There are too few offerings in the market today with operators still focusing on expanding their subscriber base rather than tapping high-end mobile services. MVASPs are still at the concept stage. The onus therefore lies on enterprises to ask for applications. Identify your needs and approach an operator or an MVASP and ask for customized applications.

When buying SMS-based services, it is important to ask for character optimization. Each SMS message can accommodate up to 160 characters, so ensure that the service provider enables messages as SMSs.

Ask for 24x7 customer-care support since the applications are meant to convert the enterprise into a virtual workplace.

Ask for a single point of contact in customer support. Irrespective of the nature of complaints, the service provider should provide a single-window redressal mechanism.

Ensure that the solution is scalable from pilot stage to full-scale deployment capable of supporting it across multiple locations and across different operator networks.

Ask for retrial schemas for messages. Set priorities for messages. A birthday wish can be on low priority while a sales update should be given high priority. Also set expiry time for messages. A stock quote for example, is irrelevant after about five hours.

Stick to one operator across all areas of your geographic presence. Ask for arrangements on a national basis. If there are multiple offices with considerable number of users in few of them, go for a national arrangement. This will give better negotiating power as well as make it easier to manage relationship with a single operator.

Depending on the applications and the target user base, it is important to select the service provider, which has the largest footprint. If the application is for a large base of users spread over a large territory, for instance a sales force automation of a drug company.

Don’t go by brands alone. Brands are important but for business users one must calculate the returns in clear terms. Hence the guiding parameters would be quality-of service, network quality and track record of customer care.

Large subscriber base means nothing. It is a statement of marketing success rather than any stamp on quality of service. In a few cities in India, network quality of the leader is often worse than competitors simply because of the load on the network. But this may not be true in all the case, so it is basically a case-to-case basis.