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Organisations with up to 250 employees in the built environment are regularly sending and receiving mobile messages day-to-day for managing suppliers, operations and logistics. Picture messaging in the construction sector has a variety of uses; Surveyors use it as a visual record, it is accessed for quoting purposes, used to illustrate actual progress on site and can provide evidence of any particular problems being encountered.
‘We send pictures of building sites so we can quote quickly’
Operations Manager, Construction
Telephone interviews were carried out with business managers in companies and organisations across a variety of sectors and locations to assess attitudes to using mobile messaging within a business context.
Those industries relating to the construction industry made up 10% of the total sample with business services, including real estate, making up 14%. From a base of 250 active mobile users, 36% of respondents were heavy messaging users, sending in excess of 21 work related mobile messages per week.
Company Culture
Generally, attitudes towards using mobile messaging for business were found to be extremely positive within the SME sample. 45% of respondents claimed that the technology offered considerable cost and time saving benefits for their own particular organisations.
‘I don’t have to get involved in long conversations and that saves time and money’
Construction Company Owner
‘Mobile messaging allows staff to go from home straight to the job without having to report into the office’
Construction Company Director
Companies actively making the most use of person to person, business related mobile messaging tended to have between 11 and 50 employees. Wider usage also appeared to be directly related to mobile phone provision for employees – 62% of respondents all had company owned mobile phones and were active mobile messaging users.
Mobile Message Usage
Heaviest users of mobile technology found in Construction along with the Healthcare and Social Work, Real Estate and Transport sectors, are using the technology to enhance their operations and, in some cases, for communicating with customers too.
‘We use SMS to text staff, informing them of the addresses of jobs. They also use it to report faults with jobs and for queries, which I pass to their boss and he gives advice’
Construction Proprietor
Most organisations (75%) use mobile messaging for internal communication and, where this is the case, actual usage tends to be low with individuals sending less than 5 messages per week. In contrast, where organisations are using the facility as part of their overall operation or for customer service/purchasing and ordering communication, usage is much higher with more than 21 messages being sent per week.
‘There are quite a lot of SMS messages sent between site managers and contract managers - ordering from sub contractors, getting measurements and checking on materials’
IT Manager, Construction
Types of Message Sent
100% of respondents to the market research study actively send text messages and 14% send picture messages for clarification, greater accuracy and to generally enhance communication. Greatest picture messaging use was found in the Construction industry closely followed by Manufacturing and Engineering.
‘On site staff send pictures of problems on site to our maintenance department. I send out system updates to all staff via SMS’
Proprietor, Construction
Location & Devices Used
Clearly the research highlighted that location and message purpose determined the type of mobile messaging being used. 86% of field based respondents were found to be using mobile messaging for making contact with another mobile user, whereas office based personnel often used machine to mobile facilities for group messaging to colleagues/customers and consumers and, in some cases, their superiors too.
‘I occasionally send out group messages to staff when we are in a closing down period telling vehicles when to come back in’
IT Manager, Construction
‘Sending house alerts to our customers has brought great rewards. We have good responses and interested customers call us back. Before, we would spend hours contacting everybody. It saves time and it’s efficient’
Real Estate
Benefits
The key benefits of mobile messaging for the SME sample interviewed were that it saves time, that it can be accessed globally and that it is an extremely cost effective way of communicating.
‘The MMS picture has made us quicker’
Company Secretary, Construction
Areas of Improvement
47% of respondents suggested a number of areas for improving mobile messaging facilities in the future including:- making it easier and cheaper to send mobile messages, providing more space for message content and written confirmation of messages sent and received. A big bug bear for builders was found to be the current sizes of keypads.
‘People working in construction tend to be big and really have a problem using the keypads on phones effectively, as a telecoms manager it is a headache for me’
Telecoms Manager, Construction
Conclusion
The MDA’s research study into how the SME sector is using mobile messaging clearly indicates that the facility has a raised profile and is being widely used for informal and brief business communication internally, as part of an organisation’s operation and for liaison with suppliers and customers.
Whilst e-mail remains the favourite communication tool for more formal and detailed business communication, evidence suggests that mobile e-mail take up by the SME community is growing fast. Offering the same flexibility as sending a text message, mobile e-mail can overcome the 160 character space restriction on message content and also the perception associated with text messaging being an informal form of communication.
Motivated by making potential savings and generating income, SME organisations now have the opportunity to improve their efficiency and profitability, and can adopt more creative and innovative ways of communicating. Looking ahead, organisations need to be aware of the full potential mobile messaging has to offer and to retain the technical knowledge and capability for successful implementation of the wide variety of business related mobile applications currently available.
‘I can work with one of my deaf colleagues when he is on site, he’s a good worker and mobile messaging really helps’
Construction Manager |
