Imi Mobile

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Sr. No. | Title | Page No. | 1 | Executive Summary | 5 | 2 | Introduction | 6 | 3 | Objectives of the study | 8 | 4 | Concepts and Models | 9 | 5 | About the organization | 11 | 6 | Services offered | 14 | 7 | Methodology | 26 | 8 | Findings & Results | 41 | 9 | Learning | 43 | 10 | Conclusions | 44 | 11 | Limitations of the study | 45 | 12 | Recommendations | 45 | 13 | Bibliography | 46 |

INTRODUCTION

Employee engagement:
The mobile phone has become not only an important tool for marketers it is also an indispensible part of our day-to-day communication with colleagues at work. The difference in performance between staff using work force SMS or mobile internet services and averagely engaged employees can be between 19% and 48%. In sales it 's between 48% and 120%.

Engaging all of your employees, especially those whose roles are field-based, work in rural areas or don 't have regular internet access, can be difficult and costly.

Customer engagement:
Getting new customers, keeping the ones you have and delivering a differentiated customer service is the Holy Grail for all enterprises. But how do you do this and ensure relevant customer engagement whilst keeping operational costs under control?

The right mobile strategy, carefully integrated into your communications mix, can help your business stand out from the competition. More importantly you will be able to create a personal relationship with your customers.

Payment management:
It 's a constant battle for financial service providers to acquire new, profitable customers and retain the ones they have. Just a 25% reduction in churn will often result in millions of pounds of revenue retained.

Often the only way to differentiate your offering and reduce churn is to deliver personalized and innovative service. But with tight margins and the high cost of extended hours call Centre services; the real driver is to provide top line growth while controlling operational cost.

Enterprise Mobility:
Worldwide smartphone shipments have surpassed PC shipments for the first time and the tablet is replacing laptops for field-based employees and business executives. Your customers, employees and partners are mobile. But what does the post PC era mean for your business and how do you tap new business opportunities whilst controlling costs?

To ensure your business will be successful in the future you need to think mobile. Providing a secure access to the backend systems anytime, anywhere and for any mobile devices becomes the new imperative if you want to support mobile use cases.

Mobile Marketing:
The mobile phone has become the primary device for consumers to access information or downloads and share content. Today 's customers increasingly expect to interact with businesses in the same convenient personal way and that 's why makes mobile marketing is such a powerful tool for marketers.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective/aim of the internship is to pitch forth the various mobile communications services provided by IMI to the potential buyers that have been identified on the basis of various recognizable factors leading to dampened customer interaction.

Steps involved in the rightful identification of the leads can be summarized as follows:

* Selection of a particular location within which the propositions shall be made. * Identifying a demanding industry for the selected region. * Tabulating the various companies that constitute the given industry for the region. * Analyzing the services currently engaged by each of the companies with regards to the customer engagement front and preparing an ordered list based on the magnanimity of the requirement of each of the companies. * Approaching the companies in the order prepared and pitching forth the value propositions. * Generate sufficient interest as well as attempt to enable the manifestations of the talks into a concrete deal.

CONCEPTS AND MODELS

Typical work activities depend on the market and the setting. A basic distinction can be made between two types of sales: business to business (B2B) and business to customer or consumer (B2C).

B2B sales involve selling products or services from one business to another. This is a typical avenue for graduates. For example, a sales executive in a company that manufactures fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), e.g. soft drinks, will sell to the retailer and may be involved in making a strong argument so the products get shelf space. Activities important for success include:

* relationship building; * researching the market and related products; * Presenting the product or service in a structured professional way face to face.

B2C sales involve direct selling to the consumer or end user. Examples include selling credit cards via the telephone or selling new cars in a showroom.

