ConnectTxt

27th November 2002
Leeds UK

Today, Cy-nap the parent company of the txttools brand launched it’s own campaign on junk txt. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of the unacceptable growth in unsolicited txt messages sent to mobile phones.

Not every company working in the text messaging field is out to bombard users with junk txt. The last year has seen a growth in people starting to adopt txt messaging for solid business communication, of the 1.4 billion messages a month, now almost 18% of this is business use.

“We could see that unwanted junk txt messages were an increasing source of annoyance for everyone. There has been negative publicity in recent months, for what are effectively ‘get rich quick scams’, is potentially damaging to this fledgling market. We looked to adopt existing protocols and astonishingly found that nothing existed that we thought was suitable. We decided to make it clear to our customers and partners where we stood on this issue. Our partners welcome the initiative and we now write our philosophy into all our agreements.” states Stephen McCann, managing director.

The company is not looking to become an unofficial policeman for the txt tool industry. txttools simply wanted to make it’s own stand on the potentially very damaging practice of sending junk mail to people’s mobile phones. Hopefully the general public will realise that not all txt messages sent to them by organisations are junk. Of course txttools are happy for any reputable company to adopt our philosophy so long as they agree to abide by our promises.

no junk txt – the philosophy and promise:

• Your mobile phone is personal to you.
• We facilitate txt messages to be sent to your phone, we will only send messages that are valuable to you and that you have agreed to receive. You may receive information from your child’s school, from work or about an appointment you have. You may have chosen to receive content: perhaps wine tips, health tips or horoscopes.
• We promise to never knowingly send unsolicited messages and we will never pass on your details to a third party.
• Unwanted sales txt messages to your mobile phone are an intrusion. It is important to us that every message that you receive through txttools is a message you are happy to receive.
• We have an audit trail, so we know who sent what messages where. If for any reason you think you are receiving messages that you are did not ask for or are unhappy to receive, please let us know, we will look into it and get back to you straight away.
• Text messaging is a great, fast, cheap and simple communication method, and it should not be abused. Cynap and its partners rely on your goodwill to ensure that we can continue to provide value added services that you respect and want to receive and we cannot continue to do this if users start to ignore their text messages.
• All of the partners agree to abide by our philosophy.

About txttools
“mobile technology helping people to manage their lives”
The company was established in January 2001 and is the result of over 14 years of innovation within the technology market. Since formation a number of SMS software tools have been developed to enable partners to liberate their own content in new SMS marketing channels, leveraging additional value to the products and services partners offer.
txttools works with partners who create services for business to consumer clients and with partners who provide services and content directly to their consumers. These partners encompass a variety of business markets including publishing, law, web development, retail, health, and many organisations such as schools and surgeries. In fact any group that has a need to communicate to people, be they customers, subscribers, members or staff. SMS Text messaging is rapidly opening up new channels for both information and marketing.

© 2002 txttools is a brand of Cy-nap Limited

Contact:
Stephen McCann
t: +44(0)113 234 2111
m: +44(0)7866 438056
e: smccann@Cy-nap.com
w: www.txttools.co.uk

Scottish flight guide launches flight deal information service delivered directly to the mobile phone by text message
18th November 2002
Aberdeen, UK

Scottish flight guide, the home of the best flight information for Scottish airports, today announced the launch of flight txt, an innovative new service for travelers who want the best flight prices the minute they become available. The information is sent to their mobile phone so the traveler gets it wherever they may be.

flight txt, is the first in a series of new text services to be offered by Scottish flight guide. It is a new concept in travel communication for people who want to stay in the know for the latest best prices. Users will receive txt messages sent directly to their mobile phone. The customer can choose their preferred airport on the Scottish flight guide web site. The information is then sent directly to their personal phone.

Users ‘opt in’ to receive their preferred txt and they are then charged a nominal amount on their normal mobile phone bill or pay as you go phone. They can suspend, cancel or increase the service at any time either via the web site or from their mobile phone handset.

To experience flight txt at first hand point your browser at http://www.scottishflightguide.co.uk/textmessages.htm. There, you will appreciate that this is a first-of-its-kind service in the increasingly innovative SMS txt industry. The service is available on the four major networks giving a potential audience of over 46 million people.

“This is a very useful new service – I expect all our loyal users will sign up to receive this marvelous affordable new service which will ensure that they will be first to know when airlines bring out any seat sales. This personalised service will enhance the strong bond that exists between scottishflightguide.co.uk and our valued clients, increasing our commitment to putting our clients first, and continuing our unbiased and unrivalled service. We looked at emerging mobile technologies such as 3G, but decided it far more sensible to use SMS as this is something that most people have and are familiar with. ” states Donald Munro (Managing Director)

flight txt is powered by txttools software and is one in a comprehensive suite of SMS txt products for the mobile technology using consumer, see more at http://www.scottishflightguide.co.uk
Press Contact: Donald Munro
Tel: +44 (0)870 990 9552

About txttools
“mobile technology helping people to manage their lives”
The company was established in January 2001 and is the result of over 14 years of innovation within the technology market. Since formation a number of SMS software tools have been developed to enable partners to liberate their own content in new SMS marketing channels, leveraging additional value to the products and services partners offer.
txttools works with partners who create services for business to consumer clients and with partners who provide services and content directly to their consumers. These partners encompass a variety of business markets including publishing, web development, retail, health, and many organisations such as schools and surgeries. In fact any group that has a need to communicate to people, be they customers, subscribers, members or staff. SMS Text messaging is rapidly opening up new channels for both information and marketing.

