As mentioned in previous posts, a virtual number is basically a mobile number that isn't attached to a SIM card like what we have with our own mobiles, so it lives virtually within the networks number pool providing for an address for the reply messages to come back through - much in the same way an email address works.
A dedicated virtual number just means that the number you use is the same number you always use and you're the only one that uses it, it's dedicated - again like your home phone or mobile number which is also considered to be dedicated.
What are the benefits of dedicated numbers? Well for starters it means that every time you send a message to someone it appears as coming from the same number every time, that means that people don't get what I like to call the shock of the unknown. Since the inception of caller ID, people have developed a fear of receiving calls and SMS from numbers that they don't recognise - who's this stranger contacting me, what do they want, and is it going to be something bad? It happens, it's part of our fight or flight mechanism that's built into every single one of us.
Dedicated virtual numbers relieve this pain, firstly. The second benefit is that it opens up functionality for services, so where initially you might have wanted to get confirmations for messages you sent initially, now you can use the service to allow proactive enquiries from your customers - no longer do they need to receive a message from you in order to respond, they can now send one straight to you first. You can't help but to have some call waiting time if all your staff that deal with customers are on the phone, but offering a inbound SMS request for contact can reduce this by having staff call back once they're off the phone - this reduces costs to the company if they are using 1300/1800 toll free numbers because you're not paying for people to wait whilst your staff are dealing with other customers, as well as reducing "phone holding" frustrations too.
A common question I get is "do I need a different number for each staff member?" - the answer is no, we have some companies using a single number across hundreds of users, though quite often companies will opt for a number per department, allowing their recipients to know which section of the business is talking to them.
Another question I get is"does it mean that you can pair inbound messages with their original outbound messages?" Alas, no, that's because there is nothing within the SMS protocols that allow for providers to attach a hidden message tag on the message that can allow for the pairing, but that said, there really isn't yet a 100% accurate option for that anyway. If you take a provider that use dynamic virtual numbers - meaning every time you send to a customer it comes from a different number, then what you're looking at is where they might use a number of addresses which send out in a revolver scenario - i.e. they use 6 numbers messages goes to A from number 1, message goes to B from number 2 and so on, so that each messages goes out from a different number, the problem is that depending on the number of times you send to the same client versus the number of virtual numbers in the round versus the responsiveness of the recipient.
It's a tough one to get around, and it comes down to how the application in the real world will work - my experience is that companies that are looking for that functionality don't inundate people with SMS to the point where it's a real requirement, more of a conception, or they really do, but a 99% success rate is 1% the wrong way and would in fact muddy the water, isn't an absolute thing and therefore make the information untrustworthy. More often than not, what's really required are the use of keywords, and that would be one of the few ways to get an accuracy rate of 100%.
So why a dedicated number? Well as you can see I've barely scratched the surface and there are a number of good reasons, but ultimately that comes down to you and what you're looking to do now, and into the future - but if you ever have a questions about it, then please let me know.
Enjoy,
C
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Monday, 25 January 2010
The high cost of SMS in Austalia
So in the last few days there have been TV, radio, paper and Internet stories on the high price of SMS in Australia compared to the rest of the world. I agree, it's really too high for what we get, but I thought I'd try to cover off what it is the way it is?
What a sticky topic to talk about from someone who works for a local SMS provider, who's definitely not the cheapest in the market, nor wants to be :)
I personally think that there are three key reasons why our telco costs in general are high, not just SMS;
1. Our regulators have as many teeth as my dear old granny, who god rest her soul pasted about 15 years a go, and I'm pretty sure she didn't have any teeth then, so probably has even less now.
2. Our largest telco also controls the wholesale market setting prices that allow its retail arm to maximise profitability.
3. We're prepared to pay the price.
It's been a long known truth that Australia has one of the largest mobile penetration rates in the world, we also have one of the highest rates of Internet users per capita and we're generally considered techno junkies - meaning that we h ave a high rate up technology take ups in the world.
It's just my view, but if these three points were addressed I think we'd see a different playing field all together!
Enjoy your Australia Day tomorrow.
C
What a sticky topic to talk about from someone who works for a local SMS provider, who's definitely not the cheapest in the market, nor wants to be :)
I personally think that there are three key reasons why our telco costs in general are high, not just SMS;
1. Our regulators have as many teeth as my dear old granny, who god rest her soul pasted about 15 years a go, and I'm pretty sure she didn't have any teeth then, so probably has even less now.
2. Our largest telco also controls the wholesale market setting prices that allow its retail arm to maximise profitability.
3. We're prepared to pay the price.
It's been a long known truth that Australia has one of the largest mobile penetration rates in the world, we also have one of the highest rates of Internet users per capita and we're generally considered techno junkies - meaning that we h ave a high rate up technology take ups in the world.
It's just my view, but if these three points were addressed I think we'd see a different playing field all together!
Enjoy your Australia Day tomorrow.
C
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Tuesday, 19 January 2010
So what's an SMS and how can it help your business?
An SMS is an acronym for Short Message Service - it was originally developed for telco engineers to communicate with one another so that they didn't need to make mobile calls for small things.
