Forum Nokia PRO Success Story
BookIT Brings Intelligent SMS
to Enterprise Applications
BookIT Oy
HQ: Helsinki, Finland
BookIT’s Dynamic Dialog Matrix enables intelligent SMS applications for business processes
The Short Message Service (SMS) has quickly become a boon to the business world as well as to consumers,
but so far developers are only scratching the surface of its potential business usage. To more fully realize the
benefits of SMS, businesses must integrate it into their business processes, and into their existing IT systems.
When SMS is used as part of an overall business process that interacts with consumers, for example, then
the enterprise has moved from traditional SMS to intelligent SMS.
“The dental center estimates that it will
reduce its percentage of appointment
no-shows from 7 percent to 3 percent,
with an estimated saving of more than
36,000 euros per year.”
Intelligent SMS is differentiated from traditional SMS is these ways:
• The service application is typically a rich enterprise application with business process data, compared
to “lightweight” applications such as queries for traditional SMS.
— Jukka Salonen, President, BookIT Oy
• The transaction is “pushed” by the service application, compared to the mobile user “pull” method
of traditional SMS.
• Intelligent SMS is typically interactive between the service application and the user, whereas traditional
SMS is typically a one-way action.
• Intelligent SMS allows the user to respond to a message with a “one button” response, where traditional
SMS requires the keying in of a response message.
• Authentication of the user with the server application is embedded and automatic in intelligent SMS,
whereas traditional SMS may be based upon the mobile phone number, plus codes that must be entered
by the user.
Looking Ahead
Moving forward, Salonen sees BookIT’s
relationship with Forum Nokia PRO and
Nokia Networks as a growing one.
“As Nokia continues to introduce new
devices, we will make sure that they
work with our applications. When
S60 3rd Edition devices begin to hit the
market in 2006, for example, we will be
exploring the opportunities offered by
the new functionalities.”
A pioneering enabler of intelligent SMS applications is BookIT Oy of Helsinki, Finland. The company’s Dynamic
Dialog Matrix (DDM) technology has enabled enterprises in several market segments to improve their business
processes through customized implementations. These include applications in the airline and travel industries,
construction industries, and more recently, the healthcare industry. BookIT is a Nokia Networks business partner.
Intelligent SMS in the Healthcare Industry
There are hundreds of ways that intelligent SMS can be applied in a given business, and according to BookIT
president Jukka Salonen, the first step is in the analysis of the business processes themselves. “The process that
we undertook with a major dental center here in Finland, is a good example,” says Salonen. “First, we identi-
fied their business challenges. Then, we identified the bottlenecks in their present interaction with customers
and patients. We then revitalized these processes by building a new mobile channel to customers. Finally, we
introduced the new technology to enhance resource planning and patient management systems with intelligent
SMS and push capabilities.”
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