MOBILE APPS: Re-inventing SMS

Over the last few years SMS has evolved as a global communication with mobile

networks spanning in over 200 countries and with more than 400 operators

offering it as a value-added service. In addition, many CDMA operators also have

embraced SMS in their bouquet of services. With SMS finding favor with all, many

technological initiatives have been taken to sync this means of communication

with the interest of the customer.

Since, there is a network sharing understanding among most of the mobile

network operators around the world. SMS becomes an obvious choice for expediting

two-way text based communication irrespective of the geographical

location. Besides, there are several unique benefits of using SMS as a

medium of communication.

Do enterprises in India need SMS-based mobile data services?



SMS-based mobile data services are not necessary for every enterprise or every
division within an enterprise. As with any new communications/IT application or

service, the investment and cost of an implementation must be balanced by a

sufficient economic return. Several research firms have stated that it is after

two to three years of mobile data services implementation that a company

should see a positive return on its investment.

However, there are a few compelling reasons for enterprises in India to tap

the potential of SMS-based mobile data services. Such wireless initiatives

advance customer service, productivity, cost reduction, or even simply the

functionality necessary to remain competitive. A good example is the financial

industry where many enterprises have already started services in which their

customers receive 'pre-defined, business-rules-driven' alerts or

notifications. These notifications or alerts are a result of SMS-enabling of

certain business processes. Such a service eliminates the conventional need of

getting connected on voice. Thereby, they reduce direct communication cost and

indirect costs (the time of people making voice calls) and the complexity

involved in business process.

Of

late, innovative and cost-effective business models for SMS-based mobile data

services have emerged by which the enterprises are not required to own the

wireless communication infrastructure required for such a service. Instead, they

get all the benefits by the hugely successful pay-as-you-go model. This reduces

total cost of ownership of the new initiative.

A few mobile value-added service providers (MVASPs) or mobile data service

providers (MDSP) have emerged in the last couple of years who provide

higher-quality service as compared to operators. The operators do not focus on

enterprise wireless messaging, as the size of this market is sub-optimal for

them. Moreover, the expertise required in providing high quality and end-to-end

service requires expertise in both IT and telecommunication verticals, which

makes this service offering rather unique. Many enterprises in India are already

benefiting from such SMS-based wireless initiatives to reduce cost and increase

operational efficiency.

• In what all business processes (in which if the concerned person gets to
  
  know the relevant information on the move) will the person be able to take
  
  desired action?
• Is a significant percentage of an organisation's work or workforce away
  
  from a fixed place of business?
• Is my enterprise ready for such an initiative?
• Would such an initiative have the potential to reduce my total cost of
  
  communications?
• Can remote users easily access pertinent information from internal
  
  systems?
• What are my competitors doing with regard to wireless applications?
• Will using SMS-based mobile data services improve my customer
  
  service? 

Mobile data services are aimed at increasing operational

efficiency and reducing costs. When computing the actual return on a wireless

initiative, one must look at cost savings from increased efficiencies,

productivity, customer satisfaction, and other such metrics. This is

substantially more complex than discounting revenue generation, because many of

the metrics are approximates and many of the benefits very subtle, but this

estimation gives the most accurate measure of success.

There are a number of metrics that will assist in determining

the return of a wireless initiative. Take careful attention to assure that the

metrics used relate directly to the type of solution. For example, when

deploying SMS-based mobile data services for maintenance, look at the amount of

time spent on a sales call. If billing is incorporated into the system, check

the change in the billing cycle, to see that it has decreased. Some other

metrics that may help measure the success of a wireless implementation are:

• Increased sales per employee

• Decreased time per maintenance call

• Increased customer service levels

• Reduced turnaround time

• Reduced communication costs

Benefits of Going Wireless 



Once a decision is made on implementation of SMS-based mobile data services,

the key is to choose carefully the best MVASP get on to the implementation mode.

SMS-based mobile data services can lead to increased efficiencies throughout

an enterprise, from the sales force to the supply chain and management

reporting. As the services integrate seamlessly with most existing IT

infrastructure, the enhancements of each corporate function can be shared across

the entire corporate entity. For example, integrating a stock status check with

wireless devices will allow a salesperson to check inventory for a specific

client from a remote location. Of course, since the industry is in a nascent

stage, processes such as order flow from businesses and general consumers are

not readily deployed as they have high complexity.

Benefits of Using SMS-based Services



Cost-effective: As a communications medium, SMS is the most cost-effective

way of communicating with any mobile audience. The fact that SMS can be sent out

to large groups of recipients in a manual or automated manner further means that

fewer resources are required to communicate.

• High Reach: In India, the number of Internet connections is less
  
  than 20 percent of the number of mobile connections. Thus, more people can
  
  be reached via SMS than with, e-mail or Internet. Currently, there are over
  
  45 million mobile connections in India.
• Immediacy: An SMS is typically delivered within seconds. Because
  
  messages are pushed to the handset by the delivering network's SMSC and do
  
  not rely on the recipient retrieving it from a server, it is an extremely
  
  reliable means of getting time-sensitive messages to recipients.
• Automation: Should an organisation need to integrate SMS with its
  
  existing (legacy) database environments automating the SMS is easy. For
  
  instance, MDSPs allow for generic protocol integration such as email, HTTP,
  
  SMPP, XML, and Windows application systems to their servers.
• Reliability: SMS is now an accepted means of communication.
  
  Reliability of SMS delivery is extremely high with MDSPs committed to
  
  achieving 100 percent reliability. It is fast being accepted as a new
  
  channel of business communications.

Potential Use



The SMS-based mobile data services are being used by several forward-looking

enterprises for the following three types of uses.

• Request: Any authorized user can make requests from mobile phones
  
  on internal company information, i.e., company phone list, stock/ warehouse,
  
  latest prices, internal news, customer facts. These services are used by
  
  internal customers (employees), extended customers (vendors, partners) and
  
  end-customers.

• Group transmission: The user can send messages on
  
  mobile phones of a group of people at the same time (i.e., employees,
  
  customers, etc). The messages can be same for everyone in the group (a mass
  
  broadcast) or different for everyone (a narrowcast with each person getting
  
  a different message).

• Push/Notification Services: If you want a request
  
  to be set up automatically, you can have a periodic request, e.g., generate
  
  a request every morning at 8 am for revenue of the previous day, or stock
  
  status. This could be an event-based or a time-based notification.

Processes where SMS-based mobile data services are being

commonly used are:

• asset tracking

• automatic vehicle location

• customer/contact management.

• fleet dispatch

• instant messaging,

• interactive gaming,

• inventory management

There are several benefits for enterprises that first look at

the internal organization of work and then assess SMS-based mobile data services

in terms of adding value to the existing way of working. Enterprises world over

are benefiting using SMS-based mobile data services.

Vijay Shukla

Country Manager, ValueFirst

5 major benefits of SMS-based Mobile data services