Initially it was thought that it was a technology that was too hard to use, and wouldn't have any commercial value to the telco's customers - that's why just about everywhere around the world when it first came out it was free, that's right free.
A former telco engineer once told me that the network he worked for had a PC on a small table in the corner of their office was the server for SMS, and you'll probably find that was the case for most telco companies - there was little invested in hardware because, well they didn't expect it to take off.
So now text messaging has taken off, and is forever increasing - for adults between the ages 18 and 35 it's the most preferred method of communication between them and company's they deal with, with expected usages going into the trillions of messages world wide - in fact it has been and continues to be the most popular form of messaging in the world, beating out email, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and so on.
So the kids love it, Twitter loves it, but why should your business love it? Well, let me say two things from the outset - first, SMS messaging should never replace a phone call that's worth making the phone call in the first place - i.e. a salesman has got the customer to the point where they feel comfortable asking for the business, would they use SMS instead of calling or going around to see the customer face to face? No, of course not. Secondly, remember it doesn't matter what your company does or what it provides, ultimately all businesses, including yours whether you want it to or not, is a sales company, and without sales you don't have a business, just a group of people that hang out together.
So why use SMS within your business? There are two generic reasons that apply to pretty much everyone, it's a cost saving both in the cost of making phone calls, and secondly the labour cost of making the calls.
But it also offers consistency within the business - one of our clients, who is an accountancy firm, and who has been using SMS for the last number of years say that in the past before using SMS, that they would call some clients to remind them about appointments, but quite often they'd either forget to call after the customer had asked for the prompt, or they just forgot or they made call - the problem here is consistency. Whereas now, everyone who makes an appointment gets a scheduled SMS to remind them, and on the whole the service has worked better than expected with the initial reaction from their clients being that they now felt better looked after than ever, and the response from the customer being that their clients are happier and it's actually meant less effort to provide a greater level of service to their clients - win win. And who ever said there was no such thing!
Individually, why should your business use SMS, well that depends on the application you're looking at using for - OK, so you want to use it for server alerts, you're not going to be the biggest customer in the world, let's make no bones about it, but what size customer to anyone shouldn't make a difference it's the impact that company has on you, so by providing an easy solution for server alerts so that the IT staff can get the messages in a much more direct and timely manner will speak for itself in downtime savings!
Or how about you run a day spa or hairdressers? That's pretty easy to, you're looking at appointment reminders - I remember speaking to another accountancy firm, who no didn't sign up with us, but in fact told me to go somewhere, but in a nicer way because they didn't suffer from broken appointments, well they are probably one of the privileged few, because most businesses that have appointment times will through out the course of time in fact have a number of no shows and there's a cost to that, both in paying for staff to do a job that's not being done because of the broken appointment, and the opportunity cost to the business, where they could have given that appointment time to someone who would have turned up, so to spend 10 or 20 cents on effectively what would be an insurance policy to make sure that doesn't happen makes good business sense.
How about your business runs a call centre of sorts and people are calling in on your 1300/1800 numbers which costs you money, and the longer your staff talks to them the higher the cost to the business to provide that support to that customer - when giving reference details, that would be a case for SMS, sending out basic instructions for your product, again SMS would be a winner there.
But what about email? Unless it's bulk email, it's pretty much free? Yep, you're right it is - but unfortunately it's probably not read, or gone to their junk or spam folder, or because email addresses are either more complicated or longer than a phone number it's much easier to get the wrong address and so the customer never gets the message - they call up and go through it again and fix it up, with your customer being annoyed because it took them time to call back again, and the rising service costs to the business. Plus as I mentioned earlier between the ages of 18-35 SMS is the most popular form of comms anyway, and as they get older the age gaps rises as there doesn't seem to be a decrease in popularity for our teenage cousins so far.
So to sum it up, why SMS for your business? Because it's convenient, delivers consistent service to customers and saves money on labour and in phone calls.
If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.
Enjoy,
C
Initially it was thought that it was a technology that was too hard to use, and wouldn't have any commercial value to the telco's customers - that's why just about everywhere around the world when it first came out it was free, that's right free.
A former telco engineer once told me that the network he worked for had a PC on a small table in the corner of their office was the server for SMS, and you'll probably find that was the case for most telco companies - there was little invested in hardware because, well they didn't expect it to take off.
So now text messaging has taken off, and is forever increasing - for adults between the ages 18 and 35 it's the most preferred method of communication between them and company's they deal with, with expected usages going into the trillions of messages world wide - in fact it has been and continues to be the most popular form of messaging in the world, beating out email, ICQ, MSN Messenger, and so on.
So the kids love it, Twitter loves it, but why should your business love it? Well, let me say two things from the outset - first, SMS messaging should never replace a phone call that's worth making the phone call in the first place - i.e. a salesman has got the customer to the point where they feel comfortable asking for the business, would they use SMS instead of calling or going around to see the customer face to face? No, of course not. Secondly, remember it doesn't matter what your company does or what it provides, ultimately all businesses, including yours whether you want it to or not, is a sales company, and without sales you don't have a business, just a group of people that hang out together.
So why use SMS within your business? There are two generic reasons that apply to pretty much everyone, it's a cost saving both in the cost of making phone calls, and secondly the labour cost of making the calls.
