In an interview, Dr. Ramya Chatterjee, CEO, Solitaire Brand Business and Director, Prointek Global Innovations, speaks with Electronics Buzz about the evolving IFPD market in India. He discusses how buyers are moving beyond specifications to focus on reliability, lifecycle value and user experience, while highlighting the importance of centralized device management, interoperability, AI, software updates and strong after-sales support for large-scale deployments.
Read the full interview here:
EB: How is Solitaire seeing India’s IFPD market evolve beyond screen size and specifications toward lifecycle value, reliability and user experience?
Dr. Ramya Chatterjee: India’s IFPD market is rapidly evolving from a specification-driven business to a lifecycle-value and experience-driven ecosystem. Screen size, resolution, RAM, storage, touch points and processing power remain important, but they are increasingly becoming hygiene factors rather than sustainable differentiators. At Solitaire, we believe customers are now looking beyond the initial purchase price to evaluate reliability, total cost of ownership, ease of adoption, software relevance, service responsiveness and long-term usability. An IFPD delivers real value only when teachers, students and enterprise users can use it intuitively and consistently throughout its lifecycle. This is why our focus is on creating an integrated experience combining robust hardware, intelligent software, AI-enabled capabilities, user training and a strong service ecosystem. We also see serviceability and lifecycle support becoming increasingly important as deployments scale from a few classrooms or meeting rooms to hundreds or thousands of endpoints. Ultimately, the industry needs to move from simply selling displays to delivering outcomes. For Solitaire, the next phase of growth will be defined not by who offers the longest specification sheet, but by who can provide the most reliable, intuitive and continuously evolving technology experience with measurable value throughout the product lifecycle.
EB: What are the biggest challenges organizations face when managing interactive displays across multiple classrooms, offices or locations, particularly around updates, performance and consistency?
Dr. Ramya Chatterjee: The biggest challenge in managing interactive displays across multiple classrooms, offices or locations is maintaining consistency, visibility and control at scale. When hundreds or thousands of displays are deployed across geographically dispersed sites, even routine activities such as software and firmware updates, application management, security policies, device configuration and performance monitoring can become complex and resource-intensive. Organizations often struggle with different software versions, inconsistent settings, unauthorized applications, network-related issues and delayed identification of device problems, resulting in uneven user experiences and higher support costs. Another major challenge is device uptime – IT teams need to know whether displays are online, healthy and being effectively utilized without physically visiting every location. This makes centralized device management increasingly critical, enabling administrators to remotely monitor devices, deploy updates, standardize configurations, manage applications and troubleshoot issues proactively. At the same time, organizations must balance centralized control with a simple and intuitive experience for teachers and employees. Ultimately, successful large-scale deployment is not about installing hundreds of interactive displays; it is about ensuring that every display delivers the same reliable, secure and seamless experience, regardless of where it is located or who is using it.
EB: How is Solitaire approaching centralized device management to help schools, enterprises and government institutions manage large-scale interactive display deployments?
Dr. Ramya Chatterjee: Solitaire is approaching centralized device management as an essential layer for making large-scale IFPD deployments simpler, more secure, consistent and manageable throughout their lifecycle. As schools, enterprises and government institutions expand from a few interactive displays to hundreds or even thousands across multiple locations, managing each device individually is neither practical nor efficient. Our approach is to enable System administrators to gain centralized visibility and control over their deployed device ecosystem from monitoring device status and usage to remotely managing applications, configurations, software and firmware updates, security policies and troubleshooting. This helps organizations maintain a consistent user experience across locations while reducing dependency on physical service visits and minimizing downtime. We also believe centralized management should go beyond remote administration and progressively become more proactive and intelligence-driven, using device health and usage insights to identify potential issues before they disrupt users. For Solitaire, the objective is to move from traditional reactive device support toward proactive lifecycle management, where technology teams can manage distributed deployments efficiently while teachers, employees and other users continue to enjoy a seamless, reliable and standardized experience.Top of Form
EB: With AI and collaboration technologies evolving rapidly, how is Solitaire ensuring its IFPD solutions remain future-ready and adaptable to changing user requirements?
Dr. Ramya Chatterjee: At Solitaire, we believe being future-ready is not about predicting one technology trend; it is about building an adaptable platform that can continuously evolve with changing user expectations. AI, collaboration and digital learning technologies are advancing rapidly, so our IFPD strategy combines powerful and upgradable hardware architecture with an evolving software ecosystem. We are increasingly integrating AI-enabled teaching, content creation, collaboration and productivity capabilities through platforms such as Solitaire Digital Canvas Pro, while ensuring compatibility with widely adopted operating systems, applications and conferencing environments. Equally important is the ability to deliver software, firmware, security and feature updates throughout the product lifecycle, so customers can benefit from new capabilities without frequently replacing hardware. We are also closely engaging with educators, enterprises, partners and end users to understand how their workflows are changing and incorporate those insights into our product roadmap. Our focus is therefore shifting from selling a fixed-function interactive display to creating a continuously evolving digital workspace and learning platform. Ultimately, future-readiness for Solitaire means protecting customers’ technology investments while giving them the flexibility to adopt emerging AI, collaboration and learning innovations as their requirements evolve.
As organizations increasingly use multiple software platforms and connected devices, how important is interoperability becoming in IFPD purchasing decisions, and how is Solitaire addressing it?
Dr. Ramya Chatterjee: Interoperability is becoming a critical factor in IFPD purchasing decisions because today’s classrooms and workplaces operate within increasingly diverse technology ecosystems. Organizations may simultaneously use Windows, Android, Chrome-based environments, video-conferencing platforms, learning management systems, cloud applications, wireless presentation tools, cameras, microphones and other collaboration devices. An interactive display therefore cannot function as an isolated piece of hardware; it must integrate seamlessly with the customer’s existing and future technology infrastructure. At Solitaire, our approach is to build IFPDs as open, flexible and platform-agnostic collaboration endpoints, with extensive connectivity options, OPS compatibility, USB Type-C, wireless screen sharing and support for commonly used productivity, learning and video-conferencing applications. We also focus on software integration through our Digital Canvas Pro ecosystem while ensuring that customers are not unnecessarily locked into a single application or platform. This flexibility is particularly important for education, enterprise and government deployments where technology environments can evolve significantly during the display’s lifecycle. Going forward, we believe customers will increasingly evaluate IFPDs not simply by asking, “What features does this display have?” but “How effectively will it work with everything we already use and everything we may adopt tomorrow?”
EB: Beyond the initial hardware cost, what should buyers consider when evaluating the total cost of ownership, including software, services, maintenance and support? How is Solitaire building its ecosystem around these factors?
Dr. Ramya Chatterjee: When evaluating an IFPD investment, buyers need to look well beyond the initial hardware price and consider the total cost of ownership across the complete product lifecycle. This includes software licensing and upgrades, installation, user training, device management, maintenance, warranty coverage, availability of spare parts, service turnaround time, energy consumption and, importantly, the cost of downtime. A product that appears economical at the time of purchase can become expensive if it requires frequent intervention, has limited software support or suffers from poor user adoption. At Solitaire, we are therefore building an ecosystem around reliable hardware, intelligent software, strong service infrastructure, user enablement and lifecycle support. Our objective is to ensure that customers continue deriving value from their investment long after installation through evolving platforms such as Digital Canvas Pro, structured training, centralized device management and responsive after-sales support. We also focus on serviceability and long-term product support so that large deployments can be maintained efficiently. Ultimately, we believe the right measure of an IFPD investment is not simply “How much does it cost to buy?” but “How much value does it continue to create throughout its lifecycle?”
