NotifyMe Network, a new application for web-enabled cell/mobile phones.

While many enterprises have implemented messaging systems that can send instant alerts to employees and customers, NotifyMe is among the first to give recipients the opportunity to respond. The company’s code is based on XML, so no proprietary software is necessary. Clients are charged maintenance fees and pay per minute or per alert, which Chief Executive Chuck Dietrick said amounts to “a matter of cents.”

“I think there’s actually a pretty good market for something like this,” said Drew Kraus, telecommunications industry analyst at Dataquest. “It looks like they’re offering something packaged into a market that didn’t have any packaged solutions.”

NextJet is among the company’s first clients. The package delivery service will use the NotifyMe alerts to keep up with changing airline schedules and dispatch couriers to their destinations.

NotifyMe expects its technology to be used primarily within companies and between businesses, but there are consumer-oriented applications as well.

CNET Network’s CNET Auctions, for instance, will make the service available to bidders who wish to be notified through the telephone when they’ve been outbid on a product. The person can raise the bid by keying the new price into the telephone. CNET will not charge the customer for the service, which could lead to higher revenue for the site as bids increase and strengthens customer loyalty, Dietrick said.

EnvoyWorldWide offers a similar alerting product, which now enables recipients to answer multiple-choice questions through a touch tone phone or keyboard.

Although the alerts can be sent through e-mail or instant messaging, Dietrick said the advantage of the service is people don’t need to be at their computers all the time. The phone is the company’s “sweet spot,” Dietrick said, because of its ubiquity. The company doesn’t collect customer-specific information, he adds.

Investors in NotifyMe include CNET founder Halsey Minor and salesforce.com founder Marc Benioff.

There is no question that the Internet has upped the ante in many ways for businesses and customers alike. The stakes are as high as they have ever been. Businesses are struggling to maintain and enhance competitive advantage in a highly volatile market. There is a race to implement efficient and effective means of communicating up and down the value chain.
Customers, partners, suppliers and employees are all critical links in that chain, and they are all holding businesses to a higher standard. They expect to be able to conduct business in ways that are free from the limitations of the past. Anytime, anywhere, with any device has become the new mantra.
Technology, of course, is the great enabler. In many ways, it has had, and is continuing to have, a liberating and empowering effect. The game has changed, and a new rulebook is being written. Companies that are not able to adapt are finding their competitive positions substantially diminished. A deep and fundamental service orientation is an imperative for all companies that want to maximize their potential.
Choice and flexibility must be central elements in any service-oriented approach. At the core of choice and flexibility is a commitment to do business when and where it is convenient for all those involved, and to do it proactively. Businesses have much to gain by anticipating the needs of their customers, partners, suppliers and employees. Improved satisfaction, decreased costs and increased revenue are all derivative benefits, but those benefits are only fully realized when businesses take the lead in communicating.
As someone who has been in the technology industry for 17+ years, and sat on both sides of the table, never have I experienced a time when clear and proactive communication has been so critical. The business cycle is moving at a phenomenal pace. Today’s highflying company is tomorrow’s vacant office.
The evolution of the Internet has been a major contributor to the rapid acceleration of the business cycle, and the concomitant need for more efficient and effective communication; however, the Internet is only a part of the solution. As pervasive as it has become, the Internet still has, and will continue to have, several limitations that prevent it from becoming THE sole solution.
There are still many hundreds of millions and billions of people who do not use the Internet and/or do not have special devices to enable mobile connectivity to the Internet. If businesses truly want to broadly extend their reach, and enable transactions to be completed anywhere and anytime, the answer is clear - the most ubiquitous and simple of all devices, the telephone (wire-lined and wireless), must be utilized.
At NotifyMe Networks we use the telephone as an Internet appliance. As a result, B2B, B2C and B2E transactions can be completed in an automated fashion, anywhere and anytime. Businesses need no longer be encumbered by the old rules. Come join us, and enhance your value proposition with your customer, partners, suppliers and employees.

Chuck Dietrick
President and CEO
NotifyMe Networks