But it also offers consistency within the business - one of our clients, who is an accountancy firm, and who has been using SMS for the last number of years say that in the past before using SMS, that they would call some clients to remind them about appointments, but quite often they'd either forget to call after the customer had asked for the prompt, or they just forgot or they made call - the problem here is consistency. Whereas now, everyone who makes an appointment gets a scheduled SMS to remind them, and on the whole the service has worked better than expected with the initial reaction from their clients being that they now felt better looked after than ever, and the response from the customer being that their clients are happier and it's actually meant less effort to provide a greater level of service to their clients - win win. And who ever said there was no such thing!
Individually, why should your business use SMS, well that depends on the application you're looking at using for - OK, so you want to use it for server alerts, you're not going to be the biggest customer in the world, let's make no bones about it, but what size customer to anyone shouldn't make a difference it's the impact that company has on you, so by providing an easy solution for server alerts so that the IT staff can get the messages in a much more direct and timely manner will speak for itself in downtime savings!
Or how about you run a day spa or hairdressers? That's pretty easy to, you're looking at appointment reminders - I remember speaking to another accountancy firm, who no didn't sign up with us, but in fact told me to go somewhere, but in a nicer way because they didn't suffer from broken appointments, well they are probably one of the privileged few, because most businesses that have appointment times will through out the course of time in fact have a number of no shows and there's a cost to that, both in paying for staff to do a job that's not being done because of the broken appointment, and the opportunity cost to the business, where they could have given that appointment time to someone who would have turned up, so to spend 10 or 20 cents on effectively what would be an insurance policy to make sure that doesn't happen makes good business sense.
How about your business runs a call centre of sorts and people are calling in on your 1300/1800 numbers which costs you money, and the longer your staff talks to them the higher the cost to the business to provide that support to that customer - when giving reference details, that would be a case for SMS, sending out basic instructions for your product, again SMS would be a winner there.
But what about email? Unless it's bulk email, it's pretty much free? Yep, you're right it is - but unfortunately it's probably not read, or gone to their junk or spam folder, or because email addresses are either more complicated or longer than a phone number it's much easier to get the wrong address and so the customer never gets the message - they call up and go through it again and fix it up, with your customer being annoyed because it took them time to call back again, and the rising service costs to the business. Plus as I mentioned earlier between the ages of 18-35 SMS is the most popular form of comms anyway, and as they get older the age gaps rises as there doesn't seem to be a decrease in popularity for our teenage cousins so far.
So to sum it up, why SMS for your business? Because it's convenient, delivers consistent service to customers and saves money on labour and in phone calls.
If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.
Enjoy,
C
Friday, 15 January 2010
Whilst there are many convenient ways of using SMS, for me, I think the best way of using SMS is to integrate the service into existing applications using the SDK's or API's.
For me, it's because using the API's allow you to have the functionality that you want to use, and it automates the usage, like with clinic or salon software where you enter in appointments, it makes it easy to automate every appointment gets a SMS sent out, rather than having to leave it to the user to send.
What that means is that it's consistent - every appointment gets an SMS and there's nothing more to think about.
I remember back in the day when I used to sell bearings for a living, the company that I worked for still had the old green screen, and probably still do to be fair, and along the back wall of the office were folders upon folders containing part numbers and price lists in case the computers ever went down, and there were still many employees that remember having to use those folders full time, good grieve! And when orders for pick up came in, we'd have to ring people - sometime it got missed, or messages were left and never followed up because it had been so long.
Whilst it's not OK that it happened, it did happen and that was consistent throughout the group - why because people get busy, they get side tracked and they ultimately end up forgetting until it's reached a point where they don't feel comfortable making the call because that's out of their comfort zone.
This is a great argument for automatising procedures that can be vastly improved through the use of SMS.
So for example within the sales and accounting package they are using, once someone books in the goods to the local store, an SMS alert is sent to the respective customer to let them know it's in, and if the goods aren't booked out then it can continue to send messages until the goods are collected.
Is it more expensive than what they are doing now, well no it's not, because everything on premises has a cost assigned to it, and in many cases the goods haven't been paid for either, so while they sit there in limbo in fact it's costing month - and when you think of it an SMS is greatly cheaper than a phone call anyway, so half a dozen messages to someone that's not picking the goods up, you're still out in front because you haven't apportioned a cost of labour yet either.
So back to the API's and SDK's - an API is an Application Programming Interface, basically it's a bit of code that allows one application to talk to another application and acts like a bridge for data to cross between the two.
Say for SMS, it means that you are able to install certain features, like batch messaging - i.e. sending bulk SMS by bundling a whole bunch of them up into one ball and sending it across as a job lot, and the reason you would do this is because it speeds up the processing time - instead of messages being treated as individual events, they're treated as one big event and so there is less to process and is ultimately a quicker way of doing it.
If you look at Web SMS, there are plenty of features in there that you might or might not use, but you have them all available for you anyway - if you were to add them to an application, then really you are only going to want to use the functions that, well, you want to use, the rest is just noise, and you're not going to get that - so when it's put into the application, it's clean this does this and that does that.
