Back in 2003 when ex-Symbian (and that is as far as the Symbian connection goes in this piece) CEO Colly Myers, together with Bill Batchelor and Paul Cockerton started to evaluate the opportunities for digital publishing to MIDP 2 powered Java phones they had no idea that their search for the right business opportunity would take them back to SMS. “After we all left Symbian we undertook a lot of research,” says Paul Cockerton, “But even with our knowledge of forthcoming phones realized that the digital publishing market simply did not have the critical mass necessary to form the basis of a viable business. So we went back to basics. We wanted something which was viral, mass market and useful to the customer.”

It was a day at the cricket which was the eventual catalyst for Any Question Answered (AQA). “We ended up texting a friend to solve a crossword puzzle clue,” says Paul. “We had been looking at SMS as a service carrier. Its well understood by the majority of consumers and accessible to all mobile phone users. Solving that crossword puzzle clue gave us the idea for a service which could answer any question, anytime.”

Having hit on the idea Colly, Paul and Bill embarked on a business plan to confirm not only that the service was possible but, as Paul so succinctly put it, “that we could make money running it.” During this process, as the viability of the service became clear they also protected themselves by patenting the mechanics of the service.

Any Questions Answered was launched on 22 April 2004.

Paul believes the winning formula behind AQA is the way they have blended technology and human skills to ensure that questions are answered both accurately and quickly. When a customer sends a question to the 63336 number it is first processed by the AQA system. Rather than trying to answer the question this system looks for similar questions to create a list of candidate answers. The system then forwards the question these candidate answers to a researcher, who then confirms one of the answers or researches a correct answer.

“Computers are basically rubbish at answering questions,” says Paul. “If you can provide strict keywords and known sequences they can get quite good, but as soon as you get complex problem statements, with spelling errors and no grammar a computer struggles.” Paul points to Google as a good example, suggesting that with complex searches a significant portion of the information found is irrelevant. “You need human understanding to provide the right context and get the right answers,” says Paul. “Take an extreme case, someone might send us the question ‘Chelsea?’ Do they mean ‘how do I get to Chelsea’ or ‘what’s the result in the Chelsea game’ or even ‘is Clinton’s daughter Chelsea still studying at Oxford.’ Now we still may not get the answer right, but a computer would be totally lost. Human interpretation could figure that this question is asking about the football scores because it was asked on a Saturday afternoon.”

Another advantage of the system AQA uses is that as the system grows the number of questions which have possible answers is increasing. Paul noted that 1 in 5 questions have been answered before and this help significantly with maintaining good response times.

Providing a 24 hour service also means that researchers have to be provided 24 hours (most nights the busy period continue to 2am and at the weekend can continue all night.) To achieve the necessary coverage AQA has gone international and has researchers based in Australia and the US, as well as a few in less obvious countries like Pakistan. “Each researchers work using a broadband internet connection and is able set their own work schedule,” says Paul, “As a question arrives it is sent to the next available researcher in the pool, who gets paid the same per question rate whether they need to do research or simply select one of the previous answers.” While such a system has the obvious potential for researchers to take the easy route – select a previous answer Paul is confident in the AQA research team. “We select our researchers carefully and they have a natural curiosity which means they will go looking for the right answer to any question,” says Paul. “We also offer huge flexibility in hours and style of working so we have housewife, student or retired people who may do just a few hours per day simply because they find it interesting through to others who approach it as a full time job.”

There is another important feature added to AQA by the human researcher, and that is a WOW factor. “When we set up AQA our goal was to answer any question any time. To do it in one text, relying again human skill is the only practical way to express what could be complex information accurately and succinctly,” say Paul. “But more importantly we wanted to provide a WOW factor. If someone asks for a restaurant recommendation we will try to give two or three. By the same token we have changed the focus of some of our responses. In the early days when we were asked to make decisions we offered people advice on how to make the decision, now we will often make a decision. So if someone what to know who should by the next round we may say – Mary does but Bill will have to buy doubles on the next round.” However this change in editorial policy is not taken lightly. “We are acutely aware that the answers to questions may have a profound effect for some people. So we have clear rules about how we should or should not respond. We do get questions from people who are clearly deeply unhappy and in those cases we look to direct them to more appropriate services like the Samaritans. But overall we have a wealth of life experience in our researchers and we can offer people support in making their own decision for the tougher questions.”

One key ingredient in AQA’s business plan was steady growth. “We are basically planning on a straight growth curve,” says Paul. “The quality of service is one of the key factors in the success of AQA and if we grow too rapidly that quality will suffer. Either we would not have the number of researchers to answer the questions or the researcher would not be trained to ensure the answers were of the right quality if we grew too fast. Steady growth also allows us to ensure our systems work correctly and that we can recruit and train suitable researchers.”

However this plan does not always work. “In July the Sunday Times ran a feature on the service and it was picked up by several other national papers and radio. As a result we saw a 10 fold jump in questions in one day!” Despite this example Paul attributes a significant portion of growth to viral marketing by users of the service. The reason Paul is confident that this is a significant factor in growth is because one of the features of the service is that it gives instant feedback on the success of any marketing campaign. Repeat business is also important and Paul says AQA now has some customers who have asked over 200 questions, with some asking as many as 30 or 40 questions in a day. AQA even receives thank you texts (which still costs the customer a £1).

When the service was launched it was answering 5 to 10 questions a day, this has risen to peaks of 5000 questions per day fielded by 100 researchers. By next year Paul envisages the UK service will have grown to 1000 researchers.

Although a number of copy cat services are cropping up and the web search companies are starting to look at mobile searching based on SMS Paul has few concerns about their ability to seriously challenge AQA. “We have looked as several of the alternative service,” says Paul. “Generally the answers they provide are poor, because they don’t have that human factor or the right systems.”

Paul expects that next year AQA will look at expanding outside the UK. “Initially we will be looking at English speaking markets, Australia and the US, but we have had enquiries from over 60 different countries about the service,” says Paul. “I expect that by the middle of 2005 we will have our first overseas operation.”

In the short term the next challenge for AQA is the Christmas rush. “Questions are seasonal, we have just finished all the Halloween and Guy Fawkes questions, a lot of people seemed interested in knowing which part of Guy Fawkes was cut of first,” says Paul. “Our first Christmas is going to be interesting in term of both the type and volume of questions.”

It is perhaps ironic that coming from a business at the leading edge of mobile technology AQA should rely on one of the most mature and simple mobile technologies, as such it offers some interesting lessons for anyone looking at mobile services. Firstly the power of the human touch should not be overlooked, even a service as anonymous as AQA benefits from a human response. Secondly remember to plan for controlled growth, a service is only a good as its quality of response. An overstretched service will give a poor response and while it can take a long time to add a new customer they can be lost in the blink of an eye. Finally don’t assume that the latest technology is essential, look for the right technology to run the business.

In the UK you can access AQA by sending an SMS to 63336, each question costs £1. Readers with a UK mobile can ask AQA one question for free by going to their website at www.63336.com/promotion.htm.