ValueFirst Messaging, a player in the enterprise mobile messaging space in India, recently commissioned Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management to conduct an in-depth research to understand the current scenario and to map future opportunities and trends in this space. With enterprises taking up mobile messaging to augment, complement and complete their communication; to both internal and external audiences, phrases like 'Business Mobility', 'Mobile Messaging' and 'Enterprise Messaging' have become buzzwords for IT professionals and marketers alike.

A three-month long research was conducted by Symbiosis Institute of Telecom Management, Pune, covering senior management at over 120 large and medium enterprise customers of ValueFirst from across India. The research report provides definitive indications of the benefits that have accrued to the early adopters and throws light on some of the key trends emerging and the challenges and opportunities that it brings along.

Vijay Shukla, co-founder and country head, ValueFirst, said, "With a customer base of over 850 enterprises from diverse segments such as banks, insurance, automobile, FMCG, IT/ITES and manufacturing to name a few, ValueFirst was uniquely positioned to commission this attempt to understand and gain useful insights on the current scenario and to map future trends in the enterprise mobile messaging service space in India".

Enterprise mobile messaging, though at a nascent stage in India, has shown exponential growth in the last few years. Features such as cost effectiveness, ease of use, wide reach, easy implementation and real-time messaging capabilities have driven enterprises to adopt mobile messaging services to improve their internal and external communication systems. However, the study revealed that the awareness levels of managers involved in the decision-making is minimal. About 41 percent of the respondents admitted that their knowledge about enterprise mobile messaging services is either ‘average’ or ‘poor’, implying a general lack of knowledge about the industry.

ValueFirst intends to run a series of awareness and education campaigns aimed at verticals such as Banking and Financial Services, Mobile Community, Manufacturing, Automobile and ITES to reach out to as many enterprises as possible across various verticals. "Any technology is successful on a large scale only when its impact is measurable and it helps simplify tasks. We, at ValueFirst, aim at educating Indian enterprises about the utility of enterprise mobile messaging. This will, in turn, help enterprises to apply this technology to improve their business performance", said Shukla.