Partner with an SMS SP who follows SA regulatory framework

Organisations that want to use SMS as a low-cost and powerful business tool to communicate with their customers, should ensure that the SMS service provider they partner with adheres to the laws and guidelines that cellular service providers and the government have established to govern electronic communications.

That's the word from Barry Prinsloo, Sales Director of SMS Cellular Services, provider of the CellSys solution. He says it is essential that security and usage controls are put in place to protect the recipient from unwanted or abusive messages and to ensure that the organisation uses SMS in a way that enhances its brand and relationships with customers rather than damaging them.

Prinsloo notes that all three cellular operators are signatories to the Marketing Federation of South Africa's (MFSA) SMS code (www.smscode.co.za), which seeks to protect recipients from the nuisance of unwanted commercial messages.

According to the SMS code, a marketer may not send an SMS to a recipient who has not requested it nor given permission to use his or her number for SMS marketing, unless the recipient has a prior commercial relationship, under terms of which he or she could reasonably expect to receive marketing communication from the message originator.

"A recipient who receives unwanted SMS spam can either report the incident to the MFSA through the SMS code Web site or to the operator from whose network the message originated," says Prinsloo. In most cases, large providers of SMS messaging services follow the guidelines set out by the MFSA as well as the anti-spam provisions of the ECT Act and can provide the logging information and audit trails needed to track down offending users.

Says Prinsloo: "Solution providers such as SMS Cellular Services work closely with the cellular operators to create SMS solutions that allow corporate customers to reach their clients while protecting the rights of the recipient. Our high-end systems provide a rich set of auditing and logging functionality that allows abusive users to be easily traced.

"SMS Cellular services follow corporate governance best practices so that our customers' use of SMS complies with the country's laws and direct marketing guidelines. We do not send out any messages that are not tagged with the name and contact details of the sender, nor do we as a rule send out bulk unsolicited marketing messages."

SMS solutions should be seen as a valuable business tool that can be used as a mission-critical communication vehicle rather than merely another marketing medium.

As an example of the way a good SMS service provider protects consumers and business users, Prinsloo points to a recent sexual harassment case in Durban that was filed on the basis of a number of abusive SMS messages that the victim received.

"These messages originated from a computer connected to the CellSys network. CellSys' comprehensive logging and audit trails enabled us to pin-point the offending system user and provide the necessary information to the authorities on request," says Prinsloo.

CellSys SMS solution has the necessary auditing and logging information to be able to deal with mission-critical information being communicated and tracked with a feedback mechanism that closes the loop. This does not compromise the recipient's rights in any way.

This is a paradigm shift for many businesses to think of SMS as a business tool needing business rules rather than merely a marketing medium.