As the information age unravels at a faster and faster rate in the world and workplace, we find that our little "hamster" wheels are spinning with an ever-quickening pace as we try to keep up with it all. Life can be an overly giddy whirl of buzzwords, power meetings, caffeine and eye strain... undoubtedly the reason why more PC utilities are emerging which attempt to smooth business over somewhat. Like this one.

SMS Press has a pretty simple mission statement - to streamline the noble art of texting for those who do business via this etheric channel where "vowel" is a dirty word ("bzy bb4n"). You could also use it on a personal basis, but it's really aimed at the small business user.

Naturally, a Net connection is necessary to send texts with the program and once installed, SMS Press presents itself as a very clean and basic Outlook Express look-a-like. The interface is similar to the Microsoft e-mail client and it's easy to use as a result.

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There's a pretty basic contact list feature which allows you to input names and mobile numbers manually, along with five custom data fields which can be filled with any miscellaneous details such as the person's company name (more about those in a moment).

Sending a message requires you to click on an icon, select the relevant person from your contacts list, then type away up to a maximum of 160 characters before clicking on send. It's a piece of meringue (which is like cake, but even easier).

An option to send immediately is provided, or you can schedule the text for some time in the next seven days should you wish to be really organised. Testing the program by sending messages to our own mobile, it worked swiftly, delivering in around 10-15 seconds.

The other features SMS Press provides are designed to make texting circulars easier. The Message Shot Wizard allows you to select multiple addressees from your contacts library and mail them all the same message simultaneously, using the Merge Fields function to personalise them.

These fields are simply variables such as "name", which insert the name from every addressee's contact details. You can also use the custom data fields we mentioned previously to represent any piece of information you wish. It's also worth noting that message shots can be saved as templates and re-used.

And that's pretty much it, apart from the fact that the program comes with 500 free text messages, which is a handy extra. As Dynmark points out, at 10p a throw on some networks this is £50 worth of messages, although some phone packages do give you a wadge of free texts, and some are cheaper than 10p.

Once your 500 free credits are used you can buy more from Dynmark for between 4.5 and 6 pence a shot, depending on the bulk purchased, which is a competitive price.

SMS Press is a streamlined, easy to use program, although it is somewhat basic and light on features. It's not bad value for money, however, with 500 free message credits thrown in. It'll be useful for small businesses searching for a direct and simple desktop solution for texting appointment/meeting reminders and circulars.