Mobile Point View by Paul Ruppert

Tipping Point 2SMS: Enterprise Messaging

Finding true trends in the sea of noise created by the hype-manufacturers in mobile is practically impossible. Last week’s CTIA was a clear example. The multi headed hydra of the pundit-ocracy clamors a singular vision. The PR flacks shed a thousand points of light on their next big things. The organizers spotlight the themes of “men on white horses”—keynote speakers and sponsors--which we mere peasants should naturally be following.

Meanwhile most journeyman attendees (like me) are too busy in meetings, pleading for face time, attending dinners conflicting with 10 pm receptions, all within an average stay of three days and two nights in the bull’s eye of Vegas’ adult distractions--this is a massively male industry mind you. Little gets really noticed, let alone understood. Less makes an impact. Ahh, least we not forget the “current economic conditions” either.  Trying to capture a true trend is like noticing a single sequin in a strip club. 

But as even a blind man can find a sequin if he's feeling for it, I think I found one of those true trends: Enterprise messaging.

Since its birth, SMS has been the finger tool of consumers, passing trillions of notes as a terse, powerful means of communicating. I consider text a fully developed medium on par with film, TV, radio, and print. It informs. It entertains. It connects. It has billions of users. It earns its keep in the mind of individuals. Now it is carrying multiple payloads, whether financial, advertising, entertainment, medical, even payments. Seems 160 characters can be quite effective.

My enterprise ‘tell’ is not the developing bubble of one shot wonders of apps developers focusing on calendar synching LBS widgets, but the growing number of scale-sized enablers which are now managing all the complexities of routing, delivering, securitizing, sorting and prioritizing the messaging needs and benefits of enterprise users.

These are not the massive aggregators managing traffic to the networks, but companies specifically developing targeted turn key solutions for enterprises, while using the back haul delivery network of a global messaging aggregator. It’s a sign of a developing, healthy ecosystem evolving beyond consumer messaging.

One stood out to me at CTIA : 2SMS.

2SMS is a British born firm, 8 years on. They provide a software based solution to enterprises providing an integrated solution beyond just mere alerts and notifications. By having a synergistic messaging notification platform provided by 2SMS, an enterprise’s employees, customers, suppliers--perhaps even share holders--can be kept current on a variety of activities, notices and actions required. This is not your father's alerts and notifications.

2SMS has obtained ISO 27001, an international standard for information security, something neither cheap nor easy to implement and maintain. A clear differentiator from the other enterprise oriented SMS providers and clear advantage for 2SMS as they overcome security challenges for text in the enterprise segment.  Usually this is the biggest hurdle for SMS in an enterprise environment alongside storage, retrieval and messaging management.

Listen to my conversation with 2SMS CEO, Tim King here (6:38)   

But the real power comes in 2SMS’ technology. Not just content with the hiding in plain sight “security” measures of SMS, their solution incorporates a proprietary component where secure messages are identified from a trusted source and naturally delivered to the recipient. But, the message doesn’t sit perilously on the handset, its in the cloud, thus protecting the user from any loss or “transfer of handset possession” e.g. being “pinched” or lost.  Plus it provides auditing and a legal trail as well.

 I spoke with Tim King the CEO of 2SMS [click here to listen to the podcast or tune in here at iTunes ]. As Tim relayed “business leaders are now recognize the power of SMS and identify with its non-financial benefits. They are going beyond financial benefits, and now see impacts  on operations or mission performance and results such as improved customer satisfaction, faster information distribution, improved productivity, improved efficiency. That’s how we harness SMS.” Having sold to enterprises in the past, the real marketing value of proof in their pudding was their tool which shows the ROI on the purchase of their services. Something buyers are always looking for to support a purchase, and a technique I've often used. Smart move as exemplified by their customers which include SnapOnTools, Exxon and Pfizzer.

2SMS’ enriched enterprise messaging services have placed the company at the leading element of a number of companies that are gaining traction and scale. Unlike Twitter texting, here’s a concrete business model with secure messaging services within a broader segment that pays the bills. This is a company that has many of the pieces in place, prepared as the wave of opportunity is breaking towards them.

2SMS and their noble competitors developing the enterprise messaging segment will add another wave of growth to SMS usage and further the next evolution of text. Check them out.

"Nurse, mobile please": Surgery by SMS

From the Congo comes a life or death story of a 16 yr old boy who was operated on by a leading vascular surgeon while on assignment with Doctors without Borders.

The boy required the amputation of his forearm. The surgeon, a former doctor for Tony Blair was faced with conducting a surgery where he had to amputate near the shoulder and collar bone. A procedure he had not performed before, with only one pint of blood available and limited available supplies. 

Dr.David Nott, placed a voice call to a colleague in London, but the mobile networks were not connecting. He tried an SMS. It connected.

