The benefits of effective enterprise communications: Part 1

This is the first in a series of posts about the benefits of effective business communications. In today's post we will look at the importance of communications within a business and the effects absent or poor communications can have. 

Part 2 will examine external business communications and will be available on Friday 11th October.

For any internal communications within a business, it is paramount that communications are secure. Symantec shows that the average cost of a data breach to UK businesses is over 2 million pounds, which is an increase from the year before. Staff will exchange information between team members daily and a proportion of the information exchanged will be sensitive, and this needs to be kept safe.

Living in today’s world, there are typically multiple systems within organisations that are used in everyday business activities. When systems fail it is important that relevant staff are notified as soon as possible to reduce downtime and negative impact on the business. According to the 2012 Acronis Disaster Recovery Index survey 86% of companies suffered downtime in the last year, and lost an average of 2.2 days annually as a result.

Enterprises that communicate with staff well can also see positive differences in performance and reduced costs. For example, Unum found that the failure to effectively communicate company benefits available to employees costs UK businesses £2.7 billion every year through higher employee turnover and sickness. Furthermore, CEB found failure to inform employees about organisational change in advance increased misconduct by 42 percent!

Businesses must also think about the wider environment and possible factors that may cause disruption to everyday operations. This can be anything from heating system failure, severe weather to a leaky gas pipe in the area affecting staff's ability to commute to and be at work. Chartered Management Institute (CMI) found severe weather is the top cause of business disruption, with average costs to organisations reaching more than £52,000. Disruptions to the business can be minimised by communicating office closures to staff and enabling them to work from home. It is also important that businesses do not have staff travelling in to work under dangerous conditions as they are expected to keep employees safe under Health and Safety regulations.

Business mobility has become a buzzword in the industry and is presenting further communication considerations that businesses must address. Every enterprise has a degree of dependency on mobility as individuals are mobile by nature - they can move around. Within the organisation, mobility can range from a team member popping over to a colleague's desk to attending a meeting. People need to be mobile in order to get the job done but this makes them less accessible.

Using mobile messaging such as SMS and instant messaging for internal communications can make the enterprise more effective and efficient through increased accessibility and responsiveness. 97% of mobile subscribers will read an SMS (text) message within 15 minutes of receiving it meaning issues can be dealt with promptly wherever they are. Instant messaging is also ideal for immediate communications as well as being used for secure messaging via end to end encryption, reducing the likelihood of costly security breaches.

Find out more about how SMS improves business communications strategy or the different mobile communications services available to help your enterprise become more effective and efficient through increased accessibility and responsiveness.

This post is part of a series. Part 2 will be published Friday 11th October.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

No to UK mobile banking until deemed safe?

One of the most fundamental services banks provide is keeping customers' hard earned cash safe. 

With new innovations developing in the market with increasing speed, banks are struggling to keep up. Customers can now carry out banking activities from a variety of sources - branch, telephone, online, mobile - and this opens up security risks which banks must address.

Mobile banking is expected to grow to 1 billion users by 2017 but security remains a top concern for mobile bankers in the UK and this is impacting negatively on adoption rates. Previous research by KPMG found only 27% of people in the UK had used mobile banking in the previous 6 months compared to 52% worldwide. 66% were worried about their credit card information being captured by fraudsters while 62% were concerned that others may be able to access personal details.

Concerns over mobile banking technology have become so significant that regulators are now stepping in to ensure banks have the appropriate IT systems in place and that enough is being done to protect customers from security risks. This in turn should help assure consumers that their details and money are safe from fraud whilst using mobile banking.

This may create grumbles amongst banks though as development may be necessary to their IT infrastructure and further steps may need to be taken to protect customers. However, an infographic by Metaforic highlights improving security measures can increase adoption rates of mobile banking with 54% of non mobile banking users indicating that they would adopt mobile banking if there was evidence of more robust app security and 48% would adopt mobile banking if there were assurances that losses would be covered.

Other concerns raised by the FCA included risk of virus when downloading mobile banking apps and payment errors such as typing in the wrong account details or amount when transferring money to a person or company - this is particularly relevant when people can make payments to other accounts by simply using a telephone number. With screen sizes and keys being smaller, this is a very valid concern as the risk of human error is significant.

The good news is many UK banks are already offering to protect customers in the event of fraud within mobile banking and have additional security steps in place for mobile banking customers. Barclays has services such as secure log-in and Mobile PINsentry to protect the most vulnerable transactions within online banking. Nationwide validate customers during registration and all information is verified though VeriSign, which is a main global player for secure e-commerce.

