Archivo de la categoría: Messaging

Archiving & Regulatory Retention, Audit, Collaboration, compliance, Document Management, Email address, File Delivery, File Sharing, File transfer, Legal, Messaging

Secure File Delivery with an Audit Trail

My Docs Online has enhanced its web-based secure file delivery feature to add additional controls and a comprehensive delivery audit trail.

“We were the first to offer web-based file delivery, back in 1999,” said Stephen Campbell, CEO of My Docs Online, “and we’ve consistently enhanced and expanded our capabilities as user needs have evolved. What we are seeing now is the need for optional controls like passwords, variable expiration limits, and most importantly, a detailed audit trail documenting delivery and the ability to make changes after the fact. No other product offers our range of options coupled with an audit trail.”

In order to offer such a wide range of options without making the feature cumbersome to use, customization controls allow unneeded options to be hidden, allowing a streamlined, custom experience for each user. In addition, group administrators can control defaults and enforce group policies such as requiring passwords or setting a fixed expiration.

The new “Smart Label” feature allows users label a Share, and also save default values like custom comments and expirations for future use. Smart Labels also add more value to the Share Management portion of the product, making it easier to locate, verify and control Shares.

Users also have the option to generate a link they can send themselves, or select email addresses from an address book and let My Docs Online send the email.

The file delivery page displays the customer’s logo, and offers an optional zipped download of all files when there is more than one.

A web API is also available for third-party use.

More details are available in the My Docs Online FAQ.

Marketing, Messaging, Mobile, Mobile marketing, Short Message Service, SMS, Text messaging

Top 5 Reasons Your Brand Should Invest in SMS Marketing

As more customers access information on-the-go, SMS is increasingly becoming an important tool in multi-channel marketing. However, there are still a number of businesses that believe mobile marketing demands significantly large budgets and heavy investments in applications.

In truth, gaining access to mobile communications is easier than ever and engaging with mobile users is as simple as sending out personalized and targeted text messages. Initiating two-way SMS communication between a brand and a mobile user is not only convenient but also essential to make your brand a household name. 

Here are some key benefits of adopting SMS marketing as a promotional tool: 

1. Direct and Real-Time Communication

Text messaging is one of the most immediate channels for marketing communication. Statistics suggest that 97% of recipients will read your text within 15 minutes of its delivery. Time-critical messages work best using this tool. Studies also suggest that 45% of SMS campaigns generate successful ROI. These figures have the potential to go up to 50% when combined with other popular tools.

2. Building Databases and Simplifying Interactions

Encourage your customers to interact with you through SMS messaging services. Adding creative copy, short codes or keywords to your printing material and other marketing communications allows both existing and potential customers to easily respond to your message. When audiences can contact your brand easily, you may build databases of high-intent customers more efficiently.

3. Easy Integration with other Channels

While SMS is an excellent standalone channel, it also provides the ability to improve and support other media, including television ads, social media and e-mail. For instance, customers may use this tool to enter opinion polls and contests released on alternative platforms.

4. Learn More about your Customer

SMS is an excellent channel to receive feedback from your customers. Studies suggest that 31% of your target audience is likely to respond to an SMS-enabled survey. The average response time recorded is as short as 5 minutes. This means businesses can accumulate quick insights on the psyche of their target groups and use this information effectively for enhanced service delivery.

5. Increase Customer Engagement

Just imagine the number of ways in which SMS can help your brand improve engagement across the customer lifecycle! Especially for e-commerce businesses, this channel may be effectively used to introduce new product ranges, send order confirmations, delivery information and assistance for product returns and exchanges.

Finally, SMS services are best leveraged to track meaningful ROI, identify receptive customers, monitor delivery rates and use this information to improve business processes. A commonly believed myth that SMS is a difficult channel to track is being rapidly debunked; this tool is at least as effective as e-mail when it comes to customer engagement. By using analytics intelligently, businesses are able to create well-targeted and profit-making campaigns for their brands using SMS services.

IBM, M&A Activity, Marketing, Messaging, Mobile, Short Message Service, SMS, Xtify

IBM Acquires Mobile Messaging Startup Xtify

IBM today announced the acquisition of Xtify Inc., a ventured-backed company based in New York City. Xtify provides mobile messaging tools via the cloud to help organizations increase mobile sales and improve brand loyalty. Xtify mobile capabilities will be delivered through IBM’s SaaS portfolio and will run on IBM’s SoftLayer cloud infrastructure.

Xtify will expand IBM’s Smart Commerce initiative helping CMOs, digital marketers, mobile application developers with mobile campaign creation, content targeting, dynamic real-time segmentation and analytics across all mobile device platforms and browsers. Xtify’s technology is designed to deliver real-time, personalized offers via in-app mobile messages and push notifications.

