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Whether you’re a financial services provider, a SaaS product, or an online business, protecting your users and their data is something you simply cannot afford to take lightly. Some of the biggest names in the business have suffered high profile breaches that have compromised users’ security and data. In this light, relying on a single point of user authentication as such can prove to be a costly mistake. Too many organizations still remain vulnerable to hacking and fraud relying on one-factor authentication such as usernames and passwords as the only way to access sensitive data.

Thankfully, many businesses are turning to SMS-based authentication and number verification in order to secure their platforms and protect their users. Thanks to its unparalleled reach and the sheer ubiquity of the mobile phone, SMS for verification has provided a simple and efficient way to integrate two-factor authentication into your workflow. SMS 2FA is cost-effective, easy to implement, and best of all, provides an experience that users are accustomed to. Besides being extremely convenient for users, SMS is also an extremely simple service to integrate and scale within existing systems.

While setting up an SMS-based authentication system is an effective solution, it is not without its own challenges. It can be difficult to combine the ease of use and access with the guarantee of fail-proof delivery. This is precisely why it is critical to have high priority SMS service lines for your business.

In cases like user authentication, where time is of the essence, your SMS service provider simply cannot afford to let you or your users down. And here’s where things get tricky. 

While the SMS provider ecosystem is filled with budget SMS suppliers who offer competitive costs per message. This low cost, however, comes at the expense of reliability and successful delivery, with lasting repercussions in the long term. Case in point – in 2011, authorities in Rio de Janeiro contracted a company to provide flood warnings to residents. However, these warnings never got delivered and people lost their lives as a result. While this may be an extreme example, it highlights why reliability and quality should always triumph over cost.

In this post, we look at 5 important factors that any business should consider while choosing an SMS provider or business SMS solution.

1.Reliability 

It’s anybody’s guess why this ranks at the top of this list. While choosing a provider, it is imperative to identify an established SMS company that offers a reliable and secure platform that can guarantee minimal downtime.  

With successful SMS delivery being non-negotiable, it’s important to choose an SMS provider that guarantees constant and consistent network security and performance. This includes robust internal technical infrastructure as well as direct relationships with local and global aggregators and networks. 

2. Customer Service 

A reputable and professional SMS provider will have a specialized customer service team that can provide support and advice for your SMS needs 24 hours a day with a quick resolution of issues.

3. Analytics

Another critical feature of an SMS delivery system is the ability to display comprehensive analytics on the service. Message sending time-stamps, the delivery rates, SMS open rates, and user response rates are all desirable metrics in the analytics dashboard of an ideal SMS solution partner.

4. Advanced Features for Increased Security

What sets a good SMS solution apart from the rest are the advanced features that the platform provides. These may be in the form of additional APIs or even security checks based on additional attributes of a mobile number. For instance, if the system records these attributes when a user first registers via two-factor authentication, it can then recheck them each time before a 2FA SMS is sent.

5. Geographical Reach

We have seen how SMS is a powerful tool for today’s global audiences. It is therefore undeniably important to choose a service provider that can guarantee global delivery to a range of networks. The ideal SMS provider should never limit service to just the home country but should have established relationships with global networks and distributors. 

Conclusion 

In today’s volatile and risky online environments, businesses need to evaluate their use cases, security requirements before selecting an authentication method for their application. In a world where smartphone penetration is uneven, SMS provides a reliable and simple method for increased security. With a carefully designed user authentication infrastructure and architecture, and by choosing an industry-respected SMS provider, businesses can take that critical next step to secure their businesses, their data, and most importantly, their users.