However, it is not enough that banks have security steps in place. To fully protect customer accounts, it is important that not only banks are protecting customer accounts, but customers themselves are taking responsibility to protect themselves against security risks. Within the Metaforic infographic it was revealed that only 1 in 5 consumers had installed anti-virus software on their device, indicating that more needs to be done by customers themselves.

Many UK banks are now trying to teach customers on what steps can be taken to heighten security measures. For example, Barclays have a dedicated page on mobile banking security highlighting the steps they have taken to protect customers as well as advising customers on actions they can take to strengthen security. This includes an advice section on how customers can help protect their accounts and free security software for PC and mobiles.

Find out more about how customers and banks can improve security for mobile banking or how mobile is making a difference within banking and finance.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Trusting banks key to mobile revolution

UK banks are increasingly launching new mobile banking services as they recognise the growing importance of this channel for connecting with customers and competing in the marketplace. Customers can now receive SMS alerts when unusual activity is suspected, or when they are reaching their credit limit or use mobile banking to keep up to date with their balance and activity.

These new mobile services give customers more control over their finances and help protect their accounts and information. However, although banks are struggling to launch innovative mobile services to keep up with customer expectations and demand, security concerns and lack of trust are affecting adoption rates of mobile banking.

Mobile payments is set to be the next wave in the industry. Portio found there were 480 million mobile payment users across the globe at the end of 2012 and this is predicted to rise to almost 1.5 billion users by 2017. They predict that global mobile payment volumes - goods, services and utility bill payments made through mobile devices each year – will hit $2 trillion by the end of 2017.­­­

Visa Europe also found that UK shoppers are becoming more comfortable with mobile payments as they make 51 million contactless purchases over the last 12 months with monthly spend increasing fivefold from the previous year.

These figures are hardly surprising when you consider the rise of smartphone users. eMarketer estimate that the number of UK smartphone users will reach 30.9 million in 2013 and this is expected to rise to 43.4 million translating to two thirds of people in the UK and 81% of UK mobile phone users.

Consumer trust continues to grow for mobile technologies but there is some distance to cover before consumers completely trust mobile payment technology. An ING study highlighted that 45% of people in the UK are not confident that their money is secure when using contactless payments and this is not just the case in the UK. Many believe that banks are placed in an ideal position when it comes to mobile payments as consumers have a lot of trust in banks already.

Many banks around the globe are already releasing mobile payment services and research by MAPA revealed that banks who do not offer mobile payments are now in the minority. A number of UK banks, thanks to The Payments Council, are also developing a solution to enable banking customers to send and receive money by sharing just their phone number by 2014.The next step would be contactless payment technology to enable shoppers to use their mobile device for purchases, removing the need to carry credit and debit cards.

These figures highlight the potential growth of mobile payments and the opportunities available for banks. Find out more about whether mobile banking security concerns will really hinder adoption rates and learn more about why mobile services is being utilised by banks and finance companies.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Energy companies enhance customer service through mobile

With fuel poverty in the UK reaching all time highs, households continue to look for the best deal available in the market. However, it's extremely important that utility companies do not forget about customer service as this can be a key differentiator from the competition as well as an effective route to building customer loyalty and retaining customers.

 

Many utility companies have been criticised for customer service and recent Which? research revealed that only 6 out of 16 energy suppliers had an average waiting time of less than 2 minutes with one provider having an average waiting time of 17 minutes and 5 seconds. I imagine most people would be gritting their teeth if they had been on hold for this long and seeing red. One of the most frustrating experiences customers have is being left on hold and waiting for their call to be answered.

When it comes to valuing customers, Which? also found that providers were slower to answer calls from existing customer than new prospective customers. I suspect many people will not be surprised to hear this as when it comes to valuing existing customers from energy suppliers, expectations are pretty low.

Which? executive director, Richard Lloyd, stated: “If energy companies want to restore trust in the industry they must work harder to make people feel confident that customer service is a top priority, and stop putting sales over service.”

How can mobile help utility companies enhance customer service?

Mobile can be an effective way to reduce the number of calls made to customer service departments, helping improve call answer times and reduce the number of irate customers. For example, SMS can be used for sending information regarding outages ensuring that when customer service is affected, they are notified immediately and are kept updated as to when the outage is expected to be fixed. This helps greatly reduce the number of calls made to customer service departments, as well as managing expectations of customers.

Another way of strengthening the customer relationship is by keeping utility customers updated as to when an engineer will be arriving at their premises. It can be very frustrating having to sit in the house unable to go out as you are unsure of when the engineer will be expected to arrive.