The acquisition of Xtify has implications across IBM’s business: 

  • Xtify will expand IBM’s Smarter Commerce initiative to help digital marketers develop relevant push notifications delivered via mobile devices and browsers. Smarter Commerce is among IBM’s most profitable business units boasting more than $3.5 billion in acquisitions since 2010.
  • As part of IBM’s MobileFirst strategy, Xtify will make it easier for developers building mobile applications using IBM’s WorkLight platform to deliver relevant and timely cross-channel marketing messages to customers based on open standards.

Bitrix, Bitrix24, Collaboration, Content Management, Customer Relationship Management, Document Management, Messaging, Mobile, Social, Storage

Bitrix24 Collaboration for SMBs Update Supports Online Document Creation, Sharing

Bitrix has released a new version of Bitrix24, its free enterprise social network and collaboration suite for small businesses. The new release allows users to create, edit and collaborate on documents online, without having MS Office suite installed on their personal computers.

In addition to using Bitrix24 instant messenger for video and group chats, users now have access to video conferencing and screen sharing capabilities. Email connectors to MS Exchange, Outlook, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo!, iCloud and other popular e-mail services have been added to enable e-mail access from Bitrix24 accounts.

Activity Stream has been enhanced with real time updates, smart forwarding, notification options and company-wide announcements, while engagement analytics module (Company Pulse) has been added to provide real time indicators for enterprise social network adoption, identify roadblocks and slow adopters, and show which intranet tools are currently being (under)used by employees.

Bitrix24 has also released a fully functional mobile CRM, which allows creation or editing of CRM entries and invoices directly from the mobile device. The new mobile app also allows using multiple Bitrix24 accounts from a single smartphone or tablet.

“2013 has been a year of significant growth for us, – said Bitrix24 CEO Dmitry Valyanov, – we’ve signed up 90,000 companies, which is well over 500,000 users for the cloud and onsite versions of Bitrix24 intranet. Our workforce grew by 40% to over 130 employees and we opened three new sales and support offices. GooglePlay now lists Bitrix24 among the top 5 mobile intranet apps, along with or surpassing such established enterprise social brands as Jive Software, IBM Connection, VMWare SocialCast and TIBCO Tibbr. We hope to have a million users by the end of the year.”

Bitrix24 is 100% free to any company or organization with up to 12 employees. Bitrix24 paid cloud plans are priced at $99/mo (50 GB) and $199/mo (100 GB), and both come with unlimited users.

Application programming interface, Cloud Elements, Messaging, Partnerships, SendGrid, Tools, Twilio

Cloud Elements Releases Unified Twilio, SendGrid Messaging Hub

Cloud Elements, today announced the availability of a new developer tool to connect Twilio and SendGrid, the two leading cloud API platforms for SMS messaging, voice and email respectively via a single uniform application programming interface (API). The Cloud Elements Messaging Hub provides a single console to provision, integrate, monitor and maintain these services, providing an integrated messaging platform that delivers seamless interaction between the leading SMS, voice and email service providers. With Cloud Elements’ Messaging Hub, software developers now have the quickest and most cost-effective way to bring Twilio and SendGrid services into their SaaS applications.

Available without charge for the remainder of 2013, the Cloud Elements Messaging Hub allows developers to easily provision and integrate services within their specific environments with a simple click of a mouse. The Element’s singular dashboard offers automated monitoring, innovative tagging for granular account tracking, and seamless, interoperability between services (e.g., send an email, receive a text confirmation).

“Twilio is the top innovator in SMS and voice messaging services and SendGrid leads the email services market,” said Mark Geene, CEO of Cloud Elements. “Cloud Elements’ mission is to make it easier for developers to integrate, monitor and maintain the cloud services their applications depend on. Cloud Elements brings these two messaging leaders together with a uniform API and consolidated monitoring, logging and analytics. Developers can use both of their services in a fraction of the time with a fraction of the code.”

”We’re excited by what Cloud Elements is doing with their new Messaging Hub,” said Lynda Smith, CMO of Twilio. “Developers often work with multiple APIs in the process of building out their solutions. The Cloud Elements approach allows them to manage them from a single dashboard, freeing up more time to create cool things. We can’t wait to see what Cloud Elements’ customers build with this new tool.”

“Our mission at SendGrid is to make email simple, easy and fast for developers,” said Jim Franklin, CEO of SendGrid. “Cloud Elements is bringing our existing partnership with Twilio to the Cloud Elements customer ecosystem, and is making it even easier for developers to integrate both email and messaging by offering a singular, uniform API and dashboard. The resulting streamlined integration, maintenance and management benefits are big wins for any developer looking to save time and money.”

