Nov/Dec 2004

Could SMS texting be set to make new inroads in the business community? That's a prospect currently occupying some players in the telecoms market, who would love to extend the massive success of consumer texting into new areas.

One of them, Edinburgh-based Yakara, has just launched a Web-based service called m-groups, under which businesses users can send bulk text messages to pre-assigned groups of users, avoiding the need to contact them all separately.

Managing director Stuart Malcolm says he reckons business text messaging is currently under-exploited. "The feedback we have had from clients É suggests that once a business adopts the technology, centrally coordinated texting quickly becomes one of their key communication tools."

He points out that according to the Mobile Data Association, texting broke the 2 billion barrier in September - a 23 per cent increase from last year.

 

If your business already uses GPRS messaging, of course, costs can fall to a fraction of those for SMS messaging, so the real question is probably how much and how often you need the facility, and what else you're doing in your business.