SMS and its uses within Education

This morning I could not help but notice the build-up in traffic volumes to indicate that the typical back to school cliché has arrived, and with it the unleashing of their text messaging services.

Schools use SMS for a multitude of reasons- informing parents if a child is missing from roll call, highlighting if the school is closed (due to weather, for example), when to collect children if a half-day or emergency, and regular general news, events and information alerts for parents. In general, there seems to be three types of systems for transmission- from dedicated education specific software that sends alerts automatically (e.g. roll call), to variations of sending SMS from a standard email account to online based group services. However, aside from these types of standard processes, SMS is used within education in a whole host of ways, such as “SMS Story” [1], a fascinating use of SMS where stories that are 160 characters (or less) are sent to teachers in Papua New Guinea to aid with children’s reading skills. Another fascinating paper [2] demonstrated that sending SMS during the summer to remind, encourage and inform post secondary/high-school students and their parents how to enroll in college, so they go through with it and do not quit, had a noticeable beneficial outcome.

[1] Kaleebu, Nasiib, Alison Gee, Nick Maybanks, Richard Jones, Marshall Jauk, and Amanda HA Watson. “SMS Story: early results of an innovative education trial.” Contemporary PNG Studies 19 (2014): 50. Link: https://epsp-web.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/doc_KaleebuGeeMaybanksJonesJaukWatsonSMSStory.pdf

 

[2] Castleman, Benjamin L., and Lindsay C. Page. “Summer nudging: Can personalized text messages and peer mentor outreach increase college going among low-income high school graduates?.” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization (2014). Link: https://npeac.memberclicks.net/assets/summer%20nudging.pdf

 

SMS, Internet-of-Things and Machine2Machine Communication

This is just a very brief post comparing IOT and SMS. In essence, the Internet-of-Things (IOT) category is based upon sensors and other devices within machines communicating with other devices over a web based communications channel; transferring data content such as sensor/meter readings etc. In many ways SMS can be seen as a precursor to this moniker; the technology has been applied in many diverse ways with regards to Machine-to-Machine communication, including:

• Smoke and security alarms sending messages to GSM based servers to both record the details of the event(s) as well as broadcast SMS alerts.
• Detecting if devices were opened, recording the time in a log and sending alerts.
• River level sensors sending via a GSM Modem alerts to machines to record water depth as well as informing engineers via SMS.
• Sensors monitoring temperatures in tanks etc. sending SMS Alerts to both servers for recording of readings as well as to operational staff.

One interesting aspect of this, is that SMS still has a relevant function due to the strong GSM coverage within this country- where rural areas may only have a robust telecom network as their sole communications source. Another area in which SMS can be seen to be a precursor to IOT, is the increasing level of data analysis required to gain an understanding of the information and patterns contained within the various parameter based sensor recordings.

Using your Email Service to Send a SMS

If you prefer to use your own internal systems to send SMS than use a 3rd party group solution offered by a network or specialized supplier, then email is a key way of broadcasting SMS. This allows you to use and retain your own specifically stored existing contacts within your own environment; whether they are stored within an online or software based email account solution.

The mechanism to do this does not require specific software setup. Usually, you just need to source a provider that offers Email to SMS type services. You can send text messages as an email with the Recipient field containing the mobile number followed by a domain of your provider such as 353860000000[at]smsdomain. Once your sms provider receives this they then have enough information to convert your email to a SMS and send it to the correct handset on your behalf.

A key advantage of this type of solution is that it enables replies from the recipient to be stored directly in your email account. Thus, your business can record all 2 way conversations from yourself and the recipient/recipients involved. This can be further enhanced by requesting the reply subject line to contain information that uniquely identifies the recipients, which enables filtering or even using email rule configurations to store specific replies within specific folders. One benefit of this type of service is that it facilitates compliance and message traceability within an organisation, should that be a requirement. As well as potentially tracing back conversations over orders, sales, meeting requests etc.

