The Short Message Service has been available for over 10 years now and offer
a powerful, beneficial tool for wireless enterprise communication.
Delivery status reports
SMS provides a comprehensive system for monitoring the status of each message
submitted. This is the major advantage over paging
systems. Each message can be tracked in detail. If a mobile handset is not
available SMS messages are stored in the SMSC for up to 48 hours and are delivered automatically when the remote party is available
again. Both the time of buffering and final delivery are
reported and can be processed and utilized for various purposes.
2-way communication
Communication with SMS is always 2-way. Recipients of messages can easily
reply or initiate SMS messages. Thus, mobile recipients are even able to
confirm the reading of a SMS message by simply replying. This again
increases the quality of delivery dramatically. Such reply can be processed
by an escalation system and increase the quality of service of mobile alert
systems.
Integration capabilities
Since SMS has been available for years now software systems for SMS
communication are quite mature and pay a lot of attention to
integration and interfacing legacy and third-party systems like SAP,
e-mail servers, etc.
Automation
The nature of SMS, its integration
capabilities and the availability of
mature software allow to build fully automated communication and alerting
systems.
International delivery
SMS messages can be delivered internationally
via roaming agreements to almost one billion mobile subscribers
worldwide. An SMS submitted in the United States reaches a final destination in
Singapore within seconds. This extends the reach of a corporate
communication system enormously and makes SMS suitable for variety of
applications.