His colleague, vacationing in the Azores, replied with text messages detailing the procedure, with a "Easy! Good luck" closing boost between friends

Nott successfuly performed the surgery, and the boy is recovering. Dr. Nott told the U.K.'s Mail Online, "God works in mysterious ways, and this time he was working via text message."

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I wonder how many "textonyms"--meaning replacement words used while texting, linguistically called paragrams, but commonly known as textonyms, adaptonyms or cellodromes -- were used in the SMS exchange between the two docs, especially given the complexity of such a procedure?

Reminds me of a medical story, I covered a year ago here, "Birth by Mobile Light" on how a surgeon delivered a baby by the light of a handfull of mobiles.

Just two stories behind the expected 3 TRILLION SMS to be sent this year....

Verizon Launches Video UGC: See What I See-SWIS-Services ?

Verizon has partnered with mobile media services provider FunMobility in launching a person to person video sharing service--and implied mobile social network. The service is called "America's Best Mobile Flix" or aFlix. The service allows Verizon subs to create mobile videos and share their UGC with mobile connections across other operator networks. Essentially P2P interoperable mobile video--I think!

Much like YouTube, customers can also review, comment, rate and share every video on aFLIX from their handset directly, and the best clips will be featured in a monthly "Best Videos" category. Users are automatically presented with the highest-rated video they have not yet seen when they open the aFLIX app. aFLIX will run alongside FunMobility's existing America's Best Mobile Pix photo sharing application.

What's significant in this is the interoperable part.

Mobile video has been advancing in the mobile commentariat, but has been taking baby steps with consumers. Transmiting video sharing from person to person is defacto video interoperability. If you look at the text messaging comparable--around 1996 when full interoperability occured for SMS in the UK, or 2002 when it occured in the US, the market exploded at a 6x multiple within 12 months. Just as SMS provided "here's what I'm thinking" full video interoperability, as claimed, will provide SWIS services --'See What I See' services.

SWIS services can, if priced right, become the video equivalent of video messaging services. The fact that Verizon enables this cross carrier is quite significant. A potential poaching of subscribers could ensue if this were to really take off without the other operators offer similar services in due course. Keep your eye on this one.

Paul Ruppert chosen as Managing Editor for Mobile Messaging 2.0

I've been a contributor to Mobile Messaging 2.0, a corporate sponsored blog covering the mobile industry since September 2007. Last month Beeline Communications and the blog's sponsor, Airwide Solutions, chose me to be the new Managing Editor of the blog which has 12 paid contributing analysts of the mobile industry.  Click here for my most recent post at MM2, "China's Black Market iPhones surpass 1 million.

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SMS Globalization and Growth: Interview with Sybase365 CEO, Marty Beard

10 billion SMS a month and growing

Ever hear of Sybase 365?   If not, it plays a major role in the mobile messaging value chain for the globe's wireless operators as well as premium messaging providers supporting ring tones, mobile commerce and advertising. It is one of the largest mobile messaging aggregators and interoperability provider whose core value proposition is managing the ever growing complexity of passing SMS and MMS messages around the globe. Sybase purchased Mobile 365 in September of 2006, thus combining the worlds largest messaging enabler (2006 revenues of $110 million) with one of the leading enterprise software providers, Sybase, to create Sybase 365.

Listen to my interview with Sybase 365 CEO Marty Beard (16 mins)

In my interview we cover a wide range of topics including:

• 10 billion SMS per month for operators through the Sybase365 network
• Managing the world of difference between flat ARPUs in developed markets, versus low ARPUs in emerging markets
• Sybase365's foray into mobile banking from their banking software experience
• Balancing the larger international revenues against US domestic text revenues especially with strong growth driven by the Middle East, Africa and Asia
• Sybase 365's efforts to innovate the traditional SMS through the development of more secure SMS, natural language interfaces for messaging as well as user generated content within the realm of text messaging

Chinese Wife Sends Message after being Dropped

Mobile Matrimonial Wars continue

According to Chinese news service Xinhua, a Chinese woman in Weifang city in the eastern province of Shandong, set fire to 400 spanking new mobile phones in response to her husband leaving her.

37 year old "Mrs. Wang" seemed inclined to send a message to her hubby over the lack of bliss in their marriage. The Wang couple ran a successful phone retail business in Weifang. Weifang known as the Kite Capital of the World," is "flying high" due to its growth.

The surge in the Wang phone business  had put the marriage on the rocks, and the couple frequently fought according to the Qilu Evening News.  On March 3rd, after a "bitter row", the husband "slammed the door and left their home."

