REVIEW: SkyMail efficiently documents activities, but administration a bit trickier

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly feature, Yay or Nay. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Application: SkyMail from Pacific DataVision.
Running on: PC and Samsung M520 from Sprint Nextel
Yay: Service, aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses, allows users to prioritize, track and document communications.
Nay: The offering’s PC interface could use some clarity.
We say: Those administrators looking for a relatively inexpensive way to track their field workers’ progress may be able to turn to SkyMail for their needs.
Review: Pacific DataVision graciously set us up with a trial SkyMail account, complete with a login and password, and provided us a quick overview of the service’s primary functions. Although we were relieved we didn’t have to engage in the setup, we were unable to judge SkyMail’s initial setup process.
Nonetheless, we dove into the service and attempted to explore its various uses.
Essentially, SkyMail offers a way to track and document communications. The PC-based service assigns phone numbers to activities (“customer not home,” for example, or other events that field service workers may encounter) and allows an administrator to track the back-and-forth communications on the topic.
To give the service an initial, cursory run-through, we assigned a Hotmail e-mail address to the “customer not home” activity, and the system provided us with a phone number assigned to that same activity. Using our cellphone, we placed a call to the “customer not home” phone number. The service prompted us with a “SkyMail now recording” greeting, and we left a message.
SkyMail then delivered our voice message as an MP3 file to the Hotmail e-mail address we had assigned to “customer not home.” On checking our Hotmail inbox, we were able to listen to the MP3 voice message, and were also able to respond. Our response was then sent back to our cellphone as a text message.
Although this setup would seem complex for those who just want to communicate directly with someone, its primary purpose is to allow field workers to check in with an administrator and for that administrator to track their progress. Thus, the full exchange between our cellphone and Hotmail e-mail address was saved inside the SkyMail system under the “customer not home” heading, thereby providing documentation and accountability to those involved in the activity.
Further, SkyMail takes this basic setup and supports a range of services, including one-to-group communications.
On its Web site, Pacific DataVision outlines a number of applications for its SkyMail service, such as field-force workers calling in to a dispatcher to report completion of a job and to get their next assignment. “Messages are queued during peak calling periods and replies are sent when the dispatcher is available to provide service,” the company boasts, adding that “emotional issues such as interpersonal relationships between a field-force member and a dispatcher are eliminated because the dialog is not person-to-person.”
Pacific DataVision also offers details on how SkyMail can be used in a number of different industries: Construction project managers can use it to document change orders, safety violations and project delays, for example, and doctors and nurses can use it to dictate notes and document patient authorization. The company also offers a number of glowing SkyMail case studies.
We were impressed with how fast the system catalogued our messages, and how easy it was to listen to MP3 voice messages and respond to those messages. Further, the PC interface allowed us to easily view and review each of the messages sent and received by the system. However, we weren’t sure how to prioritize or manipulate the messages that were traveling through the SkyMail service, and there were no labels for many of the tiny icons associated with such activities.
The SkyMail service goes for $15 per month per mobile line, which strikes us as a relatively good deal for businesses that require a simple method for field workers to track and document their activities. However, we would have preferred a clearer guide to the administration of those messages.