 

Other posts relating to this:

[1]

[2]

SMS- Viable Communications Tool 2015

According to the latest Comreg Report that was published on the 12th March 2015, Irish Communications Market Quarterly Key Data Report Q4 2014, SMS volumes have increased from Q3 2014 to Q4 2014 by 2.7%. There are a bewildering, but always fascinating, level of new concepts, technologies, ideas and services launched and fermented at an almost daily rate. Finding a role for existing technologies, such as SMS and Email, to gain traction above this “noise” can be challenging. Often technologies that are ubiquitous can be simply disregarded, as they work away in the background. So what factors cause SMS to remain standing out as a feasible and useful tool for promoting and communicating? What are the elements that makes it such a globally enduring phenomenon?

1. Impact: It is proven through multiple statistics and measurements that people read their text messages almost instantly. Messages are pushed into their awareness.
2. Reach: SMS is agnostic when it comes to handsets, locations, devices, operating systems and demographics. It can cost-effectively target a level of users like nothing else.
3. Access: People of all ages are able to read, understand and respond to text messages.
4. Traction: People actively opt-in/sign up to loyalty programs such as receiving daily deals, sales coupons etc. Why? They see a benefit. Equally, they understand that they can seamlessly opt-out of any group with little effort or hassle.
5. Broadcast: Any business, regardless of size or marketing budget, has the ability to create text messages and send group broadcasts to a dedicated list.
6. Technology: There is a vast array of technological methods to enable and facilitate businesses send SMS, These cater for what suits their infrastructure, budget, time and skillset- this can be anything from sending SMS from their email environment to an online group messaging service (such as provided by the main operators).
7. Interactivity: Businesses can communicate in real-time with their customers, it may be simply asking for their confirmation of a proposed delivery date to requests on service satisfaction feedback. The method of these replies is also diverse to suit a business’s requirements, from storing replies online to having them within an offline/online email account.
8. Cost: All aspects of sending messages can be monitored; length of messages can be controlled (very important, as 160 characters is considered 1 SMS, however between 160 and 290 characters is 2 messages, so just going over 160 by 1 doubles the cost of each message to each recipient), volume of messages can be assessed (usually the more you purchase from a provider in a bulk package, the costs go down), ROI (Return-On-Investment) can be analysed- number sent out (number of coupons cashed in, number of replies garnered, how many delivered/failed to be delivered etc..)
9. Flexibility: There are endless ways and combinations to effectively use SMS within a business for external communication such as for mobile marketing and for internal communication. External communication: From sending out tickets to events (displayed at the door for entry), to coupons (cashed in at the cashier), to updating customers on delivery times, confirm meetings, inform an opt-in list of upcoming sales, send scheduled alerts at less peak business times to drive and hence promote custom. Internal communication: As well as this, SMS can be used by businesses to cost-effectively maintain internal communications- such as server or system monitoring via SMS alerts, or updating on-the-road staff regarding destinations, future client meetings, service requests, client meeting cancellations etc.

Brief Overview of SMS based Mobile Marketing

Mobile Marketing consists of many strands, but the core is always to generate new custom in your business and subsequently, interest in the product/service you are offering.

Mobile Marketing, with regards to SMS, consists of many features including:

• Shared Shortcodes and Keywords
• SMS Coupons
• Optin-Lists
• Realtime 2-Way Interactivity between your clients and your business

Within these blog posts, you can read about how to write effective content, what your aims should be when creating a campaign, controlling cost of your mobile marketing broadcast , how you can use your analytics to create smarter more targeted marketing etc.

SMS based Mobile Marketing is used by business for many reasons, including:

1. It is a push technology, meaning a user is instantly prompted to read the message when it is delivered.
2. It is an inexpensive communications medium.
3. Robustness; text messages are not software dependent for delivery or abilty to be read- it is a standard feature on phones.

Brief Overview of Text Messaging 2014

On our 50th blog post, I think it is worth spending a brief moment reflecting on what the Irish text messaging sector has achieved, and in these times of multi-communication platforms, what its role can be. Go2mobile was established back in 1998 and since then has offered an array of corporate Text Messaging services due to the growing adaption and popularity of SMS including SMS to Email, SMS Server Monitoring Alert type services, Group messaging, bespoke entertainment sector solutions, tailored agriculture sector specific solutions, mobile marketing (such as SMS coupons) etc.