Wrought with despair, and crazed--or focused--with anger Mrs. Wang collected their entire stock of mobile phones, tossed them on the bed, set them afire and left. Acrid black smoke brought the fire brigade who quickly subdued the flames, but not before the handsets, valued at 300,000 Yuan (US$ 42,100) were consumed. 

Mrs. Wang has been apprehended and charged with arson.

SMS Dangers: Send, Bump, Bruise

Walk & Text Wounds may be the next front in the attack on texting by the powers that be within the Nanny state? Just wait until state legislators get wind of an investigation by the Star Newspaper, one of those cheeky London Fleet Street papers known for their bodacious page 3 girls, that's the front page on the right>>>>>>>>>oh, you already noticed?

According to the Star's crack investigative efforts, over 6 million Brits were injured in some way because they were so immersed in the experience of sending an SMS text message they failed to look up! Most seemed to be situationally unaware of such things as lamp posts and other immovable objects including garbage cans (trash bins in Brit speak), car barriers (bollards), or stepping off the curb (pavement).

Broken Bones & Fractured Skulls, oh my!

These were not simple "slip and falls" or Text Messenger's Thumb which I've written about before, but ranged from broken noses to fractured skulls. The survey was sponsored by the British information (directory) service provider 118118, which is quite adept at driving awareness with their off beat marketing. BONG!

According to the Daily Star, there are now plans to set up "mobile lanes" akin to bicycle lanes for text addicts to skirt around dangerous spots.' Now that's a good mix, speeding bikes and wandering pedestrians looking down at their iPhone. Layer in all those who are  listening to their "life soundtrack" with iPod ear buds, and CRASH!

According to an interviewed activist from a group called Living Streets, who warned: “Our pavements are increasingly becoming obstacle courses.” Huh, what's changed here in regards to sidewalk topography?

Aha, here's the culprit--commerce. To protect and serve the texting public 118118 has launched a pilot project protecting such lame texters by installing texting bumper guards on offending lamp posts and other obstacles in London's Brick Lane starting yesterday. 118118 spokesman William Ostrom said: “Hopefully this scheme will reduce the risk of embarrassing injury.” Scheme indeed.

Very clever way for 118118 to get their brand "close" to their consuming public and very consistent with their intruiging brand positioning!

So what do you think of 118118's innovative way to bring attention to their brand, slick advertising or sorry excuse?

Predictive Text Commission

Saturday mornings are usually when I'm trying to bang out my weekly post while my 11 year old fumbles around making himself a breakfast of Chips Ahoy, Oreos or some such sweet-stuff until his prison warden Pop shows up. 

Today's tasks included adding John Puterbaugh's blog Mobile 2.0 and Emerging Mobile Media Services to my blog roll. John, the Chief Strategist at Nellymoser, and I met at an InMobile event at the Mobile World Congress two short weeks ago. (John's on the left)We had an engaging conversation and he'll be a pod cast guest here in the near future. Since I was adding  Mobile 2.0 to the log rolling blog roll, I figured I should edit the list, and started to read through other blogs I had paid neglectful attention to. Mobhappy made me happy.

Words we should use vs. Words we do use

Russell Buckley and Carlo Longino's Mobhappy post"Where do the T9 people get their words?" was very insightful and included this dry British take off of two Oxford-like dons on the demands and dilemmas of predictive text functionaly. I wonder what the Chinese Pinyan equivalent might be like with Zi? Check this out from YouTube.

MWC: SMS "Hardening"

Secure SMS ?

As I've been wandering through the MWC halls of the Fira at Plaza D'Espanya I've been lucky to discover some interesting companies and propositions in the mobile industry. There are also media events with some select companies available for in-depth review. Here's one which caught my eye at Showstoppers ( www.showstoppers.com )  regarding text messaging security : CellTrust. 

CellTrust provides security for SMS. Wait, you think SMS is actually "secure"? Mate, when it comes to security it is all about degrees. For you and me sending short texts to each other, that might be secure enough. Who knows you might even be lucky enough to pull a bird by sending tonight's pub meet to the wrong number.  But what about enterprises that send out alerts and notifications to its work force, customers or critical caretakers? Consumer grade security isn't "reliable" for CIOs and company IT leads or for the ever more demanding management of mobile banking and transactions. That's where CellTrust positions its proposition..

CellTrust is providing control, accountability, compliance and security to SMS in the enterprise environment. Using pubic key encryption they guarantee recipient end to end privacy and two factor authentication without the expense and complexity of a proprietary, bespoke solution. By providing the SMS gateway to the enterprise and MNOs, their encryption technology layers over the routing rules enabling CellTrust to create a secure SMS environment. It wasn't anything I had ever thought of in a consumer messaging company, which is why it caught my eye. Through the combination of their platform technology and a micro client with password protection they secure and provide an SMS hardened solution. Although they could have modified the MAP layer of the SMS as we did  at the former Mobile 365 to provide tracking capabilities through our networks. That's something they should consider as an added layer of functionality in their security "suite."

