Contents
Introduction
As a business, ensuring the authenticity of your messages is crucial. It builds trust with your customers, and also safeguards your brand from potential impersonators.
This is where DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) comes into play.
In the past, the lack of standardization in business communication led to widespread fraud and scams. Fraudulent entities could easily impersonate legitimate businesses, sending out spam messages and scamming unsuspecting customers. For instance, scammers would pose as banks, sending fake SMS alerts to trick people into revealing their sensitive financial information.
To combat these issues and protect consumers, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) introduced the DLT system.
DLT is a blockchain-based technology that ensures the authenticity and compliance of business messages, creating a secure, transparent, and tamper-proof record of all business communications.
Under the DLT system, businesses must register themselves and get approval for their message templates from their telecom service providers before sending them to customers. This mandatory process aims to safeguard customers from fraudulent and unsolicited messages.
While DLT registration offers many benefits, it also comes with some operational challenges, like the difficulty in managing content template approvals with service providers.
We'll talk about that later in the article.
But before that, let's have a quick look into DLT — how it works, the benefits it offers, and the registration process. We'll also discuss why getting content templates approved can be a headache for businesses.
And finally, we'll also talk about how Fyno is simplifying this DLT content template approvals for businesses.
What is DLT?
(If you already know what is DLT, and if you have completed the registration, you can skip the next two sections.)
At its core, DLT is a blockchain-based system that ensures the integrity and authenticity of commercial communications.
When a business registers for DLT, they become part of a secure, distributed network that validates and records every message they send.
Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how DLT works:
1. Registration: A business has to register for a principal entity number with their service provider (Jio, Vodafone, Airtel, etc.). They provide details like their company name, address, and contact information.
2. Header and Template Registration: After getting the principal entity ID, businesses need to register their SMS headers, which is the name that appears as the sender. For example, HDFC Bank uses the header “HDFCBK,” while Kotak Bank uses “KOTAKB”. These headers help customers to easily identify the sender. Along with headers, businesses must also register content templates for various scenarios, such as notifying customers about a successful transaction or a credit card payment reminder. These pre-approved messages need to be submitted to the DLT portal and approved by the telecom operator before they can be used.
3. Consent Management: In addition to content templates, the DLT system also includes a consent module. This module allows businesses to create and submit consent templates for approval. Once approved, these consent templates can be used to obtain permission from customers to receive messages from the business.
4. Message Routing and validation: When a business sends a message using a registered header and template, the DLT system checks if the recipient has consented to receive the message. If consent is present, the message is routed through the telecom network to the recipient's device.
5. Maintaining records in a blockchain: Every message sent by a registered business through the DLT system is recorded on a blockchain ledger. This creates an immutable record of all communications, making it easy to audit and verify the authenticity of messages.
By following this process, DLT ensures that only registered businesses can send commercial messages, and that these messages are sent only to customers who have given their consent.
The Importance of DLT Registration
Registering for DLT is beneficial for you as well as your customers. Here’s why:
- Compliance: It ensures that your business adheres to TRAI regulations, avoiding potential penalties and legal issues.
- Deliverability: Messages sent through DLT-registered channels have a higher likelihood of being delivered, as telecom service providers recognize them as legitimate.
- Brand Credibility: DLT registration adds credibility to your SMS marketing efforts, fostering customer trust and loyalty.
- Preventing Spam and Fraud: DLT serves as a critical safeguard against the widespread problem of spam and fraudulent communications. By mandating registration, TRAI aims to prevent unregistered senders from inundating consumers with unwanted calls and messages.
The Challenges of Template Management
Every time you want to send a new message, you must register the SMS template in the DLT portal and await approval from your service provider. The DLT portal is different for each telecom operator — VILPower for Vodafone, TrueConnect for Jio, DLTConnect for Airtel, etc. and is usually managed by a third-party technology partner.
The content approval process involves submitting various details such as the type of communication, template category, content template name, header, and the template content itself.
Approval times for a content template can range from 3 to 7 days, depending on the telecom service provider.
While this might look small, the approval timeline becomes a problem for businesses that use several SMS templates.
On average, small companies may have around 50-100 content templates, but larger companies can have 500–800 templates.
To handle this situation, many companies have dedicated resources just to manage content template approvals.
Streamlining DLT Management with Fyno
Fyno's robust opti-channel infrastructure platform already allows businesses to efficiently create, organize, and customize templates for various communication channels, including SMS, WhatsApp, email, and push notifications. But, that’s not all.
Fyno also facilitates seamless integration with your existing DLT system, allowing you to effortlessly handle all your DLT content approvals, along with other content templates, from a single, user-friendly interface.
The best part is, getting started is super easy – simply enter your Principal Entity Number and credentials into Fyno, and you'll be ready to streamline your DLT management process.
All you have to do is enter your Principal Entity Number and credentials into Fyno, and you're ready to go.
You can also effortlessly port your existing content templates into Fyno. This means you can quickly and easily migrate your current templates without any disruption to your workflows.
By streamlining your DLT management process with Fyno, you can focus on crafting effective communication strategies while ensuring compliance with telecom regulations.
Fyno's intuitive platform empowers you to efficiently manage your DLT requirements, saving you time and resources that can be better spent on growing your business.
Interested in knowing more about Fyno? Talk to us to see a personalized demo.