Typical activities for sales executives generally include:

* listening to customer requirements and presenting appropriately to make a sale; * maintaining and developing relationships with existing customers in person and via telephone calls and emails; * cold calling to arrange meetings with potential customers to prospect for new business; * responding to incoming email and phone enquiries; * acting as a contact between a company and its existing and potential markets;

* negotiating the terms of an agreement and closing sales; gathering market and customer information; * representing the organization at trade exhibitions, events and demonstrations; * negotiating on price, costs, delivery and specifications with buyers and managers; * challenging any objections with a view to getting the customer to buy; * advising on forthcoming product developments and discussing special promotions; * creating detailed proposal documents, often as part of a formal bidding process that is largely dictated by the prospective customer; * liaising with suppliers to check the progress of existing orders; * checking quantities of goods on display and in stock; * recording sales and order information and sending copies to the sales office, or entering into a computer system; * reviewing your own sales performance, aiming to meet or exceed targets; * gaining a clear understanding of customers ' businesses and requirements; * making accurate, rapid cost calculations and providing customers with quotations; * feeding future buying trends back to employers; * Attending team meeting and sharing best practice with colleagues.

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

Originally, the company was established as IMISoftware in 1998 to developed software for power transmission and telecom towers. It was the year 2000 when Vishwanath Alluri and Shyam Bhat, the two founders of IMImobile, saw an opportunity to offer a richer set of mobile data services in a mobile landscape dominated by voice and SMS. With entrepreneurial vision Vish and Shyam realized that not only would customers want a full range of mobile services on their mobile devices, but that a broader range of media and enterprises would also want to get involved to reach out to their customers. In 2007, the original business of IMISoftware was sold and the company was renamed IMImobile.
Today the awarded DaVinci Evolved Service Platform, developed by IMImobile, is deeply embedded in the business processes of over 100 mobile operator and blue chip enterprise customers worldwide. The platform represents 600 man-years of investment and development and reaches over 900 million subscribers worldwide. The DaVinci Platform provides the foundation to enable an open mobile market and runs a range next generation mobile internet services and enterprise grade CRM, messaging, rich media, and marketing and analytics solutions.
IMImobile Private Limited is a provider of technology platforms and mobile value-added services to operators, media companies and enterprises in 66 countries with operations in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. The company raised $13 million from venture capital firms Sequoia Capital and First Mark Capital
Integrating with mobile network operators is complex and time consuming. Integration requires close coordination with multiple operator teams and multiple levels of approvals. This process is not only lengthy, increasing the time to market for new services; it also decreases the opportunity for advertisers, developers and enterprises to create new revenue streams. The IMImobile

OPENHOUSE aims to bring operator assets into the cloud so they can easily be leveraged by ecosystem partners. This federation of mobile network capabilities and web-based services provide an open, unified cloud-based platform to enable service creation, launch and management."
The IMImobile OPENHOUSE unleashes creativity and innovation within the partner ecosystem by providing an unconstrained, democratic platform hosted in the cloud. We firmly believe that innovation needs to be democratized. Innovation cannot happen within the four walls of a service provider. Network and web resources need to be thrown open with the right governance model to foster innovation. This shift will take time to materialize. Our experience in deploying solutions into the operators ' networks and providing enterprise solutions positions IMImobile strongly to be the leading provider of the IMImobile OPENHOUSE. We have experience on both the demand and supply sides of the equation. What we are now aiming to do is to achieve a higher degree of automation and streamline the processes to support hundreds or thousands of partners."

Awards and Recognitions

* IMImobile won the "Best Outsourcing Initiative" award for outstanding results that its DaVinci Evolved Service platform delivered to MTN Group. Vishwanath Alluri, IMImobile CEO, won "CEO of the Year" for his work in evolving IMImobile into a "global powerhouse" according to the judges.

* IMImobile won ‘Multimedia Content Management Solution of the Year’ at the Cloud Africa Awards, hosted in Johannesburg in May 2012.

* IMImobile was ranked Number 23 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 India 2011, a ranking of the 50 fastest growing technology companies in India. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over three years. IMImobile grew 135 percent during this period.

* IMI completed takeover of WIN in October 2010. IMIMobile exposes DaVinci Evolved Service Platform worldwide. * IMImobile, on April 17, 2009, announced an exclusive partnership with the National Network of Education (NNE) to deliver board and university examination results directly to students via SMS.

