Rod Buck, a hang glider pilot and owner of Telespeed Weather
Systems, runs Wendy Windblows (http://www.wendywindblows.com/), a weather data
collection service that sends a text message or an email to relevant
subscribers when predetermined weather conditions are met.
Rod developed the Wendy Windblows service in the late 1980's (it
started as a phone-in electronic weather station) after arriving one too many
times at a hang gliding site after driving for hours to get there, only to find
that the weather conditions were not conducive to flying. He wished that there
was some way to find this out BEFORE leaving the house.
Wendy Windblows was developed for hangliders and paragliders in the
United Kingdom. As well as the phone-in and web services, Subscribers can set
wind or weather condition preferences at a certain location and Wendy Windblows
will send a text alert or an email when these conditions are met. The system
gives real-time information to the subscribers and helps them to decide whether
or not the travel time will be worth it - now they know the actual wind
conditions at the remote site.
Wendy Windblows initially started out with subscribers paying a
nominal fee for a subscription code. This code would be entered when calling
the weather station to find out what the wind speed, wind direction and
temperature were in the last 30 to 90 minutes at the weather station of choice.
By 1994, Rod had placed over 20 weather stations at various hangliding and
para-gliding locations all over England and Wales.
The internet filtered in and provided the perfect platform to
display the weather conditions at the weather stations. Once again, all one
needed to do was subscribe to the service in order to access the current and
past weather conditions. This gave all subscribers prior knowledge of the sites
and allowed them to make an informed decision as to whether or not they could
engage with their adrenalin-filled sport. But this meant that the subscriber
would need internet access and login details before being able to access the
relevant information.
In 2006, Rod noticed that almost everyone had a mobile phone and
decided to start using text messaging to push information to the gliders. His
company, Telespeed, with the help of Mesotier Ltd (web programmers), then built
a text message interface to the Wendy Windblows website using the BulkSMS.com
Application Protocol Interface ( http://www.bulksms.co.uk/w/products-apis.htm)
(API).
"BulkSMS is at the heart of this sort of service, and we look
forward to making much further use of them in the future," says Rod. He
continues with "You will appreciate that reliable and speedy delivery is vital
to our service - it's no use if the text doesn't arrive for two hours or more.
We route the text messages via BulkSMS.com, and delivery has always been within
seconds, or minutes at worst."
Wendy Windblows has around 1000 subscribers and will be enhancing
their service offering, with the help of the BulkSMS.com systems, by allowing
users to send text messages to an incoming number. These messages will then
appear on the Wendy Windblows website and will also be echoed out to every
relevant subscriber who has opted to receive the alerts for that site. It will
give up to date, accurate reports to the potential gliders. This will be done
to "reinforce the good days", in the hope that the subscribers will see what
they are missing and go to the relevant site.
"We loved this effective integration of SMS into an already
existing system, which is why we awarded it first place in the BulkSMS
Messaging Award Competition which took place in the UK in November 2010," said
Dr Pieter Streicher, managing director of BulkSMS.com. "Wendy Windblows
supplies people with the information they want, when they want it, in the way
that they want it."
About Wendy Windblows
Wendy Windblows (http://www.wendywindblows.com/) is a service run
by Telespeed Weather Systems Ltd. (supported by an agent network) to provide
weather information for anyone whose outdoor activities are dependent on the
weather.
About BulkSMS.com
BulkSMS.com (http://www.bulksms.com/), a division of Celerity
Systems (Pty) Ltd, has been in operation since 2000 and is headquartered in
Cape Town, South Africa. BulkSMS is a leading wireless application service
provider offering bulk SMS messaging solutions to large and small businesses,
public benefit organisations, and individuals. BulkSMS.com has a global market
presence, including Europe, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United
States of America.
BulkSMS offers two-way bulk SMS messaging, premium rate SMS
solutions and supports mobile marketing campaigns to further an organisation's
SMS communication needs. BulkSMS flagship messaging solution is the BulkSMS
Text Messenger, an application that allows clients to quickly deploy an SMS
service from a computer.
The company is a member of the Wireless Application Service
Provider Association (WASPA) and the Mobile Marketing Association.
For more information on BulkSMS's commercial messaging services
visit http://www.bulksms.com. For direct enquiries email [email protected] or
contact BulkSMS telephonically on +44(0)345-40-30-767.
Source: BulkSMS.com
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