160 Characters Recognizes Clickatell for Metropolitan Cover2Go Insurance Purchase and Delivery Via Cell Phones

Redwood City, US; Cape Town, South Africa: May 14, 2008 – Clickatell, leading provider of global mobile messaging, today announced it won the “Best Messaging Business Application” award by 160 Characters as part of its 2008 Mobile Messaging Awards. As one of three finalists in the Messaging Business Application category, Clickatell was chosen because of its work with Metropolitan Cover2Go, who provides life insurance directly to customers’ cell phones via SMS.

The 2008 Mobile Messaging awards cover the whole range of mobile messaging including SMS, MMS, IM, email, and voice-messaging. Mike Grenville, founder of 160Characters.org commented, “Clickatell and the other award winners represent the most exciting and promising companies in the enterprise mobile space today.” The award winners were presented last week at the Gala Awards Dinner in Cannes at the Global Messaging Congress.

“Leading enterprises worldwide are providing mobile services using text messaging to build customer relations, acquire new customers, and build a trusted brand,” said Pieter de Villiers, CEO of Clickatell. “Metropolitan Cover2go is a great example of how our business-class applications can change lives. Through a highly innovative SMS-based service, Metropolitan customers can rest assured, knowing they have the insurance coverage they need anytime, anywhere via their cell phone.” 

Having moved away from the traditional way of selling insurance, Metropolitan Cover2go offers insurance in a way that is convenient and hassle-free for customers. The belief that insurance should be bought, not sold, puts the decision in the hands of the customer. The SMS accidental death insurance product is easy to access and use by anyone with a cell phone. The policy is bought by sending your name and ID number to a premium-rate short code and the cost is applied directly to the phone’s plan. The system, powered by Clickatell, responds with a confirmation and policy number, requests the name of a beneficiary, and reminds the policyholder to make sure they inform someone about the life insurance. Once the policy expires, a notification is sent asking if they choose to renew. This service can be applied anywhere across the globe, making it possible for people to benefit from added insurance coverage while on the go, anywhere, anytime.

“The use of SMS to enable our business process helps us to achieve nothing less than a complete revolution in the life insurance industry. With mobile messaging from Clickatell, we’ve been able to dramatically simplify the process of buying insurance and increase availability to customers who would otherwise not qualify through general insurance carriers under normal circumstances. Clickatell’s global SMS gateway made this deployment a simple process and has guaranteed message delivery enabling us to ensure reliable delivery of each message,” says Derek Pead of Metropolitan Cover2Go. For more information about Metropolitan Cover2Go please visit: http://www.cover2go.co.za/