* IMImobile won the Red Herring Asia 100 Award which recognizes the 100 “Most Promising” Asian Companies Driving the Future of Technology in December 2008.

* IMImobile achieved ISO/IEC 27001:2005 Internationally Certified World-class Information Security Standards certification in November 2007.

* IMImobile ,in October 2006, enabled first ever Mobile Premiere of a Telugu movie.

* IMImobile is currently working with over 100 Blue-chip companies and its services reach over 950 million people in over 66 countries worldwide.

Acquisitions * IMImobile acquired Mobytec, the technology platform powering Mobyko.com social aggregation service in July, 2009.[3] The Mobytec platform is now being offered by IMImobile as a fully managed service for mobile network operators (MNOs).

* IMImobile and Telecom Express launched IMEXmobile in June, 2009.[4] The joint venture company was set up to provide end to end solutions for the implementation of interactive mobile services for media companies.

Sale instruments: 1. m-Alerts

What is this? * System generated automated text or voice Messages * Integrated into the websites, ERP, CRM & web applications using APIs

Features and benefits:

* Users get various automated alerts for channel subscription, payment reminders, payment confirmation, etc. * Users can send Text, Voice, Flash, Binary or Unicode messages using our APIs * Facility to configure 2-way messaging like Info on-Demand, Activity triggering using SMS, etc. * Enterprises can schedule alerts like Birthday, Anniversary, etc.

E.g.:
Tata Sky is one of the largest DTH Service provider in India. Integrated Text SMS alerts in their CRM system using IMImobile SMS Gateway APIs

Users get various automated alerts for channel subscription, payment reminders, payment confirmation, etc.
On an average Tata Sky pushes 2 to 3 Lakh text SMS alerts per day.

2. m-Engage

Mobile being the most personalized communication channel, is a preferred customer engagement medium for many enterprises & media companies in India.

IMImobile being pioneers in mobility arena; offers range of customer engagement products for enterprises.

SMS Studio:

SMS Studio is a powerful yet simple tool for customer engagement via SMS medium which can run complex campaigns with very fast time-to-market.

IVR:

It is a technology that allows a system to interact with humans through the use of Voice & Touch-tone (Phone Keypad) inputs.

IVR process can be initiated by either Inbound i.e. end user calling a number or Outbound i.e. system calling an end user to initiate interaction.

E.g.:

Star TV is one of the biggest Entertainment & News media in India. We manage their all India short code 57827; which they use for various customer engagement activities like
Contests, Polling, Voting, etc.

Star TV configures various real-time activities using “SMS Studio” and also have access to live results. Star TV interacts with millions of audience on a day to day basis.

cont.…

Instant Call back Services

An intelligent toll-free service that instantly connects sales agent/ customer care agent with the interested customer browsing your website or viewing your Ad

This can be implemented using 4modes,
1. Click-to-Call for online visitors
2. SMS-to-Call for offline consumers
3. Missed Call-to-Call for offline consumers
4. Missed Call to SMS for offline customers

Missed Call Services

Enterprises can launch an array of customer engagement activities like Live Polling, Voting, Instant Feedback, etc. over a Missed Call.
End users just have to give a missed call to a specified number in order to submit his/her opinion on a product, news, social cause or an event.

3. m-Communicate

Platform for enterprises to communicate personally with their target audience i.e. customers/employees using the mobile medium.

SMS Broadcast

It’s a web based 2-way bulk SMS service which can be used to communicate with large target audience in extremely fast & cost effective way.

