Ergonomy Mobile launches suite of interactive SMS products for the SME market

Short Messaging Service (SMS) in SA is seen as one of the greatest trends in the technology field. More than 50 billion SMS text messages were sent over GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) networks worldwide in the first quarter of 2001 - more than five times as many than in the same period last year, according to the GSM Association.

Addressing the challenge of providing a truly effective SMS service, Ergonomy has entered the market with a new SMS solution built on the Microsoft .NET framework.

Ergonomy, a consulting firm specialising in high-level technical problem solving skills, system specification consulting and technology oriented project delivery, has developed a simple and cost-effective service for the small and medium enterprise (SME) market, enabling companies to easily send and receive interactive SMS messages using the stable and reliable Microsoft platform.

The service comprises of a Web site from which any company can manage the sending and receiving of SMS messages to their client base, suppliers or staff - be that 100 or 100 000 people. This allows for a dynamic exchange of communication to take place on an SMS platform between a user and the SMS interface. SMS messages can be sent out to single or multiple recipients from within a company`s own software applications or CRM systems. Responses are received from recipients via SMS.

Responses can be viewed by the SME client or uploaded as Excel spreadsheets. Campaigns can also be chained together with the results of one campaign triggering the sending of another based on the respondent`s answer. This type of interactive messaging allows SMEs the opportunity to conduct surveys and gather information in a cost-effective and easy manner, thereby achieving best time to market goals.

Ergonomy currently offers two types of SMS solutions for the SME. The smsBureau comprises a secure Web interface that allows companies to sign up and register for the services of Ergonomy without the outlay for hardware and software. As an adjunct to the bureau, Ergonomy provides an SMS gateway component that integrates simply into any software system allowing the sending and receiving of SMS messages. This gateway service can control a single or many local GSM modems, or can seamlessly connect via the Internet using XML Web services.

The smsBureau solution was developed to address a key opportunity in the market. Currently SMS technology is very segmented by nature and until recently the obscure SMS programming interfaces have prevented the SMB with a low budget and/or no great technical knowledge from sending or using SMS as a business tool. The current solution is highly accessible to any person with no technical knowledge and no large investment is required.

One of the keys to the success of the systems developed by Ergonomy is the simplicity of use and hiding of the complex commands required to send and receive SMS. Microsoft Windows 2000 and the .NET platform provides a robust and scalable infrastructure on which to build such enterprise quality tools. Key technologies used include Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Microsoft ASP, Visual Studio .NET and Windows 2000 Server.

According to Dr Anthony Abbot, Director at Ergonomy: "Microsoft technology was chosen based on their long-term experience in the Visual C++ and NT/2000 arena, as well as the fact that they offer an extensive tool set to build enterprise solutions. Reliability of the solution and built-in scalability at the operating system level were additional factors contributing to this decision."

As a result Ergonomy and Microsoft have given SMEs the opportunity to conduct surveys and research in a cost-effective manner and without the need for complicated and expensive hardware. This allows businesses to access and receive information on an almost one-to-one basis and be able to respond and offer feedback based on the respondent`s views.

Further information on the Ergonomy Mobile solutions is available at www.ergomo.com.