When we talk about SDK's, it's an acronym for Software Development Kit, which basically the API's bundled up in to various coding environments - I've also remembered it as it's the starting place for a developer to get them going, and as they go on they would then use the API's straight out themselves. They generally contain the DLL libraries, and documentation pertaining to the coding environment they are using, like PHP, Perl, .NET, Delphi and so on.
So to sum it up, why is integration the premium method? Because it allows the application to do what it does without having to rely on users to think about it - after all, consistency is king when it comes to procedures!
Enjoy
C
For me, it's because using the API's allow you to have the functionality that you want to use, and it automates the usage, like with clinic or salon software where you enter in appointments, it makes it easy to automate every appointment gets a SMS sent out, rather than having to leave it to the user to send.
What that means is that it's consistent - every appointment gets an SMS and there's nothing more to think about.
I remember back in the day when I used to sell bearings for a living, the company that I worked for still had the old green screen, and probably still do to be fair, and along the back wall of the office were folders upon folders containing part numbers and price lists in case the computers ever went down, and there were still many employees that remember having to use those folders full time, good grieve! And when orders for pick up came in, we'd have to ring people - sometime it got missed, or messages were left and never followed up because it had been so long.
Whilst it's not OK that it happened, it did happen and that was consistent throughout the group - why because people get busy, they get side tracked and they ultimately end up forgetting until it's reached a point where they don't feel comfortable making the call because that's out of their comfort zone.
This is a great argument for automatising procedures that can be vastly improved through the use of SMS.
So for example within the sales and accounting package they are using, once someone books in the goods to the local store, an SMS alert is sent to the respective customer to let them know it's in, and if the goods aren't booked out then it can continue to send messages until the goods are collected.
Is it more expensive than what they are doing now, well no it's not, because everything on premises has a cost assigned to it, and in many cases the goods haven't been paid for either, so while they sit there in limbo in fact it's costing month - and when you think of it an SMS is greatly cheaper than a phone call anyway, so half a dozen messages to someone that's not picking the goods up, you're still out in front because you haven't apportioned a cost of labour yet either.
So back to the API's and SDK's - an API is an Application Programming Interface, basically it's a bit of code that allows one application to talk to another application and acts like a bridge for data to cross between the two.
Say for SMS, it means that you are able to install certain features, like batch messaging - i.e. sending bulk SMS by bundling a whole bunch of them up into one ball and sending it across as a job lot, and the reason you would do this is because it speeds up the processing time - instead of messages being treated as individual events, they're treated as one big event and so there is less to process and is ultimately a quicker way of doing it.
If you look at Web SMS, there are plenty of features in there that you might or might not use, but you have them all available for you anyway - if you were to add them to an application, then really you are only going to want to use the functions that, well, you want to use, the rest is just noise, and you're not going to get that - so when it's put into the application, it's clean this does this and that does that.
When we talk about SDK's, it's an acronym for Software Development Kit, which basically the API's bundled up in to various coding environments - I've also remembered it as it's the starting place for a developer to get them going, and as they go on they would then use the API's straight out themselves. They generally contain the DLL libraries, and documentation pertaining to the coding environment they are using, like PHP, Perl, .NET, Delphi and so on.
So to sum it up, why is integration the premium method? Because it allows the application to do what it does without having to rely on users to think about it - after all, consistency is king when it comes to procedures!
Enjoy
C
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Interconnect fees - what's that about?
An interconnect fee is simply a charge that one network applies to another network for passing calls and SMS onto their subscribers (customers).
Whilst you might not think of it, and if you do you may assume that all networks are connected to every other network around the world, that's not quite true. in fact an example I've been using for years is Telecom NZ - where they typically have only had interconnection agreements with about 6 other networks around the world.
So what happens, generally speaking, is that network A has an agreement with network B, and these can differ from network to network, so whilst on one hand you might have two networks that agree to pass all SMS and calls to one another, you might have another network saying that the calls and SMS they pass must have numerical originators and not be generated from an application (phone only).
An example of this is in the US, in fact it's against US law to send SMS from an application to a US handset - it's pretty much due to the telco plans over there where users are charged for receiving SMS and not for sending, so in an application to handset model, typically generated by a business, that would be considered premium messaging, because the user is charged to receive the messages - which is why if you've ever signed up for an SMS service to use on your PC and tried to send to a US mobile, it's probably failed unless you've stamped the message with a numerical originator.
Is it a pain? For the sender, yes, for the person receiving the messages? Probably not, no - in fact it's designed to protect recipients from being bombarded with spam, so in all it's probably a good thing.
In the case of the US, then there are ways around it, like using vanity numbers at a zero tariff so the company pays to send, which is fair enough, though the cost of the vanity numbers can be cost prohibitive for the number itself.
Are you better to look for a service that uses grey or smart routing? Depending on where you're sending to, then it might be a good idea, the problem is that if you are trying to get through to major western or developed countries, then probably not, because there's a good chance that not all your messages will get through - and then that's a decision you need to take as to what percentage of messages you are happy to have be delivered successfully versus what percentage get failed.
Shortly I plan to write another blog on what is smart routing and what does it mean to those using services that use this method.