Modes of Sending SMS:

1. Online Bulk SMS Application: LOGIN  COMPOSE SEND

2. SMS Excel Plugin: Sending SMS Directly from the MS Excel sheet.

3. Developers API: Integrate with web based application to send automated alerts.

E.g:
Mahindra is an Indian multinational pioneering in utility vehicles, tractors, IT, Financials & Tourism. Their tractor division has been using our Voice SMS Service to communicate with the existing customers as well as farmer community in their local language.
They communicate regarding free service camps, auto shows, festive offers, etc. They communicate with approx. 10K to 15K farmers daily. Communication using mobile medium has increased their campaign response rate by 90%.

cont.…

Voice Broadcast
Broadcast your message to a large target audience using voice SMS platform on www.openhouse.imimobile.com

Service can be used in 3 modes:

Cont.…

USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data)
• Extremely fast interactive service e.g. “Dialing *212#”
• Toll free for the end user
• Very effective for fetching info on interactive session e.g. fetching bank account details, checking flight booking status, etc.
• Works only on GSM network
• USSD session can be initiated via 2 modes,
1. SMS-to-USSD: Sending Text SMS to a Short code or Virtual number
2. Missed Call-to-USSD: Giving a Miscall to a certain number

E.g.:

CALL 040-71015122 for a USSD Demo

4. m-Tickets & m-Coupons

m-Tickets

* m-ticket is a Text SMS containing the booking information of the travel, movie, event, etc. which can replace physical tickets * These tickets may contain a unique booking code which can be used to generate physical tickets from a kiosk at the venue.

m-Coupons * Discount coupons/codes as Text SMS, which can be redeemed at the retail stores or at an online portal * Users can fetch these coupons by sending an SMS to a number mentioned in Ad or enterprise can directly distribute the codes by sending personalized messages

E.g.: * Sathyam Cinemas is one of the biggest multiplex cinema hall in Chennai. We have provided them with the SMS integration facility which is used to generate m-Tickets for the users booking movie tickets online. * The unique code in m-ticket is then used to generate a physical ticket at the venue. * Sathyam Cinemas generate approx. 15K m-tickets monthly

5. m-Support

* Mobile phone offers the flexibility of being location & time independent. Hence customers are updated on their request or complaint status via Text or Voice SMS. * Customers can also avail the facility of Automated IVR support system anytime to fetch desired information on their bank accounts, credit cards, movie bookings, travel bookings, etc. * Mobile based Trouble-Ticketing System
• Ubiquity of mobile offers flexibility to the customers or even employees to raise or update the tickets on the move.
• Various platforms like SMS, USSD or Mobile App can be used to enable mobility to ticketing systems.
• SMS based alerts can also be configured to notify all stake holders on the escalation of the issues. E.g.: * Beam Fiber is an Internet Service provider offering its service thousands of users in Hyderabad. They have integrated Text SMS using our APIs in their trouble ticketing system which updates user about his/her request status and resolution timelines precisely. * End users can even give their feedback on the request resolution or escalate the issue via Text SMS. * Beam Fiber is sending approx. 15K to 20K trouble-ticketing SMS daily.

6. m-Apps

* Get your online portal or web applications on mobile * Completely tailor-made to client needs * Multi-platform support viz. Symbian, Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Windows, etc.

7. m-Educate

* Launch innovative, real-time & interactive mobile solutions for conducting tests, surveys or learning programs. * A mobile user can take various tests, exams or assessments directly from their mobile using SMS, Voice, USSD or Mobile Application.

Who can use?

* Enterprises can create micro-sites of their company profile on IVR, USSD or mobile apps for their employees or customers * Coaching institutes can place their coaching material on mobile platform which can be accessed by their students anytime & anywhere * Professional Institutes or Universities can launch multilevel question based tests on mobile platform.

E.g.: * Gyanodaya is management learning initiative of Aditya Birla Group for its own employees * We have provided a multi-level question based assessment on SMS short code for Gyanodaya as a part of their m-learning initiative. * Real-time results were available as soon as the assessment was completed by an employee * This assessment consisted of 20 questions and was taken by various employees across 48 hour time-frame.

8. m-Locate

Allow your customers to locate your stores or dealers nearest to them with the help of a single SMS.

SMS Based Dealer Locator

* Customers can locate their nearest dealer/Store by sending a single SMS. * Pin code or City name based search facility * User will get info on 3 closest stores/dealers in closest vicinity or city. * Even the dealers or store manager get the mobile number of the requesting customer iPhone Dealer Locator.

