Corporations are starting to adopt mission critical text messaging
Released on = September 5, 2006, 9:54 am
Press Release Author = Thomas Sheahan
Industry = Telecommunications
Press Release Summary = “Text Messaging has altered an election in Spain, brought
down a Government in the Philippines, saved lives during Hurricane Katrina and the
Tsunami in Asia. Now corporations are using text messaging to rally their troops?”
Press Release Body = Hundreds of protesters rally outside the Presidential Palace.
In a string of unsolved murders in recent months, trade union leaders, government
critics, students, journalists and others have been killed. Students had begun
clamoring for President Gloria Arroyo to do something. They organize themselves not
via voice or e-mail but text messaging! This isn’t the first time a text messaging
campaign has been used to alter government in the Philippines. A huge text-messaging
campaign in the Philippines is said to have contributed to the wave of anger against
President Joseph Estrada in 2001 that ultimately resulted in his removal.
Similar situation occurred in Spain on the eve of the Election Day in March 14,
2004. Demonstrations were banned 24 hours prior to an election. They rallied their
troops via text messaging, with 94% mobile phone penetration rate in Spain. It is
the most ubiquitous form of instant communication. Some urged supporters of the
Socialists, the eventual victors, to vote. Others tried to rally supporters of the
Popular Party, defending against it accusations that it had tried to cover up
evidence of Al Qaeda\'s apparent responsibility for the Madrid bombings.
“I was unfortunate enough to be in Thailand during the Tsunami last year; I couldn’t
place a call out. The networks were jammed. I was able to text my family and friends
that I was OK. SMS/Text messaging is the last thing to go down, and the first
application to come up on Cell Networks. It is more reliable, cheaper and it works
everywhere! You can’t make that claim with GPRS.” Tom Sheahan, CEO of Red Oxygen.
Corporations are now just starting to implement text messaging as a part of their
standard communications process. One large food company in Australia had 8 staff
members communicating with their remote field sales force. They implemented the Red
Oxygen’s NotesSMS product to communicate with the remote field sales force. It, not
only cut down on communications costs, but it saved time. They now only have a group
of four instead of eight, and save thousands on their phone bill!
“I think a few years ago, corporate users thought text messaging was just for
teenagers and university students. Now they realize it’s a vital part of
communication, with any age group. Whether it is crisis communication or just
delivery a notice that a meeting has been changed” Tom Sheahan, CEO of Red Oxygen.
According to the Economist, “Text messaging is the second most popular form of
communication when an employee is working off-site.
The corporations are looking for solutions that integrate into their existing IT
environments. Whether the corporate users use Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes or
IBM’s Sametime instant messaging client, they want solutions that integrate into
their environments, and tools that allow them to control cost and mange it. The
corporate user cannot go to website and transpose all of their existing proprietary
mission-critical contact details into an third party website or re-enter their
millions of addresses to proprietary email address cellphonenumber@provider.com. The
corporations are also looking for solutions that allow them to integrate text
messaging into their existing back-end CRM/ERP systems.
“When we were evaluating solutions, our Telco supplier wanted us to put all of the
contacts on their website. We would be forced to hire a person fulltime, just to
keep their website up to date. The Red Oxygen solution, OfficeSMS, puts a send SMS
button on the Microsoft Outlook toolbar, and it grabs the mobile numbers from the
existing contacts lists or global address book. The user just hits the send SMS
button, writes the short message and hits send – just like email. It was also easy
to install with no user intervention, the same way we manage security software and
no end user training” Tricia Porter, Pfizer Australia
“The IT influential US market has been one of the last markets to catch on to the
new text messaging revolution. They had problems early on delivering text messages
from one network to another. They had so many different types Cell Phone Networks
deployed; TDMA, CDMA, GSM, IDEN and Analog. The US Cell phone networks now have it
working seamlessly, but it is just moving up the food chain to the corporate users
from the teenagers and university students.” Tom Sheahan, CEO of Red Oxygen
About Red Oxygen
Established in Australia in 2001, Red Oxygen is one of the world’s leading
developers and distributors of email to SMS software applications and related
desktop messaging software. Red Oxygen combines the power of today’s email
applications with the ease, convenience and mobility of SMS messaging. Their
seamlessly integrated products allow users to utilise the full capabilities of their
existing contacts address book to send SMS messages to specific individuals or
entire lists, all as easily as sending an email. Users can also have their calendar
reminders automatically sent to their mobiles, send broadcast SMS messages to large
lists and even receive replies straight into their inboxes from message recipients.
Red Oxygen software is available for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express as well
as Lotus Notes.
Red Oxygen has clients across a broad array of industries and geographies. Their
current customer list includes clients such as Pfizer, BMW, Qantas, UNICEF,
Microsoft, Siemens, Panasonic, Deloitte, PWC, Reader’s Digest, Frito Lay, Billabong,
3M and others. These customers span Australia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa,
Asia and North America. Red Oxygen’s products are also distributed by Swisscom
Mobile, the largest mobile operator in Switzerland, and Vodafone Portugal.
Learn more at www.redoxygen.com
Web Site = http://www.redoxygen.com
Contact Details = Studio A
209 St John Hill
London
SW111TH
2009
