SMS and A2P Applications

SMS and A2P Applications

Every one is aware of the ubiquitous SMS protocol (Popularly known as Text messaging). The first SMS was sent in 1992. Today more than two decades later why are people still using SMS?.  With OTT (Over the Top) applications like WhatsApp, Viber and a host of other Messaging and Communication Apps being used extensively, one would have expected that the use of SMS should have waned, on the contrary, there is a sustained growth of SMS over the years all over the world.

Most OTT applications typically need an active web connection and a membership to the application use. On the contrary SMS protocol does not have any of these pre-requisites. So what this means is that one needs to get only a persons Mobile number and you can send an SMS communication.

One can view the SMS message as a Person-to-Person (P2P) communication, where two mobile subscribers exchange messages. However today we have Application-to-Person SMS that allows a Computer Application/ Mobile App etc., to deliver messages to Mobile Subscribers. Typically A2P messaging is used by various Organizations to provide timely updates to people who use the organizations services. For example Banks send SMS messages for payments received and ATM withdrawals etc., Schools may send fee reminders to students, Hospitals may send Patient Admission information to attending Doctors etc.

Many of these technologies were expensive earlier on. Now with the advent of Cloud hosted solutions, running as SaaS  (Software as a Service), any one can access these Bulk SMS solutions running on Cloud Platforms and are very low cost solutions.  Today it is possible for end users to use our Cloud Platform SaaS Solutions for Marketing and Brand Development activities for as low as 15 paisa per SMS or even at lower costs, depending on the volume of purchase of SMS. Most importantly there is no Capital Investments or Upfront costs involved in setting up these Services.

The SMS Technology and Solution we provide belongs to a new breed of cloud communication platforms that utilize easily-deploy-able technologies to increase quality of message deliverability. Our SMS Platform also combines a pay-per-use cost model of cloud services with simple telephony Application Program Interface (API) tools to make it easy for developers to integrate into their applications while maintaining low operational cost of operations. Today with our SMS API it is much easier for Business Applications to integrate SMS communication right into there Business Applications with just a couple of lines of our SMS API code. Applications can integrate our SMS API using most poplular programming languages like C#, PHP, Java, Ruby etc.

If you are interested to know more abut our services, please feel free to get back to us. Follow this link for contact details http://priyatechnology.com/contact-us/

If you are a Tech Geek you need to read this ...

RASPBERRY PI

What is Raspberry Pi?

The Raspberry PI is a low cost computer.  Guess what? This computer is so small that it can fit into your palm, just about the size of a Credit card. This computer can connect to any standard keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how to program in languages like Scratch, Python and many other Programming Languages.

How much does it cost?

The Basic model costs less than Rs 3000/- and then you can buy additional modules to expand the features, and the options are endless.

Where can you buy it?

There are a large number of re-sellers for the Raspberry PI in India, but probably a cost effective solution to buy it is online, try amazon.in.

Queries?

If you have any queries please feel free to post your comment/queries on this blog at: http://priyatechnology.com/

And don’t forget to check out this link, to get to know all about the creators of this device and much more  https://www.raspberrypi.org/

Why you need to know about Social Engineering?

Social Engineering

You may have probably received phone calls at some time saying that you have won a huge sum of money, calls originating from unknown numbers. If anyone responds to these calls either due to greed, or ignorance, they are surely heading for trouble. What they are basically doing, is to try and get confidential information out of you, or get you to deposit some amount of money in some account to help you get the huge sum of money they claim that you have won. This and various other techniques used by fraudsters to get you to give out information, forms part of a concept known as Social Engineering.

Social Engineering is the art of getting confidential information from people using techniques like Phishing (when a malicious user sends email disguised as mail coming from a trusted source), Baiting (when an attacker coaxes you to install malware on your computer by providing you some incentive to do that, and you unknowingly fall for the bail), Pretexting (someone for example trying to call you and getting your bank information under the pretext of calling from your bank) and using Scare ware (someone sending you a message to say your phone is infected with virus and then forcing you to buy a software to take care of it) etc.… There are a whole lot of other techniques fraudsters use to get confidential information.

Here is a classic example of one such incident. One of my uncles who is a Doctor (and has very little knowledge of Technology), gets a phone call from a fraudster claiming to be from Google saying “We suspect your account is being abused, can you please give us your username and password so we can track the culprits”. Guess what? My uncle gave them his Gmail user id and password over the phone. 

The fraudster logins into my uncles account and does the following;

• Changes the password effectively blocking the email account
• The fraudster logs in and from my uncles account send mail to all the contacts saying “I am in London and met with an accident and am hospitalized, please send US$ 1000/- to this account” and gave details of a Bank account in a London bank

You will be surprised that three people actually sent money to the fraudsters account and my uncle was not even aware of this for many days.

Just imagine the consequence of losing your mail account and losing all your contacts, or you lose your bank card etc... So here is what you can do to avoid Social Engineering techniques used by fraudsters.