Stephen McCann, Managing Director
t: +44(0)113 234 2111
m: +44(0)7866 438056
e: smccann@Cy-nap.com
w: www.txttools.co.uk

Digby Brown is set to significantly improve its internal and external business communication by adopting txt messaging.

1st November 2002

Today, Digby Brown, a Scottish law firm with offices in four cities, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee and Glenrothes, announced the decision to adopt software which allows anyone in the firm to very simply send text messages to everyone in the firm, everyone in a specific office or group, or to individuals. The ‘group txt’ software is free to use and will enable the firm to dramatically and cost effectively improve much of their communication. Digby Brown pay a standard rate for text messages that they use.

When we think of text messaging, let’s face it, we normally associate it with kids. Particularly working in business we see it as rather cumbersome, not necessarily something which could actually be a useful tool to us. How could it be? It takes a kid with prehensile thumbs and a blindfolded knowledge of the alpha side of the telephone keypad to be able send anything out at a rate that makes sense. Adults over thirty, surely we can’t use it? What if you were able to type messages into a simple web interface, what if you could securely store as many numbers as you liked, what if you could send all the messages out at the same time – now – or queue them for future delivery. What if you could send those to the colleagues or clients? That technology is available now, and the software is free, sending the text messages is the only cost.

The SMS text message market is booming – in August 2001 text messaging broke the magic one billion – one billion text messages were sent in the UK in one month! In June this year the level had reached 1.4 billion in one month and the growth shows no sign of slowing and what is more 18% of text messaging traffic is accounted for by business users.

Why? How has this medium become so popular? The answer(s) are fairly straightforward: it is cheap, it is fast, it is discreet, it is eco-friendly and it is possible to get a simple message across without the need for an involved phone call and all the pleasantries that top and tail such calls. Text messaging is causing the same kind of stir in the business world that e-mail did ten years ago when it started to replace paper communication, it revolutionised fast, effective, to-the-point communication. The key difference is that 46 million people in the UK have access to a mobile phone whereas only 11 million have access to the Internet. And let’s be honest; how often do you check your e-mail when you are walking through town?

You don’t even have to learn how to send text messages to benefit from a service. There are an increasing number of text services that are broadcast to the phone – all you have to do is read and most of us can still do that. There are, of course, football score up-dates, horoscopes, health tips, diet tips, reminders for appointments and even a service called BabyText which gives expectant Mums a weekly update on their babies development.

So what about use in Law Firms? Digby Brown has identified ways where the use of text messaging will be the most effective and appropriate method of communication and these are some of their findings:

• Instant Messages – about any event that needs to be transmitted right away.
• Getting messages to barristers in chambers rather than sending messengers.
• Reminders for court dates / training days / calendar dates.
• Reminders for social events.
• In house communication between partners/ practice managers etc.

Why use SMS text messaging?

• Send multiple messages instantly. Phone calls take time whereas the same message can be sent to all the mobile phones in your group straight away.
• Free text message software is available from txt tools
• Cut down on administration time, paperwork, save money and it is eco-friendly
• Messages can be created and edited from any web enabled PC and then sent instantly or queued to go at a more appropriate time (e.g. reminders for court dates sent to all parties including the client the day and hour before the event or all significant annual dates input at the start of the year with the message sent on the day)
• Most clients and all the practice staff have a mobile phone so reaching them at any time of the day is easy (unlike e-mails!)

“This is an exciting new service for us – we know from our experience that a lot of communication is unnecessarily involved, sometimes you need to simply impart a small piece of information to everyone in the firm. Using conventional means this can be a laborious process. Text messaging very elegantly solves this problem for us. We had a case recently where over a period of days we had been trying to contact a client by every means possible, bar smoke signals, we sent him a text message, within 4 minutes he had called us ” commented Fraser J Ewing, Systems Manager, Digby Brown Solicitors.

‘group txt’ is powered by txttools software and is one in a comprehensive suite of SMS text products for the mobile technology business user, see more at www.txttools.co.uk

About Digby Brown Solicitors
Digby Brown is a firm of personal injury lawyers which acts exclusively on behalf of the Pursuer. Offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Glenrothes.
Digby Brown has over 90 years experience of Personal Injury Litigation and the majority of its solicitors are members of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers.

Contact:
Stephen Moore
Telephone : 0845 27 32323
Fax : 0141 566 9500
Email : maildesk@digbybrown.co.uk
Website : www.digbybrown.co.uk

About txttools
“mobile technology helping people to manage their lives”
The company was established in January 2001 and is the result of over 14 years of innovation within the technology market. Since formation a number of SMS software tools have been developed to enable partners to liberate their own content in new SMS marketing channels, leveraging additional value to the products and services partners offer.
txttools works with partners who create services for business to consumer clients and with partners who provide services and content directly to their consumers. These partners encompass a variety of business markets including publishing, law, web development, retail, health, and many organisations such as schools and surgeries. In fact any group that has a need to communicate to people, be they customers, subscribers, members or staff. SMS Text messaging is rapidly opening up new channels for both information and marketing.
© 2002 txt tools is a brand of Cy-nap Limited

Contact:
Stephen McCann
t: +44(0)113 234 2111
m: +44(0)7866 438056
e: smccann@cy-nap.com
w: www.txttools.co.uk