Email, email marketing, Internet marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Messaging, Social

89 Degrees Launches ECHO Email Optimization Plan

89 Degrees, a customer engagement agency that leverages data and analytically driven strategy for maximum ROI, has launched a new service, ECHO, an email capabilities & health optimization plan that maximizes email investments for increased impact and ROI.

“Industry surveys show that the amount of email sent by retailers in 2012 jumped by at least 19 percent, and with good reason,” said Arthur Sweetser, CMO of 89 Degrees and recent speaker at the Email Evolution Conference. “Email is evolving and remains highly profitable; the evidence keeps mounting and businesses know it is a smart bet for their budgets.”

89 Degrees also hears from many marketers that are convinced of emails’ value, but still don’t know if they are making the most of their investment. Or they may not be achieving the growth numbers on which they were counting.

“When businesses are allocating a sizable portion of their marketing budget to email marketing, they want to be sure they are spending smart,” continued Sweetser. “That’s why we introduced ECHO – to help marketers reach and exceed their goals, increasing their success with each following campaign.”

Cloud & IT Management, GSMA, Messaging, Mobile World Congress, RCS, Rich Communication Suite, Telecommunications Industry

Interop Technologies Adds RCS Version 5 Features to Cloud Technology

Interop Technologies, a provider of core wireless solutions for advanced messaging, over-the-air handset management, and connectivity gateways, today announced that its Rich Communication Services (RCS) solution now supports a network address book and social presence. The network address book synchronizes a user’s contacts among different devices including mobile phones, tablets, and PCs. With social presence, RCS users receive rich, real-time information, such as availability, location, favorite link, and portrait icon, for each of their contacts.

Interop Technologies is demonstrating its enhanced RCS solution at OMA Demo Day on February 27 during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

The network address book and social presence features are aligned with the GSMA-managed RCS Blackbird and Crane releases, which include subsets of priority RCS version 5 features. Using an XML document management server (XDMS) and presence server, the Interop solution stores social presence and service capability information and makes it available in real time to RCS users. Since May 2012, the fully compliant, cloud-based Interop RCS solution has also supported legacy messaging interworking, an RCS version 5 feature providing backward compatibility with Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS).

Interop has made the enhancements available in its interoperability testing (IOT) environment currently in use by multiple RCS client vendors and smartphone manufacturers. As client and handset vendors release new versions of RCS client software, they can continue to test against the Interop RCS solution to ensure that standards compliance and interoperability are achieved.

RCS, branded as “joyn” by the GSMA, gives subscribers innovative communication options including video chat, one-to-one and group messaging, file transfer, and real-time exchange of image or video files during communication sessions. Because the Interop solution enables operators to offer RCS without a costly and complex IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core, operators can compete with popular “over-the-top” (OTT) services without expensive changes to their current network. In addition, Interop’s cloud technology option minimizes up-front costs and speeds time to market.

“Our client-agnostic, cloud-based solution now includes multiple RCS version 5 capabilities in line with the Blackbird and Crane releases, resulting in the most advanced, feature-rich RCS solution available today,” said Steve Zitnik, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Interop Technologies. “By deploying in the cloud, operators can provide their subscribers with this state-of-the-art communication option quickly and cost effectively.”

For more information or to schedule a meeting during Mobile World Congress, please contact info@interoptechnologies.com.

Messaging, Mobile Computing, SMS, Wireless Data

Infinite Convergence Launches Cloud-Based Enterprise Mobile Messaging Service

Infinite Convergence Solutions, a carrier-grade next-generation mobility technology provider, today launched its Enterprise Messaging Service (EMS). The cloud-based messaging service is specifically designed for enterprises to securely exchange information with customers, employees and business partners globally. With customization and systems integration services, Infinite Convergence’s experienced end-to-end service team can help enterprises expedite the introduction of value-added mobile messaging.

“Enterprises are increasingly using mobile messaging to communicate with their customers, employees and partners. In addition, enterprises are becoming more discerning in their messaging delivery service requirements, moving beyond commoditized bulk messaging and towards high-quality, highly reliable services, which also allow them to add value to their own offerings,” said Pamela Clark-Dickson, Senior Analyst, Mobile Content & Applications at Informa Telecoms & Media.

EMS builds upon Infinite Convergence’s innovative carrier-grade messaging platform, which currently enables 130 million subscribers to exchange 900 billion mobile messages annually. With features such as global reach, delivery assurance and end-to-end secure delivery, as well as a user-friendly web portal, campaign manager, opt-in/opt-out capabilities and messaging analytics, Infinite Convergence’s EMS maximizes its leading-edge platform to provide superior enterprise messaging capabilities. Customizable for a variety of industries, including financial institutions, travel and hospitality and healthcare, enterprises can use Infinite Convergence’s EMS for their most time-sensitive and confidential communications.

