Expanding the Role of SMS Gateways in 2010

Last year was a rather significant year for SMS gateways. Businesses and institutions across various industries employed this great tool for a variety of reasons – from increasing profits and customer retention to saving lives. So what does 2010 hold and where can the use of the SMS gateway be increased?

Healthcare

Especially toward the latter half of 2009, reports were almost flooding in about healthcare services making use of SMS gateways to save lives and help educate the public. And 2010 will be no different.

According to an article featured on lep.co.uk, national charity Meningitis Research Foundation (MRF) is using text as a medium to educate the public about the symptoms of Meningitis – a disease that can lead to severe disability or even death. This will not only help save lives, but arm individuals with critical information that could be of use in the future.

SMS gateways simplify instant communication over a broad geographical area at a fraction of the cost of a telephone call.

Business

A topic that has been covered rather extensively in the past is the use of SMS gateways as a business tool which can be employed to drive up sales and increase customer retention rates in times of economic instability.

Companies, both big and small, have made use of SMS gateways to further their marketing drives and also to increase customer-oriented communication. Could 2010 be the year when SMS becomes a de facto method of B2C communication?

SMS allows businesses to supply customers and clients with account information, notices, specials, coupons and much, much more. View the 101 Business Uses guide for more information about the real world business application of SMS.

Emergency Services

Perhaps one of the most prominent examples of where SMS gateways assist emergency services can be seen in Australia, where bushfires claim both lives and personal property. In southern Australia emergency services have recently deployed a text-based communication system to warn residents of areas that are at risk about fires in the area.

If the severe weather of 2009 was anything to go by, then it would be a good idea to ensure that efficient communication systems are in place in areas where severe weather and other natural disasters may occur.

This could supply residents in potentially dangerous areas with advanced warnings, thereby saving lives and minimising damage.

SMS Gateways allow you to maintain and use your own contact lists to ensure accurate and targeted communication.

Education

While SMS gateways can be employed to supply life-saving information to the public, it can also be used in schools to ensure that children attend class and receive relevant information that will keep them and their parents informed. Instances where SMS can be used in educational situations include:

• Test notifications
• Class attendance
• Class cancellations
• Reminders

If messages are adhered to, then schools may well expect an increase in attendance throughout 2010.

Integrating and customising the SMS gateway into an existing software infrastructure is easy, by using any of the existing Application Programming Interfaces.

Integrating the SMS Gateway

Connecting to the SMS Gateway can be done via any of the available Application Programming Interfaces (API’s). These API’s allow for communication with SMS gateways from a number of native platforms, including email (SMTP to SMS), web (HTTP/S, FTP, XML, .COM to SMS) as well as protocols that allow for specific customisation (SMPP, SOAP).

For more information on how you can SMS-enable your business for 2010, click to read more about SMS gateways.

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Tags: cost-effective communication, instant sms communication, sms education, SMS Gateways 2010, sms notifications, sms reminders