15 Minutes of SMS: How SMS makes traveler's lives easier

The wheels of the Boeing 777 on Delta flight 128 touch ground in Dublin, Ireland at 8:00 am GMT – midnight in Nevada. I wish for a Red Bull as I turn on my Nokia 6820 phone and wonder which U.K. wireless provider it will latch on to. Seconds after “Vodafone” appears on its smallish screen on top of a wallpaper of my two boys, my pulse quickens as messages start to beep in.

I’ve been unreachable for ten hours on a midweek business day. That’s an eternity. God knows what I’ve missed and what processes have been paralyzed in my trans-Atlantic absence.

I have seventeen text messages and three voice mails. Only three new voice mails! Woohoo! I’ll listen to those in the cab. Two years ago it would have been the opposite. I cringe as I recall the days of deciphering the babble of dozens of voice mails with all the commensurate filler:

“Hi, hope you’re well…weather’s been warm…let’s do lunch…read a good book on vacation…blah blah blah…”

What a pain it was to sift the information from the inarticulate banter, transcribe them to my iPaq while hoping I don’t dyslexia the call back numbers and prolong a week of international phone tag.

Before the plane reaches the gate I’ve scanned through the mobile text messages, otherwise known as SMS or TXTs. My heart-rate subsides as I note no real emergencies.

Any cell phone sold today supports SMS, or short-message-service. One hundred and sixty characters to ask a question, make a point, convey information, carry a conversation, take advantage of a promotion or sell something. In Europe, twenty billion fly through the air every month. The US is far behind but catching up quickly. Ask any parent of a teenager with monthly $60.00 text messaging bill for confirmation of that fact.

My company develops software around SMS automation, so I’ve been addicted since 1997. I’ve just bought the brand-new Nokia 6820 for its miniature flip-open keyboard. It’s a text-messaging machine. I’ll be able to crank through these seventeen TXTs before I deplane.

My CRM (customer relationship management system) has alerted me to four product demo requests from our Web site and I smile as I note that one is from a guy I met on the plane from Vegas to Atlanta about fifteen hours ago. He must have hit the Web site from the free WiFi access in the Jet Blue terminal as he waited to connect to JFK. Good – I won’t have to enter him as a lead. He did the work for me.

I forward it to the sales rep I know will be “rules-based assigned” that lead and provide details I learned over our plane-bound dinner of peanuts and pretzels. My company’s software will have already “personally replied” to this lead by e-mail and alerted the rep with an SMS including interaction stats to his cell phone by now.

One SMS from my CRM catches my eye. A $25,000 deal has reached Closed-Won. Yet another alerts me to an opportunity with a Stage-Age ratio out of whack. I forward the Closed-Won SMS to the rep who nailed it with kudos and a promise to call this client in the morning Seattle-time. I like how we configured the alerts to include the phone number and e-mail of the opportunity contact. Never mind that my sales rep back in San Jose is in bed and his phone just beeped. Hey, it’s a 24/7 world economy. He’ll dream of commissions and sleep happy knowing that I noticed.

I go back to the Stage/Age alert and forward it to the rep on that opportunity and politely remind her that I’m watching from the other side of the planet. “This deal is important,” I SMS. “TXT me if U need me 2 help move it along.”

My controller SMS’d me wondering if I will authorize a large wire to a vendor in Canada. I reply, “No. Wait ‘till Friday.” Then I see his earlier SMS noting the cash receipts for the day. I send him another SMS rescinding the “No” to a “Yes, good job.”

I confirm three conference calls and make the appropriate calendar item adjustments in my iPaq as I re-orient my brain and my iPaq clock settings to Greenwich Mean Time. I read the last few:

• The Brewers’ reliever Ben Ford gave up the historic 661st homer of Bonds' career and the Giants won 4-2.
• The hotel I am staying at SMS’d me their address and concierge desk phone number while welcoming me to Dublin. I’ll save the directions for the cabby.

The people in front of me start to deplane and I thumb a few more “Yes” and No” responses. Seventeen SMS’ dealt with. But before I stand up and let the blood clots loose reaching for my luggage, I thumb-type two final TXTs.

To my Irish partner in our Dublin office, I send: “Just landed. On way 2 hotel to shower/chng. Will catch cab 2 office. B there by 10a. Have 4 Red Bulls ready for me. L8r.”

And to my wife: “Just landed. Call me if still awake. Would’ve called but don’t want 2 wake boys. Luv/miss U.”

My phone beeps and it’s a TXT from my partner: “Out front. Blue Merc. Lane 6 behind police. CU soon” Cool. No cab ride. I can get Red Bull in to my body that much sooner. It’s going to be a long day…I still have 200 emails to go through and I suspect most won’t be 160 characters or less!

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