SMS in Australia vs the US

OK, for those that aren't really sure, I just want to give some background here just so you can appreciate where I'm going from on this one.

Our business model is focused generally around business SMS as a core product, and premium rate SMS as a secondary product - we do it, and have a number of customers, etc... however it's fair to say that business SMS is really our bread and butter.

Over the last year and a half, the one thing I have seen which is fairly common is that customers looking to take SMS on within their business generally don't really have a good understanding of things such as MSISDN's or what we refer to as virtual numbers - a virtual number is really the same as a mobile number except it's not attached to a SIM card - it allows for two-way communication as the networks route the messages back through that path.

This is the same for many countries - probably the most similar would be the likes of New Zealand and the UK.

Also, we as a country are subject to abiding by anti-spam laws which effective say you can't send a marketing SMS to someone you don't know (i.e. buy a marketing list), and you need an easy opt out on the service - certain parts are a little less clear with regards to implied consent, etc... but you can definitely send informational messages, such as "don't forget your appointment" and that kind of thing.

Typically the most common uses for SMS are internal communications like server alerts or an easy way to contact external staff members and so on. The other use are reminders, whether that be from your accountant about your BAS statements, restaurant bookings, job alerts and so on - and all of these are perfectly legitimate - and generally are very helpful as well as acting as a cost saving to the business which is always good news.

The US however are somewhat different.

Probably one of the most challenging things to communicate through to people is the difference between Australia and the US.

The US is a lot more conservative when it comes to SMS in an attempt to protect the greater community from unwanted SPAM - putting this into perspective it's not uncommon for a US business to receive 10-12 telemarketing calls a day and with changes in technologies businesses are constantly attempting to find new ways to sell their product that would otherwise be unguarded.

Because of this certain things aren't available in the same way (there are work arounds, but they are something generally really open to US consumers, but I'll talk about that later). MSISDN's for example aren't available as we know them here, instead messages need to be sent with a vanity number or shortcode which have been applied for through Neustar and it takes 3 months instead of around 4 weeks for a premium shortcode in Australia (depending on your timing).

People with US SIM cards can send SMS messages via the web and their phone account, however as far as I'm aware it's not really a robust enough service for a business sending any real volume out to go with.

However, that said, which is the reason for the vanity numbers in the first place, by law you are not allowed to send an SMS from application to consumer without the vanity number - and for those who have tried, the delivery rate is really poor. It's because about 20% of SMS messages into the US are blocked by US networks due to SPAM filtering - especially if someone tries to send something like 100 - 500k worth of messages it raises all kinds of bells.

The other thing is that US handsets have to subscribe to receiving the messages as well, which is another hindrance, although they do allow soft opt-in's there are penalties for being a little naughty sending messages to people who don't want them.

Generally speaking I don't think it's a bad thing, in that there are rules that you can work to, and it doesn't take a creative genius to work out ways in which you can still achieve want you want to do - like stick a clause into your T&C's that they may receive these messages, they can always unsubscribe if they don't want to receive them.

Because we're all people and concerned with ourselves and the ways we would like things to work first before thinking about the rest of the community I know that people wishing to setup server alerts, and contact staff members like roaming engineers about breakdowns and certain plants probably think it's ridiculous - and in their circumstance they might be right, but it's about having one set of rules that encompass everything and working to the minority in order to please the majority.

Instead I think the biggest burden is two fold - it's the setup time it takes in order to get a dedicated vanity number, and the costs involved. truth be told, the actual costs of sending messages are pretty much on a par with sending messages within local countries through local networks.

The only thing in their defence I would say is look at your market size - 300 million people isn't quite the size of China or India, but if you were serious about it, I think it's probably a fair statement to make that actually US citizens have more disposable income on average to spend on the products/services you are selling.

They are 15 times the population of Australia, 5 times the population of the UK and 75 times the population of New Zealand, so it's reasonable to expect operating costs will be higher - higher setups/monthlies on the SMS service, higher advertising costs online, and in various publications - but also a bigger opportunity to make even more money than in other countries so before you shy away, I would say really think about the possibilities rather than the bare costs alone - as they say you need to spend money to make it.

Cheers,
C

How to get a free upgrade on your long haul flights

I know what you're thinking - upgrades are urban myths!

Believe me, I used to have the same belief as you - especially when I flew enough to attain silver level on my frequent flyer program that I signed up to within a matter of a handful of months and nothing.

It didn't matter if I was flying by myself, or with someone or if I asked for it or asked for nothing and got zippo!

Any each time I would think to myself, how the hell do you get it - I'd spoken to people previously who got it for random things, like there was a baby next to them or something like that - one time flying out of Hong Kong I was showered down upon during take off from all the condensation built up in the fuselage, and I'm talking I was soaked properly.

It was too the point that I was put into a crew seat which had no entrainment or leg room only to be returned to a seat that had plastic down on it - now imagine planes aren't generally the best air conditioned vehicles in the world at the best of times, and wearing a pair of jeans whilst you're sitting in the same seat and virtually the same positions for hours can cause you to get a little sweaty, even for the less sweaty amongst us!