“In today’s mobile world, it’s necessary for enterprises to establish close connections with their clients. Text and multimedia messaging continues to be the most ubiquitous form of communication across the globe,” said Anurag Lal, CEO of Infinite Convergence Solutions. “EMS enables organizations to engage with their customers, employees and business partners in the most effective and compelling way.”

EMS’s scalable, secure and proven technology boasts 99.99% reliability with the ability to deliver messages to mobile subscribers in over 180 countries. Its API-based approach allows the service to be seamlessly integrated with existing business applications and IT infrastructures. Moreover, with Infinite Convergence’s ability to provide scalable and cost-effective customization, enterprises can focus their efforts on enhancing their own customer-specific offering instead of being boxed into standard, commodity-based of-the-shelf services.

Archiving & Regulatory Retention, Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity, E-mail archiving, Messaging, Mimecast, Partnerships, Sendmail

Sendmail, Mimecast Partner for Hybrid-Cloud Email Security, Archiving, Management

Sendmail and Mimecast today announced a new strategic partnership that provides additional enhanced options for integrating and configuring email management solutions, which are needed to meet the growing hybrid-cloud email deployment requirements of large global enterprises.

This strategic partnership allows global enterprises to combine the proven on-premises Sentrion Email Integration Platform with Mimecast’s leading in-cloud Unified Email Management in a hybrid-cloud architecture for complete email security, archiving and business continuity with any on-premises or in-cloud email system.

“Gartner has long maintained that enterprises moving email to the cloud may have unique requirements that cannot be entirely fulfilled with cloud-only provisioning,” said Matt Cain, Vice President, Gartner Inc. “Large organizations therefore may require a flexible on-premises/cloud combination that can support a variety of unique email deployment options for mailboxes, security, archiving, routing and policy management.”

Many large organizations are looking to benefit from the cost, flexibility and other gains of cloud-based email deployments, but email-to-cloud migrations cannot be done without also managing the large number of machine-generating emails from business systems that rely on on-premises email infrastructure. Adding to the challenges for global enterprises are the wide range of security, regulatory compliance and corporate email policy requirements.

“Our customers have been asking for scalable cloud email applications that can easily integrate with our on-premises Sentrion Email Integration Platform with single provider support,” said Glen D. Vondrick, Sendmail President & CEO. “We are impressed by the proven Mimecast platform which offers the integration opportunity to deliver the hybrid-cloud architecture options enterprises need in order to consolidate multiple point products, reduce number of vendors, and further simplify the management of business email complexity.”

Sentrion is the de facto standard on-premises email infrastructure platform deployed by major Fortune 1000 enterprises around the globe to manage the complexity of policy-based routing and integration of machine-generated email with human collaboration email. Mimecast’s Unified Email Management platform is the only cloud-based email management solution designed specifically to deliver a broad range of email management capabilities in a tightly integrated, high performance SaaS platform. Mimecast in the cloud supports more than 6000 businesses worldwide.

“Sendmail’s proven success in providing on-premises email infrastructure to Fortune 1000 organizations makes them an ideal global enterprise partner for Mimecast,” said Peter Bauer, CEO, Mimecast. “Businesses are being driven toward evaluating and adopting cloud-based email solutions to control cost and complexity which can be quite challenging in high volume machine generated email environments. By combining Sentrion on-premises with Mimecast in the cloud, organizations can garner the advantages of the cloud while continuing to meet their business systems requirements. The option of a hybrid configuration means no matter what size of business and no matter how complex the requirements, we can enable the ideal email management solution.”

Sentrion Cloud Apps powered by Mimecast are available now from Sendmail. Those applications include: Mimecast Email Security, Mimecast Email Archiving and Mimecast Email Continuity. Deeper enterprise-specific integration between the two platforms is currently underway.


Chrome Web Store, Google Chrome, Messaging, Mobile phone, SMS

Bulletin Messenger VI Now Available as Chrome App

Bulletin.net has made its service, Bulletin Messenger VI, available through the Chrome Web Store from Google Chrome. Consumers are now able to access from the Chrome Web Store the cloud-based service that allows organizations large and small to easily send multiple SMS messages to communicate directly with their audiences globally.

Bulletin.net’s patented IP provides Conversational Message Threading (CMT), the backbone of Messenger VI. Users can organize, send and receive SMS messages from the convenience of their desktop, mobile device or web browser, and deliver their message directly to their audience where they are sure to receive it – on their mobile phone. Leveraging SMS communications is a cost-effective method to connect businesses with mobile customers around the globe.

“SMS is ubiquitous, almost spam-free, and boasts a 96% open rate. It is the single most effective form of what we call ‘conditioned response marketing,’” said Michael Messner, Director of Marketing. “Customers have been conditioned to immediately check and respond to text messages.”

“SMS represents a key channel for mobile marketing and strongly complements other business communication strategies,” said David Hayes, Australian Country Manager.