Hi and welcome everybody to this afternoon's webinar or morning for that matter depending on where you are in the world. I'm Fredrik Kastenholm and with me here today I have Viktor and Tristan from LINK Mobility. They will of course get the opportunity to present themselves in just a bit. How about we start with you Tristan? Would you like to present yourself and LINK Mobility? Yes of course and I'll start with saying good morning. Even though I'm Swedish I just arrived to Houston Texas last night. So I'm having my first cup of coffee. Bear with me. In 20 minutes I might ram up but I'm gonna do my best in the meantime. Okay so yes my name is Tristan. I'm working here at LINK Mobility since a few years together with Viktor and to give a brief introduction of what we do. So we provide solutions for communication needs in general. That could be mobile messaging services, SMS as we're going to talk about today. Could also be WhatsApp, RCS, different channels. Also marketing automation platform, Omni channel, chatbot platform. You get the idea. Different kinds of communication needs and we work actively with partners such as Omnitas. So that's brief. And you Viktor? Yeah I think Tristan covered most of like who we at LINK Mobility are at least. My name is Viktor as mentioned and I've been in LINK for the past six and a half years or so. And just as Tristan mentioned the core business that we do is basically communication solutions focusing on the mobile phone. So whatever you can think of which includes any type of communication towards a mobile phone. LINK Mobility is people to talk to basically. Awesome. Thank you so much for that brief introduction. And for all of those of you who don't know me I did manage to see that there were quite a few of you who are return guests. So that's always lovely to see. But I'm Fredrik Kastenholm I'm the CRO of Omnitas Consulting. We are a digital management consulting firm. So basically we help other companies to implement and integrate systems into their system such as maybe LINK Mobility. And we are also the world's biggest monday.com partner. So guys we are supposed to talk a bit about SMS more specifically today. But even though you have a lot of interesting stuff going on at LINK Mobility. But what do you see as the right now from the SMS channel or text messaging channel? My view is it maybe a slightly forgotten channel at times in the B2B segment at least. What's your view? Well I think you are in some way correct when you say it's a channel that maybe has been a bit forgotten especially in the B2B sector where companies doesn't use it as much as they probably could. I think it's just a matter of exploring the features and functionalities or maybe more about the actual use cases where SMS could fit in. Because I definitely believe that it's quite a few of them. Even though you are a B2B company SMS could still be a really good channel for you to use in numerous different ways. Any ideas of what those use cases might be? I know I have a few ideas but. Yeah I mean it could be for example if you need someone to respond to a project roadmap or you need someone to close a time report or whatever it can be. SMS could definitely be a good channel to communicate like internally. But also if you work in sales for example if you want someone to reach back you know get back to you. I think SMS is absolutely a channel to be used for follow ups and that kind of stuff. Yeah and me being very much in sales. So are you I know Tristan. So that when you kind of chase down a project prospect for a bit. I know I've at least had some success with actually just reaching for the phone and just going let's text message this. For sure. For sure. This guy right. I would say my comment to this Fredrik I mean of course it depends on the platform and the context and everything. But if we think about monday.com for a moment I mean I would advise you to simply re-evaluate all your current workflows. What are you doing in your current workflows. Which channels are you using. And everywhere. Where you're sending an email or another type of it could be a slack message. It could be any type of message in whatever channel. Could SMS be a better solution there. Do you have a problem with the opening rate. It could be like that also the opening speed for example. It's not only about opening the SMS but doing it timely in 10 minutes 30 minutes time. The click through rate the conversion rate. Look at all your existing workflows. What channels are using. Could SMS you know switch out. The current one or be a compliment. I would start there at least. And there are endless of use cases. It's quite interesting some of the things you mentioned here. And I mean myself I of course don't have all the data. But my feeling is that open rate should be much higher on the SMS channel compared to email for example. And also timeliness. I know me for example. I check basically I do my main email checking in the beginning of the day. And then again at the end of the day some jump ins in between. But I try to structure it that way because I have a lot of meetings. Right. And I try to be courteous enough not checking emails while I have a meeting. Right. But I mean if someone text message me then it's like oh checking my phone. Right. Exactly. There's another timeliness to it for sure. For sure. People check their SMS throughout the day. Our statistics show that I don't have an exact number but let's say 95 percent open it within 15 minutes. 