MEF Director of Programmes James Williams reports on a recent session examining the role of trust in business messaging, part of the recent MEF Connects Business Messaging event, available to view online now.
Now in its 21st year acting as an impartial and authoritative champion for addressing issues affecting the broadening mobile ecosystem, the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) has remained true to three ‘Is’ – Interaction, Insight and Impact.
Now MEF is not an events company but the situation that has impacted us all markedly during the past 12 months has forced us to adjust our approach and we’ve been bringing you even more opportunities to interact with each other, just online. Our latest mainline event was MEF Connects Business Messaging – 3 packed days with a total of 30 hours of live content involving 115 speakers and 17 CEOs, running from March 22nd to 24th inclusive.
Watch the Trust in Business Messaging Panel in full
Recordings of the live sessions are now available to view
Whilst we know there is far more to Business Messaging than just Business SMS, SMS is a channel that is ubiquitous, drives high engagement across all demographics and is something billions feel comfortable with and inherently understand. The first SMS was sent on December 3rd 1992 in the UK and whilst the Person-to-Person (P2P) side of things is under serious pressure due to the impact of chat apps, businesses are starting to understand the power of Application-to-Person (A2P) SMS – Business SMS.
Our key takeaway from the session though is that no matter where an organisation sits in the Business SMS ecosystem whether Business Messaging provider, Enterprise, Mobile Network Operator or indeed Mobile Subscriber, all have a role to play in keeping the SMS channel trusted.“
Business SMS volumes are skyrocketing globally, with plenty of headroom still left for growth. To ensure nothing knocks it off trajectory, it’s critical that the channel is trusted – free from spam and fraudulent contact.
To that end, MEF put together a Business SMS Code of Conduct and related Fraud Framework. Companies signing it are showing the world that they are trusted parties in the Enterprise Messaging world, taking every reasonable measure possible to keep the channel available unimpeded for mobile subscribers the world over.
To date over 30 companies have signed the Code and beyond this programme, MEF runs the UK’s SMS SenderID registry. ‘Trust’ really should be our middle name…
I had the pleasure of speaking with senior leaders from companies who view the Code of Conduct as integral to their business philosophy as well as the Project Director of the SMS SenderID registry.
Joining me were:
- Alex Yanson: CEO of LANCK Telecom
- Charles Upchurch: CEO of Global Message Services (GMS)
- David Lotfi: Founder & CEO of Evina
- Matija Razem: VP Business Development of Infobip
- Mike Round: MEF’s SMS SenderID Registry Project Director
- Pat Flynn: Co-Founder & Business Development Director of Nettzer
There was a lot of ground to cover in a short time but we got to hear about exactly what it was that gravitated these business leaders towards MEF and the Code of Conduct.
With so many stakeholders to manage across the ecosystem and on so many levels, ensuring they adhere to the code is no mean feat at all. Measures organisations are taking to prevent and mitigate potential problems in the SMS domain are far-reaching and do take concerted effort. That is clear.
Our key takeaway from the session though is that no matter where an organisation sits in the Business SMS ecosystem (whether Business Messaging provider, Enterprise, Mobile Network Operator or indeed Mobile Subscriber), all have a role to play in keeping the SMS channel trusted.
Any rumours of A2P SMS’ imminent demise are proving to be as accurate as planet Earth is flat and with 80 members of our Future of Messaging programme, MEF is seeing first hand just how important SMS remains the to business of so many. And MEF and its members will continue to do everything we can to ensure this remains the case.
Available on Demand
MEF CONNECTS: Business Messaging brought together the best technology providers across the globe who will share the latest use-cases and technological developments from both mobile network operators and OTT players.
Watch the panels and keynote presentations from MEF Connects Business Messaging