Today, taking a step back from these accepted standard offerings, it is clear that analytics within CRM solutions is now playing an important smart role in helping corporate entities to define appropriate mobile SMS contact lists  when creating marketing subscription groups from their opt-in records. As we have seen from previous blog post entries, data mining allows you to create lists by location, for example, or frequency footfall (when the customer most often visits your premises for instance, perhaps the morning commute, so you may wish to offer her a discounted coffee between 7am and 8am via SMS Coupon). But all this data is figures based and locked within the CRM. Text analytics, another branch of analytics, helps companies use their text string based data repositories to break outside these figures; where customer specific software (such as developed by IBM http://www-01.ibm.com/software/analytics/solutions/customer-analytics/social-media-analytics/) can illustrate what the overall positive/negative mood of customers are, or indeed summarize the stored content within WordCloud type visualizations. Since those types of systems are particularly tailored towards social media, such as Twitter with its short Tweet string length, SMS could also be reasonably applied since it has the same issues as Tweets, namely abbreviations and string length. We touched on this in a previous blog guest post. Though you have to respect data privacy by anonymizing any data source you use, same as data analytics.

SMS is still used heavily within mobile marketing related projects; the likes of internal analytics solutions within those companies have made how they use SMS smarter, particularly in regards to mobile marketing with targeting the most appropriate individuals. Gateway providers such as Go2mobile, create pathways for these types of companies to send their bespoke lists in a variety of ways, including sending straight from their CRM software solutions as emails that are converted to SMS. One specific area that avails of this sort of service are school roll-call lists, where existing school software can analyse the roll call rota data, recognize whom is missing, extract their parents mobile contact data and then send text messages using their existing inbuilt email module.

Smarter uses of SMS can prove to be both powerful  and help reduce costs; as you are targeting a specific group of people (for example: a SMS based promotion that is only related to trade within your Killaloe café branch, then you do not wish to send to everybody outside of a certain radius that may indicate interest in branches closer to their location). This kind of effective use of SMS achieves a greater return on investment as well as allowing more localized type promotions, for example when festivals are taking place you may wish to promote suitable events around that period.

You can also see from online email providers that they offer a security system which includes sending verification codes to mobile phones via text message. So SMS is still finding roles that are quite specific and unique to its particular strengths. A significant advantage due to its simplicity, is its ability to act in conjunction both with technologies that are more recent, as well as legacy systems that exist within companies (so for example software that have email based communication modules can be used to send SMS without any modifications). Outside of these areas the robustness of SMS has seen it been introduced into an plethora of hardware type services, including products advertised that your intruder alarm will inform you and a few select individuals when it is activated.

Tailored SMS Communication Requirements

SMS continues to facilitate beneficial niches which are both effective and inexpensive. For example, this time of year demonstrates SMS being used for all sorts of reasons from consumer based to business operations.

For instance, with the dis-improving weather, text messaging alerts are used for a plethora of reasons, including: to alert passengers to changing sailing departure times, issue alerts to appropriate staff about river level risings, transport companies issuing drivers alerts on road closures/diversions, engineers informed in relation to power outages, parents receive alerts on school closures. The list can go on.

Another aspect is the Festivals/Holiday periods such as Halloween and Christmas, as well as the following New Year sales. Retailers increase their mobile marketing related promotions to maximise their footfall potential over the various holidays and festivals that occur, and subsequently in January to advertise their sales. Promotions can vary from offering sales, discount coupons etc. Hotels use this time of year to alert existing loyalty customers on discounted weekend or mid week packages.

There are many other specific areas such as medical where certain clinics alert patients about their flu vaccine appointment (for example)  and sports clubs informing players about training times/session cancellations/upcoming game notifications.

SMS Is still used widely as it can reach all manner of phones, whether smart or otherwise. As well as the nature of SMS which pushes its message to the screen and demands instant attention.

 

Example of Combining the Benefits of Mobile Technologies

Just a brief example on how SMS is finding roles in combination with other technologies in order to enhance an existing business service; in this instance, access alarms. A theme that has been previously mentioned before in this blog under a more general guise,

I came across an alert based system that is using a combination of mobile technologies. Interestingly, text messaging was the assumed default option for communication within this system; identifying zones and so forth that are relayed to the mobile handset via plain text. What is noteworthy about this product, was that the other options of voice or using a router were further down the preferred options of communicating alerts due to the sheer reliability and inexpensive nature of text messaging, and the location of the system (especially within a rural area). Thus, reach is an issue that is resolved using text messaging. Broadcasting to unknown and varying mobile handset types are also a factor that are resolved via SMS,  the system standard default medium is a text message which can be read on any mobile phone.