15 minutes or something like that. So you're actually able to reach the person throughout the day not just in the beginning or the end. Like you said that can be crucial for all kinds of activities for internal for for sales for marketing. So definitely I agree with you. Yeah for sure. And I mean if you just take yourself as an example I mean let's let's all look at the phone. If you compare the apps the messaging I mean the SMS app on the phone and also the email app I guess. It's more likely that you have 50 unread emails. But if you look at the SMS app on your phone I would believe that the majority of you guys have zero unread SMS messages. Definitely. I just actually checked my own right now. I was like yeah it's zero. I mean that goes it's just like Tristan mentioned. I mean it's it's a channel where you reach pretty much everyone around the world. You don't the only thing that the person needs is a phone which basically everyone has these days. You don't even need the proper internet connection or whatever it can be. So it's it's a channel to be used everywhere for all people and with a lot of different kinds of content basically. I have when I've discussed had discussions with my clients for example sometimes some say oh it feels like you're entering into a more personal space when you're doing text messaging. I have however since I am one of those who actually do that myself with prospects and clients right. I've never gotten it from a client because I've done something like that or I've sent something to them. But what's your take on that. Is that some kind of an old thing. Has that changed. Has it actually never been the case. What's your kind of take on that. I mean it's a little bit depending on on the context and what kind of what kind of message you are actually sending. But yeah for sure. I mean when when I started working in this industry six seven years ago it was more common that that you got that kind of feedback both from consumers overall but also customers and businesses. But it was it was actually a long time since I heard him say that say that now. So I guess that has faded away a little bit. But then I mean there is always a difference between a marketing message connected to to a sale or whatever then it probably feels a little bit more intrusive to people. But everyone has always the option to opt out from these messages if they want to. But then if you compare it to like a reminder of dentist appointment then no one thinks that that's intrusive or annoying in any way. So it's a little bit depending on the use case. But I want to have this. But I also think you're quite right in saying it's depending on what you actually communicate. Right. So take it from a sales perspective if you go like hey buy my product then it might be quite intrusive or very in your face. Right. But if you actually are do what a proper salesperson should do and ask the questions instead and and and do the job for it. Yeah. And that's also connected to I think a topic which we are going to touch a little bit on on later connected to the data you have on the recipient of the message. Because if you make sure that the content even if it's connected to marketing or sales or whatever it can be as long as the content is personalized towards you as the recipient then it's probably it gets accepted in a better way. Yeah. Yeah. May I add something there Fredrik? May I add something about this discussion? Perfect. No. I was thinking you know as long as you have the consent of course and as long as you have the opportunity for the receiver to opt out then that indirectly means they are somehow at least willing to receive the communication. Right. They gave the consent. They haven't opted out yet. So you shouldn't feel worried that they don't want your message. I think that's the first thing. The second thing is yeah personalization is key. Of course for internal communication it's different. But if we're talking marketing SMS I think a week ago I received an SMS from a jeans company or not even a jeans company but like a retail store about jeans. But I'm not even a fan of jeans myself. I never bought jeans at the store. And it was like women's jeans you know. So it's a double wrong. Neither jeans or women like. So if you're going to send marketing SMS you definitely need to make sure that you have the data. You're personalizing it. You're not like sending it randomly to everyone. And if you do it this way it's actually going to be appreciated because they have the consent. They have you know they are opted in. They are receiving marketing SMS about things they are genuinely interested in. Then it can be a value added thing to do for your customers. So I definitely see it in a positive light if it's implemented in the right way which is why we have Omnitas with us of course. Thank you for that. And I totally agree with you even though I think you might actually be looking nice in a pair of skinny jeans. Thank you. Let's go and try something. But when we're now talking about the personal stuff and that me as a consultant then one question of course comes to mind rather quickly. That's GDPR and data security