Congratulations Carl!

Carl KruminsCongratulations to our CEO, Carl Krumins, who has recently been nominated for the 2013 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year® award.

Growing up in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, Carl developed a passion for technology early on in life. Inquisitive and self-taught, Carl found that there was little that university could teach him about IT, and as a result he left university to focus on building a new business strategy for SMS.

At the time, the market for bulk SMS messaging was dominated by a few big players, charging a premium for a fairly standard service. Carl saw a gap in the market and aimed to create a robust and versatile platform, complimented with a focus on tailored customer service to differentiate his business from his competition in the marketplace.

Under Carl’s direction and the team here at SMSGlobal, we have achieved rapid growth and today provide mobile messaging and platform development solutions to businesses in almost every country around the world. As well as thousands of small business customers using our services, we have also secured major contracts with high-profile multinational companies, ensuring sustainability through a diverse customer base.

The Ernst & Young 2013 Entrepreneur Of The Year® winner will be selected later in the year.  Watch this space!

Customer Spotlight – When a Nerdy Business becomes cool: Need a Nerd

Need a Nerd, as the name suggests is in the business of supplying nerds. It’s a mobile Onsite IT Support franchised business that resolves IT problems, supplies IT gear and provides technology support for home and business clients.

Both intrigued and amused, we interviewed Bill Brown, Need a Nerd’s Operations Manager to get some insight on how the Nerd business has grown and how mobile messaging is an integral part of the smooth running of their operations. “The business commenced in 2004 and we began using mobile messaging as a failsafe means of communicating job related information to our Nerd base about 4 years ago” says Bill.

‘Nerd’ is an endearing reference to Need a Nerd’s mobile and workshop Technicians – they have 35 of them.

And with 12 franchises throughout the NZ, Need a Nerd continue to grow their Nerd and customer base.

“We don’t only use mobile messaging for our Nerds” said Bill. “We also use it for communicating to our customers. From bookings, providing information, conversation and issues management. For us, SMS adds an immediate failsafe communication method and put simply, it’s used as a back-up tool in association with email. Having this back-up in place is particularly important because of the mobile nature of our Nerds and the high level of service we like to provide our customers”.

This level of service is confirmed on the Need a Nerd website where technical tips, live chat and the ability to book a Nerd 24/7 co-exist, allowing Nerd availability around the clock.

Customer Spotlight – Real Time Table Reservations Online: Obee Table Reservations

Offering diners real-time flexibility to book and edit reservations, Obee Table Reservations is a booking system offered to Restaurateurs, enabling patrons to make table arrangements online.  “Obee Table Reservations is a cloud based app, developed using PHP and a MySQL database, and the system can be used anywhere an internet connection is available” explained Owen Parry, Obee Table Reservations Managing Director.

For this young and dynamic company, operating and growing the business through the incorporation of mobile methods and technology was always going to be part of their strategy.

“The business started operations in December 2010 and within 2 months we’d integrated mobile as part of the program” said Parry. “There are three SMS components built into the program, the main method being Reminders, in which customers can reply back to. And the other two components are the Waiting List SMS (alerting patrons of the time their table will be ready) and a Marketing Services feature”.

“Restaurants that use our program give us regular feedback, especially on the key function feature, SMS Reminders. They all seem to be very happy with the functionality and reliability with one of our leading restaurants’, Italian & Sons, in the ACT, reporting response rates of 90% with two-way messaging”.

www.obee.com.au/

Customer Spotlight – SMS, staple method of contact: Dent A Find

Dent A Find, a division of People Match Group, specialise in the recruitment of temporary and permanent staff to the dental industry and commenced operations in 1986.

The type of placements they make include dental nurses and hygienists, receptionists and practice managers.

When asked about the type of mobile messaging Dent A Find conducts, Matt Calvitto, Dent A Find’s HR Recruitment Officer, explained that “because of the nature of our business, we have a high dependency on mobile communication.”

Dent A Find have been using mobile communication methods since 2007. “Our use of mobile technology ranges from notification of changes in job details, location, vacancy details and job overviews.”  Knowledgeable on the subject of CRM, Matt also informed us that Dent A Find uses the SMSGlobal platform to store candidate’s mobile numbers.

“With mobile messaging as our key method of contact, our candidates are sent job details via SMS and candidates respond to assignments with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’” stated Matt.

Dent A Find’s mission is to ‘partner with their customers so to best understand their environment, culture, market dynamics, technology, processes and unique needs’.  At SMSGlobal, we agree with this ethos and take pleasure in providing a platform that assists Dent A Find grow and prosper.

http://www.dentafind.com.au/

CELL-EBRATION! The Past, Present & Future Of The Mobile Phone

Can you believe that just four decades ago, the first mobile phone call was made? On April 3, 1973, Motorola employee Martin Cooper made the call in New York to competitor ATT, said: ‘I’m ringing you just to see if my call sounds good at your end.  The device that was used was 9 inches tall, comprising 30 circuit boards, had a talk-time of 35 minutes, and took 10 hours to recharge.

Since that critical moment in history, the mobile phone has undergone a series of transformations. So how has the mobile phone evolved in the last forty years? We came across a nifty infographic created by Column Five and Mashable. What are your thoughts?

The History of the Mobile Phone

 



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