Enjoy,
C
Whilst you might not think of it, and if you do you may assume that all networks are connected to every other network around the world, that's not quite true. in fact an example I've been using for years is Telecom NZ - where they typically have only had interconnection agreements with about 6 other networks around the world.
So what happens, generally speaking, is that network A has an agreement with network B, and these can differ from network to network, so whilst on one hand you might have two networks that agree to pass all SMS and calls to one another, you might have another network saying that the calls and SMS they pass must have numerical originators and not be generated from an application (phone only).
An example of this is in the US, in fact it's against US law to send SMS from an application to a US handset - it's pretty much due to the telco plans over there where users are charged for receiving SMS and not for sending, so in an application to handset model, typically generated by a business, that would be considered premium messaging, because the user is charged to receive the messages - which is why if you've ever signed up for an SMS service to use on your PC and tried to send to a US mobile, it's probably failed unless you've stamped the message with a numerical originator.
Is it a pain? For the sender, yes, for the person receiving the messages? Probably not, no - in fact it's designed to protect recipients from being bombarded with spam, so in all it's probably a good thing.
In the case of the US, then there are ways around it, like using vanity numbers at a zero tariff so the company pays to send, which is fair enough, though the cost of the vanity numbers can be cost prohibitive for the number itself.
Are you better to look for a service that uses grey or smart routing? Depending on where you're sending to, then it might be a good idea, the problem is that if you are trying to get through to major western or developed countries, then probably not, because there's a good chance that not all your messages will get through - and then that's a decision you need to take as to what percentage of messages you are happy to have be delivered successfully versus what percentage get failed.
Shortly I plan to write another blog on what is smart routing and what does it mean to those using services that use this method.
Enjoy,
C
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
Send SMS via computer using GSM modems
I've recently seen a number of providers selling GSM modems with a SIM card for SMS messages.
Whilst I can see the benefits, chiefly the cost per SMS is a few cents, there are a couple of inherent issues here though too.
The first, and probably the biggest, is coverage - if you're in a building with big thick concrete walls, and levels above and below you, it might be a struggle to get a signal, or if you're in a remote local, shopping center, etc... there's a good chance that you're not going to be able to reliably use the service.
If that's OK, then cool bananas, but you'd still need to look at not just the volume of messages you send during a month, but the volume of messages you're sending out in one go - because the speed comparatively is quite slow.
The cost. The cost is great, but really you could do better, these places sell you packages and then the modems on top of that - if you weren't worried about getting a signal and you didn't have an issue on how long it would take to send your messages out then really you could do better anyway by buying your own GSM modem, walk down to your local phone shop and buy a SIM card and go for it - you'll probably find that you'll do better that way.
Personally I'm not keen on this method myself - you might think I'm bias, and I am, with good reason. What's not said about these types of messaging arrangements is that there's no accountability. Say you sent out a bunch of messages to clients about up coming work you're doing for them, how do you know if they get the message? If they don't get the message then who do you call? if it's the place where you got the system from, then who do they call?
I would lay a confident bet that in fact in most cases you'd be turned away and told to contact the network - can I dare you to call your mobile phone provider stating what you've done and that people weren't getting messages and see what the result of that conversation was, and have it be a great one, unlikely.
The difference with that and using an online version through a tier 1 aggregator is that the aggregator has a technical relationship between themselves and the network, so if there's an issue, they call the networks technical support - a number you're not going to find yourself, even with the super powers of Google!
Then there's the ability to work anywhere - so you're a small business owner, ever work from home? Of course you do, it's part of the life style of being a "small business owner", in part that's why you're doing what you're doing.
So if you're working from home and want to send some messages out, unless you bought the device with you you can't, as opposed to an online service where you can be anywhere in the world and send messages.
The cost. OK, so it's not a few cents more, it's a few few more cents - but still significantly cheaper than a phone call, and in terms of labour costs, just as good cost savings too, but then what you're willing to pay for a service has a relationship with the importance of that function to the business too.
Either way, no matter what you ultimately decide to do, please be sure to research it really well before making the jump, because the last thing you want to do is grab a bargin and get a lemon.
Enjoy,
C
Whilst I can see the benefits, chiefly the cost per SMS is a few cents, there are a couple of inherent issues here though too.
The first, and probably the biggest, is coverage - if you're in a building with big thick concrete walls, and levels above and below you, it might be a struggle to get a signal, or if you're in a remote local, shopping center, etc... there's a good chance that you're not going to be able to reliably use the service.
If that's OK, then cool bananas, but you'd still need to look at not just the volume of messages you send during a month, but the volume of messages you're sending out in one go - because the speed comparatively is quite slow.
The cost. The cost is great, but really you could do better, these places sell you packages and then the modems on top of that - if you weren't worried about getting a signal and you didn't have an issue on how long it would take to send your messages out then really you could do better anyway by buying your own GSM modem, walk down to your local phone shop and buy a SIM card and go for it - you'll probably find that you'll do better that way.
Personally I'm not keen on this method myself - you might think I'm bias, and I am, with good reason. What's not said about these types of messaging arrangements is that there's no accountability. Say you sent out a bunch of messages to clients about up coming work you're doing for them, how do you know if they get the message? If they don't get the message then who do you call? if it's the place where you got the system from, then who do they call?
