Alight Media builds custom apps to streamline their inventory and sales operations

The company

Alight Media is a UK-based out-of-home (OOH) media company that sells advertising space on billboards, bus shelters, and digital screens. Founded in 2019 by Matthew Dearden and Dave Huckerby, the company was built around a simple observation: Most of the OOH industry was focused on major cities, while smaller towns and regional locations were being overlooked.

In a few years, Alight grew from five people to over 90 employees, with screens covering more than 190 towns across the UK. Each month, more than 33 million people see one of its displays. The company also operates one of the country's largest networks of full-motion screens in leisure and hospitality venues through a partnership with Stonegate, with close to 3,600 displays across around 700 locations.

The challenge

Alight's inventory spans hundreds of frames across more than 190 towns, covering everything from large digital billboards to classic poster sites, bus shelters, and LED screens. Each one comes with different specs, locations, and restrictions. Managing all of that without a system built for it was always going to be a challenge.

Before Zoho, most of this information sat in spreadsheets. Sales data lived in one place, operations data in another, and finding out which frames were available or whether there were restrictions on a particular site meant digging through files that weren't always up to date. That might work when you're a team of five. But as the company scaled, the cracks became obvious. Duplicate data entry, manual errors, and limited visibility across teams were slowing things down.

Most off-the-shelf platforms aren't built for that kind of variety—but Zoho is. Working with Target Cloud, an Authorized Zoho Partner based in Norwich, Alight set up Zoho CRM, Zoho Sign, and Zoho Forms to manage its sales pipeline, contracts, and inbound inquiries. But the build that changed things most was on Zoho Creator.

The solution

1. Specs: A custom inventory application

Using Zoho Creator, Alight and Target Cloud built a custom application called Specs. It holds the company's full inventory of billboards and screens in one place, but it does more than just organize data internally. The app also powers a public-facing search feature on Alight's website, which means it serves two very different audiences: the internal sales and ops teams who need frame-level detail to do their jobs and potential customers looking for available screens in their area.

Internal inventory access

The app gives the sales and operations teams a view of every frame Alight owns. They can look up any site and see its location, screen size, resolution, frame ID, landlord details, and whether there are any display restrictions. Previously, most of this was in spreadsheets that were a pain to keep updated, and Specs replaced all of that.

CRM access is locked for certain teams, so the Creator app gives them a read-only view of frame information. They get what they need without touching the underlying data.

Website integration and lead capture

Specs also connects to their website. Data comes in from SPACE, the UK outdoor industry's central inventory database, gets pushed into the Creator app, and is then exposed via API to Alight's website. That's where it powers a "find screens near you" feature built on Google Maps. Visitors can search by postcode, town, or region and see Alight's screens plotted on a map, color-coded by type, with filters to narrow things down and "discover more" prompts to keep the experience interactive.

The marketing team also mapped town-level data from Creator into the website search, so screen locations update in real time as new inventory comes online. That's a pretty big deal for a company adding new screens regularly.

2. IT asset tracker app

Alight also uses Zoho Creator to manage its internal hardware and software inventory. The team built an IT asset tracker that logs every company laptop, serial number, software license, and warranty status in one place. Given that Alight's direct sales and development teams all work remotely, this was a real gap. Knowing who had what hardware, what was due for replacement, and which warranties were about to expire used to mean chasing down spreadsheets that were never quite current.

Benefits

Together, the two apps have changed how Alight manages both its inventory and its internal operations. Here's what that looks like in practice.

• Less spreadsheet dependency: The sales team can look up any frame and see its specs, location, availability, and restrictions without digging through files.
• Faster inventory updates: Billboard data flows from CRM to Creator to the website automatically. New screens show up on the site as soon as they're added to the system.
• Better lead capture: The "find screens near you" feature lets potential clients search by location, see results on a map, and submit inquiries directly. It turned a static inventory into something that actually generates leads.
• Controlled data access: Sales and ops teams get the information they need through the Specs app without opening up CRM editing access.
• Accurate hardware tracking: Warranty dates, software licenses, and device records for a fully remote team now sit in one place.

Looking ahead

Alight is still growing, and their Creator apps are growing with it. Target Cloud continues to support the builds, and it's clear the relationship has been a good one.