Nestlé Australia: Live Power BI Dashboards on BrightSign Floor Screens
Nestlé Australia's production teams see live, SSO-secured Power BI and FourKites dashboards on shop-floor screens, managed from Pickcel Cloud behind a locked-down firewall.
Nestlé Australia, part of the global food and beverage company, uses Pickcel Cloud to run Power BI digital signage at its manufacturing sites, putting live supply chain dashboards on Samsung screens driven by BrightSign players. Three things stood in the way: Power BI reports would not render on BrightSign, the Power BI tenant sits behind single sign-on, and the sites run behind a strict corporate firewall. Pickcel deployed its Dashboard App, which renders SSO-protected Power BI on BrightSign and keeps heavy dashboards running through long shifts, plus a custom app for Nestlé's FourKites dashboards. The result is one managed screen network that puts live supply chain KPIs in front of shift teams without relaxing a single security policy.
Client
Nestlé Australia
Industry
Food and beverage manufacturing
Use case
Live supply chain dashboards from Power BI and FourKites
Hardware
BrightSign players with dual HDMI output, Samsung commercial screens
Authentication
Single sign-on, matching Nestlé's Power BI setup
Hosting
Pickcel Cloud, with required APIs whitelisted in Nestlé's firewall
Power BI Would Not Run Where the Floor Needed It
Nestlé Australia wanted production teams to follow manufacturing-unit performance in real time, on the shop floor, straight from Power BI. BrightSign was already the chosen player for the Samsung screens across its sites, so any fix had to work on BrightSign itself. That is where it broke. The standard Power BI web experience relies on jQuery behaviour that the BrightSign browser engine does not support, and reports failed to render on the players.
Security ruled out the usual shortcuts. Nestlé's Power BI tenant is protected by single sign-on, so screens could not run on shared passwords or public publish-to-web links. The manufacturing sites also sit behind a strict corporate firewall: a cloud-managed system had to work with only a defined set of endpoints opened.
Then there was endurance. Power BI dashboards are resource-intensive, and on signage players they often fail to load or stall after long periods on screen, which is exactly how a floor display is used. Nestlé also wanted its FourKites dashboards on the same screens as the Power BI supply chain KPIs, facing the same device and firewall limits.
Pickcel's Dashboard App on BrightSign, Signed In Through SSO
Pickcel deployed the Dashboard App in Pickcel Cloud on BrightSign players connected to Samsung commercial screens, and built a custom app so FourKites could run alongside it. Content, scheduling and device monitoring for both sit in one cloud console, managed through Pickcel's digital signage software.
The Dashboard App renders Power BI without depending on the jQuery features BrightSign lacks, which removed the compatibility barrier without changing Nestlé's player choice. It is also built to handle heavy dashboards more efficiently, so reports keep running across extended periods instead of dropping mid-shift. Screens sign in to Power BI through Nestlé's existing SSO, so access follows the same identity and security policies as the rest of the business. Nestlé's IT team whitelisted only the specific APIs Pickcel Cloud requires.
Two hardware details kept the footprint small. BrightSign's dual HDMI output drives two screens from one player, showing either two separate dashboards or one dashboard stretched across both displays. And the FourKites app runs under the same firewall rules and device management as the Power BI reports, so the deployment can extend site by site on one design. The integration itself is covered on the Power BI dashboards on screens page.
Live Supply Chain Data Where the Work Happens
Teams now see live supply chain data on the floor, without anyone opening a laptop. Power BI runs live on BrightSign, a combination that had not worked in Nestlé's environment before, and shift teams react to output, downtime and quality trends as they happen.
Nothing was made public to get there. No Power BI report was published to the web, and the access model IT already approved for Power BI is the one the screens use.
Day to day, Nestlé runs one screen network instead of two. FourKites dashboards and Power BI KPIs play side by side with no second signage system to license or maintain. Because one BrightSign player covers two screens, there is less hardware on the floor and fewer points of failure when something does go wrong.
Questions IT Teams Ask About Power BI on Signage
Why not use Power BI's publish to web feature on signage screens?+
Publish to web makes a report reachable by anyone who has the link, which conflicts with a tenant protected by single sign-on. That ruled it out for Nestlé Australia. A screen that signs in like an employee keeps the dashboard under the same access rules as a person viewing it at a desk, and nothing sensitive sits on a public URL.
Do you need BrightSign players and Samsung screens to run Power BI on Pickcel?+
No. Nestlé chose that pairing, but Pickcel Cloud supports 50+ device types, including Android, Windows and web-based players. Browser engines differ between players, which is exactly the problem Nestlé hit with BrightSign, so confirm the specific player model and the Power BI sign-in method with Pickcel's team before ordering hardware.
Can Pickcel build an app for a dashboard tool it does not integrate with today?+
Yes, case by case. FourKites is the example here: Nestlé needed it on the same screens as Power BI, so Pickcel built a custom app for it. For another tool, scope and timing depend on how that tool exposes its dashboards and how it authenticates, so it starts as a technical conversation rather than a standard setup.
How does a new site join an existing Pickcel deployment?+
New players register to the same Pickcel Cloud account and pick up the dashboard apps and schedules already in place. The new site's network needs the same API whitelist applied, but it does not need its own signage system, its own sign-in design or a separate console for its screens.
Does Pickcel support BI tools other than Power BI on screens?+
Yes. Pickcel's dashboard integrations also cover Tableau, Grafana, Salesforce, Jira and Zendesk, displayed through the same cloud console. Each tool handles sign-in and rendering differently, so a mixed estate is worth testing on the target player first, the same check that surfaced the BrightSign issue at Nestlé.
Running Power BI or FourKites behind SSO? Let's get your dashboards onto the floor.
See How Others Use Pickcel
Nicholson Manufacturing
Cross-platform HR and plant communication across Android and Windows screens, renewed after year one.
Read case study →
Hindustan Unilever
A three-screen cafeteria pilot that expanded to every display across HUL's Bangalore and Mumbai offices within one month.
Read case study →Pickcel is a cloud-based digital signage software platform trusted by 9,000+ businesses across 70+ countries, managing 150,000+ screens. Certified ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II. Manufacturers and FMCG brands use it for live production KPIs, safety notices and plant-floor communication; see Pickcel's manufacturing digital signage page for the wider picture.