I would lay a confident bet that in fact in most cases you'd be turned away and told to contact the network - can I dare you to call your mobile phone provider stating what you've done and that people weren't getting messages and see what the result of that conversation was, and have it be a great one, unlikely.
The difference with that and using an online version through a tier 1 aggregator is that the aggregator has a technical relationship between themselves and the network, so if there's an issue, they call the networks technical support - a number you're not going to find yourself, even with the super powers of Google!
Then there's the ability to work anywhere - so you're a small business owner, ever work from home? Of course you do, it's part of the life style of being a "small business owner", in part that's why you're doing what you're doing.
So if you're working from home and want to send some messages out, unless you bought the device with you you can't, as opposed to an online service where you can be anywhere in the world and send messages.
The cost. OK, so it's not a few cents more, it's a few few more cents - but still significantly cheaper than a phone call, and in terms of labour costs, just as good cost savings too, but then what you're willing to pay for a service has a relationship with the importance of that function to the business too.
Either way, no matter what you ultimately decide to do, please be sure to research it really well before making the jump, because the last thing you want to do is grab a bargin and get a lemon.
Enjoy,
C
Monday, 11 January 2010
What is email to SMS?
One of the most popular ways of sending SMS messages for businesses is to send them from email - but how.
Well, there are a couple of ways of doing it. The first is to setup your email so that when you start a new email you address the message to the number at the SMS providers domain.
So for example that could be 0412345678@esendex.net - then simply type your message into either the subject line of the email, or the main body. You could do both, however what generally will happen is the text in the subject line will just sit on top of the text in the main body of the message.
The way you would set it up would be to either set up a new email account (and the provider should be able to give you the details required and step by step guide) on your PC, or in the mail server. What happens here is like what happens when you send a normal email, you're sending through your user name and password details to authenticate against - allow you to send messages.
Another way would be using a reverse setup, meaning that you give your SMS provider the email address you're sending from and the IP address, and the messages are authenticated against that.
Both ways are good, if you're not setting it up on a mail server, I think the second option is better personally, because the first way, when you send a message, you'll need to select the mail account you want to use, and if you're like me then more often than not you'll forget to do it, and the message will fail.
With that said, email software providers like Microsoft are building in SMS messengers into their applications, so that you enter in the details (again the SMS provider should be able to give you that information and a guide to do it) and you use that.
I've tried it with the new Outlook, and it's pretty easy to set up if you have instructions and the right information, the only problem I have with it though it that I can't seem to get a button for "New SMS" like you get with the email, but other than that it's actually good.
The last way would be to use a plug in provided by the SMS provider - we have a small application called PC SMS. It's really really basic, and always say to clients that if I had to get my mum to send messages, this is how I'd do it. Because it's just that simple. Sure the functionality is super limited, but for straight out sending it's great and fits the bill more often than not.
In some ways I'd really like to see it get preferential treatment by the development team to come up with a new version that had some bells and whistles, but really it does the job you're looking for - bearing in mind that what you want to do will ultimately determine how you use it and what platform you decide to go with, i.e. email SMS, web SMS, and so on.
So to come back to the opening question of what is email SMS - put simply it about allowing your email either by sending straight from an email message or via a plug in to send out a message via SMS.
Well, there are a couple of ways of doing it. The first is to setup your email so that when you start a new email you address the message to the number at the SMS providers domain.
So for example that could be 0412345678@esendex.net - then simply type your message into either the subject line of the email, or the main body. You could do both, however what generally will happen is the text in the subject line will just sit on top of the text in the main body of the message.
The way you would set it up would be to either set up a new email account (and the provider should be able to give you the details required and step by step guide) on your PC, or in the mail server. What happens here is like what happens when you send a normal email, you're sending through your user name and password details to authenticate against - allow you to send messages.
Another way would be using a reverse setup, meaning that you give your SMS provider the email address you're sending from and the IP address, and the messages are authenticated against that.
Both ways are good, if you're not setting it up on a mail server, I think the second option is better personally, because the first way, when you send a message, you'll need to select the mail account you want to use, and if you're like me then more often than not you'll forget to do it, and the message will fail.
With that said, email software providers like Microsoft are building in SMS messengers into their applications, so that you enter in the details (again the SMS provider should be able to give you that information and a guide to do it) and you use that.
I've tried it with the new Outlook, and it's pretty easy to set up if you have instructions and the right information, the only problem I have with it though it that I can't seem to get a button for "New SMS" like you get with the email, but other than that it's actually good.
The last way would be to use a plug in provided by the SMS provider - we have a small application called PC SMS. It's really really basic, and always say to clients that if I had to get my mum to send messages, this is how I'd do it. Because it's just that simple. Sure the functionality is super limited, but for straight out sending it's great and fits the bill more often than not.
In some ways I'd really like to see it get preferential treatment by the development team to come up with a new version that had some bells and whistles, but really it does the job you're looking for - bearing in mind that what you want to do will ultimately determine how you use it and what platform you decide to go with, i.e. email SMS, web SMS, and so on.
So to come back to the opening question of what is email SMS - put simply it about allowing your email either by sending straight from an email message or via a plug in to send out a message via SMS.
