 9th, a new management team has stepped in to undertake the task of bringing iSIGN into a sustainable and profitable state. The new team consists of Remko Noteboom (Chief Executive Officer and head of the technology staff), Tony Peticca (Marketing), and the appointment of two advisors; Robin Strachan and Mario Salerno, whose association with iSIGN comes through the agreement to license SIMBL Business Enablement Inc ’s PHACT technology and associated platforms.
Since this team has taken the reins, you may have noticed that the usual stream of announcements has ceased. Many of you are wondering what this might signify and found the silence to be uncomfortable. We fully understand your concerns, and this is the main reason for this letter.
It has slowly become apparent when looking deeply at the opportunities that were available, that a radical change in direction is necessary and is ultimately the only viable alternative.
In the past, iSIGN’s core technology, push notifications to mobile devices, allowed the company to obtain proof of concept installations and various sales opportunities along with some revenue when the market was favourable to the push advertising concept. Unfortunately, this fundamental core of iSIGN’s legacy offerings has been effectively eliminated from the marketplace by the two largest publishers of mobile device software (Google and Apple) along with just about every non-authoritarian government, due to the privacy concerns over this technology.
This loss of market in itself is not entirely responsible for the current state of affairs. This core underlying flaw has further exacerbated the company’s challenges in that iSIGN’s business model of using resellers to sell the company’s technology, meant that iSIGN’s products were simply one of many that were offered by the reseller to prospective clients. The resellers, who would have a number of product lines to sell and whose sole objective was to make money for themselves, would sell the products that were easiest and quickest to sell. This situation is not new and has never been addressed or resolved, primarily due to financial resources.
This model forced the company’s fortunes to be based on the strengths and capabilities of external independent resellers, with iSIGN issuing a regular stream of press releases and website updates on the resellers’ progress or the addition of new additional resellers.
As the new executive team with long experience in building intellectual capital, our mandate revolves around the creation of new viable intellectual property that can provide substantial long-term value, and to generate sustainable and scalable revenue.
We have come in with the intention of fixing the company at a foundational level. While announcements without real substance might provide shareholders with the belief that progress is being made and can provide short-term stock price lift, they do not help bring the company recurring revenue targeted towards consistent and eventual profitability. Our focus is to build a long-term sustainable revenue stream, with a direct sale approach to prospective end-clients and a focus on developing a library of intellectual property assets with intrinsic value.
iSIGN is now shifting its focus towards (i) producing its own solutions, (ii) deploying technology that is developed in-house: (iii) dealing directly with the end-client to maximize our profitability; and (iv) adding direct value with every new customer and contract.
We are also moving away from the constant announcement model that you are used to. Instead, we will develop the company’s personality utilizing its social channels, and inviting the public to have a look inside, letting anyone that is interested, follow along as the story develops. Announcements from iSIGN, whether they are press releases or simply posts onto our website’s Newsroom page will still be made, but only when there is a major announcement with substance. We believe that this new level of transparency will help iSIGN to regain the credibility that has been eroded over the years. This will also make any announcements from iSIGN in the future much more impactful.
It is our expert opinion that this paradigm shift is a necessary requirement for the company to move forward.
Having said this, there are reasons to feel positive about the prospects at iSIGN. Despite the shortcomings of previous deployment strategies, we do have the good fortune of some real short-term opportunities and the partners involved in these opportunities have fully embraced our new development and deployment strategies. This means that we are not starting from a blank slate. Rather we are able to help some of our existing customers pivot from the push messaging revenue model utilizing resellers and find value in our new capabilities around location analytics.
These opportunities have the added benefit of helping iSIGN develop and define new IP, which will increase the company’s value by creating assets under its umbrella while generating a recurring revenue stream that is not dependent upon another organization, or the use of any specific hardware.
As shareholders, you will be pleased to know that all of the items currently in development have been built upon the PHACT platform that iSIGN licensed from SIMBL and the SIMBL team and iSIGN are making headway with clients, with a goal of generating regular sustainable monthly income.
With this new platform, iSIGN has the opportunity to provide solutions in markets that were previously unavailable and enter into long term sustainable agreements with a diverse set of customers from large retailers, law enforcement agencies, boards of education, educational institutions and governments at all levels.
We have real opportunities in areas that were not open to the company with its previous technology, and we are currently engaged in several proofs of concept with these customers that we expect will bear fruit in a matter of weeks/months.
We are working diligently to help bring iSIGN into a sustainable and profitable state, and we want you to know that we are all fully committed to bringing about a renaissance within this company and its community.
Best Regards,
Remko Noteboom,
Chief Executive Officer remko@isignmedia.com
