New Ovum Report Reveals Strong Enterprise Appetite for RCS Messaging and Chat Bots While Confirming the Continued Growth of A2P SMS

LONDON and STOCKHOLM, July 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

- A third of businesses ready to use Rich Communications Services (RCS) messaging 

- A quarter are already using Chat bots mostly via chat apps or social media 

- 23% indicate that their use of two-way (actionable) SMS has increased  

Ovum's Enterprise Messaging Survey 2017, launched today, explores the rapidly-evolving business-to-consumer communications market, revealing a growing business appetite for more interactive forms of enterprise messaging, including two-way SMS, enhanced SMS such as messaging based on the Rich Communications Standard and Chat bots.

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Developed in partnership with leading cloud-based communications provider, CLX Communications AB (XSTO:CLX), and communications solutions vendor Symsoft, the report canvassed 100 companies in seven countries to investigate their use of messaging as a channel for customer engagement, notification, and authentication.  

The use of A2P SMS continues to surge (Ovum forecasts 1.28tn messages by 2019 up from 1.16tn in 2016). It is an established and trusted channel by which enterprises send transactional and promotional messages, with 42% and 35% of respondents, respectively, indicating that their use of SMS for these purposes increased over the past year.

However, the survey results also suggest that a higher year-on-year proportion of organizations now enable their customers to send SMS replies, for example, to reschedule an appointment or to have an SMS-based conversation with a contact center agent; 23% of respondents stated that their use of two-way SMS had increased during the previous 12 months.  

The strongest indication that businesses are aligning with more interactive and richer messaging formats is the growth in the deployment of Chat bots. A quarter of respondents indicated that they are using the nascent technology to automate customer interactivity with specific demographic groups such as millennials, and had already measured improvements in customer service and revenues.

There is also a clear indication from the respondents that they are keen to see SMS evolve as a service, with 37% stating that new features such as custom branding, the delivery of enriched content, and read receipts, would encourage them to send more SMS.

Moreover, over a third of respondents, 36%, indicated their organizations would be interested in using an enhanced SMS service, such as the Rich Communications Services (RCS) standard. From these respondents, the most appealing feature of RCS messaging was the ability to send images and videos - logos and way-finding maps from an airline, for example.  

This group also indicated that the capability to provide chatbot-like interaction with their customers via RCS was a draw.

Interestingly, enterprises clearly value the advanced features that RCS offers.  Over half of the respondents would be willing to pay between 1.5 times to three times the price of an ordinary per-message SMS.

"The Enterprise Messaging Survey suggests that there is an appetite from enterprises to use richer forms of mobile messaging to engage with their customers," said Pamela Clark-Dickson, Practice Leader, Digital Communications and Social Networking, Consumer Services, Ovum. "The pressure is now on the telecoms industry to ensure that their business-to-consumer messaging services remain relevant and attractive, especially as Apple joins other chat apps in engaging with the enterprise market, via its upcoming Business Chat offering."

Robert Gerstmann, Co-founder and Director CLX said: "Whilst A2P SMS continues to grow, the report clearly shows that enterprises are moving past an experimental phase with new messaging formats like Chat bots and examining, more closely, how best they can engage their customers with the right format at the right time.

"It's also encouraging to see that businesses clearly value a more immersive interaction with their customers.  In the near future, this will be delivered by RCS type messaging services and Chat Apps allowing the Enterprise message to go beyond text to include app-like interactivity and rich media.  It's everything MMS promised but unfortunately didn't deliver."

Download the full report on SMS, RCS and Chat bots from the CLX Communications website today.

About CLX Communications 

CLX Communications (CLX) is a leading global provider of cloud-based communication services and solutions to enterprises and mobile operators. CLX's mobile communication services enable companies to quickly, securely and cost-effectively communicate globally with customers and connected devices - Internet of Things (IoT).

CLX's solutions enable business-critical communications worldwide via mobile messaging services (SMS), voice services and mobile connectivity services for the IoT.CLX has grown profitably since the company was founded. The Group is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and has presence in a further 20 countries.

CLX Communications' shares are traded at NASDAQ Stockholm - XSTO:CLX.

To learn more please visit: http://www.clxcommunications.com

About Symsoft 

Symsoft is a trusted partner to more than 70 Mobile Operators in over 40 countries, providing innovative, robust and scalable software and services for our customers in the areas of Real-Time BSS, Value Added Services, Fraud & Revenue assurance and complete MVNO solutions.

We create value for our customers by strengthening their competitive position through shortening their time to market, providing access to new revenue streams, limiting fraud and achieving significant reductions in the cost of ownership through flexible deployment options and multiple service levels.

Symsoft is the operator division of CLX Communications listed on Nasdaq stock exchange in Stockholm.

To learn more please visit: http://www.symsoft.com

About The Enterprise Messaging Survey 2017 

Ovum's Enterprise Messaging Survey 2017, conducted in partnership with cloud communications provider CLX Communications and their subsidiary mobile solutions provider Symsoft, canvassed 100 companies in seven countries: Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, the UK and the US.

The survey was conducted in May 2017, across multiple industry verticals, with the highest proportion of respondents' organizations coming from the business/professional services, media/Internet, retail/wholesale, travel and hospitality, and manufacturing sectors. Company size ranged from less than 10 employees, to more than 10,000 employees, with the highest proportion of respondents' organizations having between 10-100, between 101-500, and between 1,001-10,000 employees. Respondents were surveyed on their use of and attitudes towards SMS, enhanced SMS/advanced messaging services, and chat bots.

About Ovum

Ovum is a market-leading research and consulting firm focused on helping digital service providers and their vendor partners thrive in the connected digital economy. Through its 150 analysts worldwide, it offers expert analysis and strategic insight across the IT, telecoms, and media industries. Founded in 1985, Ovum has one of the most experienced analyst teams in the industry and is a respected source of guidance for technology business leaders, CIOs, vendors, service providers, and regulators looking for comprehensive, accurate, and insightful market data, research, and consulting. With 23 offices across six continents, Ovum offers a truly global perspective on technology and media markets and provides thousands of clients with insight including workflow tools, forecasts, surveys, market assessments, technology audits, and opinion.

Ovum is part of the Business Intelligence Division of Informa plc, a leading business intelligence, academic publishing, knowledge and events group listed on the London Stock Exchange. https://ovum.informa.com/