Terms of the Trade: A Communications Guide to Communications

Here at Mitto, we firmly believe that mobile engagement is critical to your communications strategy. Conversing with your customers using a host of digital channels they are both familiar and […]

Here at Mitto, we firmly believe that mobile engagement is critical to your communications strategy. Conversing with your customers using a host of digital channels they are both familiar and comfortable with is essential to building brand loyalty. And it is our job to enable these communication pathways as easily as possible for you.

Unfortunately, we’ve seen time and again just how many companies perceive mobile engagement to be something beyond their reach. Not simply a smattering of push notifications and e-mails, but a complete mobile strategy. Surely the solutions are expensive and require a lot of technical expertise to implement? Nothing could be further from the truth.

Mitto makes the art of conversing with your clients across so many channels simple and we make concerted efforts to smash any misconceptions out of the ballpark with every conversation we have. It all starts with the language we use.

The mobile engagement dictionary

Mobile engagement is packed with acronyms and in the spirit of never assuming anything, here are some of the key ones it is useful to be familiar with:

A2P – Application-to-Person: any kind of traffic in which a person is receiving messages from an application. Note that A2P is increasingly becoming 2-way, driven by enterprises’ requirements for 2-way conversations with their customers and potential customers. A2P can be viewed loosely as being business-to-consumer or business-to-business messaging.

SMS – Short Message Service: in layman’s terms it’s a text message but increasingly a variety of different message types are being referred to as simply a ‘text’ in daily life. For example, the likes of WhatsApp messages. The difference is that an SMS message contains only text (no pictures or videos) and is limited to 160 characters in most countries.

API – Application Programming Interface: a very useful mechanism that allows two pieces of software to exchange messages or data in a standard format. APIs let software applications communicate with other websites and applications for additional functionality – such as messaging! They have become key for companies of all sizes to be able to easily embrace digital messaging using multiple different channels.

CPaaS – Communications Platform as a Service: it’s a cloud-based platform that enables developers to add real-time communications features. CPaaS is all about enriching customer communication channels. It acts as a platform for businesses to combine the reliability and back end of proven communication services with their own applications through the use of APIs.

VoIP – Voice over Internet Protocol: also called IP telephony, it is a method and group of technologies for the delivery of voice communications and multimedia sessions over Internet Protocol networks, such as the Internet.

PBX – Private Branch eXchange: a hardware system that handles the routing and switching of calls between a business location and the telephone network. The users of the PBX phone system can communicate internally (within their company) and externally (with the outside world), using different communication channels like Voice over IP, ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network), or analog. Originally, the PBX was not a thing but a switchboard operator. The name originates from the way they interact with the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

TTS – Text-to-Speech: a form of speech synthesis that converts text into spoken voice output. TTS systems were first developed to aid the visually impaired by offering a computer-generated spoken voice that would ‘read’ text to the user. This is what allows for SMS to be delivered to subscribers of some fixed-line networks around the world.

DLR – Delivery Reporting: a feature of SMS MT (Mobile Terminated) that reports back if an SMS message has been delivered, for every message sent. It is sourced directly from the handset.

GT – Global Title: an address used in the SCCP (Signaling Connection Control Part) protocol for routing signaling messages on various telecommunications networks. Theoretically, global titles are unique addresses that refer to only one destination, but in practice, those destinations can change over a given time-frame.

HLR – Home Location Register: the main database of permanent subscriber information for a mobile network. The HLR is an integral component of CDMA (code division multiple access), TDMA (time division multiple access), and GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) networks.

IMSI – International Mobile Subscriber Identity: a unique number, usually fifteen digits, associated with Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network mobile phone users. The IMSI is a unique number identifying a GSM subscriber.

MNP – Mobile Number Portability: enables mobile telephone users to retain their mobile telephone numbers when switching from one mobile network operator to another. Since its launch in Singapore in 1997, over a hundred markets today allow MNP. Most MNOs offer this service for free or for a nominal price, enabling users to change numbers or switch operators with ease.

OTP – One-Time Passcode: is a type of passcode that is valid for only one use. It is a secure way to provide access to an application or perform a transaction only one time. The passcode becomes invalid after it has been used and cannot be used again.

Turning mobile engagement into a winning strategy

So, there you have it. Study up, there may be a quiz later. There is plenty more to the world of mobile engagement and CPaaS. Mitto is here to guide you every step of the way when it comes to delivering your marketing, transactional, and informative content rapidly and accurately. We keep it simple and make it painless.

Mobile engagement shouldn’t feel like a chore, it should be a winning strategy to keep your business ahead of the pack. With Mitto’s experts, you are in good hands and should be well on your way to enhancing your customer communication goals.