and that's actually why we kind of like you because you're based here in Europe. But what are your thoughts on this one and how do you LINK Mobility make sure that you keep up to date with everything. Yeah. Yeah. Viktor, should I start saying something short and you can. Yeah sure. I mean the most important thing basically I can add to this is that as Fredrik mentioned it's a question to consider and keep in mind. It's super important. And I mean the suppliers that you use the closer you have them to your local market where you operate the more likely it is for them to be compliant in every way even if it's GDPR or other types of security things. If we're going to get a bit more concrete about the potential issues or challenges I think of choosing a non-European provider well at Link Mobility I won't go into the details about our compliance and our privacy policy and all that. Happy to go into that in a meeting later on. Anyone watching. But to keep it clear I mean we are a European provider. We have European servers and that's very important. Yeah that's step one and that's important. Why is it important that well if you're handling processing personal data which you are in this case if you if you're sending SMS outside of the EU you might need to do a DPIA. Right. And this can be bit complicated. And if you're not of course keep keeping up to date on this you know following these regulations there are risks associated with that. Defines everyone knows about the GDPR fines the 2 percent of the turnover or whatever. 4 percent actually. 4 percent even right for the more severe you know breaches. So for 20 million euros whichever is highest is that one you actually obtain for. So thanks for clarifying. And as we understand this is serious. But I think most people don't realize this that you're processing personal data you're sending it outside of the EU to the US. You probably need a DPIA. And if you're not doing that there are risks. Of course I think that's the main point. There are other points too. But that's the main one. Do you agree Fredrik or you want to add something. Yeah I would say to make it really easy for yourself and I say actually whenever according to the European legislation whenever you get a new software or new provider anything you should always make a risk assessment. But there's a nice thing with having someone like you that's in Europe it's going to be like no or yes. It's done. And then basically do it in two minutes. Forget it and have it ready when the authorities come knocking and asking if you did what you should. Things become very simple. Whereas if you are a European you handle your customers and you have an American provider for example. Yeah because now you are actually in the main process you can't do this except for that. And now you need to clarify why you are in the exception area. So it actually becomes. And also I know we actually have a lot of Americans listening in here. This goes for American companies as well. So if you handle European client data this the EU's long arm is very long in this case. So it's a good thing. To. To have in mind. But actually I was actually planning to have this question for you for later. But I think it kind of fits so good. But before that guys who all of you who are listening there is a question section up to the right. Please use that to ask any and all questions and we'll try to answer them as well. So please feel free to join in here in the discussions. But. My question first. So what data do you think is important for anyone to be to do SMS channel communications good. What type of data is actually important that we track that we collect. Of course name and phone number is fairly important. Otherwise you're going to have a hard time. But anything else. I mean in general there is one of these new sayings that the data that you collect this is the new gold out there. And then I totally agree because you know the more data that you collect and have the proper tools to use it you will probably be a bit ahead of the competition out there. But in terms of specific kind of data it could be anything basically. It could be it comes down really to to the use case. But the more data you have the more proper segmentation and personalization and so on you can do which also makes it easier probably to create even more use cases because you have all the data. But it could be for example like interests or geographic data where you live. If if you have some favorite kind of store where you always visit or you know it could be anything. It always depends on the industry and use case and all that. So time data. When do people actually read SMS. Is it. Yeah. Ended at 2 a.m. in the morning for example. That's also good data. But then that goes more into like statistics. I would say. But yeah for sure that kind of thing is also super important to analyze the outcome of of the messages that you send. And I mean that's basically for any channel you use you definitely wants to you definitely want to analyze the data and make sure you optimize the use of the channel even though if it's SMS email what's up whatever. So you know from that I would say just try to get as much data as possible. I think that's the big picture. Get all the data. Well kind of you know get as much data as you can need as you can use. And