Friday, 8 January 2010
What's an "Originator"?
Like anything technically based, IT people love jargon - I know when I worked in the mechanical and electrical engineering field there were heaps of jargon terms for lots of things, however the people you dealt with were generally technical people themselves, so everything was understood and there was little requirement to educate. So if we talked about about the clearance of a bearing being standard, C2 or C3, people knew what you were saying. IT is different because people in IT are delivering their products to everyone, technical astute or not.
It's not a criticism, but just the way things are - like a salesperson for an ink jet printer may one day be speaking to Systems Manager and the next be speaking to my dad who wants to replace the home printer, the same I find is true for SMS.
Some days I'm speaking with Systems Managers, Developers or business managers who aren't technically educated in the same way, and one of the terms we use in our industry can sound more complicated than it needs to be - originators.
An originator is basically whom the message appears as coming from. That could be a number, like a land line number, a mobile phone number, etc... or a name like "Chris" or "Esendex".
Many providers use different terms to mean the same thing, like "stamping the message", or "branding the message" and "dynamic originators" (which means that the originator can be changed at will).
With SMS, for originators, the standard is usually an alpha numerical originator up to 11 characters long - alpha numerical meaning a combination of letters and/or numbers, and is 11 characters because through out the world most phone numbers are not longer than 11 digits, there are exceptions, but it's done to 11 characters so that a consistent service can be provided, after all there's little sense in allowing 13 or more characters when the local networks will only cut the end of the originator off.
So just to clarify, when people talk about originators, they're talking about the label, name or number that the messages appears to have come from.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
C
It's not a criticism, but just the way things are - like a salesperson for an ink jet printer may one day be speaking to Systems Manager and the next be speaking to my dad who wants to replace the home printer, the same I find is true for SMS.
Some days I'm speaking with Systems Managers, Developers or business managers who aren't technically educated in the same way, and one of the terms we use in our industry can sound more complicated than it needs to be - originators.
An originator is basically whom the message appears as coming from. That could be a number, like a land line number, a mobile phone number, etc... or a name like "Chris" or "Esendex".
Many providers use different terms to mean the same thing, like "stamping the message", or "branding the message" and "dynamic originators" (which means that the originator can be changed at will).
With SMS, for originators, the standard is usually an alpha numerical originator up to 11 characters long - alpha numerical meaning a combination of letters and/or numbers, and is 11 characters because through out the world most phone numbers are not longer than 11 digits, there are exceptions, but it's done to 11 characters so that a consistent service can be provided, after all there's little sense in allowing 13 or more characters when the local networks will only cut the end of the originator off.
So just to clarify, when people talk about originators, they're talking about the label, name or number that the messages appears to have come from.
Hope that helps.
Cheers,
C
Thursday, 7 January 2010
What's a "long message"?
A standard SMS, whether you're sending from your mobile or a web based SMS provider, is 160 characters long based on the GSM alphabet.
Before I go further, I'd like to quickly cover off what the GSM alphabet is to make it a bit clearer - it's an alphabet where the characters equal 7 bit (for standard messages) and includes letters, numbers, spaces, carriage returns, commas, etc... Not every symbol in the world falls into the GSM alphabet, and generally when that happens the networks interpret that character as something else, but that's another blog for another day.
So back to the original question of what is a long message? Well, it's where messages are stacked up like a club sandwich and sent out as a single message.
The way it's done is by taking 7 characters from the preceding SMS to form the header for the proceeding message so that when the handset receives the messages it can put them together in the correct order so it appears to be one long message.
So for example if you sent a message which had 200 characters in it, then the first message would be 153 characters long, with 7 characters forming the header for the next message, and the second message would be 47 characters long.
In a lot of cases long messaging isn't really required, for example for appointment reminders you generally wouldn't use more than 160 characters, and in a lot of cases, you probably wouldn't even get close to that limit either, however if you were using it to send support tickets out, then in that case you might use quite long long messages, so it's really dependent on the application.
Before I go further, I'd like to quickly cover off what the GSM alphabet is to make it a bit clearer - it's an alphabet where the characters equal 7 bit (for standard messages) and includes letters, numbers, spaces, carriage returns, commas, etc... Not every symbol in the world falls into the GSM alphabet, and generally when that happens the networks interpret that character as something else, but that's another blog for another day.
So back to the original question of what is a long message? Well, it's where messages are stacked up like a club sandwich and sent out as a single message.
The way it's done is by taking 7 characters from the preceding SMS to form the header for the proceeding message so that when the handset receives the messages it can put them together in the correct order so it appears to be one long message.
So for example if you sent a message which had 200 characters in it, then the first message would be 153 characters long, with 7 characters forming the header for the next message, and the second message would be 47 characters long.
In a lot of cases long messaging isn't really required, for example for appointment reminders you generally wouldn't use more than 160 characters, and in a lot of cases, you probably wouldn't even get close to that limit either, however if you were using it to send support tickets out, then in that case you might use quite long long messages, so it's really dependent on the application.
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Delivery receipts
What are delivery receipts?
Amazingly enough they're basically what they sound they're like, their a receipt back to advise if your message has been delivered.
