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The Lok Sabha Secretariat, on behalf of the House, was early to recognize
that the need of the hour was to use a straightforward way of bridging the gap
of communicating critical and routine messages from the Secretariat to members
and media.
The Lower House was on the lookout for a solution to fulfill its
communication and connectivity needs keeping in mind the limitations of not
being able to have regular meetings between the Members of Parliament (MPs),
especially during no-session periods. "Another concern was to find a solution
for various routine communications between Secretariat to members and the
Secretariat to general public; SMS filled in the gap perfectly," says the Lok
Sabha spokesperson.
Velocity for LS
Considering that mobile phones today are ubiquitous and are non-obtrusive in
nature, Lok Sabha partnered with ValueFirst for introducing mobile messaging.
"The Parliament has installed the SMS system through which it can be in constant
touch during sessions and no session periods using SMS. The same system is
also being used to keep them updated on the latest happenings through the press
and PR secretariat," added the spokesperson. The solution went live from July
2008.
After a thorough examination of the existing IT infrastructure of the House,
ValueFirst rolled out Velocity, an enterprise class SMS suite designed to create
process and transmit SMS in a complex database environment. "Velocity provides a
highly reliable mobile messaging platform. The Lok Sabha secretariat can send
messages covering all service providers in India," says Vijay Shukla, country
head and co-founder ValueFirst. In addition, the mobile messaging suite offers
complete automation of various communication processes of the Parliament of
India.
Messaging Benefits
The Lok Sabha Secretariat can now directly contact the members of the house
by sending an SMS. Moreover, the secretariat can also send media related
information to the media fraternity by sending SMSes. For instance, if the
speaker wants to make an announcement, the traditional way would have been to
issue an invitation to the media for a press conference. Today, however, the
scenario has undergone a changethe concerned person simply needs to send an SMS
to journalists with details of the conference. One can even go as far as sending
the speakers statement via an SMS to avoid misrepresentation.
No longer does the secretariat need to spend exorbitant sum on issuing
physical mailers to all members informing them about the session schedules. One
simple SMS does the trick and with delivery reports, it can be ensured that the
message has been delivered. All of this leads to reduced communication costs.
Moreover, paper statements and invites need to be sent at least a month in
advance; with the new mobile SMS solution, there has been a significant
reduction in delivery time of information due to automation.
The SMS solution also means that there is all-round connectivity among
members of both the houses. With almost everyone having a mobile phone these
days, one can be sure of delivery of critical information on time.
Stuti Das
stutid@cybermedia.co.in
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