from a more practical standpoint again I would advise sit down with Fredrik or one of his colleagues look at the current workflows. You know how can we improve these workflows by somehow getting more data into it. You know. And I mean it's also a matter of of what kind of what kind of goals or maybe even problems you are facing today as a company. Is it that you want to save more time. You want to make more money. You want to get a better you know customer experience or whatever kind of goal or problem that you are facing. It could definitely be different kind of data that you would need or use in order to make those things happen. Thanks as well there Tristan for putting it in. Also I would actually say entering into a new channel is never easy. Right. And it takes some thought on how to do it and it should also be a natural part of the process and preferably even an automated part of your process. Right. At least if you want to do it at scale. Right. And that's also of course I'm biast here but I'm me and Omnitas we are some of those guys who can actually help with that. So everyone feel free to reach out to us if this is interesting or either go via Tristan or Victor and LINK Mobility and come to us that way or come directly to us and we will help everyone and knit it together and see what see what we can do. But I guess most of your customers today they use integrated systems or how does it work. Yeah for sure. For sure. I mean sometimes our customers might be using monday.com and of course that happens. But are you asking me about which kind of systems are our customers are using in general. Basically are they using it kind of like basically I'm just verifying here. No one is kind of using it standalone as like a IP version of a phone. Right. And just typing away. It's not the best practice. Right. It's not the best practice. I mean of course we have these flash sales you send in bulk SMS you know and you can of course segment that and then you're typing everything by hand. But but I think what we're talking about yes you should have an integrated solution. Yes. Yeah. And basically fetch the personalization data from your CRM system for example and have a go. Yeah I mean for sure. And also as I mentioned before you know like a topic like time saving if you work properly with a channel like SMS and use the APIs that is available and the expertise and knowledge from from both from LINK Mobility but also from a technical point of view from Omnitas. I mean then you can you know probably save a lot of time in order to you know create automated flows for whenever a message should be sent and received. And so on. So I guess that's that's the that's the the best way to do it to create a fully integrated solution where you where you pretty much you know tailor it for the specific needs that you have as a business and that your recipients even if it's you know internally or externally might need. How I almost forgot what I was going to say there but how do you see that the channel evolves for future purposes is SMS. It's been with us for a long time right. It's not like the new kid on the block rather it's the geriatric right. How do you see it having a place in the future. Okay. Let me start quickly. I mean like you said it's been around for a long time right. It's a proven channel. It works but there's not that much development going on in the SMS specifically but we have you know I'm going to talk a little bit about SMS and then I also want to mention briefly RCS. I don't know if everybody here has heard about RCS rich communication services. It's SMS 2.0. You know we have pictures and videos directly in the inbox. So of course at LINK Mobility we are providing all the channels SMS RCS WhatsApp. I think that might be interesting to your clients as well in the future. But if you're looking at SMS it's still going to be a very powerful channel in the future for all of the reasons we mentioned the simplicity the timeliness you get the text you get you can have a link you can have everything you need to to convey your message. The difference for the future of course we're going to have AI that's going to increase the segmentation the personalization going to help with all of that. We're also going to see in the past maybe SMS was used more for one-way communication but you can also do it in a two-way communication even conversational. You can you can deploy a chatbot and use SMS as your primary channel. So you can go back and forth that could be you know for for all of the use cases for internal use for your colleagues you can chat back and forth for marketing. So we're going to see SMS as a part of our broader strategy become more conversational I would say. I think this kind of speaks to the pure technical it's already mature right? Yeah we know what what it does it's like walking we know how how it works right? We've done it for a couple of hundred thousand years. That's not so now it's actually more in how can we be smart and connected with newer technologies really. But as you say the channel is there we know it works we know it has one of the highest both open and response rates possible today. And then of course we always have the RCS or say which which one is it? RCS. Thank you. Sorry for me that's not as intuitive to you it's like better SMS in my words