• Never give out any information, confidential or other wise to any one on the phone
• If someone calls you and tells your credit card has been compromised, do not give any information, call the Bank directly.
• Don’t leave any copies of digital data like passwords etc. written on paper slips etc. anywhere on the office table etc.
• Be careful of information you give out to any one, specially strangers and casual acquaintances.
• Most importantly don’t leave your personal computers, laptops in office unlocked even for a second.

Push & Pull Marketing

What is Push & Pull Marketing?

Push marketing refers to traditional forms of marketing such as advertising through  television, radio, newspapers, magazines etc. Typically, even when customers are not interested, details of their products are advertised and pushed on to the customers. Classic example is the advertisements shown on TV specially at prime time. May be you are seeing the news channel and you see innumerable advertisements thrust on to you, to the extent that you start getting irritated and often times you change the channel to get rid of the advertisements.

On the other hand Pull Marketing refers to marketing strategies wherein the advertiser display the advertisements to prospective customers, when they are seeking a product or service. Of late the power of the Internet has revolutionized Pull Marketing. Technology facilitates the marketing of products and services to prospective customers when they are searching or making inquiry for products. A typical search for a product may involve a Search Engine Query using Google or some other search engine, and the advertisers present their products in response to these queries. This leads to a greater probability of the marketing material being assimilated by prospective customers or consumers. Other media that facilitates Push Marketing may include promotion on Social Media and through e-Mails, blogs etc.

Pros & Cons

Pull Marketing requires more planning, time and effort as compared to push marketing. However the extra effort put can yield better results, as one can focus on targeted audience and bear more fruit in the long run.  Pull marketing offers better and more cost effective opportunities. In terms of cost and reach, with a well formulated marketing strategy, for the same budget, one may probably reach lesser audience with pull marketing, but the audience you reach can me more specific in terms of demography, gender, age and various other parameters.

What should be your Marketing Strategy?

Well that really depends on what is the product or service that you offer, besides various other factors that may include Target Markets, Product Differentiation, Pricing Policies etc.  Successful Market strategies may try to adopt the best of both worlds. A pull marketing strategy would be woven well into the digital communication channels available and also the marketing plan. Study of number of marketing campaigns indicates that successful marketing campaigns typically include a judicial mix of both Push and Pull marketing.

How Bulk SMS Marketing can benefit your Business

Research indicates that more than , 96% of SMS text messages are read by the cell phone users and in most cases these SMS messages are read in the first 5 to 6  minutes receiving the message.

What really makes BULK SMS the top priority tool for marketing is its low cost and almost instant reach and more tan 95% probability of being read.

Promotional Messages

BULK SMS promotional messages can be sent to hundreds, thousands or millions of prospective customers at the click of a button. That really is the power of BULK SMS.

Transactional Messages

Businesses use Transactional (also known as Service Messages) to keep their customers informed in a timely manner of transactions. Typical users of transactional messages are

• Banks who use SMS to inform customers of Money deposits, Withdrawals or ATM transactions etc..
• Transport and Logistics Managers use Transactional Messages to keep Customers of movement of Goods and real time Locations of Products in transit
• Schools and Colleges use it to update students and parents on events and payment reminders etc.
• Hospitals use it to send timely messages to Doctors to update then on patient status and when the doctors are scheduled to visit a patient.

To know more about our services please visit our website http://www.priyatechnology.com

SMS for Instant Communication in Schools

SMS as a medium of communication helps Schools and Colleges to Communicate with all stake holders almost instantly. The real power of this tool is that you can reach thousands of people almost instantly at the click of a button, and the messages get read almost instantly by most people

How Schools can effectively use Bulk SMS Solutions

• With Bulk SMS School can communicate with their teachers, students, parents, support staff etc in a cost-effective manner. The messages get delivered to the recipients instantly. The following are some of the uses

• Message Reminders of Exams - Schools having large number of students can send SMS to reminder to students of Examination date, time and Venue/Room numbers etc. With bulk SMS, the messages are sent instantly to the recipients with each one of them getting the Message at the same time.

• Update on last moment Cancellation of Lectures - Faculty can inform students in a timely manner in the event of cancellation of a lecture. Getting timely information of cancellations can help students to make optimal use of their time.

• School Announcements - In schools and colleges, almost every day announcements are made from time to time. This may relate to events, holiday schedules, activities etc. Many a time some of these announcement timings are critical and it is important that the announcements reach each and every associated person in a timely fashion and no one misses the communications. BULK SMS solutions are the best tools for such Announcements.

• Last Moment or Unscheduled Announcements - Many a times Schools are forced to make last moment announcements related to unscheduled holidays either due to unforeseen happenings like heavy rainfalls leading to water logging etc. Instantly delivered Bulk SMS is a boon for communicating these announcements in a timely fashion to Parents, Students & those involved in transporting students to and fro to School.

• Personalized Messages to Students - Bulk SMS Solutions can also be used to send personalized messages to student and parents related to the progress of students or even messages related to Payment reminders etc.

Check this link for Transnational Messages