Business on brink of textual revolution

IT Week: Texting is seen as a consumer phenomenon. What makes you think it can find a business use?

James Powell-Tuck: In terms of convenience SMS is unbeatable and with mobile phones ubiquitous, and texts far more likely to be read than an email, businesses are finally realising how they too can apply the technology.

What does your technology do?

We provide what is in effect an electronic post box. It is a completely managed solution where customers can simply send us a message in a range of formats – including email, SMS, fax, voice and telex – and the numbers and format they want it to be sent in, and we send the message. We then have specific retry algorithms and functionality that means we get a receipt showing the message has reached its destination.

How are you seeing SMS utilised in a business setting?

Bristol & West uses our platform for mortgage applications. It sends out texts to notify the customer when each stage of the process is complete. A huge proportion of its in-bound call centre traffic was status calls with people just asking, “Did you receive it?”, so the text has allowed Bristol & West to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction. There is also an environmental benefit as it stops the firm having to send out letters. Once the mortgage has been granted, SMS still plays a role, offering Bristol & West a convenient means of contacting customers over rate changes, for example.

Any other examples?

You can push the messaging platform into a volume environment like Bristol & West, where it is integrated with the back-office systems, or you can access it on a more ad hoc basis through an email client like Outlook or Lotus Notes, where you just send us a message as an email and we distribute it to the desired recipient. We’re seeing interest from the education sector where the SMS service can replace the old school telephone tree for contacting parents when the school is closed. There is a small standard monthly charge and then the service is pay per use.

As a business communication tool, how can SMS compete with richer devices such as BlackBerrys?

People do increasingly have BlackBerrys and smartphones, but their penetration outside of top-level executives remains very low. For example, we have one large public-sector customer who is using the system to notify staff of rota changes or overtime opportunities. They can’t roll out BlackBerrys to all these staff.