Clickatell brings High-end SMS Services to the Business
October 08, 2001 So what makes this SMS tool so special? According to Managing Director, Pieter de Villiers. "Clickatell enables businesses to communicate via SMS technologies at the high end of the scale - technologies which have not been available for immediate integration until now. Our approach is different from other service providers, in that we make integration really simple. SMS messages could never be sent without intense integration, red tape and inflated integration fees. We believed that this should change". Clickatell's whole market approach is built around being a wireless communications enabler in the broadest sense of the word. "Where other companies may attempt to keep technology veiled behind a wall of exclusivity, Clickatell has taken a 180 degree turn on this approach and are literally giving that technology away," De Villiers continues. "Integration with Clickatell is immediate, right now, and the total Clickatell offering includes more functionality than was ever available commercially before" The new API is meant to set the standard for other companies to follow. It offers, amongst other things, high capacity multi-threaded queue management, detailed message status and end-to-end tracking for comprehensive delivery reporting, multiple message protocol delivery, full-featured and easy to use http/xml-rpc connectivity, and intelligent, real-time redundancy to ensure 100% uptime and multi-network support with global SMS delivery. Businesses will furthermore be able to send bulk logo's, ringtones, Flash SMS messages (which allows for the message to be displayed immediately upon receipt), delayed sending, batch-messaging, EMS (Enhanced Message Service) messages, manipulated sender ID branding, and of course high volume bulk or trigger-based SMS messages. "Stability and speed of delivery are critical for our success, as well as platform-independent integration. Clickatell's API can be integrated with any application such as PHP, Coldfusion, ASP or even a CGI script." It is widely believed that the release of the API will have a significant impact on the industry, due to the open-source approach that Clickatell has taken. With the current lite version of the API, this impact was already visible, allowing Clickatell to gain significant market share within weeks after its release. Many high volume SMS and service providers utilise Clickatell's gateways in order to re-sell commercially. Clickatell has taken a long-term view by not charging integration fees. De Villiers says, "The fact that many providers are asking fees for setting up SMS connectivity often results in the selling of redundant integration procedures which at the end of the day costs the corporate client a lot of money. Clickatell's turnkey integration saves the client time, money, and exposes them to a risk-free testing ground with unchallenged delivery capacity. This is one of our key differentiators." The launch of Clickatell's API is part of their long-term expansion plan, which includes the continued development of new applications and corporate messaging tools. Their products serve different ends of the market, from bulk, individualised SMS messaging for push-marketing campaigns, to web enablement and SMS community-building tools, as well as enhanced desktop SMS applications. These are, according to De Villiers, purely samples of what can actually be achieved with SMS messaging. "Our clients really define the applications of the technology at the end of the day, and we have seen inventive use of SMS messaging which range from automated bank-balance alerts, to an "SMS This Headline" functionality which a news portal uses to draw more traffic to their site." Whatever SMS messaging will be used for in the future, it seems that Clickatell will be there to facilitate it - reliably. Clickatell's SMS functionality can be integrated immediately.
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