Are all delivery receipts equal?
They should be, but it can be a matter or interpretation and here's what I mean - typically when a SMS provider sends a message through to a network, they should get an initial receipt which advises whether the message has been accepted or not, from there on a successfully delivered message should come a second delivery receipt to advise that the message has been successfully sent to the handset (mobile phone).
With us, we typically use a "sent" status to advise that the relevant network has accepted the message and will forward it on to the phone, and then a "delivered" status to say that the phone has received the message.
Other typical status' generally for SMS might be "failed" or "expired" - failed is when the network rejects the message, the number might be wrong or disconnected. Then expired is when the network has attempted to reach the handset but has time out - if could be the phone was been switched off, out of reach from the network or overseas without international roaming.
Now these are our status' - not all providers use the same terms, some might say received instead of delivered or my favourite "read", to that end they're just words and let me assure you that there is nothing within the protocols for SMS that allow you to know if someone has read the message or not, just to know whether the phone has received it.
Why is it important?
It's important to use a provider that offers delivery receipts on all messages, otherwise how do you know the message has been received? i look at delivery receipts like registered post - if I need to get something across to someone else, then I trust the delivery receipts to back up my claims that in fact the information was delivered, in the same way a solicitor will use registered post to say person x received their letter.
The cost of the message is never the face value of the SMS, but in value of the information, or the actions that person x, y or z was going to do with it. So if you only receive receipts on 90% of your messages, then who knows what the 10% are getting, and how that might impact on your business.
Of course value is an individual thing, and what one person places a given value on something might differ from the next persons valuation - and that's something that is down to you. the basic up shot is that without delivery receipts, you don't know what's going on and you should ask yourself how is that effecting your business.
Thanks and enjoy.
Cheers,
C
Amazingly enough they're basically what they sound they're like, their a receipt back to advise if your message has been delivered.
Are all delivery receipts equal?
They should be, but it can be a matter or interpretation and here's what I mean - typically when a SMS provider sends a message through to a network, they should get an initial receipt which advises whether the message has been accepted or not, from there on a successfully delivered message should come a second delivery receipt to advise that the message has been successfully sent to the handset (mobile phone).
With us, we typically use a "sent" status to advise that the relevant network has accepted the message and will forward it on to the phone, and then a "delivered" status to say that the phone has received the message.
Other typical status' generally for SMS might be "failed" or "expired" - failed is when the network rejects the message, the number might be wrong or disconnected. Then expired is when the network has attempted to reach the handset but has time out - if could be the phone was been switched off, out of reach from the network or overseas without international roaming.
Now these are our status' - not all providers use the same terms, some might say received instead of delivered or my favourite "read", to that end they're just words and let me assure you that there is nothing within the protocols for SMS that allow you to know if someone has read the message or not, just to know whether the phone has received it.
Why is it important?
It's important to use a provider that offers delivery receipts on all messages, otherwise how do you know the message has been received? i look at delivery receipts like registered post - if I need to get something across to someone else, then I trust the delivery receipts to back up my claims that in fact the information was delivered, in the same way a solicitor will use registered post to say person x received their letter.
The cost of the message is never the face value of the SMS, but in value of the information, or the actions that person x, y or z was going to do with it. So if you only receive receipts on 90% of your messages, then who knows what the 10% are getting, and how that might impact on your business.
Of course value is an individual thing, and what one person places a given value on something might differ from the next persons valuation - and that's something that is down to you. the basic up shot is that without delivery receipts, you don't know what's going on and you should ask yourself how is that effecting your business.
Thanks and enjoy.
Cheers,
C
Firstly, happy new year to everyone, and I hope it was a great night, and a great year to come.
Something that I admit I haven't been consistent enough with is giving help with regards to SMS in my blogs, so this year I'm committing myself to at least once a week, giving short brief and concise blogs on different things surrounding SMS services.
Through out the year we'll cover off things like what are virtual numbers, delivery receipts, interconnect fees, and so on - basically all the jargon that you might hear from SMS providers, or will hear no doubt, and also an open understanding to it's importance.
It's probably fair enough to say that none of this should really blow your socks off, but hopefully will help clarify things for you - and if you are looking at a service, possibly will help you understand what it is you want from the service, what you should expect and so on.
If you have any questions about any of the following information, then please don't hesitate to contact me directly via email at chris.bartlett@esendex.com or via phone on +61 3 9595 3871, thanks.
Regards,
Chris
Something that I admit I haven't been consistent enough with is giving help with regards to SMS in my blogs, so this year I'm committing myself to at least once a week, giving short brief and concise blogs on different things surrounding SMS services.
Through out the year we'll cover off things like what are virtual numbers, delivery receipts, interconnect fees, and so on - basically all the jargon that you might hear from SMS providers, or will hear no doubt, and also an open understanding to it's importance.
It's probably fair enough to say that none of this should really blow your socks off, but hopefully will help clarify things for you - and if you are looking at a service, possibly will help you understand what it is you want from the service, what you should expect and so on.
If you have any questions about any of the following information, then please don't hesitate to contact me directly via email at chris.bartlett@esendex.com or via phone on +61 3 9595 3871, thanks.
Regards,
Chris
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