As anyone interested in A2P SMS knows, this market is booming. Mobilesquared says businesses sent 1.64 trillion messages in 2019 and will send double this amount by the end of 2024.
Great news. But sending trillions of SMSs is no trivial matter – at least on first look. Multiple players (enterprises, aggregators, operators, different technical platforms and protocols) need to work together to ensure these messages are delivered on time and for a fair price.
This is a process that GTC can help with under the umbrella of ‘managed services’.
Filling the gap: designing, productising and launching A2P services
To understand the GTC mission, it’s useful to take a trip back in time to 2016.
At this point, José García, the founder of GTC, was working at a messaging service provider. Business partners repeatedly asked José to help them design, productise, launch or just improve A2P SMS services. They wanted this consultancy and operational support for a variety of reasons.
Of course, as an employee of a messaging service provider, it was not possible for José to meet his customers’ demands. Yet here was a glaring gap in the market. José sensed the opportunity, and launched GTC to serve the industry’s demand for consultancy.
I joined soon after – in early 2019 – to develop the technical side of the business. In the almost three years since, we have strongly grown our customer base, our team and our range of capabilities.
Demand from across the value chain: GTC’s diverse customer base
We currently offer a growing range of managed services to all players in the A2P value chain – enterprises, service providers, MNOs. Here is how we characterise our customer base.
● Companies that want to enter the SMS market, lack staff and don’t want to hire (and pay!) a full team while the business is in launch mode
● Companies that are already active in A2P business but need a ‘tune’ and external boost to become more successful
● Companies that want to launch a specific project, but don’t want to hire staff. They require knowledge or a temporary workforce to execute their project successfully
● Companies that run a lean organisation and want to outsource all non-core functions
Maybe your organisation looks like one of the above. If so, this post will explain what GTC does, how we might be able to help you, as well as provide insight into our unique business philosophy.
Helping customers to be self-sufficient
Ultimately, whatever we do, the end goal is to help a client to be self-sufficient. This might sound counterintuitive to GTC’s own interest but it’s actually fully in line, and here’s why:
Whenever we meet new partners, we take our time to understand where they are coming from, where they want to go and what we need to do to make their vision a reality.
This not only applies to consultancy but – maybe even more – to managed service. For this reason, we tailor our managed service proposals closely to our partners’ needs. The results really vary. For example, we have taken on temporary specific assignments. But we have also run training sessions for our partners’ staff. Partners have even outsourced the entire management of platform and operations to us.
The most important point for our partners is that we’re neutral – no hidden agendas, no strings attached. We will always defend a partner’s best interest and give them options to choose from. This is a nice feeling for them. It works for us too and results in relationships based on trust.
A wide range of services – which is still evolving
What all of our clients have in common is that GTC provides the crucial layer between the SMS platform vendor or hosting company and the business units of the client.
The specific tasks and activities depend of course on the client’s needs. These requirements can also change as the project evolves.
That said, here is a list of our current areas of activity:
● Ensure that a client’s business needs are understood and supported by its SMS platform vendor
● Manage cross-protocol connectivity to business partners (SMPP, HTTP/REST, SS7, ENUM)
● Manage supplier/vendor rates
● Act as first or second level customer support/NOC
● Run route assessments
● Support the client in interpretation/analysis of results
● Highlight business opportunities to clients based on current supplier/vendor portfolio
● Propose potential business partners that can open new markets or close gaps in current supplier/vendor portfolio
● Provide product management support to help clients define/evolve products and processes
● Support marketing activities
● Act as routing team to:
○ define, configure and adjust routing where necessary
○ analyse live traffic for quality or financial concerns and act if needed
● Act as a pricing team to set sell prices together with the clients business teams
● Coordinate sales and sourcing activities
I describe most of the above functions in my blog “Productisation in messaging. Waste of energy or the foundation of your success?”. Check it out if you want a deeper understanding of GTC managed services.
A word on our fees….
As with everything in life, a managed service by GTC has a price tag. We prefer a monthly flat fee because it makes forecasting easier for clients. We also believe that we should go through thick and thin together with our business partners. If there’s a sudden spike in activity, then so be it. This is why we also prefer short contract durations. It should be a conscious decision to work with a partner, not something enforced by a contract clause.
The alternative would be to work based on timesheets or hourly packages, which only creates unnecessary complexity for the business case. In the end, a collaboration should make life simpler.
Want to know more about Managed Service by GTC?
If you think a GTC Managed Service could help your business, just reach out to us.
Our staff (check us out!) is highly diverse not only in nationality but also in career background. We should be able to advise and support you wherever you are in the world, and whatever your specific messaging issue.
Global Telco Consult (GTC) is a trusted independent business messaging consultancy with deep domain knowledge in application-to-person (A2P) services. GTC provides tailor-made messaging strategies to enterprises, messaging service providers, operators and voice carriers. We have expertise in multiple messaging channels such as RCS, Viber, WhatsApp, Telegram and SMS for the wholesale and retail industry.
GTC supports its customers from market strategy through service launch, running the operations and supporting sales and procurement. The company started in 2016 with a mission to guide operators and telcos to embrace new and exciting opportunities and make the most out of business messaging. For more information or industry insights, browse through our blog page or follow us on LinkedIn.
