Article

Matthew Winters
Matthew Winters 24 May 2017
Categories B2B, Mobile, Technology

What to Look For When Buying An Enterprise Mobile Messaging Solution

Before buying an enterprise mobile messaging solution, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) must ensure they understand essential messaging features including compliance and price to ensure they are making the right choice. Here we'll outline the 4 features that are key to this understanding and why.

The Mobile Ecosystem Forum’s latest Enterprise Mobile Messaging Guide was launched earlier this year with input from mobile industry programme leaders including the team here at Veoo, Telefonica, Vodafone as well as a whole host of others.

One of the key takeaways from this report was around the purchase of enterprise mobile messaging solutions.

When buying these solutions mobile network operators ask themselves many questions such as: How long will it take for messages to reach my customers? How many messages can I send at once? Are there any specific rules that I need to be aware of? And, how much will it cost me?

An understanding of the essential features such as brand protection, compliance, performance and price will address the most common concerns.

Brand Protection

Protecting your brand from damage and consumer harm is a real risk if data protection and security are not properly managed. Poor management of customers’ personal data or overzealous marketing could mean that messages, however well-intentioned, are classed by customers as spam, or are not correctly delivered.

A worst-case scenario is weaknesses in end to end data security, or the involvement of partners within a delivery chain who are unknown could result in data being handled by companies which are not authorised by MNO or their customers, leaving operators vulnerable to data theft.

Compliance

Compliance within the delivery of enterprise messages is subject to regional and/or country-specific legislation and regulations which may be imposed by a national legislator or a regulatory authority. Therefore, non-compliance comes with several risks whether negligent or deliberate.

A worst case scenario can result in the immediate suspension of a service by an MNO and the permanent loss of messages somewhere along the route.

Performance

When looking at performance MNOs look at how long will it take for messages to reach customers. They also want to know how many messages can be sent at once. This can be done by ensuring that prioritisation criteria is set to maximum time frames within which different categories of message must reach a recipient, namely, message latency. 

Messaging providers also need to ensure that they can process the volumes MNOs want. This would prevent queued messages that lead to delayed delivery or messages expiring, namely, being out of time before they leave the messaging provider’s systems.

Price

Enterprise messaging is a low cost and effective way to interact with customers. However, as in any other service industry, all parties within the messaging ecosystem require reimbursement for their work. MNOs must take note of associated termination fees or rates, namely, the price charged to terminate a message at the final link in the messaging delivery chain. These types of fees and rates may be commercially negotiated between a messaging provider and an MNO as with any other agreement, but as they are regulated on a country by country basis and also by individual MNOs, maximum caps and minimum thresholds must be put in place.

A good indication of the legality of a solution is comparing the price negotiated between a MNO and a messaging provider against the termination fees applicable in a certain country or that is offered by the terminating MNO.

As enterprise messaging continues to grow as the most effective way for businesses to engage with consumers, businesses are looking to avoid brand reputational damage and financial harm by procuring A2P messaging via a sharp operator using unauthorised routes in message delivery.

Fraudulent practice is a daily challenge that impacts the total messaging value chain and mobile network operators must look to these essential messaging features, outlined above, as a gateway to help drive best practice and market development for enterprise mobile messaging.

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