What is also worth consideration is that the system uses a Smart Phone App in tandem with SMS based alerting. So the strengths of both mobile technologies are used in combination, one to control the system and the other to receive alerts from it. In addition, text based SMS replies can be received by the system, which include plain ASCII based commands, such as to turn the system off  or as an assumed backup if the Smart Phone App not available, or for just sheer convenience for people who receive the message but do not have a Smartphone.

Text Messaging used within Other Technologies

This topic has been previously discussed, so this post is basically an update. Yesterday, in a conversation with my Father regarding the Lough Derg-Dublin proposed water scheme, he mentioned that if the water level fell or reached a certain defined level then the proposed extraction system should be automatically stopped and a text alert subsequently broadcast to the relevant people involved. He is correct, these type of water monitoring systems are already in place and demonstrates how flexible text messaging technology is. Using SMS within 3rd party hardware  and software solutions, such as water level monitoring systems, are entirely possible.

In the past, Go2mobile has worked with other vendors to send river level flood alerts to county engineers, a much needed warning service in certain parts of Ireland. The premise is very straightforward once the hardware device has some means of software based communication; be it SMTP, HTTP Web based (fixed or wireless), GSM etc.  then the system can send SMS, and it just needs a gateway provider.

• GSM based solutions:  Hardware (usually a SIM based modem) would use an SMS to Email type service where the system sends messages to a hosted SIM number which is then either relayed to engineers via a defined list of email addresses or mobile phone numbers.
• SMTP is very straight forward: If the 3rd party system already has email functionality then it  is only a matter of pre-coding the mobile number with a provided Go2mobile domain, essentially making each of the mobile numbers an email address that is converted into a text message on arrival to the gateway server farm.
• HTTP is an older device method that some vendors prefer, where an API (Application Program Interface) is called to transfer the relevant details and then have them converted to a SMS response alert.

Other hardware/software solutions that text messaging has found a niche within ,is in areas such as fire or carbon monoxide alarms, electronic road signs, school roll-call systems, transport solutions etc.

Business: Cost Control when Sending SMS (Part 2)

In my previous post regarding cost control I mentioned that message length is a crucial factor to monitor. The other day I received a SMS which was a perfect example of that.  Reviewing the text message may prove an accurate illustration on how your business may save money when using mobile marketing or communicating with your customers.

The message I received was in relation to a delivery arrangement:

XYZ Retailer confirming that you are booked in for delivery on Wednesday ##/##/####. Please note that our delivery team will be with you between 9 and 11am and will call you an hour prior to your delivery for directions. These are approximate times and may be subject to change. If you have any queries please contact us on ### ##-##-##. Thank you for your valued business. Please do not reply to this text

406 characters. If you have a number of clients and sending out a message of this length it becomes expensive. As I mentioned in previous blogs, to control your business costs, monitor these items. That message is considered 3 SMS, you multiply that by 100 customers and you are spending on 300 text messages as opposed to 100. Even if you have a great cost-effective data plan, it still remains unnecessary expenditure. All you want to do is inform your client when a delivery is in place. Truth be told, I ignored the rest of the message, just wanting to know the basic details; when they were arriving so I could make arrangements.

To avoid using precious character spaces, and since they did not want you to reply to the text, they could have identified their brand as the SenderID instead of a number; up to 11 characters. So the message could have been:

Sender: XYZStore Message: “Confirmed delivery on Wednesday ##/##/####, between 9 and 11am. We will call you an hour prior to your delivery for directions. Issues: please ring #########” [157 characters, 1 message]

But there is a question here, why am I not allowed to SMS a reply to the message? Instead of ringing, should I not be able to reply with a text message stating that I have an issue with that date and time, please call me in relation to it?

Another problem with the original message, the contact number should not have spaces, symbols etc.- while they increase readability, you are creating obstacles for the client to ring you.

These are just some simple pointers that can both make your message more effective but crucially reduce your business marketing costs, while you are still obtaining your message communications to your customers.