What SMS technology offers business

As the most cost effective method of communicating with customers, employees, suppliers and business partners today, companies of all sizes, in all parts of the market are finding it impossible to ignore the benefits of using SMS technology to streamline their communications and business processes.

Established in 1999, SMS Cellular Services' SMS solution, Cellsys, is an industry leader and partner of choice in corporate SMS applications and has developed technologies aimed at providing organisations with an Enterprise SMS tool that can radically reduce communication costs, improve operational efficiencies and enhance customer relationships within an organisation.

Enterprise SMS technology empowers the enterprise with a quick, easy & cost effective communication tool which allows SMSs to be sent from any IT system, including desktop PCs, to any cellular phone with local and international coverage.

SMS Cellular Services provides a stable, proven and platform-independent business-oriented SMS messaging service. Applications such as relaying information to sales personnel, communicating with credit card holders, supplementing debt collection systems, communicating with travellers, relaying ticketing information, monitoring networks and ATM management are just a few examples of the vast range of business applications.

The simplicity of interfaces and ease of integration with a multitude of other applications means that SMS enabled applications can be deployed quickly and easily, with minimal cost. Cellsys allows companies to integrate as much or as little SMS technology as they desire across their entire organisation.

The products are developed in South Africa and thus full technical support, including access to the original developers, as well as all local staff training is available anywhere within the South African borders.

With offerings such as service level agreements, access to a 24 hour help desk, network monitoring, engineering support, integration services and consulting, Cellsys offers customers the highest level of functionality, scalability, customisability and dependability. This has enabled CellSys to develop an impressive list of blue chip clients in the banking, financial services, manufacturing and mining industries, including Eskom, Telkom, FNB, Harmony, EDS, Momentum and SAA amongst numerous others.

The CellSys SMS solution falls within the grasp of most organisations from 20 to 10 000 users, taking into account the current industry standard SMS charges, a nominal monthly service fee and no requirement for capital outlay. There isn't a more cost effective way of communicating with people anytime, anywhere, in existence today.

The SMS Service provided by CellSys include the following:

Bulk Messaging

CellSys provides the facility to transmit high volume SMSs to multiple recipients in a short space of time. (e g: SAA notifying all Voyager members of special offers over the Easter period etc) The CellSys SMS server has no limitations on the number of messages that may be delivered.

Automated SMS

CellSys allows for the ability to send automatic SMSs initiated from a system driven event. For example a power failure would immediately alert the relevant person/s of a failure in the system so that they may react immediately to the problem at hand. Similarly a message could be sent to a bank's customer the moment a transaction has occurred on their account, thereby keeping the customer up to date at all times.

Mobile Originated SMS

A cell phone user may send in an SMS message requesting certain information. ( e g quantity of stock on hand) CellSys will receive the message and pass the query back to the customer's line-of-business (LOB) systems for processing. Once the LOB has processed the query CellSys will transmit the reply to the sender's cellular phone via SMS.

Two way communication

Cellsys allows for full two-way SMS communications providing PC users with the ability to send and receive messages directly from their workstations. Full reply-back functionality is also standard.

Reporting

CellSys' comprehensive usage reports and detailed audit trails for all sent and received SMS messages enable organisations to allocate costs to individual customers or departments, and to track which users or applications sent which messages and when. The format is the same as that of any e-mailing system and can therefore be easily used by any person familiar with e-mail. With this feature, CellSys can be deployed as an enterprise SMS resource for use by multiple departments, with multiple users and applications across the organisation.

Security

Security and confidentiality of information is of utmost importance to SMS Cellular Services. Cellsys ensures that no customer data is exposed to unauthorised access and the entire network is fire walled and password protected. The central CellSys hub is housed in a secure operations centre with three levels of physical access to ensure both virtual and physical security and to protect the continuity of the system, back-up systems include a 24 hour a day service to the client.

Installation - Interfaces and Integration

Cellsys is differentiated from other offerings through its ease of deployment, central management support of Microsoft's Active Directory and simple integration architecture. This means that the functionality available to users, applications and back-end systems can easily be customised and controlled by IT staff, from a single location, anywhere in the organisation.

The CellSys service includes a fully redundant network infrastructure for connection to GSM operators world-wide and the Cellsys client is light enough to be deployed via e-mail and runs on both Microsoft and Unix based Operating Systems, offering the same performance and stability across all platforms, from desktop to laptop.

From an integration perspective, CellSys employs a standard text string for receipt of SMS messages across all interfaces. This allows for painless integration with back-end systems and reduces development and integration efforts, bringing down the solution's total cost of ownership. Since Cellsys integrates with existing applications and provides add-on SMS functionality to applications like MS Exchange and Domino, it requires minimal training for users.

The system provides an unparalleled range of connectivity and interface options for integration with a vast range of existing business applications and IT systems. Integration options include a base TCP/IP port, an MQ series messaging interface, BAPI or SAP connector, a native WWW(HTTP) interface, a file or disk interface and SMTP & POP3 e-mail support. In addition to the CellSys Server for Microsoft platforms, a Java version of the CellSys Server is also currently available.

SMS technology provides the following benefits for business:

* Significant cost savings to the company. (SMS is much cheaper than the average cost of a Telkom or Cellphone call or postage.)
* Significant saving in man hours.
* Communication is instantaneous therefore far quicker than conventional methods such as faxing or e-mailing.
* People tend to have their cell phones on them at all times making it possible to reach them when they are away from their desks.
* Improved customer/supplier/staff relations.
* Overall improvement in organisational efficiency.

As the most cost effective method of communicating with customers, employees, suppliers and business partners today, companies of all sizes, in all parts of the market are finding it impossible to ignore the benefits of using SMS technology to streamline their communications and business processes.