Until now, text messaging has been generally regarded as a leisure time pursuit primarily used to communicate with friends. However, it also has value in the workplace and the Mobile Data Association has taken steps to gauge this.
In a poll of 300 UK business managers, the MDA found that 40% send SMS messages as part of their business, compared with less than a fifth who did so eighteen months ago.
Active users of business text messaging tend to be aged 35 or over but this could have something to do with the fact that older workers hold senior positions, have a company phone and are more likely to be off-site than younger colleagues.
SMS usage is most prevalent in the public sector and the financial, retail and business service sectors. Low levels of use are found in the ‘not for profit’ sector where texting is regarded as expensive and unnecessary.
Some 7% of respondents said they were using PC to mobile texting and this is especially popular in the Business and Professional Services sector.
Nonetheless, most business texting is carried out internally between staff and colleagues. Of the 124 respondents who admitted using SMS for work purposes, two-thirds of messages were found to be sent from an office base and just a quarter off-site, with one-tenth being sent or received from home and out of normal office hours.
A key factor hindering the growth of business texting is the preference for voice and email communication in work-related circles. There are also doubts about the relevance and appropriateness of SMS as a business tool.
A record 1.73 billion person to person text messages were sent across the UK’s four GSM networks during September (see Text Messages Reach Record Levels In September) but it is clear that the business community has yet to embrace the technology.