SMS messages can also be used for sending general customer information such as details about usage and billing as well as helping customers stay informed and in control of their accounts. Even better, by sending details about energy usage allows customers to monitor and reduce their consumption, leading to more content customers.

Severn Trent Water has recently become the first utility supplier to provide non-Direct Debit customers with the ability to pay bills via a mobile payment application - Barclays Pingit. This helps customers pay bills simply and easily, helping improve the customer experience even further.

Mobile is certainly helping utility companies strengthen customer relationships in a variety of ways. Find out how energy suppliers can use mobile communications to build customer trust or read our Utilities section to find out more.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

How important is security in instant messaging?

In recent years, we have witnessed instant messaging (IM) apps begin to enter the market with some speed. WhatsApp is a popular instant messaging app amongst consumers and recently reached 250 million users according to Digital Trends. However, for enterprises, security of IM apps is absolutely crucial as they transmit business data and confidential information.

Check Point found that 64% of UK enterprises stated external attacks had risen considerably in the last 12 months, with indirect internal data leaks rising more quickly. One of the difficulties was managing security across the organisation. These findings clearly highlight that new products and services added to enterprises need to already be secure.

A new survey reveals that a large proportion of UK enterprises (72%) have forbidden the use of public instant messaging (IM) software, such as MSN and Yahoo!, due to security concerns. Many enterprises were worried about team members downloading IM apps without their knowledge and possibly sending sensitive company information even though most believed IM could bring benefits to their enterprise. Another finding was that only 12% kept an audit trail of messages sent through public IM apps even though regulations state they must keep a log of all company information with some stating they didn't know they were required to keep an audit trail or they found it too complicated.

Gartner outlines security risks of IM apps which include:

• Eavesdropping - accessing data when wireless connection is not secure or attacks. 
• Device loss - losing the device and accessing data held on device. 
• Spoofing and hijacking - taking control over IM whilst team member is in the app. 
• Intentional data leakage through IM - through activities like file sharing. 
• Malware - received from contacts in IM.

Three key security measures which Gartner propose for IM apps are:

• Authentication 
• Encryption 
• Server Location

Firstly, one of the key security measures that enterprises should adopt with IM apps is authentication. Authentication seeks to ensure that the person accessing the IM app is indeed the correct user. It is suggested that for optimum security to be achieved, both the device and the user should be authenticated and it is recommended that enterprises ensure team members have a secure password when accessing the device.

Secondly, encryption is defined by Wikipedia as "the process of encoding messages (or information) in such a way that eavesdroppers or hackers cannot read it, but that authorized parties can". It is recommended that end-to-end encryption is used to reach optimal security but it was recognised that this feature is difficult to find in an IM app with BBM identified as not using end-to-end encryption. One of the reasons that many do not offer this feature is because it can be difficult to implement as the application must be installed on both mobile devices and be used by both users' devices.

Security can also vary depending on where the server is located. It is recommended that enterprises store the messaging server within their premises or they can alternatively use an IM company that holds a good reputation for security.

HSL Mobile's upcoming launch of IM/SMS, a messaging service that combines instant messaging (IM) with SMS, aims to give enterprises the most secure and far reaching messaging application for effective team communication. HSL Mobile’s IM/SMS is intended to meet the needs of enterprises around the world and enable teams to securely communicate whether they are based in the office or mobile. End-to-end security using strong encryption and long-term archiving of messages for regulatory compliance and oversight are some of the capabilities of the application and service.

Find more information by reading our Press Release: HSL Mobile Launch Secure Enterprise IM/SMS Messaging Service or please get in touch to learn more. You can also keep up to date with our developments by following us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+.

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Energy suppliers use mobile communications to build customer trust

Competition amongst energy suppliers remains fierce as players in the market and customer loyalty both remain low. Accenture found that 73% of customers said they would consider switching to other electricity suppliers and energy-related products and services. It is vital that energy companies build trust to help retain customers and enhance customer loyalty.

Accenture’s new Energy Consumer research revealed consumer trust was at its lowest in four years with only 1 in 8 UK customers trusting their energy provider to inform them of measures they could undertake to cut energy usage. Although 77% said that informing them about measures that they could take to cut energy use was important to developing trust with their utility supplier, only 65% confirmed that their utility supplier was currently carrying out such activities.

Other important features which ranked highly amongst customers when it comes to trusting energy suppliers were easy to understand pricing, accurate billing and reliable energy delivery. Recently, I rang my energy supplier to try and understand their pricing tariffs and make sure I was on the best deal and even though I have a higher math’s degree, it took a good 5 minutes to understand their pricing tariffs clearly.