Location based Services

* With the advent of user location being provided by the Telcos, location based services can have great potential. * Enterprise with location intensive business like restaurants, retail stores, etc. can target users in their close vicinity, hence better response to mobile campaigns.

9. m-Commerce

* End user can use their mobile phone to make payments for the products/ services they wish to buy online, offline or on mobile.

* End user can pay using his credit/debit card using 2 modes,
IVR based payments
Mobile App based payments

IMImobile can provide an end-to-end mobile payment gateway solution that can be homogenously integrated with your e-Commerce portal or m-Portal.

METHODOLOGY:

The region chosen for the purpose of the services sales was Mumbai. After the identification of the region the industries to be targeted were widely scattered to te extent that some of the leads belonged to the education sector while some formed a section of the hospitality industry.

The modus operandi adopted for the shortlisting of the concerned companies was as follows:

* All suggestions regarding the promotional activities of a company were coined on the basis of careful analysis of the adverts posted by the companies in the newspapers, magazines, supplements, etc. * The concerned officials of these companies were then contacted personally or over the phone in order to explain the inadequacies of their customer engagement campaigns and were suggested ways in which they could employ the services of IMI mobile to further enhance this valuable interaction thereby improving customer loyalty all the while reducing cognitive dissonance buying behavior amongst the consumers. * They were explained the procedure involving the purchase of the service and the corresponding costs to be incurred for the same. * Majority of the prospective buyers were offered trial packages that would help them gauge the true worth of the service for a limited period and then decide to either extend their contract or dissociate themselves from further availing the services.

Case 1:
Mobile Campaign Ideas for Novartis:
SMS Campaigns
› Customer Engagements
› Voice campaigns
› Mobile Apps
› Mobile Website
› Mobile Marketing during launch

SMS Campaigns * SMS Subscription Service:
– SMS <HEALTH> to 56263 to get daily health tips on your mobile. * SMS Based Contests
– Promote these contests through website/other advertisements/Product packaging.
– Ex: SMS <OTRI> to 56263 to participate in the contest
– Winners to get a free pack of Oats delivered to home. * Interactive campaigns
– Customers will SMS “I Love _______ Otrivin because…”
– Best answers to be rewarded
More innovative campaigns can also be designed based on the ideas given by Novartis Customer Engagement

* Loyalty codes on product Packaging
– Customers can send an SMS containing the code to a no. and his purchase is registered.
– Subsequent purchases can be rewarded based on loyalty points.

* Lucky Draws using mobile
– Lucky draw coupon codes to be printed on the product packaging
– Customers can participate by sending the code to a specified no.
– Winners to be informed immediately and gifts can be couriered to customer address
– Winner pictures can be uploaded with gifts on social network platforms or can be displayed on the website.

Voice Campaigns
Interactive Voice: * Customers can call on a Toll-free IVR no. to know about the product & its benefits (Automated- no human involvement). * Voice Alerts:Send daily health tips using Voice SMS medium * Missed Call based Opinion polls/Feedback system * Customers can give a missed call to a certain no. to register their opinion or give their feedback on a product. * Voice Blogging: Customers can share their Voice updates (in this case maybe Testimonials) which can then be heard by anyone on the blogging portal.

Mobile Apps...

* Healthy Heart App…
– Some app to estimate the health of the heart, by entering some inputs like age, eating habits, work habits, exercise habits, etc. * Informative App…
– An App talking all about Oats, its benefits, its types, various recipes, creating Oats Community, integration with other social networks, etc.
The above Apps or any other app depending on Novartis idea can be generic in nature but branded on the name of Novartis.

Mobile Website * m.otrivin.com
– Mobile version of the website which gives all the information on the products like
• Product brief
• Details
• Benefits, etc.
– Feedback collection
– Special Offers (Free health Check-up)
– Integration with Social media
– Talk to Health experts
– Etc.

Video streaming

* QR Codes

– Consumer gets a Video by scanning QR Code printed on Packaging, print Ads, etc
– Video can be Oats Ad, product overview
– Product benefits, etc.

