The pervasive text messaging (SMS) just got a lot more personal, with Airwide Solutions launching its AirMessenger Personal, a family of network-level applications that lets subscribers add personalised enhancements to their SMS. According to Airwide Solutions, the applications enable email and parental control features to SMS while also providing enhanced security for subscribers. The AirMessenger Personal application family enables subscribers to personalise their messaging service through easily accessible SMS interfaces and Web portals, Airwide says in a posting on its Web site.

"SMS has been an unprecedented success, accounting for 68 per cent of mobile messaging revenues worldwide, more than double that of IM (instant messaging), email and MMS (multi-media messaging service) combined. But until now, SMS functionality has been limited compared to e-mail services," says Jay Seaton, CMO at Airwide. Mr Seaton says that AirMessenger Personal provides subscribers with their own network SMS message store, keeping copies of all messages sent and received. Subscribers no longer need to worry about restoring important messages to a new handset as all messages can be sent to it from the archive. The "Duplicate" feature allows subscribers to automatically copy received SMS messages to multiple people or devices, providing enhanced coverage options.

Additionally, it is increasingly common for people to have a personal mobile phone, a business mobile phone and a mobile data card for a laptop. "This feature allows users to set up an automated duplicate to ensure that desired messages are delivered to whatever device the subscriber is using," he says.

The "Groups" feature simplifies how users can share messages with groups of recipients, regardless of which network they are on, and without the difficulty of manually copying messages or typing in multiple phone addresses.Two the most important features include an "Inbox Guardian" and an "Outbox Guardian". The "Inbox Guardian" lets "subscribers control which messages reach their mobile phone by blocking certain sources or only allowing messages from specific numbers to get through".

The Outbox Guardian allows controls to be set on which numbers the mobile phone is allowed to send messages to. I guess parents will love this because they can configure Outbox Guardian to ensure their children only communicate with known friends and family.

"This also helps prevent the inadvertent sending of messages to premium rate numbers. Outbox Guardian can also be used by corporations to control misuse of company-issued mobile phones," Airwide says.

GUESS who’s set sights on management course at IIM-A? Officers of the Indian armed forces who are due to retire soon are all set to groom their management skills as the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, launched a certificate course in business administration for the defense personnel on Thursday. The six-month programme, designed by IIM-A at the instance of the Directorate General of Resettlement, Ministry of Defence (DGR-MoD), aims at providing management education to the officers who are due to retire soon.

On the occasion of its formal launch, Bakul Dholakia, director of IIM-A, said, “The group of officers who have come for training have great leadership quality and have a natural skill to take risks and responsibilities. They also have decision-making capability.”

Captain Jagdish Rath from the Navy, who was present at the occasion said, “We have multi-disciplinary skills, have middle to high-level management skills, and have even performed under the test. Now our focus should be to develop ourselves as business leaders for tomorrow.” The programme draws around 60 participants, 36 are from Army, 12 from Navy and the rest 12 from Air Force.

The programme is basically aimed for officers to rehabilitate after they retire. The fee for the programme is Rs 1,30,000, 60 per cent of which will be borne by government and the rest 40 per cent by the participants.

Source: Expressindia.com