A "hardened" SMS comes with guaranteed secure delivery through their "Advanced Encryption Standard, a read and delivery confirmation to the sender, option for password protection prior to decryption and display of a message, even a remote wipe API, for when that handset is lost or stolen Mr. Phelps.  You can learn more about Celltrust at www.celltrust.com. 

I would think the natural market for this would be banking applications, as well as government authentication--although i think much of that may have already been explored and gobbled up by RIM's Blackberry. Who knows, but definitely watch CellTrust.

After all, it's 11:00 pm, do you know if your SMS is secure?

MWC: Personalized Messaging & Advertising for Emerging Markets

Jinny Software

As part of the cavalcade which is the 2008 Mobile Web Congress I'm getting the privlege to talk with a number of industry leaders heading companies which are driving change within the mobile industry. One which I discovered is Jinny Software, a "personal messaging services company" according to their CEO, Max Wilke, a veteran of the wireless industry. The company provides hardware and software solutions to operators around the world emphasizing low penetration, fast growth, low ARPU emerging mobile markets such as in Africa, Middle East and Asia. With software origins they are a part of the Italian Acatel Group which did an IPO in 2000 and are moving up the supply chain to providing value added services for operators.

Their product portfolio includes SMSc's, MMSc's, as well as a Media Resource Server with rating and charging funtionality interfacing with all major billing services.

Strategically Jinny Software has been very successful in leveraging their current customer base of operators in developing countries and organically growing into new markets. Translation: serve as a trusted agent to operators  especially those with low ARPU's who are still cobling together revenue earning platforms for bottom of the pyramid markets, and you can capture a handsome revenue source, even in overlooked markets. Following a contrarian strategy by stepping down to simpified solution services instead of the high value smart phone hyped tip of the pyramid (reading iPhone stratosphere which is the black hole of hype), Jinny's value proposition focuses on growing operator ARPU, cost efficiencies and innovative applications in order to extract more value for existing traffic. A new theater which they are harvesting is a migration to advertising with a twist--advertising on the terms of their market parameters. Not Click to Action, or other high function demands of tip of the pyramid, but advertising suitable for the developing southern hemisphere of the world, read Africa, middle Asia and Latin America.

Jinny will be announcing at the Mobile World Congress the successful trial of an SMS advertising solution that will underpin new revenue streams for the mobile conglomerate Zain, starting in their Jordan property this year. The solution provides the capability to deliver advertisements over SMS messaging from any advertiser or agency. This solution gives Zain in Jordan the ability to take an early and strong position in an industry that is expected to earn US$18 billion by 2011

Built on Jinny’s proven technologies in messaging and filtering, the Advertising Engine has the power to deliver tailored advertising in a variety of ways. Whether an advertisement should be inserted into peer-to-peer messaging traffic or as a pre-page video clip, the Advertising Engine – thanks to sophisticated keyword and profile matching – can ensure the advert is relevant and useful to its audience, the consumer. Built to deliver tailored, targeted advertising that consumers want, as opposed to spam, the Advertising Engine is poised to meet the growth and ARPU-increase needs of operators this year and into the future.

Max Wilkie, CEO of Jinny Software, advised me in our interview, “We are once again delighted to be able to deliver a world-class solution to the Zain Group. With the Advertising Engine from Jinny, Zain in Jordan is now able to exploit the expanding business of mobile advertising and take advantage of new and sustainable revenue streams. There is no doubt that both Zain in Jordan and Jinny can build on this success to explore other media and messaging solutions to offer an increasingly powerful channel to advertisers.”

Eschewing the models pursued by the likes of the fledgling Admob, Amobee, AdInfust, Third Screen, as well as the Rhino size players Comverse, Acision and Haawie and others, Jinny offers bespoke like solutions for the whimsies of emerging markets that are seeking flexible solutions thus empowering developing the world's operators with easy to use Voice SMS, ring back solutions that act as a meeting mediating filter, and easy to use SMS services appropriate for the lowest rung of the economic ladder. By targeting bread and butter solutions, Jinny offers up the jam by tapping P2P messaging and providing a subsidized ad service enabling resource restricted consumers in developing markets the means to access core SMS technology without spending too much of their hard earned money. Tip of the pyramid users (and many mobile executives) may scoff at the idea of opt in messaging thinking it would go the way of opt in long distance and voice services, but emerging, low ARPU markets provide a plumb opportunity for such services according to Max Wilke, CEO of Jinny. Their services are well suited for networks that are still building out their network layers in markets where the average ARPU barely breaks US$ 10 per month.  Jinny is one to watch.