* Videos can also be embedded in mobile websites or mobile apps can be viewed or download.

Mobile marketing during Product Launch

* Mobile Touch point:
– All launch communication can contain keyword info to create an interaction touch point to their ads.

* Launch Communication
– Sending Text/Voice SMS prompting people to respond to get a free sample.
– Communication can contain discount m-Coupons which can help them get discount at stores/online purchase

* Benefit Communication
– Communicating the benefits of Oats to the target audience.
– Communication can be devised at pushing traffic to website, stores, etc.

Case 2:
Mercedes Autohangar
Missed call to IVR Demo
CALL 040 71012242

Interactivity - Voice
Deploy an Interactive Voice Response Session
Press (1) to speak to a sales representative
Press (2) to schedule an after -sales service
Press (3) for Breakdown services
Press (4) to book a Test Drive

Voice Call Patch (Options 1, 2 & 3)
Customer is connected to your regional service center/dealer.
During working hours, OPENHOUSE calls the registered Centre/agent’s number and the customer’s number, connects both into a call.

Interactive USSD Session (Option 4)
Deploy an Interactive USSD Session
Book a Test Drive?
(1) Mercedes C-Class
(2) Mercedes A-Class
(3) Mercedes S-Class
Based on the selection, an SMS will be sent confirming the date and time of the appointment.

Dealer locator over SMS

SMS AUTOHAN to 56263

Citizen journalism:
An initiative by a media company which empowers any citizen to share information of any important incidents they come across anytime and from anywhere in India.
Citizens can share this information using mobile medium
- By calling on a IBD number
- By using a customized mobile app * Citizens can narrate the incident on Voice * Citizens can click pictures and upload the same via mobile app. * Citizens can shoot videos and upload the same via mobile app.

Benefits for the media company:

* Engaging the citizens

* Getting real-time incident updates along with images & videos

* Creating a brand association between Citizens & media company

* Unique initiative- which can give a positive brand image to media company

* Immense Word-of-Mount publicity opportunity

Citizen journalism will be offered via the following channels

– SMS
• Citizens can send a text message to a short code.
• Editor will view the messages in a web panel.

– IVR
• Citizens can call to a Toll free number and record the report by following predefined prompts.
• Editor can listen to these messages and also find from which number the messages is submitted.

– 3G video Calling
• Citizens can call from a 3G mobile to a number and submit live incident report.
• Editor can view the reports submitted.

– Device App
• Citizens with a smart phone can download a app, which will enable citizens to perform all above actions.
• Editor can have view all the details submitted from a web panel.

To report an incident send SMS “STARJOURN”space <your report> to 56263”

In Bound Dialer

Citizen Journalism via IVR

To report an incident call 040 – 71015120 and follow the instructions.
– On successful connection Citizen will listen to a prompt

• Welcome to Citizen Journalism
• Enter the STD code – to recognize the area.
• Citizen will be asked to record message after tone
• Citizen can listen to the recording and confirm
• Citizen will confirm the by entering the Key as configured.

Citizen Journalism Via 3G video Calling

To report a incident call 040 – 71015120 and follow the instructions.
– Citizen can get connected to editor via 3G video call and submit the report
– Citizen can also call to a 3G number and the system will record the message.

Mobile App

Home screen

Just In-News

The just in-news gives the account of the real time data uploads that the users have gathered at the time and site of the news and thereby relieves the dependency on the local news channels to telecast the happenings of the locality.

Upload a video report:

The user can upload a video file that has already been captured or the respondent can rescord a live video and upload the same instantly using the camera feature within the application. Upload a photo report:

Just as in the case of the video reporting the users of the app can also convey important news feeds via pictures instead of video recording the entire event. This can come in handy when there has to be reporting about the existing dilapidated conditions government property or the display of obscene or morally incorrect happenings within the locality.

