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Effective communication with staff on the move is increasingly important in ensuring they are still an integral part of the workforce, have access to information and are able to respond as quickly as office-based personnel. Now that the new flexible working directive has been formally introduced, employers are beginning to review the consequence of this legislation in business, including how they communicate with their mobile workforce.

Equipping mobile workers with mobile technology tends to be somewhat polarised. At one end of the spectrum there are solution-based systems integrated into business systems and software automatically pushing information or jobs to field staff via wireless terminals. Such solutions are typically aimed at field-service applications, however the investment cost, commitment and the rate of change of technology serves only to prevent many organisations implementing such solutions.

At the other end of the scale, there are the field-based personnel (eg sales) who are often equipped with nothing more than a mobile phone or possibly a laptop. For these employees, voice is still the predominant communications medium but is voice the most efficient or cost-effective option? Office-to-mobile telephony costs and mobile phone airtime charges are at a premium and with many calls being made simply to provide instruction, confirmation or direction, do we really need to extend to a 2 minute mobile phone conversation to let someone know the meeting has been moved to 3pm? Letting ten people know a meeting has been re-scheduled suddenly takes ten phone calls, 20 minutes and incurs call charges of around £5. Voice calls can also be distracting, whether you are with a customer, fixing a fault or driving there are often times when a conversation is inappropriate, yet all that the caller wants is to pass a simple message.

The consumer market has been quick to recognise the opportunities associated with low cost mobile phone SMS (Short Message Service) text messaging. However, ‘texting’ as a business tool is still a recent phenomena. The widespread use of mobile devices presents a dilemma for business. Mobile communication, although necessary, can be costly and organisations are exploring whether it is possible to keep call costs down whilst improving communication efficiency. Typically, 40 per cent of a corporate telecoms bill arises from office-to-mobile calls and organisations are beginning to recognise the cost saving benefits of text messaging over voice calls. Leaving voicemail messages can be expensive and time consuming and there is always the uncertainty as to whether an individual has picked up their voicemail message. Whereas the immediacy associated with receiving a text message has struck a chord with many businesses.

The biggest inhibitor to SMS being used effectively in business is the accessibility of messaging from the desktop and the integration of messaging into business systems. A common perception is that you need to purchase and install complex software- based systems to provide messaging from the desktop. However, widespread Internet access has led to web-based products that integrate with existing technology. Whilst there have been a few ‘gimmicky’ consumer web-based text services, corporate organisations demand higher levels of service, utility, security and resilience.

PageOne Communications were one of the first telecommunications company to recognise the potential of text messaging in a business context, having provided mobile messaging and paging services to businesses for over 15 years. Directly addressing the gap in the market, PageOne developed Oventus, a powerful, secure, mobile messaging platform accessible from any desktop PC without the need for any software or hardware purchase or install.  Corporate messaging services such as Oventus can also offer advanced services such as delivery confirmation, 2-way SMS reply capabilities and group broadcasts. PageOne also used its experience of the paging market to ensure it is easy to integrate business systems into its Oventus messaging service with the minimum of development.

Another key difference between consumer and corporate demands is that of management control. In order to leverage the benefits of mobile messaging in a business it needs to be widespread and accessible. However that dictates an element of management, monitoring and control to ensure effective use, prevent abuse and provide auditability. Oventus provides a hierarchy of control allowing telecoms or IT managers to monitor, manage and control access and use by user or department.

It has already proved popular across a range of industries including recruitment, automotive, property, emergency planning & disaster recovery and the Health service. Its clients reflect this diversity including Accenture (for Sainsbury plc), BP, Railtrack, BMW, Isotrak, Hawes & Company and Wall Street Systems. With applications ranging from Emergency/Disaster Recovery communication to automated system monitoring, through to customer notifications the scope for wireless messaging to deliver business benefit is enormous.

“Oventus was developed as a result of our in-depth understanding and knowledge of our corporate customers messaging needs and the issues they constantly encounter. It is a cost-effective, easy-to-use system which meets the needs and challenges of any business in the UK,” commented Chris Jones, managing director, PageOne Communications – the pioneers of oventus.

However, SMS is not the only messaging tool available to organisations. Contrary to popular perception paging is alive and kicking as a simple, low-cost text messaging facility. Simplicity, excellent coverage and low, fixed costs have ensured that paging still has a role to play in the corporate communications mix. Provided for a fixed monthly rental paging has the advantage of no per message charges. With message sending via a call centre, PC or web or even email, paging is already accessible to all, whether in the office or out and about.

Many organisations now use a combination of wireless devices, such as mobile phones, pagers, email or PDA’s, rather then rely on the one communication method. The integration of SMS and paging enables companies to pick and choose the best communications solution and are increasingly turning to companies that can provide a solution to all of their messaging needs.

So what is next on the corporate horizon? The increasing sophistication of technology is likely to offer an even greater plethora of mobile devices, technologies and networks fuelling the demand for more accessible, integrated messaging, that bridges the communications gap. The challenge for directors is selecting a combination of messaging technologies that suits the needs of their business in the most cost-effective and secure manner.

However, many companies will seek to exploit the technology they already have. Wireless messaging is already proving its ability to improve business communications and reduce telecoms costs and is available on existing mobiles today. Greater accessibility without the need for capital investment in systems or new handsets can only help organisation leverage the potential.

(This article was originally published in Director of Finance 2004 edition)