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Items relating to the technical environment vary in each deployment. The elements to consider are the:

* operating system

* hardware platform

* database server.

The vendor will have one or more recommendations for each of these elements. The final choice will depend on cost and the skills available within the team that will operate and maintain the system. A number of additional licences will be required for each of these components.

The solution will typically be built around a commercial application server. This element will require a separate licence. The application server provides a number of ready-to-use services that reduce the overall cost of the mobile marketing software. Examples of services are:

* database integration with popular vendors

* session management

* network adapters via protocols such as HTTP or SMTP for synchronous and asynchronous application integration

* support for popular message encodings (often via third-party libraries not included with the application servers, e.g. WBXML for WAP)

* basic content management

* event scheduler

* support of web services for remote access and integration

* web server integration for portals

* user authentication and permissions.

Finally, the SMS gateway, which is the first mobile channel to be activated, is usually not part of the mobile marketing software and must be sourced elsewhere. This is usually the source of set-up costs due to the integration effort between the software and the gateway.