( CNN ) -- We receive them almost on a daily basis ; text messages alerting us that our taxi is outside or our dentist appointment is tomorrow . To us they are just alerts , gentle reminders for our busy diaries . For the company that creates the platform and those that use it , these messages are both money generators and cash savers . Esendex , a mobile messaging service provider based in Nottingham , has been creating the means for clients to send a text message for more than eleven years . More Marketplace Europe : Tracking love . Today , with 17,000 customers throughout Europe , the company is expanding to new markets and learning to be German , French and Spanish . In other words , it 's learning to be international . Its CEO Julian Hucker tells me , during a visit to their offices , that this has meant `` adhering to some onerous rules around SPAM messaging '' in France and other key Euroepan Union regulations . Out of all their international markets , Spain has surprised them the most . In the midst of an economic crisis and with unemployment at record highs , Spanish companies have been turning to Esendex to help them do more with less . Julian tells me companies are looking for inexpensive and alternative ways to communicate with their customers . They are looking , he says , to innovate their way out of trouble . For Esendex , who has been signing up more customers in Spain than anywhere else , the economic crisis has been a huge opportunity . More Marketplace Europe : Cornish pasties fill hunger for jobs . Last year , Esendex 's profits totalled $ 15 million . Spain accounted for 15 % of those sales and from July to December of that same year , the Spanish market grew 39 % . Esendex has 2,000 customers in Spain alone . The Centro de Hemoterapia y Hemodonacion , better known as CHEMCYL , is one of them . The blood donor bank based in the region of Castilla y Leon has a blood bus that travels to small cobbled towns and big cities , enticing passers-by to donate blood . But there 's little hanging around or time wasted . Using Esendex 's SMS platform , CHEMCYL sends text messages to donors on their list , alerting them as to when the blood bus will be visiting and where they can donate . By receiving the text message the night before , donors are more likely to remember and make time in their schedule to stop and donate blood . I saw the bus in action in Valladolid , when it stopped at the university square . In the few hours of the morning I visited , the bus received more than 17 donations , mostly all thanks to the text message they had sent out the previous night . For CHEMCYL , who made a switch from sending half a million letters to SMS , this has meant a saving of $ 229,000 -- money they can invest in medical research and other new projects . So the message is clear : In tough economic times , try to do less with more . It seems you only need a few dozen words .
Text message alerts are now an everyday occurrence . For us they are gentle warnings , but they are also big news . Technology , which creates the alerts , is now international . In tough economic times , it seems we are getting more with more with less .