Sybase Sent 25B Mobile Messages In 2006Sybase Sent 25B Mobile Messages In 2006

Mobile message enabler Sybase 365 today said it delivered a jaw-dropping 25 billion SMS and MMS messages in 2006. That's almost double from 2005. And I thought I sent a lot of text messages.

What's driving all this SMS growth?In the enterprise, it's employees, many of whom now rely on SMS and MMS as ways to keep in touch with their business contacts and their colleagues at the office.

Here is an example plucked straight from my work life. I just spent the last two days at the AlwaysOn confernce. While I was out of the office, I received around 15 text messages each day -- all work related. Granted, I foot the bill for this, since it's my personal cell phone. But if I was using a work phone, who would pay for these text messages? That's right, your IT/telecom budget, that's who.

If you're not already, you need to make sure your IT/telecom budget has room for SMS messaging, because I bet you have employees already texting for work (and for other things too, but that's another blog post). And don't think this is covered by your BlackBerry (or other) push email plan. When you negotiate your company's cell phone plan with your carrier, make sure you budget both in the carrier service agreement and in your internal budget for your employees' SMS usage.