Upload a text report

Account details:

Call to report:

Pricing:

The pricing strategy adopted by IMI mobile for the range of services offered is a 1 year plan that is charged on the basis of the use of the service being charged per service engagement.
The following list gives a comparative tabulation of the cost incurred to employ the different services and also their corresponding tariffs for larger bulk packages:

FINDINGS AND RESULTS

After contacting the vast database of the Mumbai region for the purpose of the service sales it was discovered that a large number of companies are currently unaware of the possibilities that such services can establish thereby reducing both cost and man power requirement at the business end of the things so that there is improved efficiency and greater customer connect.
Companies from various industries were contacted and corresponding value propositions were made such that the enterprises could benefit from the increased productivity and thereby further their business operations amongst their clientele. Major automobile brands like Audi, Nissan, Toyota, Hyundai, etc. were approached with the appointment services. Within the hospitality industry enterprises like the Sukho Thai, Fit n Fine, Health Wellness, etc. were proposed similar services. Some of these have been very interested recipients while some chose to distance themselves from the concept of engaging technology to add to their already existing repertoire of service providing mechanisms.

LEARNINGS:

Being a potentially untapped and new market, the true value addition that such services have to offer remain un trespassed and there appears to be an apprehension with regards to the adoption of the services. These services can find maximum applications in the automobile industry such as the various sales outlets for the big car brands wherein there can be ultimate enhancement of the customer interaction. The other major industry that could benefit from the employment of these services is the hospitality industry that includes spas and salons. These organizations can rope in the mobile communication services to arrange for appointments with the prospective clients as also enabling the consumers to locate the outlets of the company via means of simple sms services. Having said this, it must also be noted that many of the major players in their respective markets are not currently using the services either due to ignorance of them or due to other apprehensions regarding the need or the complexities involved in the employment of these services. Thus, as sales interns for the company, it was our sincere endeavor to ensure that the awareness of the services was spread far and wide in the market all the while striving to get a few companies to eventually purchase our services.
Of these, the major ones that showed a keen interest in our proposition was the Punjab National Bank and Yashasree Constructions both of which were interested in the IVRS as well as the promotional sms service (sms broadcast) and talks are on with regards to the final manifestation of the interest displayed in our products.

CONCLUSION

Whether it is a large corporation, advertising agency or a media house, one can now communicate messages, offers and promotions across to your customers and prospects with unprecedented ease. Use our SMS and Voice applications to reach more users than any other medium.
Create and send messages easily: OPENHOUSE includes a ready-to-use, feature- rich campaign manager. Simply upload your recipient list and messages and the campaign will reach your target audience in minutes.
Build interactive campaigns: Make your campaigns engaging and interactive by configuring a short-code, virtual number or keyword. This opens up a reply path for recipients to respond to messages and provides a highly effective way to generate leads.
Connect with your customers: IMI provides a range of Customer Connect tools including click-to-call, click-to-SMS and missed-call based services. The system then responds over SMS or Voice, which can also be connected to live agents.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY AND RECOMMENDATIONS

As interns of IMI we were entrusted with the task of identifying prospective clients that would be more than willing to try the services offered. However, owing to the vastness of the different industries and the various complexities that they entail, the selection of the right companies to pitch forth to from the quagmire was pretty daunting while all the way being equally exciting to materialize.
Customer engagement is just a new trend that is catching up within the markets and convincing the companies to go the extra mile for the same requires persistent and innovative efforts on the part of the company to extend its already expanding database.
Also, being a relatively new offering, the companies feel the need to first explore the product in terms of a trial for which IMI has provided the system of initial free credits that would allow first-hand experience to the clients on the basis of which they could then purchase the services for a longer period or decline any further offering.
The prospective clients have also been provided with the facility of contacting other existing users of the Openhouse platform so that they can benefit from the experience shared by these companies over a prolonged period.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Websites: * http://www.imimobile.com/ * http://openhouse.imimobile.com/ * http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/ * http://www.thehindu.com/business/ * www.wikipedia.com

Bibliography: * IMImobile, on April 17, 2009, announced an exclusive partnership with the National Network of Education (NNE) to deliver board and university examination results directly to students via SMS.