Don't get me wrong, I was given a nice bottle of wine down from first class - but I would have preferred a business class seat for my troubles.

It wasn't until I was leaving Heathrow one day back to Melbourne and it happened - well not straight away (that I knew).

Heathrow is a bloody busy place at the best of times, let alone on a Saturday afternoon - the queues were massive in all directions, and I knew I had my silver class which gives me priority check in so I went to the business check in only to be sent down the other end. Wheeling my luggage down, I then got told to go back to where I'd just been?

Half way down, I saw the priority bag drop, so I went onto the screen checked in and over to the desk to throw the bags on - now to give you a better idea, I was wearing a very lovely V-neck jumper I bought from H&M which was very preppy (which is funny, because I'm not the preppy kind of guy) and had my Polo by Ralf Lauren scarf that I just picked up from Harrods after lunch there (very nice) - so I was pretty well dressed, plus the fact I'm incredibly good looking (not as good looking as the class referred to in an earlier bog "hot guys vs hot girls" but right up there.

I checked, didn't say too much, and went through.

I sat at the gate waiting to board - now I typically am very happy to be the last one walking down the aisle of the plane, because lets face it what's the first guy on there thinking? "Oh, I'll get on early and get comfortable wedge my legs in under the seat between the bar and the box for the entertainment" - what? No thanks...

Just as the last few were walking through the gate I lined up in the queue - now what makes me laugh now is that there was this really obnoxious bloke in the queue over talking about upgrades and how he always mentions he's a silver level, blah blah blah - I'm thinking yeah good on you mate. I walk through hand over my boarding pass only to be told "Mr Bartlett, you've been upgraded"

That was ace - so ace that when we pulled into Bangkok I didn't get off in case they changed their mind half way through!

Then just recently going back to the UK, this time with my girlfriend (sorry ladies - the sounds of hearts breaking everywhere), just as we were walking to the car, I changed my mind and went back inside to change - I was wearing a pair of cargo shorts, a hoody and thongs (for your feet) and put some nice jeans and V-neck on - still with the thongs though.

At the airport back through the business check in I must admit I did have to argue a little to let the woman check us in there (which I'm fairly confident was never going to do me any favours), but then we settled into conversation about why we were going, blah blah, when it happened - "I have some great news you've been upgraded to business!"

You wouldn't believe twice in a row - and all the way through as well!

The best thing apart from better food, wine and bed about upgrades is you get to take a shower and reset during the stop overs - it's so much more comfortable, plus you get free pyjamas as well!

So now I know V-necks definitely work.

Coming back, however was a different story - again this time with my Gant V-neck (very nice) and Polo scarf (in case you missed before, very nice) - however, the night before I'd been out in Islington with some mates finishing at the Walk About, an Australian themed pub somewhat lacking in Australian, but anyway... My eyes were puffy and a little bit closed, and I'd been a little bit sick that morning, combined with a definite air of bourbon and snake bites (I think I'll do something on snake bites at some stage too) - fully expecting to get an upgrade through sheer pity, but no, nothing damn it!

So there we have it, I believe the combination to those magical upgrades - a nice V-neck jumper, and/or scarf, and devoid of smells from the night before!

SMS being used in irrigation investigations for more efficent water usage

It's probably a fair comment to say that when it comes to business' using SMS they most likely to be used for sending appointment reminders, or marketing updates or service alerts - and it's all great and more the diverse our customer become helps improve ourselves as to the level of advice we can give new customers coming on board.

However, one of our customer, the CSIRO, are looking at the effectiveness of SMS for Decision Support Services - basically software solutions that can help advise irrigators on the soil, plants and weather.

Now some people's peepers maybe drawing shut slowly and they think this might be a bit technical and what not - however, according to the initial research paper by Nicholas Carr irrigators in Australia use 60-70% of all water consumed in Australia. Further to that according to previous studies by the CSIRO, these Decision Support Systems, or DSS, showed a reduction in water use by sugar cane farmers from 35-40 mega litres per hectare down to an average of 21 mega litres! That's almost a reduction of 50% on their water usage which benefits everyone in a number of ways.

First off it benefits us from the farmers having lower operating costs that don't need to be passed on so farmed products are cheaper - it also means that as precious as water is as a resource, we are then able to allocate elsewhere helping to relieve some of the pressure points building from a lack of rain and water resources.

But how does SMS come into the picture. A major flaw in using DSS is the fact that farmers just aren't taking up the services the way you would have thought they would - this could be because they're old school and don't really use computers, to only using computers for accounting. Other reasons could be the fact that to get the information from their home to the farm where the work is carried out maybe too difficult, or inconsistent - really there are a whole host of reasons obstructing the farmer from effectively making use of the information available.

So the solution as part of the research was to use SMS for the delivery of the information. it means that the farmers are able to retrieve information quickly and easily on site and able to go back and retrieve the information on a timely basis.

Now at this stage the study only includes water balance, but leans towards a larger scope for use with SMS in both an interactive or non-interactive applications that would vastly improve the use of DSS and the water consumption in Australia.