The Business
Case for SMS
By Andrew Grill
The success of TV shows like Australian Idol have confirmed Australia’s love for technology. Idol was Australia’s largest interactive television event to date and opened up the possibilities of SMS messaging to a wider audience.
The very fact that you could ‘vote’ using your mobile phone has captured the imagination of Australian businesses as to how they can use SMS technology to run their operations more efficiently.
According to statistics released recently by the Australian Communications Authority, Australia’s mobile telecommunications market has experienced a 44% increase in the use of SMS messages compared to 2002. The study also showed that in 2003, 40% of small businesses reported using SMS – a 10% increase from the previous year.
Jupiter research suggests that messages sent via SMS in Australia will increase from 4 billion in 2003 to 9 billion in 2008 with the business community being a major driver of this activity.
Many businesses are now realising the inherent business benefits of messaging with SMS, and finding new ways to utilise the technology to increase productivity, reduce messaging costs and become more responsive to clients and suppliers.
One agent in Melbourne is using LegionONEs’ OutlookSMS product to send rent reminders to tenants via SMS. Not only is this a discrete way to contact clients, but avoids the need to make up an excuse as to why the rent is late!
Glen Eira Council in Melbourne are installing OutlookSMS messaging on all computers to allow them to contact other staff, suppliers and constituents quickly via SMS. Information such as refuse collection dates, rate reminders and recycling information can be sent instantly, and feedback via SMS can be provided directly back to the council.
Recently, a large Engineering Services company utilised SMS to source skilled workers for a complex engineering project. After broadcasting the vacancy via SMS to previous candidates, they received their availability by return SMS and filled their quota in just four hours! This activity would normally have taken over 4 weeks and literally hundreds of phone calls, voicemail messages and callbacks.
Temporary office workers are now starting to receive their assignments via SMS, with all of the details sent in the one message, removing the need to dictate over the phone and waste valuable time.
SMS is actually saving companies money in their dealings with clients because they can provide all of the information in a single message, for less than the cost of a local phone call, and not have to bother with voicemail and unreturned calls.
In many ways, SMS is becoming the “new email” as messages can find their way straight into the hands of a particular person, no matter where they are, rather than having to wait for them to come back to their computer, switch on, log in and connect to the internet.
Not only is SMS for business a smart option, those not already using it are missing out.