but sorry about that. But another thing another thing to add to that is that of course as you both mentioned you know SMS has been around for forever. It feels like more or less but it's it's a proven channel it's a proven you know technical setup in terms of the actual deliverance of of the delivery of the messages. But then again as I mentioned in the beginning another key feature is that you don't need anything other than a phone number and a mobile phone to be able to receive an SMS. If you compare it to WhatsApp for example then you need to download a specific app and you need to configure that and so on. So that's that's also another thing which makes SMS a really good channel and it's also available and you know connected towards telecom providers all over the world which is which makes it really easy to get going basically. Yeah that's such a good point. Sorry for you that's such a good point you know the technical simplicity of SMS also means it's more easy to to implement and to use. There's less you know things that can go wrong. You know so actually that is also a benefit of SMS that it's so easy and simple. Definitely more complex is not always better right? No. It's just more complex at the end of the day. And also talking about that but of course you know with the availability you can support more or less global SMS reach right or communication reach. Yeah for sure. Yeah for sure. I mean even though as mentioned we're a European company with a good presence in in a lot of European countries. We still have a global reach with the service that we provide which means that we are connected technically in all markets all around the world. Yeah so for example if I'm an American company it's still going to work just as well come in working with LINK Mobility right? And added bonus you actually have a heightened security perspective on your information going back to what we talked about before. I just want to end on a few things and this is as much of a comment from my side as it is a question so please fill in but one of the reasons I do like you guys at Link Mobility is that I feel that you're kind of like a bespoke kind of or more bespoke at least type of supplier in this case. So it means that you're you're not just the go into a website buy the solution and there you go and there's actually something more to it and you also have like you have local branches so you're actually there out in the market there's actually someone to talk to which is something I feel is a really really good thing. I don't know if you want to add something to that. I'm happy to add. Should I start Victor? Okay let me start. I mean thank you for bringing us up this topic Fredrik. I think it's an important one. We we talked just briefly about our reach and so on and that's true we have a global reach but we also have a local presence. I think we're operating in we have offices in roughly 30 countries which is very unusual for our industry where most companies are based in one country going from there. So that means if you're looking to get into the Swedish, Spanish, Greek or of course in the US we have local we have local support local people in other markets and regulations you can get help from us. And like I said we're not just delivering the keys to our API or to our platform. We are there for you. We are happy to help you especially when it's powered by a partnership such as yours with Omnitas. We can really give I think a complete complete solution for the communication needs. We have an ongoing dialogue together with Omnitas. We have the customer. We have Omnitas. We have LINK Mobility. We have our SaaS products and our APIs and we can really give a complete and customizable solution with the local support. And I think this is something that you will not perhaps find somewhere else. It's something I'm proud of and happy of. Yeah you should be. You should be. Guys I just watched the time and we're coming up at that magic minute. So thank you so much for joining me here today and having this great discussion. It's actually it's a discussion I come back to every now and again with my own sales team and in our own office like why aren't we using this channel more and how can we do this from that perspective and also with my marketing team. Why aren't we using text more? So it's really good to have you guys here who of course work with it every day. And to all of you out there listening even now here live or later on YouTube because we are posting this on YouTube as well. Please remember to also go in and subscribe to LINK Mobility's newsletter. You can find it on their website linkmobility.com and same with us at Omnitas. So make sure you also subscribe to our newsletters of course. Linkmobility. More about that communication piece of very relevant for what we're talking about here today. Omnitas. We're talking everything about workflows and processes. Everything from project management to CRM and HR systems. So basically how you get more effective going about your work basically and connecting your company as well. Stop working in silos please everyone. So with that thank you so much everyone for joining me here today together with Viktor and Tristan. And until next time everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining. Thank you. Have a good one. Bye. Bye.