How can mobile help energy companies build trust?

Accenture found that 38% would like to receive notifications about their energy usage to their mobile devices, and 50% would like online personalised tips on actions they can take to reduce their energy bill. By delivering such information to customers’ mobile devices provides customers not only with what they want, but it also gives them more control and a better understanding of their account as well as measures to cut energy usage. This helps increase customer trust for their utility supplier.

For utility supplier to provide easy to understand pricing and billing, SMS can also be used to send billing and pricing information to keep customers informed and ensure bills are paid on time. Smart meters with in-built SMS technology help customers learn more about their energy usage and improve accuracy in billing by providing real time data usage. This provides more transparency in pricing and billing making it easier for customers to understand their accounts and enhance the trust they have for suppliers.

When it comes to providing reliable energy delivery, SMS can also be used for sending information regarding any issues such as outages ensuring that when energy delivery is affected, customers are notified immediately and are kept updated as to when the issue is expected to be fixed. This helps greatly reduce the number of calls made to customer service departments, as well as managing expectations’ of customers and in turn, improving customer trust.

There are many ways in which mobile is helping energy companies enhance trust and strengthen customer relationships.  Find out how SMS solutions help monitor energy usage or read our Utilities section to find out more.

 

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com

Will IM really replace SMS?

There has been considerable debate surrounding the future of SMS communications in light of the growth of Instant Messaging (IM) apps. IM is being used in some communications as a replacement to SMS, and this has impacted on SMS revenues and growth.


According to Gartner, SMS is expected to retain its place as a leading messaging platform but there will be a continual decrease in growth due to other messaging platforms gaining ground in the market with others predicting growth will inevitably at some point go into decline. Informa Telecoms & Media found IM volumes overtook SMS last year with 19.1 billion messages being sent each day in 2012, compared with 17.6 billion SMS. They expect that the number of messages sent via IM will be double that of SMS by the end of 2013.

Why use IM?

Gartner outlines some of the reasons for the growth of IM which include the increase of social media networks and smartphone users. One of the great benefits of IM is that it provides messaging at a lower cost compared to SMS, and in many instances, is free. It also provides more rich messaging as users are able to easily transmit not only information, but pictures, video and group messages as well as authentication of message delivery.

For enterprises, instant messaging offers great benefits as they can communicate instantly with one another allowing them to converse freely without any time delays. IM suits the more frequent “chatty” interactions and has even replaced some face-to-face communication, as well as encouraging communication where none may have previously taken place. For enterprises with offices and staff around the world, IM provides an ideal channel for successful team communications which creates tangible benefits such as efficiencies and improved processes.

Will IM replace SMS?

Informa believes SMS will continue to grow for a number of reasons, including:

• Instant messaging has to achieve more traction and gain more users before it is widespread.
• Instant messaging users normally use SMS when conversing with non instant messaging users.
• SMS is beginning to see real growth in the enterprise mobile messaging market.

SMS is used for a number of purposes within enterprises such as transmitting information, sending emergency communications and for security purposes. Some of the benefits of SMS are that it provides immediate communication, reaches a wide audience, has high availability as it will often still work when coverage is poor and there is not an Internet connection and reports show that 97% of SMS are read within 15 minutes of receiving it.

There has been some concern regarding the security of SMS. Gartner recommends that enterprises overcome security issues by not just focusing on operators’ security, but also by looking at mobile device security. They recommend that enterprises use SMS to reach a large audience when data sensitivity is low but use other messaging options which incorporate end-to-end encryption for highly sensitive data such as IM.

HSL Mobile is launching an IM/SMS messaging service which is expected to encourage the use of SMS - where it is appropriate to be used - and enable the switching of messaging away from SMS where IM is more appropriate. It is additionally expected to help accelerate the adoption of IM within enterprises and to replace existing IM systems that deliver little benefit when compared with IM/SMS.

This combination of instant messaging and SMS brings together the respective benefits of IM and SMS in an enterprise messaging service and additionally excels in terms of security, reliability and regulatory compliance. We believe we've built a service that gives enterprises an exceptionally robust and secure messaging service, engineered so it can be depended on not only for regular chat between team members but for critical business processes.

Find more information by reading our Press Release: HSL Mobile Launch Secure Enterprise IM/SMS Messaging Service or please get in touch to learn more.  You can also keep up to date with our developments by following us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+. 

For further information regarding HSL Mobile, visit us at:

http://www.hslmobile.com

follow us on LinkedIn, @hslmobile, Facebook or Google+

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605 260

or email us at sales@hslmobile.com